Okay, so you’re finishing up a project and your last Black & Decker cordless power tool’s battery runs out of juice. You just have *just a little bit more* to go. What do you do?
- Whip out that spare battery you wish you bought but didn’t
- Pop it into a charger and take at least a half hour break
- Remove a partially charged battery from the charger, potentially reducing its lifetime
- Use the new Li-ion charger for 10 minutes for 30% of full charge
The new Black & Decker charger, model L2AFCBST, is a rapid charger that accepts all Black & Decker 16V and 20V Li-ion battery packs. It charges them in 40 minutes or less, and has a special flash charge mode that safely charges a battery to 30% capacity in 10 minutes.
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Craftsman offers similar “flash charge” functionality in their Bolt-On charger and Nextec Quick Boost charger, and it really does come in handy.
Black & Decker also added in a maintenance mode that automatically optimizes the charging cycle for longer battery life.
One more thing we find appealing about the new charger is its small size. Having to deal with one or two large chargers is no big deal. But when you have a bunch to have to work with, engineers’ efforts to scale down charger footprints are much appreciated.
Buy Now(via Amazon)
More Info(via B&D)
Additional Thoughts
Some neat innovations have come out from Black & Decker recently, most notably their Gyro cordless screwdriver and Matrix modular tool system. Not everyone will find this rapid “flash charger” charger handy, but it’s a great option to at least have available.
Looking at the price, MSRP is shown to be $39, but the lowest price I could find online, including via Black & Decker’s store, is $50. This is more than the price of a single 16V or 20V Li-ion battery pack.
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If you only have one battery pack, it might be better for you to buy a second one instead of this new charger, but it also depends on the charger you already have. One of Black & Decker’s standard 16V and 20V chargers, model LCS20, has a charging time of 3-5 hours. Certain kits, such as this one come with a 30-minute charger that’s not unlike this one, except for the lack of a flash charge option.
If you use your Black & Decker cordless tools a lot, this charger looks to be an easily justified upgrade.
dduff617
the pitch here seems to be based on several assumptions, none of which i fully believe:
a. that partially charging a battery somehow damages it or “reduces its lifetime”.
b. that a very fast charge can somehow be performed without also reducing the battery’s lifetime. (hint: chargers are generally designed to allow the max current to batteries without overheating them)
c. that this is actually much different/better than other competing products. for example, 30-40 mins seems like about the normal charge time for my ryobi batteries.
d. “flash charge” is anything other than a marketing gimmick. if full charge takes 40 mins and flash charge produces a 30% charge in 10 minutes, then is flash charge actually doing much of anything?
Stuart
To be honest, the pitch is one I’m a little shaky about as well, but I believe it more than I don’t.
Charging cycles are not linear, with the first 1/4 of a cycle leading to a far greater capacity recharge than the last 1/4 of a cycle. With this in mind I reached out to product managers a while back to discuss how much of a recharge can be achieved in 10 minutes with a regular charger.
One brand manager strongly recommended that users allow batteries to complete a full charge. Repeatedly removing a battery from the charger before charging is complete isn’t good for the battery. I took this to mean that it will ultimately lower the battery’s lifetime or capacity over time at a quicker rate.
30% charge in 10 minutes when the charging cycle is 35 minutes is not a more rapid charge. I previously spoke to Craftsman about their “QuickBoost” charging tech, and the discussion led me to believe that the tech is more about a brief charging session that’s safer for the battery.
One of Black & Decker’s other chargers takes 3-5 hours. This is a substantial upgrade. There’s also a non-flash charge version, but at marginal savings.
Charging times are affected by many factors, but heating is definitely one of the big ones. This is why Makita has very rapid charging times, because their chargers have active fan cooling, and not just passive vented heatsinks.
It’s a tough call, whether this is a gimmick or not, and it’s one I quite frankly cannot answer. If my favored brands came out with similar chargers, would I buy them? Probably not separately, but I wouldn’t mind if it raised the price of my next cordless kit purchase by $5.
that plumber guy
The only notable feature I see here is the integrated cord wrap. Wish more manufacturer’s would do this. I like it even more when they include a little u shaped nub on the end of the cord, that we when you wrap it clips into the cord below/underneath. Most shop vac type vacuum’s feature this style of cord. Its quite frustrating trying to put cordless tools back into there case and have to jimmy the cord 5 times to get it right.
mnoswad1
I like how this guy thinks. It’s often the non marketable details that really stand out to the end user as quality features. That ” u shaped cord nub” is a perfect example.
Functionality is value. Everyone knows that a battery is going to take close to an hour to charge…….thus serious workers have several chargers and batteries at the ready when preforming demanding tasks.
If a company wants to put some weird zippo charge feature in bold letters on the the side of the box, most of us are prone to see past it as just another marketing team idea that skews the numbers to support their claims…….similar to torque vs. UWO………nobody cares about a few inch pound differences.
Terrance McGee
Why is it no surprise that what happens at Black and Decker/Stanley happens with DeWalt?? 20v batteries? CHECK Similar looking footprint? CHECK Same gimmicks on useless features to deter you from thinking about the lack of durability? CHECK
Tim
From a previous comment about Black & Decker vs. DeWalt: the 20 max is there because Black & Decker owns DeWalt. I also understand it’s really more like an 18V system, just like my Milwaukee M18 drill.
I bought the Black & Decker sweeper (aka light duty leaf blower) and weed whacker to replace a gas blower and gas trimmer. I have a small lot, so it’s not a big deal going with a smaller/somewhat less powerful setup. Between the blower and trimmer, I had 2 chargers and 3 batteries. The problem is that the chargers take 8 hours. The 3-5 hour number in the article may be for the 16V system. I was doing yard work one day, and sure enough, I ran out after failing to put another battery on a (slow) charger when it was dead. This charger would allow me to get back to work much sooner than possible with the stock chargers that come with the LST220 and LSW20 kits. So, I ended up buying this charger. It works as advertised, although the flash charge is pretty much useless in my opinion. I tried the flash charge, and then let it charge fully. It seemed to shave off about 5 minutes, which isn’t much in the grand scheme of things on a charger that takes around (+/-) 35 minutes anyways. I don’t plan on using the flash charge feature in the future. I like to let batteries charge fully once on the charger, because it’s less wear on the contacts.
Bottom line: this charger is a vast improvement over the stock low-amperage units provided with some of the B&D 20V system tools. It brings the B&D 20V system charging in line with other power tools out there, like Milwaukee.
Richard
Just to clear something up regarding flash charge… It is meant to be used in those situations where you need just 10 more minutes of power to finish a job. If you think it’s a marketing gimmick to make you think your batteries are charging faster, you’ve completely missed the point.
Brad
Just an FYI on this charger/product line… From everything I’ve read and heard it is fully compatible with the Craftsman 20V Max Bolt-On product line. No nubs to grind off or anything like that – identical interfacing.
The B&D Charger shown above seems to be identical to the Craftsman Model CMC20CBST.
http://www.sears.com/craftsman-bolt-on-8482-20-volt-max/p-00901647000P
It’s when we get to the Porter-Cable 20V Max and Stanley 20V FatMax product lines that there is some purposeful incompatibilities created via plastic nubs and blockers. These things are usually easy to “fix”, but out of the box they are not plug-n-play compatible.
Furthermore, the Dewalt 20V Max product line (also a B&D product), is entirely different in many ways and is only cross-compatible with the Mac Tools 20V Max product line.