Black and Decker have become a cornerstone brand in the competitive DIY/tools market. These things don’t happen by accident, either.
To really rise to the top with this discerning and knowledgeable customer base, you need to provide tools that are user-friendly, highly-effective, powerful, and reliable – all at the same time. Either that, or your brand won’t stick out from the rest.
This is precisely why we were so surprised when we read that quite a few of you were having troubles with your lithium battery chargers. So, we’ve set out to try and fix it.
How Do I Stop My Black and Decker Lithium Battery Charger Flashing Red?
What is most maddening about these sorts of problems for us is that it should all be much simpler. How difficult is it to design something that charges a battery effectively and reliably, especially after you have mastered the complex design of the tool itself?
What makes this a lot more confusing for us is that we simply could not isolate any single factor that could be causing the problem.
But this does not mean that we haven’t found a few ways around this problem. We’ve tested these methods out and noticed that some of them will work for one person while others will work for different people.
Again, there just doesn’t seem to be a single cause for the issue that we can shift the blame onto. Regardless, if you’re as annoyed as we are with your flashing red lithium battery charger, here’s a few tips to help you sort it out.
1. The battery may just be too hot
As always, we’re kicking our guide off with the simplest solution first. That way, you might not have to go all the way to the end when something straightforward could have been mentioned at the start.
Lithium batteries, when they get too hot, simply will not take a charge. Though the flashing red light can also signify other problems, it can also be taken to mean that you need to let the battery cool down a bit before you try to charge it.
Ideally, we would recommend that you wait for at least 30 minutes before trying to charge it. That should be ample time to rule this cause out. If it still won’t charge after that amount of time resting, the problem lies elsewhere. On to the next tip!
2. Your charger may be faulty
The next most likely cause of the issue is that your charger may just be a little faulty. It’s strange to think that a brand as reputable as Black and Decker could make a mistake here, but these things do happen from time to time.
What is most likely happening here is that the battery either isn’t getting exactly the right voltage it needs to charge or the battery itself is warming up way too quickly, triggering the flashing red light.
To rule this out as a cause, we would suggest that you try and connect the lithium battery to another charger, if there is one available to you. Then, if it starts charging as normal, this would indicate that the problem is most certainly with the charger you have bought. In this case, it is likely that you can get a replacement under warranty.
3. An issue with the battery itself
If you are seeing a rapid succession of blinking red lights on the battery, there is a chance that you have simply purchased a faulty one. Unfortunately, the news isn’t good if you have.
There really isn’t anything you can do to repair a lithium battery. Even if you have the option to have it repaired with a professional, we wouldn’t recommend it. Repaired batteries tend to develop all sorts of problems in a relatively rapid timeframe.
The sad fact is that the only logical course of action to take care of a faulty battery is simply to replace it. Before doing so, we would still recommend that you read on and make sure you have tried every other available course of action.
4. Get in touch with customer support
It may seem like it could be a waste of time. But, getting in touch with customer service is always recommended when you encounter problems such as these.
More often than not, they will be able to give you an extra troubleshooting step or two that we may not have been aware of. Alternatively, they may have received authorisation to simply offer replacements.
In any case, your best bet is to write up a detailed ticket that explains everything that you have tried to fix the issue so far. That way, they won’t be advising you to repeat anything you’ve already done, saving time on both sides.
The Last Word
So, there you have it! These are essentially the only tips we could come up with for a problem that seems to have no exact cause. We hope that these steps helped you out and that you either figured it out for yourselves or managed to get a replacement sent out.
I have the 40V trimmer. I bought it last year after my 2nd 20V died after 2 years. It worked fine last year, worked fine first time this year. Now I plug it in and it’s flashing green. I go back and it’s flashing red. Tried 3 times. Before this I tried to use it and it ran, then stopped, ran, then stopped over and over. I thought it just needed to be charged. NOT. I may need to find a nice, light alternative brand before I go broke replacing B & D!
mine goes to flashing red with no battery init as well, the oly way to get it to stop flashing red is to unplug it. how do i repair this ?
I have a B+D trimmer that I like a lot, it’s the only trimmer I have had that the automatic line feed actually works, I charged it one day before using it and after I charged It again battery was not hot, when I plugged in the charger it flashed red and then started a flicker,I bought a new battery and the charger did the same thing even not attached to a battery. I am at a loss./
Well, I am really screwed, I have a B&D 40v hedge trimmer, a B&D 40v weed wacker, and lastly a B&D 40v chainsaw. I knew nothing about this blinking red light until tried to charge all the brand new batteries, I now have one 40v battery that blinks red no matter what charger I put it on. As I said a BRAND NEW battery, I guess me and B&D customer service are going to have some serious conversation about a problem they know about but claim they can not resolve the problem, So I say why are they still sell a defective product to innocent customers.
I also have the same problem but it’s just a case of pulling it out of charger and back in and goes flashing green will try the above tip and let mine cool down could be it gets too hot when draining the last bit of power out the battery
had this same problem. replaced battery (wouldn’t take a charge) . have charged the new one ok, but 2nd time charging went to flashing red light, took it out of charger, put it back in. I watched it carefully & it charged normally. The comments above lead me to believe the battery was too hot on the 2nd charge the 1st time I tried to charge it. Either that or I need a new charger.
I don’t know if this would work for everyone but i ran mine all the way down, then i waited a few days and i charged it in the refrigerator and that worked as strange as that sounds. It’s worth a try, i cant wait to see if it works a second time.
i’m also having an issue with the dreaded flashing red light. has anyone had any success with customer service? did they give advice on how to fix it or send you a replacement?
My battery is about 6months old and the first time charging it was great; however, the second time I just got a red flashing light. If there is an issue with these batteries Black and Decker needs to recall them and replace them.
Same thing! What fixed yours?
There should be a cut and dried set of rules green charging and red faulty battery orange let battery cool down.
Seems to me reading this article there is a problem with these batteries.i have this problem to.i think black and decker should take this on board and run a cheaper replacement programme as they are very expensive to replace and don’t last long.
My charger started with solid green when plugged into powe outlet, then when the lithium
connected got a fast flashing red light. So disconnected the lithium battery and tried another lithium battery- no red light. The actual lithium battery was the issue not the charger
Me also. But no replies to this problem. Help!!! Plug charger to power with battery not connected. Solid green light for 1 sec then goes to flashing red. No pauses. I connect battery to charger and it continues flashing red. Left it connected for an hour but doesn’t charge the battery.
How do I change out the battery in my SLV2B spotlight and where can I buy a battery?
Ours is a fast blinking red light also. Has been on charging pad for over an hour. Help
My charger has a flashing red light come on when it is not attached to battery , just plugged in to socket. Help !
Mine too!
Why is it that my charger keeps flashing red light fast even if battery is not connected only to outlet and s blinking rapid red light.
Mine Exactly the same red flashing even if not connected to battery , it goes green for about 2 seconds then just continues to flash red Help