Battery problems are common, sure. If you look online though, you’ll see issues with Milwaukee M18 batteries are a bit TOO common though.
There are reasons for that, a lot of which are simple to deal with. And today, I want to share those reasons to help make it easier to troubleshoot your Milwaukee M18 battery when it’s not charging.
4 Things To Do If You Milwaukee M18 Battery Is Not Charging
- Try Another Charger
People tend to have spare batteries around, but I doubt a lot of you have a spare charger. That’s what you need for this fix though, since I want you to test something out.
Charging problems can be because of the charger itself too. It doesn’t always have to be the battery that’s to blame. The only way to confirm that without much hassle is with another charger.
Got a spare? That’s perfect! However, if you don’t, try getting your hands on a Milwaukee M18 charger like the one I have in the photo below. Borrow one for this fix, and use it to charge your problematic battery.
Using an extra charger will confirm if the battery is what’s at fault, or if it’s your charger. If the other one works, you’ll know a new charger is actually what you need.
You could try troubleshooting your Milwaukee M18 charger to see if you can fix its problems. But, most of the time, chargers are better off getting replaced if they’re problematic.
- Try Draining It More Before Charging
Even though it sounds wrong, sometimes a solution to getting batteries working again is to drain them even further. That works with Milwaukee M18 batteries too.
Just slot the battery into a tool and try to use it for a few minutes. Get it to drain just a bit more before putting it back on charge. Then you’ll see that it works.
Putting the battery into a tool can reset its circuitry, or help get rid of over-discharge from the last time it was used. Either way, there’s a good chance it’ll fix it.
Drain the battery further by putting it into a tool. There should be a little bit of juice left in it to power something for at least some moments. You can then put it on charge afterward.
Milwaukee M18 batteries have an indicator on them that signals the remaining battery percentage. If there’s even one bar left, that means this solution might work.
- Slam It In Harder
I mentioned earlier how easily you’ll find people online who have trouble with their Milwaukee M18 battery if you go look for some. Well, a lot of them found a really simple fix.
Funny enough, that fix was just to take out the battery and slam it back in harder. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s such a common mistake among new users that this is a serious suggestion.
The metal contact pins are made to lock together with each other. It’s a way to form a secure connection so power can flow safely between the charger and the battery.
That’s why users have to push down real hard to get the battery and charger to connect. Just slotting it on there won’t work. Push down on it until you hear or feel a notable click.
You can also do this fix if the indicator lights on the charger is flashing red and green when you put in your Milwaukee M18 battery on it.
I think a big reason why this is an easy mistake to make is because of how the lights come on the charger even though it isn’t fully in yet. Just give it a shot to see how it goes.
When you take out the battery to try this, look at the contact points too. Make sure they aren’t dirty or bent out of shape. That can also cause problems with charging.
- The Battery Is Dead
There are only so many alternatives you can look at before it’s time to start considering that your battery may be dead. Well, if nothing so far was helpful, I think that may just be the case.
Dead batteries don’t always have to stay dead, though. How old is your Milwaukee M18 battery? If it’s still in its first few years of use, you could try to revive it.
Batteries can sometimes die because they were put away and lost their power in storage. The cells inside the battery lose their voltage and stop working because of that.
Related: Ways to Fix a Milwaukee M18 Battery Fully Charged but Not Working
If you can take out the cells from inside the Milwaukee M18 battery like I’ve done in the image below, you can check if this is the case. A multimeter will easily tell you if the cells are salvageable.
If charging the cells individually doesn’t bring their voltage up and get them to hold a charge, that means they are completely dead and have no way of working again.
Getting a new Milwaukee M18 is the only option at that point. On the bright side, a replacement will last years and won’t give you trouble while charging.
Related: Reasons Why Your Milwaukee M18 Battery Charger Blinking Red Only
But before you buy a new Milwaukee M18 battery, you can first try resetting it. I have made a video which shows you how to do this and you can watch it below.
You’ll need another good Milwaukee M18 battery in order to do this. Connect the positive and negative terminal of the two Milwaukee M18 batteries.
Leave them stay connected for around 15 seconds, then remove the wire. Put the battery on the charger again and it should be now charging well.
I also have another short video about the other ways you can do to reset your Milwaukee M18 battery without a charger. You can watch this video below.
The first method is the same as the one I shown in the video above. I jump started it with another Milwaukee M18 battery.
For the second method, I used 18V/20V battery from other brands. In this video, I used a Bosch 18V battery to jump start the Milwaukee M18 battery.
For the last method, I used a DC power supply to reset the Milwaukee M18 battery. I set the DC voltage to 18V, and the current to 1A ( DO NOT to set the voltage and current of the DC power supply too high).
