It’s important to know what you’re getting into before buying something. Even after you buy something, it’s still good to know about any potential issues that it might give you.
Preparation is never a bad thing, after all. That’s why I want to talk about common Amazon basics rechargeable battery problems, along with troubleshooting those problems when it’s an option.
Troubleshooting 3 Common Amazon Basics Rechargeable Battery Problems
- Not Lasting Long During Use
Anytime you look around online, one of the main complaints you’ll find about any battery is that it isn’t lasting long. Amazon basics rechargeable batteries aren’t an exception to that.
There are a couple of different ways that this can go. Both those ways depend on how long you’ve had these cells, and how long you’ve been using them.
Older cells will understandably last for less time than newer ones. Amazon Basics rechargeable batteries can only go through so many charges before their capacity starts dying down.
If your cells are a year or so old, and you’ve put them through regular use, they probably just lost a lot of their health. Now they don’t hold as much power, which is why they don’t last as long during use.
Even at maximum health, these batteries can’t power everything. Keep that in mind when using them with certain devices. Each device has its own specifications and power needs.
Amazon Basics rechargeable batteries have a limit because of their low voltage. They won’t be able to last long powering every device, and might even struggle to power some of them at all.
High-voltage tools aren’t their specialty. They’ll drain super fast when you use them with anything that requires high power, so don’t forget about that if they don’t last long.
- Red Light Keeps Blinking on The Charger
Chargers for Amazon Basics rechargeable batteries have lights on them that serve as indicators. You probably know about them if you’ve been using these cells for a while.
But, there is a rare light that not a lot of users encounter. At least, they don’t encounter it until a long time using the batteries. This light I’m talking about is the blinking red pattern.
While there’s a solid red light on these chargers that just means charging is going normally, there’s also a blinking red one. That particular pattern is there when the cells are going bad.
Normally, the light should stay entirely red if charging is going well. You can even see that with my own batteries in the picture down here, since they’re charging just fine.
Looking at the manual, you’ll see this light is an indicator for dying cells that can’t charge anymore. But, I wouldn’t be so quick to judge. There’s a chance it’s something else entirely.
Sometimes, it’s just a dirty charging slot. The problematic cells are blinking red on the charger because the area to charge them is dirty enough for power to not transfer.
It’s kind of like the charging port on your phone. If it gets too dirty, the charger won’t fit all the way in there. Because of that, your phone won’t charge. In this case, it’s the ports.
You need to clean up the ports connected to whichever light on your Amazon Basics battery charger is blinking red. Then, try charging cells again to see what happens.
Cleaning should do the trick for some users. But, if you don’t have any luck with this tip, I guess the battery really is dying and can’t accept charge any longer.
It’s important for you to know the different meanings of the lights on a Amazon Basics battery charger. I have made a short video about this topic and you can watch it below.
A red light means it’s charging the battery. This red light will turn off once the battery is fully charged.
If you see a blinking red light, it means it detected a bad or incompatible battery. Lastly, a green light simply means the USB port is ready to be used.
- Battery Is Dead and Won’t Charge
Users that are completely certain their Amazon Basics rechargeable batteries are dead will usually replace them. What if I told you that isn’t always necessary, though?
There’s a neat way to revive these cells, when possible to do so. Like when they die because of parasitic battery drain, and not because they reached their maximum number of cycles.
A paper clip and a healthy cell are all you’ll need for this. Once you have both those things, put the healthy cell on charge next to the problematic cell on the charger, like in the photo below.
Fit the paper clip on the nodes of both cells. One end of the clip should be on the bad cell, and the other on the good cell. Then, turn on the charger as both batteries are in position.
After turning the charger on, the paper clip should conduct power from the good cell to the bad cell, jumpstarting it effectively and reviving it. Just a few seconds should be good for this!
Turn the charger off after some moments, and try to charge the bad cell again. There shouldn’t be any trouble for you with the problematic Amazon Basics rechargeable batteries after that!
