I Bought a PALLET of BROKEN Power Tools - Let's Fix Them!

I Bought a PALLET of BROKEN Power Tools - Let's Fix Them! I paid $900 for a pallet of broken DeWalt, Milwaukee, Ryobi, Ridgid, Craftsman, and Porter Cable power tools to see if I could fix them. These are customer returns so the actual condition is unknown but I'll be checking them all out, diagnosing issues, and fixing as many as I can.

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Tools I Use:

Equipment Used:

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[Jason_B.]

You look so much healthier again, hope you're doing better man!!!

[jayjayscoinbox]

I was screaming "It's upside down!" smh I do the same thing from time to time. Great content by the way! I always learn something from your videos

[ytmadpoo]

I've taken apart and fixed (and failed to fix) many Ryobi batteries. When they discharge below a certain point or if the cells are out of balance, the charger will show the error. What I've done is check each cell and if the cell is good, I'll charge each one up individually to 3.8-4.2 VDC or if I'm feeling lucky I'll go for 18-19VDC across the whole pack which tends to balance the cells anyway. Then the charger may or may not work. Sometimes you also have to jumper a "reset" pin to ground on the battery's PCB to reset the BMS which may be stuck in a failure state. And then try again.

What I often see is that the onboard BMS of the battery draws power from one of the 5 cells (or cell clusters for higher capacity) and if you don't pop it on a charger every now and then, that particular cell will go below the Lithium Ion cutoff voltage or at least make the cells unbalanced to where it won't charge. So the BMS sabotages itself, basically, and you have to manually charge.

Another thing I commonly see are just batteries that are mistreated... dunked in water for all I know. Massive rust and corrosion. With those, sometimes the PCB is good and you can replace the individual cells with some extra 18650's (maybe pulled from other packs where the BMS died, or buy good new ones that are high current rated, 20A normally). Spot weld them in, same as the old batteries (5 cells in series, or 5S2P / 5S3P for the larger capacity units) and that can do it.

I pulled my batteries from the local return bin where people drop off their dead batteries. It's amazing how many just needed the "reset" jumped and then some manual rebalancing. I think the Ryobi design where the BMS draws down a particular cell is just bad... but other batteries I've taken apart (Dewalt, etc) are kind of similar. I don't know if they have any other protections to avoid that though.

One other item is that you can't always measure the output voltage using the plus/minus on the battery stalk itself. Sometimes it'll be a nominal voltage of 10VDC or less... enough for the tool to start communicating with the battery. Ryobi (and others) use a protocol to signal each other in certain ways that a battery is there, the tool is there, let's get some voltage (it turns on the MOSFET's on the negative terminal). There are actually dual mosfets, one for charge and one for discharge.

Without that communication it won't output 18V. Older Ryobi batteries will do 18V all the time but many newer ones rely on that communication. Chargers will also talk to the battery and figure out what a good charge rate is. Ryobi sells different types of chargers that may be able to do fast charging if the battery says it can handle it (or if the signaling is absent, like older batteries, it falls back to standard charge rates of 1-2A or whatever it is).

PS - You'll know you have a clone Ryobi battery when you open it up and it's VERY basic... tiny PCB with rinky dink MOSFETs for the power output and very little overcurrent protection - might even just be that fusible link is the only thing saving your house from burning down, if that.

[joshualaird]

It's funny when you don't know someone but your'e glad they're looking and feeling better. Keep it up Bro :)

[edh]

You loaded the brad nails in incorrectly. That's why it's malfunctioning. You don't install the nails that far back against the head stamp on the nail itself. You load it closer to the point on the left side of the slide. Where the point of the nail is running on the rail.

[.......]

My ryobi's have been beat, dropped, abused and neglected for over 10 years. For inexpensive drivers, they work.

[XeloX]

Hey Steve, to fix that Rigid battery you could try charging the lower cell manually to match the other 3, that may very well fix the problem!

[jeremypalmer]

You should test the drills under load, sometimes they spin fine, but the gears slip the second they are under load.

[bryanhenderson]

A lot of instances, if the package includes 2 batteries and one of them is dead, the store does not have a way to give you just a new battery, so they take the entire package back and give you an entire new one, even if everything else in the box works as it should. A bit of a waste, but it is what it is.

[MLAD]

Fun fact: Ryobi, Milwaukee and Ridgid are all owned or Licensed to Techtronic industries (TTi).

I have ryobi battery packs and for some reason in the UK they are the most expensive packs compared to other brands even against Milwaukee. Ryobi packs are the worst. I had to rebuild two packs after charging and balancing the cells did not work. Well it did work but I could not charge them back up in the Ryobi carger. Eventually I found out that something was wrong with the boards. I bought compatible replacements from Aliexpress and so far they seem to behave fine now. But still a 5AH Ryobi pack costs £80 ($105 US) compared to a Milwaukee 5AH £54 ($70 US) It's crazy wild!

[dragonhed]

Before i watch this video i want to say this is a really unique idea and i cant wait to watch, i love your new ideas for repair video's thank you for your dedication and hard work especially during your health issues. You are a awesome and kind person!!

[brucepreston]

I used to buy pallets like this from Walmart and Home Depot...I used to do really well with them, but I got burned really bad on the last 6 that I bought so I quit messing with them...The ones that I used to buy were purely store returns, but people scam them so much on returns now, that it's just not worth it!

[cubedcorefpv]

16:22 I think you need to flip that attachment so the gear goes into the recessed section

[georgikukov]

hey man i love your content!
I subbed to you when the channel was relatively small, but im proud of how you maintained the content!
Thank you for the amazing content, keep healthy and keep it up <3

[djkarcher]

That's why I like to buy from manufacturers that have spare part diagrams with part numbers. Regarding the two DeWalt sanders: They may be fixable, DeWalt does sell spare parts. Not too sure about the batteries, once they're cooked, they very likely will remain cooked. Makita batteries have a chip that locks them up if they fall below a certain voltage. Very pleasant video to watch, looking forward to part 2!

[jkpaschal]

As a contractor, you have a huge market with tool repair IF you price it right. I repair my own stuff and have made some cash repairing switches and reflowing battery packs. Lot's of armatures, windings, hall effect sensors, and different types of switches. Might be worth having an apprentice or motivated cousin who can be taught to repair them to help you start taking a step back? Love your vids and you're work, you've helped a bunch of people, myself included. Glad to see you look like you feel better.

[rrrX]

Hi Steve, glad to see you looking healthy again.
Regarding the angle grinder-key steel is readily available, just measure, buy and cut to size. No different to any other shaft/sprocket setup. Wishing you all the best and keep it going, love your videos.

[gundamace]

Those are all classic home depot returns..the green RTV tag is the dead give away.. Some will be used and broken items that customer switch up and remainder will be suprisinly near complete and fairly funtioning tools if not almost perfect. Many customer will buy incorrect goods and or use for one day and return them. Home Depot has a very easy return policy. If you read the back of the receipt and are familiar w/ how the home depots hands some of the brands when returning Them Ryobi is owned by home depot via an auxillary parent company. So its cheaper for us to just sell it off in bulk.

[CallegriaofSoulbound]

With the inflating pump, you are suppose to be able to type in the inflation total, connect, press play, walk away. When it hits the total pressure it automatically stops. The two biggest issues with these units are: 1.) the connection leaks and never completely inflates the item 2.) The pump will over heat before the pressure target is reached.
While you might think you can turn it on and let it run for X period to test the overheating issue the pressure build up against the pump is what causes the over heating. You will need to try it on a car tire to verify operation. Also make sure that both car adapter AND AC plug are working.

[Jinzo]

Hey Steve, glad to see you're looking all better. The issue with the Ryobi brad nailer is that that the brad nails go to the front end of the magazine, not the back. The hammer hitting the brad nail at the position is in the video may cause the nail to shoot in to the magazine, that's why the tool protects itself.