4500 battery charging....not sure???

Hi, just asking for some feedback re my battery for my 4500. I bought it second hand, so I'm guessing the battery was secondhand as well (had a 6 month warranty, but that's over now). When I charge it, it will get to the flashing red/green stage (almost charged?) and at times will then go green. Other times will flash on and off red. Not sure if this means that its not fully charged or something is faulty with the battery. Its a Minelab one.
any help appreciated...

Gday

Usually the battery will charge until the light goes full green, if it only charges to the flashing red/green stage and does not turn full green even if you leave it on charger longer, or flashes on and off red sometimes, I would be thinking that it has an internal fault or the charger is faulty.

When you connect it to your detector and check the voltage on the back menu panel is it showing 8v plus or less? if it were showing less after a full charge then I would be thinking that the battery pack is failing, if it is showing fully charged then it could possibly only be only a fault with the circuit to the led or a loose connection to it.

Either way I recommend that you get it checked out before taking it away or it might let you down in the bush, does it do the same thing when you charge it on the car 12v charger and the 240v charger?, I have heard of a few failures of these batteries, and have a spare for that reason, as it can happen suddenly and without warning, also I have seen the 12v chargers play up as well they are a bit flimsy in the wiring.

cheers

stayyerAU

Check that the 12v ciggy plug is not full of dirt that might be jamming up the spring contact on end of plug . I know from first hand experience that faulty charge voltage can cause the red warning LED ...This is just one possibility .The warning sign that the plug is dodgy is that it may take some jiggling to get the battery LED to illuminate and part way through the charge cycle the LED goes out or the red LED comes on ....A quick spray of crc and problem solved....cheers.....Paul

Thanx guys, will check out all your suggestions and will probably get a backup battery just to make sure.

Gday

I just spotted this on ebay, if the battery cells in your battery are knackered then this might be of use to you and I had heard it was very expensive to get it re packed through minelab but this seems more reasonable.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/GPX-4000-GPX-4500-GPX-5000-Battery-Rebuilds-new-cells-/190545584808?pt=AU_Gadgets&hash=item2c5d66e2a8

cheers

stayyerAU

Hi,
Had the same problem when the battery was only 12 months old.
Contacted Petra at Reeds and she suggested I connect the battery to machine and turn it on and leave it over night to completely flatten the battery, then recharge.
Did just that and have not had the same problem since.
Having said this it is always advisable to have a back up battery and ensure you give it a top up every couple of months to keep it fully charged.

Cheers
Peter

thanx all for your help. some great suggestions and nice to know there are such helpful people on here. Will try the flatten the battery thing too. pity there's no gold around here in the big smoke to justify having it turned on all those hours.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/GPX-4000-GPX-4500-GPX-5000-Battery-Rebuilds-new-cells-/190545584808?pt=AU_Gadgets&hash=item2c5d66e2a8

Those rebuilds are from Link Technologies Woodys ebay shop and they are $150 plus postage and your battery will be as good as new.

Cheers Quiet Bloke.