Last week, I bought a new battery for my Ryobi tool set. They had 3 options, the trusty Ni-Cd (what I had), the mid-line lithium, and a high-end lithium. All modern Ryobi tools have the same form factor for battery, which is pretty awesome. The mid-line looked like a nice upgrade from my old battery, being both lighter and longer lasting. It was also the same price as the Ni-Cd anyway. So I bought one.
I got it home and tore open the package (its a blister pack that has no logical way to open with completely destroying) and popped into my charger. Strange, no lights. Did I get a bad battery?
Reading the torn up packaging more closely, I noticed that while the battery works for all tools, it doesn’t for all chargers. It needs a ‘dual chemistry’ charger, where as mine is Ni-Cd only. Aw, poop.
So, I could try to return the opened battery, or buy a new charger. The latter was probably a waste since my old charger works fine. So, I opted for the former. I went in and said, I messed up and didn’t read the fine print and bought a battery that doesn’t work with my charger. After a slight delay of chatting with someone in the tool rental department, the clerk they’d take back the battery. Awesome! So, I promptly went back to the battery aisle and bought the right battery.
Props to Home Depot for covering what was obviously my mistake. Good customer service like is what keeps me coming back.
Looking for links to the batteries above on the Home Depot site, I also found that have an upgrade kit what includes both a lithium battery and proper charger. The next time I replace a battery, I’ll definitely go that way.
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