I bought one of these yesterday and it was bad right out of the package. Same exact battery. I always charge them fully before actually using them. It would not charge although it did run the drill. I actually bought several and this is the only one that did this so I knew it wasn't the charger. The two led's on the charger flashed rapidly. When I pressed the charge level on the battery only two of the three led's would light. Out of curiosity, I opened it up to see what was in it and they were Highstar cells marked ISR18650-1500, 3.7v , 5.55wh . I measured the total voltage and got 18.5 volts. I also measured each cell and got 3.7v on each one, no dead ones. Not really sure why the charger didn't like it unless something in the led board was bad. Just thought the info might be interesting to somebody.
Yes, The majority of lithium batteries are made in the far east. I read an article that they recycle many used batteries, re-package them in new wrappers, test them maybe, the then sell them as new. HF should give you an exchange or refund with no problems. Thanks for the feedback
I just opened up 4x 3ah batteries bought in 2022 and they are all high quality circuitry and nickle strips like a Milwaukee (basically, no wires), but the cells are HighStar 18650s, which is what Ryobi and others use. These are a decent quality cheaper cell...but certainly not a Samsung 25r. I love my Bauer tools, haven't broke one too in 2 years of hard use, and finally 1x 3ah battery died after the kids killed it so many times on an electric buggy.
thanks for the teardown video. very informative and saved me some time. this is inclining me to believe all other pins besides outer + and - are only needed during charging. if thats so, quick question. suppose i wanted to parallel a couple of bauer batteries to get longer runtime on a light or whatever. would it simply be connecting the outer positive and negative pins in a parallel config with no need or use of other pins ? im envisioning a homemade adapter connecting multiple batteries (of the same amp hr) with the final connecting battery connecting to the tool. if this isnt the case, then would that mean i would need to parallel all pins in each battery that i intend to connect to the tool ? thanks.
I would charge the batteries separately, then wire them in parallel. using the supply pins. The charger more than likely has logic to make sure the batteries are not over charging. The tool itself has circuitry to make sure the tool does not draw too much current. Check out www.youtube.com/@vuaeco, he does a lot of videos that increase the capacity of battery packs, to get an idea on how he does it. Thanks for the comments.
A couple of comments. 1) The BMS only applies to charging. There would be no BMS in a tool. 2) The other device in your video takes energy from the battery and provides power to other devices. It is NOT a charger. 3) At this time, Bauer 20v and Milwaukee M12 are the only battery systems l know of that don't have BMS logic in the battery packs. I like this design choice. Thank you for the teardown.
All this is good to know, the teardown was very informative. BTW, I don't think it would be a problem to replace those low amp batteries with higher amp ones. You could double your run time, yes? Thanks
Replacing them with higher amp batteries will not increase the run time. You would want to increase the mAh rating (these are 1500, using 300mAh would double your run time). Amp rating is just for safety :)
@ManuelRivera0391 that is literally what these guys are saying. Yes you can. Though if you do change them make note of what you change them to as you don't necessarily want to change the voltage.
just because the cells are samsung doesn't mean they can't be crap. bauer seems to have cheaped out on what series of battery they chose cause holy shit the 1.5ah struggles with anything needing more than 20w of juice.
there isn't even 20 watts in the entire battery dude, no matter what cells are in there they would struggle to dump their energy so fast. Just use the 5 amp batteries, they rock
@@escapetherace1943 1.5ah * 18v is 27whr. and i'm gonna get hercules stuff here in a while to replace some stuff i've got (or maybe adapt to run hercules batteries on em at least) i got a 3ah batt that i use on a vacuum
How come when you open the Bauer battery pack the batteries are Samsung but when other people open it up they claim that they're much lower quality brands instead?
The manufacture must have changed the brand of batteries that they use. If so that is not surprising, China pretty much makes most of the lithium batteries now. If they die before the HF's standard 90 day warranty you should be ok.
I just opened my non-functioning (won't take a charge) 2 year old Bauer 20v battery and I can confirm that it has Samsung batteries. I would bet that would not be the case with the newer Bauer batteries
@@PH_INFO_101 yes I heard that from a few viewers. They had Chinese batteries in their battery packs. Not surprised, most lithium batteries are made in China. Thanks for the comments
@@JoediyLab Hey Joe, thanks for the response. Allow me to pick your brain. I have the same battery you have in this video and was disappointed when it failed to take a charge a few months back. The first indication there was a problem was the #1 blue charge indicator LED stayed on. I just decided to take it apart and see if I could diagnosis the issue. I ran across your video and watched it, THANK YOU. I can clearly see that the majority of the components on the battery capacity board are severely corroded and fractured. While removing the corrosion with a toothbrush, the #1 blue charge LED went off and functions using the test button. I am going to reassemble and see if it charges. I will let you know what happens. All this said, would you agree that the Battery Capacity Board is not needed for the battery to function? If it doesn't charge, I will try removing the board and re-try. Again, I will let you know what happens.
@@PH_INFO_101 Supposedly now they put high star ones in all the battery packs at harbor freight except for the extreme performance ones from the Hercules packs which are just certain ones only they have the Samsung batteries and not the high star ones!
For what it's worth, I just opened mine up and saw they are ISR 18650 (not INR). These seem to be a cheap Chinese battery rather than the nice Samsung ones.
Looks like the manufacture replaced them. Those are standard 18650 lithium ion batteries. Check out batteryhookup.com/ they sell new and used high quality 18650 batteries.
From what many people say Harbor freight used to put the more expensive higher quality Samsung cells in all their battery packs but now lately they use high star in all the Bauer battery packs I believe and in the non extreme performance battery backs for Hercules but the extreme performance battery packs from Hercules that have a 3 year warranty instead of just 90 days have the Samsung battery cells in them but they are just in the 4, 8 and 12ah extreme performance Hercules batteries only now supposedly which is strange but for some reason most all of the tool brands are going with high star Chinese made batteries now instead of the more expensive supposedly higher quality Korean Samsung sells sadly.
Yes, and many of the batteries are made in China now , and who knows if they mis-label the batteries on purpose. I read an article once that they recover old batteries, clean then re-sleeve them and re-sell the ones that will hold a charge.
There would be no reason to have a BMS in the device using the battery. The "extra" terminal should be reading the resistor to monitor temperature. The BMS would be built into the charger and would balance the cells during charging. Again there is no reason to have a BMS on the load/device!
I'm no expert on 18650's but I had a few that got over discharged that it wont charge any more no matter what I did. I even tried putting it in parallel with other batteries and even disassembled it to try one at a time with no luck.
The management system is in the charger. Proof?? I don’t have any but there’s like 5 contact points, usually you’d have 6 to balance 5 cells but hey I’m not a pack engineer
Also if they weren’t going to bother balancing them then they wouldn’t have run those extra wires from each individual cell. Also also they would get sued for all the fires 😂
I bought one of these yesterday and it was bad right out of the package. Same exact battery. I always charge them fully before actually using them. It would not charge although it did run the drill. I actually bought several and this is the only one that did this so I knew it wasn't the charger. The two led's on the charger flashed rapidly. When I pressed the charge level on the battery only two of the three led's would light. Out of curiosity, I opened it up to see what was in it and they were Highstar cells marked ISR18650-1500, 3.7v , 5.55wh . I measured the total voltage and got 18.5 volts. I also measured each cell and got 3.7v on each one, no dead ones. Not really sure why the charger didn't like it unless something in the led board was bad. Just thought the info might be interesting to somebody.
Yes, The majority of lithium batteries are made in the far east. I read an article that they recycle many used batteries, re-package them in new wrappers, test them maybe, the then sell them as new. HF should give you an exchange or refund with no problems. Thanks for the feedback
@@JoediyLab Yes they did with no problem.
I just opened up 4x 3ah batteries bought in 2022 and they are all high quality circuitry and nickle strips like a Milwaukee (basically, no wires), but the cells are HighStar 18650s, which is what Ryobi and others use. These are a decent quality cheaper cell...but certainly not a Samsung 25r.
I love my Bauer tools, haven't broke one too in 2 years of hard use, and finally 1x 3ah battery died after the kids killed it so many times on an electric buggy.
Thanks for the info 😊
thanks for the teardown video. very informative and saved me some time. this is inclining me to believe all other pins besides outer + and - are only needed during charging. if thats so, quick question. suppose i wanted to parallel a couple of bauer batteries to get longer runtime on a light or whatever. would it simply be connecting the outer positive and negative pins in a parallel config with no need or use of other pins ? im envisioning a homemade adapter connecting multiple batteries (of the same amp hr) with the final connecting battery connecting to the tool. if this isnt the case, then would that mean i would need to parallel all pins in each battery that i intend to connect to the tool ? thanks.
I would charge the batteries separately, then wire them in parallel. using the supply pins. The charger more than likely has logic to make sure the batteries are not over charging. The tool itself has circuitry to make sure the tool does not draw too much current. Check out www.youtube.com/@vuaeco, he does a lot of videos that increase the capacity of battery packs, to get an idea on how he does it. Thanks for the comments.
A couple of comments.
1) The BMS only applies to charging. There would be no BMS in a tool.
2) The other device in your video takes energy from the battery and provides power to other devices. It is NOT a charger.
3) At this time, Bauer 20v and Milwaukee M12 are the only battery systems l know of that don't have BMS logic in the battery packs. I like this design choice.
Thank you for the teardown.
True, but the device has to have some circuitry to prevent too much current draw during operation.
thanks for this!
Thanks for the feedback
All this is good to know, the teardown was very informative. BTW, I don't think it would be a problem to replace those low amp batteries with higher amp ones. You could double your run time, yes? Thanks
Thanks for the tip.
Replacing them with higher amp batteries will not increase the run time. You would want to increase the mAh rating (these are 1500, using 300mAh would double your run time).
Amp rating is just for safety :)
Can these internal batteries be replaced ?
@ManuelRivera0391 that is literally what these guys are saying. Yes you can. Though if you do change them make note of what you change them to as you don't necessarily want to change the voltage.
18650 lithium battery spot welder will be a good tool to have!. I'm going to double or triple the stack, but have to 3D print a taller battery case.
just because the cells are samsung doesn't mean they can't be crap. bauer seems to have cheaped out on what series of battery they chose cause holy shit the 1.5ah struggles with anything needing more than 20w of juice.
there isn't even 20 watts in the entire battery dude, no matter what cells are in there they would struggle to dump their energy so fast. Just use the 5 amp batteries, they rock
@@escapetherace1943 1.5ah * 18v is 27whr.
and i'm gonna get hercules stuff here in a while to replace some stuff i've got (or maybe adapt to run hercules batteries on em at least) i got a 3ah batt that i use on a vacuum
How come when you open the Bauer battery pack the batteries are Samsung but when other people open it up they claim that they're much lower quality brands instead?
The manufacture must have changed the brand of batteries that they use. If so that is not surprising, China pretty much makes most of the lithium batteries now. If they die before the HF's standard 90 day warranty you should be ok.
I just opened my non-functioning (won't take a charge) 2 year old Bauer 20v battery and I can confirm that it has Samsung batteries. I would bet that would not be the case with the newer Bauer batteries
@@PH_INFO_101 yes I heard that from a few viewers. They had Chinese batteries in their battery packs. Not surprised, most lithium batteries are made in China. Thanks for the comments
@@JoediyLab Hey Joe, thanks for the response. Allow me to pick your brain. I have the same battery you have in this video and was disappointed when it failed to take a charge a few months back. The first indication there was a problem was the #1 blue charge indicator LED stayed on. I just decided to take it apart and see if I could diagnosis the issue. I ran across your video and watched it, THANK YOU.
I can clearly see that the majority of the components on the battery capacity board are severely corroded and fractured. While removing the corrosion with a toothbrush, the #1 blue charge LED went off and functions using the test button. I am going to reassemble and see if it charges. I will let you know what happens.
All this said, would you agree that the Battery Capacity Board is not needed for the battery to function? If it doesn't charge, I will try removing the board and re-try. Again, I will let you know what happens.
@@PH_INFO_101 Supposedly now they put high star ones in all the battery packs at harbor freight except for the extreme performance ones from the Hercules packs which are just certain ones only they have the Samsung batteries and not the high star ones!
For what it's worth, I just opened mine up and saw they are ISR 18650 (not INR). These seem to be a cheap Chinese battery rather than the nice Samsung ones.
Looks like the manufacture replaced them. Those are standard 18650 lithium ion batteries. Check out batteryhookup.com/ they sell new and used high quality 18650 batteries.
I am curious as to where you bought the batteries from?
@@yapbt6579 I purchased this drill battery directly from a Harbor Freight store.
@@chubbyelf5094 Alright. Thanks for the info! :)
@@yapbt6579 They came with the battery pack
Are you in reidsville? Guy at hf said a dude tests some hf stuff and mentioned this.
No San Diego area. Thanks
@@JoediyLab ok must be a different dude. Good to know the batteries seem pretty good.
From what many people say Harbor freight used to put the more expensive higher quality Samsung cells in all their battery packs but now lately they use high star in all the Bauer battery packs I believe and in the non extreme performance battery backs for Hercules but the extreme performance battery packs from Hercules that have a 3 year warranty instead of just 90 days have the Samsung battery cells in them but they are just in the 4, 8 and 12ah extreme performance Hercules batteries only now supposedly which is strange but for some reason most all of the tool brands are going with high star Chinese made batteries now instead of the more expensive supposedly higher quality Korean Samsung sells sadly.
Yes, and many of the batteries are made in China now , and who knows if they mis-label the batteries on purpose. I read an article once that they recover old batteries, clean then re-sleeve them and re-sell the ones that will hold a charge.
good lord....
was that a good or bad "good lord..."
There would be no reason to have a BMS in the device using the battery. The "extra" terminal should be reading the resistor to monitor temperature. The BMS would be built into the charger and would balance the cells during charging. Again there is no reason to have a BMS on the load/device!
Thanks for the tips, and the corrections
I agree, I believe the BMS is in the charger.
But they should have some kind of protection for the batteries like over discharge current or under voltage etc.
@@kanavsharma3058 18650s have a internal fuse as far as the under voltage i think your device would quit working long before u drop them past 1 volt
I'm no expert on 18650's but I had a few that got over discharged that it wont charge any more no matter what I did. I even tried putting it in parallel with other batteries and even disassembled it to try one at a time with no luck.
Or maybe they just don't bother with balancing cells.
The management system is in the charger. Proof?? I don’t have any but there’s like 5 contact points, usually you’d have 6 to balance 5 cells but hey I’m not a pack engineer
Also if they weren’t going to bother balancing them then they wouldn’t have run those extra wires from each individual cell. Also also they would get sued for all the fires 😂
my 20v battery quit charging
You could take out the batteries, test them and replace the bad batteries.