Makita Battery Charger DC18 RA

On the Makita 18-V DC18RA charger, the flashing red light means that the battery is not at the correct temperature for safe charging. If the battery is hot (from use or being in direct sunlight), charging will begin when the battery cools down. If the battery is cold, then charging will start when the battery warms up. (Note: the cold battery could have moisture condensation issues. This could delay the start of the charging cycle.) Home Depot has the manual for this charger here: https://images.homedepot-static.com/catalog/pdfimages/35/35393127-7c0b-4668-8609-9104ae7cc187.pdf . I suspect that Makita uses the same "code" on all of their chargers.

I hope this helps.

Cindy Wells

If both lights on the charger are flashing it is indicating you have a bad battery and the charger will not charge the battery. The charger has circuitry that tests the battery and if it 'thinks' the battery is defective it will not attempt to charge it. The only way to verify whether it's the battery or charger is to try charging your battery on another charger or try charging another battery on your charger. Most of the time it's a bad battery.

The pcb inside the battery has a microcontroller that monitor the charges and charge cycle. When the cell falls below a certain voltage, it will instruct the charger not to charge and will show with a red-green flashing light. If the battery has been tried 3 times in succession then the pcb will brick itself from the makita charger. So first replace the bad cells. There are 2 solutions at this moment: charge with a 3rd party lithium charger like the imax b6 or replace the pcb with a working one. check out my blog on http://mkbl1830.blogspot.com/

you should be able to, but it will eventually burn the battery up. but only if it slips into the charger with no force from you.

Why can't you buy the 230 volt DC18RA charger in europe (amazon.europe country) and use it. I had the same issue yet i burned out the fuse in the 110 volt DC18RA charger because i plugged it into the wall just using an adaptor. Lesson learned. Therefore, my first solution was that i bought a converter from 220V-to 110 Volt. This showed me that my charger was done. So instead of getting another 110 volt charger sent here to Europe from Canada, I returned the converter and have on order a 230 volt input DC18RA charger from amazon.de which has the same 7.2-18V output. I have been told this will work yet the fear, and I don't know why, is that it will burn out the batteries in a year or so. It is difficult getting specific information from Makita, but I hope it all works out. Best of Luck for you

The Makita Factory may repair them, and then resell them in reconditioned kits, but they will only sell you a new one, or replace it under warranty.

If the charge count on the batteries is under 300, Makita will replace them. Makita has a known defect in this battery that causes the battery to shut down before it is dead. So as of now they are exchanging ones with low use.

If they are truly defective and makita won't replace, you have to open them, find the dead cell or blown fuse, and replace. Search youtube makita battery for a video on repairing this battery. But once the red and green lights on the charger flash, the the battery can't be charged on a Makita charger -- it's been locked. So use a third party charger.

If you have an older charger with a model number that has "RA".
That is the problem. Their were some issues with that charger.
It has been replaced with a model that has a "S" at the end.


Contact Makita. Those batteries are under warranty.

Selvol