Cordless polisher battery charging question

[Sandalwood]

So I'm using my polisher for the first time and the hope was I'd be able to swap pretty seamlessly between batteries throughout the polishing process. However, the charging is not going so smooth..

When my first battery died I switched to the second. I had the first battery plugged in for about 1 hour and it got up to 3 bars. I ran out of the second battery, so I used the first one again anyway and it ran out very quick.

The second battery was charging for 2 hours and never got to the fourth "full charge" bar either. 

I'm now charging the first one again and seeing how it goes..

Has any one else had issues with the batteries?

Edited November 7, 2019 by Sandalwood

[falcaineer]

@quebert I haven't used the cordless enough to effectively judge the battery life. But I can tell you while having no cord seems appealing, if you're in for a day of polishing (or more), get the corded version. And since you may not want only my opinion, here's a recent video from Adam himself explaining the SK line, when to use what, etc.

 

 

[Sandalwood]

Update:

So I'm on day 2 of polishing, and neither of the batteries fully charged to the 4th bar. I'm not sure if they ever were supposed to or are able to?

The fist battery lasted me 27 minutes TOTAL on the default 3rd level speed, but that was not continuous use of 27 minutes. There was several minutes of downtime between panels/sections etc.  The second battery lasted me 30 minutes total before it died. 

27 and 30 minutes of TOTAL battery charge time before it runs out is a little surprising when the site claims 35-45 of use time "under load".

I feel like I'm only doing about 2/3 of a proper job on a section because I'm racing against the battery clock.

Edited November 7, 2019 by Sandalwood

[SgtLip]

Hmmmm, I'll have to rethink this cordless polisher idea. I hope it is just crappy batteries.

[Sandalwood]

2 hours ago, SgtLip said:

Hmmmm, I'll have to rethink this cordless polisher idea. I hope it is just crappy batteries.

Yes, my hope was to have the second battery charged within a few minutes of the other one dying and be able to continually switch off.

When I tried that alternation this morning, I only got 11 minutes of total charge before it died. Its around 1.5-2 hours of charge time to get ~30 minutes out of them.

Maybe it's my charger? It also has never turned from red to green light. Sometimes it will flash green but go right back to staying on red.

Hopefully an Adam's rep can chime in on if this is all normal or not.

Edit: another thing I noticed is when the battery is dead, the indicator won't turn on at all,, but the second you put it on the charger it shows 2 bars. 

Edited November 7, 2019 by Sandalwood

[mc2hill]

That is not a good scenario.  I have read reports from someone I trust that the Flex cordless tools will run for 45 minutes and charge in about the same time.    

[Chris@Adams]

I think I would run them completely dead and then charge over night and see what that does.

Keep us posted.

[quebert]

any update OP? I'm pondering between the cordless polisher and the SK Pro. I know they're totally different beasts, but I like the idea of no cord. Don't like this thread's the only thing I can find as far as feedback on it though.

[Sandalwood]

On 11/29/2019 at 5:06 PM, quebert said:

any update OP? I'm pondering between the cordless polisher and the SK Pro. I know they're totally different beasts, but I like the idea of no cord. Don't like this thread's the only thing I can find as far as feedback on it though.

After abut the 4th time running them completely dead I charged one overnight. This finally got a full charge. From then on they were able to reach a full charge in 1-2 hours.

The real drawback was they never lasted more than 30 minutes of polishing. And that was not "under load" it was with breaks in between to wipe, inspect, re-apply polish, or go inside to grab something.

So with no option to purchase more than 2 batteries, and only 30 minutes of work time but needing 1-2 hours between charges.. you're not able to seamlessly switch when one runs dead. 

I guess it could work out if you did one step polish, and then sealed/waxed that panel while waiting for the other battery.. but if you're doing more then one-stage that's not a possibility at first. 

A few other notes:

1. The polisher starts on the highest speed by default, and does not remember your speed setting when it's turned off for more than a few moments.

2. When the battery dies, the pad obviously stops- so it's easy to forget to turn the switch off (it stays locked into position). Once you swap the battery it automatically turns on at full speed and slings polish everywhere.

Edited December 6, 2019 by Sandalwood

[quebert]

You can buy extra batteries, just not directly from Adams. I Googled and found them. They're $50 each which is pretty good. IMHO Adam's should sell batteries, just makes sense to me.

 

#1 kind of really sucks, with no trigger that means every time you turn it on it's full blast, does it at least have a gradual start like most other polishers?

 

And #2 made me laugh, I like this machine I don't like that it doesn't have a trigger. Only an on/off switch just seems wrong to me, and your example would be something I'd inevitably do multiple times, probably a few dozen before I would remember lol.

 

[Sandalwood]

11 hours ago, quebert said:

You can buy extra batteries, just not directly from Adams. I Googled and found them. They're $50 each which is pretty good. IMHO Adam's should sell batteries, just makes sense to me.

 

#1 kind of really sucks, with no trigger that means every time you turn it on it's full blast, does it at least have a gradual start like most other polishers?

 

And #2 made me laugh, I like this machine I don't like that it doesn't have a trigger. Only an on/off switch just seems wrong to me, and your example would be something I'd inevitably do multiple times, probably a few dozen before I would remember lol.

 

 It does have a gradual start up like most polishers.

 

I just saw the video posted above, and I think Adam's explanation of the lineup is spot on. This was not available when I bought the polisher, so I thought it was something I could do a full correction with.

If you found batteries that work then I think it would be a great polisher to work with once you get enough to flow seamlessly. Working without the cord was a dream compared to latter.

Edited December 6, 2019 by Sandalwood