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One of the batteries for my Stanley FatMax drill driver stopped working quite some time ago. Probably years ago by now…

I don’t use it often so having one battery was never really a problem, so I didn’t worry about it. Anyway, as YouTube sometimes does, it spit out something useful, a video on how to revive dead batteries.

Apparently a thing that can happen is that a battery can get so dead that the charger cannot recognize that it’s had a battery put in, as the batteries are meant to give off a small signal charge.

So, what you do is take a pair of wires from a charged battery, and just for a second touch + to + and - to -.

I literally used a pair of twist ties with the ends stripped. And lo and behold after a single second of contact, the battery had enough signal charge to identify itself to the charger, and once again take a full charge. So I’m back to having two batteries.

Well, I’ve also had a dead Ryobi battery for I don’t even know how long. So I tried it again on that with the same twist ties, literally one second of same to same, popped it into the charger and boom, back to a three battery rotation.

Anyway, YouTube hacks are usually BS but this one worked for me. If you’ve a dead battery maybe give it a go as you’ve nothing to lose…

Hmmm. I have some Milwaukee, and DeWalt batteries I haven't worked up the nerve to toss yet. I'll try it.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Nothing to lose right? Maybe, maybe not but worked twice for me, much to my surprise. I’ve an old Ridgid drill that I liked quite a bit somewhere beneath a heap that I’d like to reinvigorate if possible. It’s already dead so nothing to lose by trying…

Only your house if you start a battery fire I have done this with radio control lipo batteries. It's a bit nerve wracking because those things combust much more easily than the li-ion cells used in tool batteries. I use a resistor to make sure the current stays below 1 amp or so. But a skinny steel twist tie wire probably has enough resistance by itself to prevent excessive current and heating of the donor battery.

Don't charge it unattended afterward. Over-discharge can damage lithium batteries, which is why the charger won't touch it until you've erased the evidence. One advantage of lipos is that they puff up before exploding, so you can keep an eye on them and pull the plug. Not sure if tool batteries give any warning, I'm not as well educated on their behavior.

Well, it’s a rental…