How long should I charge my drill battery?
It's a Black and Decker KC 1252, 12volt. I have a similar 18volt drill and I charge them for 8 hours. Does it knacker them up to leave them on charge all the time? Should you completely exhaust the drill battery before charging it? Come on you battery experts!
First off I have several battery operated tools up to and including 18v De Walt XRP series and they never take more than 45 minutes to fully charge. Yes it is a good thing to completely run the charge out of them once in awhile but it's not necessary everytime. Don't know what 'knacker' is but it sounds like a limey way of saying, 'will it screw them up?' the answer is no. They are designed to quit accepting a charge once they are fully charged.
Ni-cad batteries have a memory and they should be fairly discharged before recharging. Lithium-ion batteries do not have a memory and you can recharge them whenever.The charger should be smart enough to quit charging when they fully charge the batteries. They will cut back to a trickle charge. I use a 18V DeWalt and it works great, plenty of torque and a good battery life.
