Ryobi 40v snowblower will not start

[Xist]

I cannot find any information about this. Google does not show any relevant results. I absolutely do not understand battery-powered yard tools, but I did not buy it. When the snow was fresh I used all of our extension cords and used my Toro 350 CFM blower to move the snow.

It was definitely easier and faster than shoveling.

We do not have enough cords to clear our entire sidewalk, though, and Mom spent good money on this, so I want to make use of it. I thought I charged the battery before the first snow, but that was for a different Ryobi battery-powered device. Both batteries depleted too low to recharge in the two years since Mom used it. I guess that I have nothing to lose but to try Shouty Kilmer's technique for trying to revive a dead car battery. If it is discharged too low to charge, you connect it to a good charged battery, and let them get to know each other.

I asked Mom to pick up a corded snowblower. Lowe's showed them in stock for $100. She bought another $100 battery instead. I used the snowblower for a good five or ten minutes before the battery died, so I know that it worked. Maybe the battery did not die. Perhaps it was something else. All that I know is there is a power switch just for the headlights and you start it by holding down another button and then pulling the bar, like on a lawnmower.

There are a few lawnmower repair places up here, but they do not do electric, so once again, I need an adult, and I am the best that I have.

[Stubby79]

You probably won't get a charge to go through to it, even if you do hook it up to another battery or power source. There's a BMS (battery management system) between the terminals and the cells inside that, if it's not got enough power to keep on, won't allow any power to pass through it either way.

I don't suggest hooking it up directly to a known battery anyway. At least have some resistance between the two, or you might just be shorting out your good battery/source.

I've revived a few "dead" (From inuse) lithium packs; they're still happy and healthy to this day. I opened up the pack so that I could get directly at the cells. I checked their voltage before doing anything else; each cell was around/under 1v, too low to let the BMS operate, but none was completely dead or in reverse polarity. I Hooked up a "dumb" charger, through a resistor (probably 150 ohms) to very slowly trickle charge them back up. After getting the cells up to about 2v each, the bms had turned back on, and could probably be charged on their usual charger; I continued to trickle charge them, but through the BMS, to ensure that no cell was trying to go over 4.2v while I wasn't watching.

Don't do it without resistance/something to limit the current, and don't trust any cells not to go over 4.2v without the BMS to stop it charging or else you risk it going up in flames and you and your house with it.

If you're not remotely comfortable with the idea, get someone more experienced to do it for you. Don't go in there expecting nothing will go wrong; the cost of a mistake is too high. Heck, do it out in a shed somewhere if you can, just in case.

[Xist]

Tomorrow I will call 1 877 655 5250 and see if the batteries are still covered by a warranty. I found that number here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdooukPPE0M

I was actually trying to find more information on charging the cells with resistance and that was the first result.

[oil pan 4]

I still have a 12 gauge 100 ft, extension cord I bought in 1999 for nearly $100 including sales tax back in 1998.

[Xist]

Do you just coil that conventionally?

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by Xist

Tomorrow I will call 1 877 655 5250 and see if the batteries are still covered by a warranty.
I was actually trying to find more information on charging the cells with resistance and that was the first result.

Hopefully they will cover them, though I doubt it.

If my explanation wasn't enough to tell you what to do, you're probably in over your head to mess around with electricity. Find someone who can do it for you.

If you don't own torx security bits, you're not going to get in to the battery. If you don't own resistors or have makeshift ones, there's not much point either. Small jumper leads are helpful as well, though you might get away with a few lengths of fine, insulated wire. A multimeter/voltmeter is a basic necessity as well. Too much?

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Xist

Tomorrow I will call 1 877 655 5250 and see if the batteries are still covered by a warranty.

Might be easier - and certainly would be faster - just to use a shovel :-)

Personally, I always rather liked shovelling snow. Not that we get all that much of it hereabouts, but it's good exercise. Of course some people would use a snowblower on their driveway so they could get out to go to the gym :-(

[Xist]

I shoveled snow for one to four hours Monday through Friday. The snow blower definitely worked faster than me while it worked, but I fear that I overloaded it, like I did with our electric lawn mower. If I could get it to work, I would clear our driveway and as much of the sidewalk on our street as possible, take it back to recharge, and then shovel for as long as I can.

I did not call Ryobi today. I had not had a good night's sleep in a week or two, went to bed before midnight, and woke up at eleven when someone drove three and a half hours to see me.

We were supposed to finally start working on my head gasket. Awesome, right? The problem is that my employer told us a week or two ago that they needed a new insurance form for every client by the tenth.

I have twenty-five "active" clients, but I have only seen five clients since, and I only have a form filled out for one client.

They keep saying they will withhold pay unless we submit all of our forms on-time. I cannot imagine having all of them back in-time. I plan on asking to remove uncooperative families from my caseload.

So, the friend drove up, Mom woke me, and I said "Hey, sorry, I need to get my families to fill out some paperwork. Do you mind waiting without looking at their personal information?

Two hours later I contacted everyone that I could and made a list of the clients to whom I needed to mail forms, but the post office closed at 1pm, so I took her to lunch, picked up ingredients for dinner, and spent so long in line at Walmart that as soon as we got back we started cooking.

Mom says that we did not eat until after seven, although we were finished by eight.

Mom is a type one diabetic, so I tried to come up with something that was good, but still low in carbohydrates. She loved lasagna, so I decided to make eggplant parmesan, but instead of frying the eggplant, I dipped it in egg, and instead of then dipping it in bread crumbs, I used almond flour.

It was okay. The recipe called for a pound and a half of ground turkey, but my friend suggested that I used the entire two pounds that I bought, which should have been fine, but I think it needed a third more seasoning, and I do not know if she put the oregano on top.

It definitely needed seasoning, but I am not sure seasoning alone would have made it taste good.

Well, I need to write notes to a dozen families, stuff as many SASE envelopes, and ask them to send picture messages so that I have something until their forms arrive. I also need to write session notes, twenty-five progress reports, and upload signature sheets through a new system.

We are supposed to have freezing rain tonight and then up to six inches of snow.

If I miss more sessions due to the weather, at least I will have time to work on my car!

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Xist

Do you just coil that conventionally?

Yeah nothing special.
I generally hate battery powered tools precisely for this reason.
But I do have a 0.6kwh LiFePO4 battery pack with 2kw samlex pure sine inverter that will power everything 120v powered I have except for my 8 inch grinder.

[Xist]

It seemed like Mom's extension cord became more twisted every time that I used it. I stretched it out and tried to straighten it a few times. I learned how to loop it differently from this video. Please watch the first six seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAbPoYRlQl8?t=5

However, most people focused on him screwing a 3 amp switch rated for indoor use onto a 15 amp extension cord, rated for outdoor use.

I saw dozens of comments criticizing him in different ways before I gave up. I just couldn't remember the name Roadie Loop. I have used that since and it works great, but it seems like half of the time, when I go to use the extension cord, it has gotten tangled since I last looped it.