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Milwaukee Battery Not Fully Charging - FIXED!

There is a 3/4 bar issue that plagues the M18 8Ah and 12Ah batteries. In this project I take the covers off and uncover why this would be...

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This project was successful and fairly cheap to perform. I have a video attached to this project that goes into details on how to do this. The reason you can't fully charge is due to a unbalanced pack.

 If A pack has different quality cells, some will drain faster than others. This is likely due large difference of internal resistance between cells. This will eventually lead to some sets of cells being less than 4vdc while others at 4.2vdc. Since an M18 charger only charges a battery as a whole, it allows charge until any one cell sets reports that it is at full capacity. To fix issue, we need eat set back above 4vdc. 

  1. Disassemble the pack with the T10 and T9 Safety Torx. Be cautious around the exposed cells! (You only need the T9 for the 12Ah)
  2. You will notice that the 8Ah battery pack has 5 sets of 2 18650 cells while the 12Ah has 5 sets of 3 cells.
  3. Measure each set of cells and make note of which ones are below a 4VDC threshold.
  4. Connect your charger with polarity in mind and let it sit for a while. If you trust your charger, you can leave it alone. Though, I recommend that you monitor the voltage of each cell set you are charging to help ensure over-voltage does not occur. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY RESULT IN A THERMAL EVENT!
  5. Re-assemble the pack and use it down to one blinking red bar.
  6. Charge it back up using the M18 charger and verify that each cell is withing 0.1 VDC

  • 1 × TP4056 Type-c USB 5V 1A 18650 Lithium Battery Charger Module Or anything that can charge a single 18650 lithium cell
  • 1 × Alligator clamps Get fairly small ones to clamp on the different welded battery leads in the pack
  • 1 × Multimeter If you are on this site, you likely have one of these
  • 1 × T10 Safety/Security Torx
  • 1 × T9 Safety/security Torx Only needed for the 12Ah M18 battery pack

  • 1
    Watch the video linked in this project

    The details gives a good overview of what you will be doing. To get the best idea on what to do, please see the linked video in this project.

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