toolboy's Corner: Ryobi 40v Charger Testing #2

This page provides the results of charge testing additional 40v batteries on Ryobi 40v chargers. Please see the first Ryobi 40v Charger Testing page for details.

OP4026 2.6Ah Battery

The 2.6Ah OP4026 battery I have available for testing is very old but is basically new stock. Aside from being charged once after it was removed from the package, it hasn't been used. The date code on this battery indicates that it's 193 weeks old, or about 3 years and 9 months.

2.6Ah OP4026 Battery on Ryobi OP400 Charger

Charger OP400 (88W)
Battery OP4026 (rated 2.6Ah / 95Wh)
Total Charge Time 1:27:32 (5,252 sec)
Current In 2.3510A
"Bulk" charge rate 1.73A
Average charge rate1.626A
Measured Capacity 2.305Ah / 84.771 Wh (88.6%)


2.6Ah OP4026 Battery on Ryobi OP401 Charger

Charger OP401 (72W)
Battery OP4026 (rated 2.6Ah / 95Wh)
Total Charge Time 1:57:45 (7,065 sec)
Current In 2.3542A
"Bulk" charge rate 1.28A
Average charge rate1.208A
Measured Capacity 2.302Ah / 82.520Wh (88.5%)


2.6Ah OP4026 Battery on Ryobi OP403 Charger

Charger OP403 (80W)
Battery OP4026 (rated 2.6Ah / 95Wh)
Total Charge Time 1:33:29 (5,609 sec)
Current In 2.2688A
"Bulk" charge rate 1.46A
Average charge rate1.467A
Measured Capacity 2.121Ah / 78.232Wh (81.6%)


I've tried many times, but I'm unable to ge the OP406A to charge my 2.6Ah OP4026 battery. I'll keep trying and post the results if I can ever get it to work.

2.6Ah OP4026 Battery on Ryobi OP406A Rapid Charger

Charger OP406A (295W)
Battery OP4026 (rated 2.6Ah / 95Wh)
Total Charge Time ( sec)
Current In A
"Bulk" charge rate A
Average charge rateA
Measured Capacity Ah / Wh ( %)


2.6Ah OP4026 Battery on Ryobi OP407 3-Port Quick Charger

Charger OP407 (194W)
Battery OP4026 (rated 2.6Ah / 95Wh)
Total Charge Time 0:48:57 (2,937 sec)
Current In 2.3190A
"Bulk" charge rate 3.47A
Average charge rate2.868A
Measured Capacity 2.273Ah / 83.661Wh (87.4%)
After testing the larger batteries on the OP407 I went back and took a closer look at the start of the data from the OP4026. I think that a tiny spike in charge current which I'd originally dismissed as noise was actually the charger evaluating the battery! The data above omits the first ten seconds of the zoomed in plot shown below. At 5 seconds we see a tiny spike of 0.01A (or 10mA) which lasts for 0.5 sec. This measurement is at the resolution of my datalogger, so it is difficult to characterize exactly. We see that the battery voltage spikes to 29v then drops back to just under 5v. At 10 second the charger begins its ramp to a charge current of 3.46A.



OP4050 5.0Ah Battery

The date code on the 5.0Ah OP4050 battery I have available for testing indicates that it's 166 weeks old, or about 3 years and 2.5 months. I was very disppointed to learn that it's ACTUAL capacity is about 4Ah, or 80% of its rated capacity.

5.0Ah OP4050 Battery on Ryobi OP400 Charger

Charger OP400 (88W)
Battery OP4050 (rated 5.0Ah / 180Wh)
Total Charge Time 2:38:53 (9,533 sec)
Current In 4.0743A
"Bulk" charge rate 1.73A
Average charge rate1.552A
Measured Capacity 3.978Ah / 147.564Wh (79.6%)


5.0Ah OP4050 Battery on Ryobi OP401 Charger

Charger OP401 (72W)
Battery OP4050 (rated 5.0Ah / 180Wh)
Total Charge Time 3:36:00 (12,960 sec)
Current In 4.0827A
"Bulk" charge rate 1.28A
Average charge rate1.141A
Measured Capacity 3.958Ah / 146.251Wh (79.2%)


5.0Ah OP4050 Battery on Ryobi OP403 Charger

Charger OP403 (80W)
Battery OP4050 (rated 5.0Ah / 180Wh)
Total Charge Time 2:41:04 (9,664 sec)
Current In 3.9010A
"Bulk" charge rate 1.46A
Average charge rate1.464A
Measured Capacity 3.979Ah / 145.520Wh (79.6%)


I've tried many times, but I'm unable to get the OP406A to charge my 5.0Ah OP4050 battery. I'll keep trying and post the results if I can ever get it to work.

5.0Ah OP4050 Battery on Ryobi OP406A Rapid Charger

Charger OP406A (295W)
Battery OP4050 (rated 5.0Ah / 180Wh)
Total Charge Time ( sec)
Current In A
"Bulk" charge rate A
Average charge rateA
Measured Capacity Ah / Wh ( %)


5.0Ah OP4050 Battery on Ryobi OP407 3-Port Quick Charger

Charger OP407 (194W)
Battery OP4050 (rated 5.0Ah / 180Wh)
Total Charge Time 1:27:02 (5,222 sec)
Current In 4.2047A
"Bulk" charge rate 3.44A
Average charge rate2.926A
Measured Capacity 3.980Ah / 146.214Wh (79.6%)


Very interesting! Look at the beginning of the charge curve and you'll see that the OP407 charged at a rate of 1.08A for 42 seconds before stepping up to a rate of 3.45A. It seems that the OP407 may have been evaluating the battery to decide how much current it could pump into it rather than dumping 3.5A from the get-go. This is really good news, because it means that the OP407 genuinely is a "smart" charger! In the first three seconds it can be seen that the charger must apply a very tiny current. It's below the resolution of my datalogger, or 10mA. I'm assuming that the charger is applying a tiny current because we see that the battery voltage jumps from 4.47v to about 9v, holds for one second, then jumps to 29.4v. At this point the charge rate jumps to 1.08A and the battery voltage slowly rises. When the battery voltage crosses 30.4v the charger jumps to a charge rate of 3.45A.



OP40601 6.0Ah Battery

The 6.0Ah OP40601 battery I have available for testing is brand new, I opened it a few days ago from a retail package.. The date code on this battery indicates that it's 27 weeks old, or about 6 months.

6.0Ah OP40601 Battery on Ryobi OP400 Charger

Charger OP400 (88W)
Battery OP40601 (rated 6.0Ah / 216Wh)
Total Charge Time 3:36:34 (12,994 sec)
Current In 5.9460A
"Bulk" charge rate 1.73A
Average charge rate1.653A
Measured Capacity 5.433Ah / 197.39 Wh (90.6%)


6.0Ah OP40601 Battery on Ryobi OP401 Charger

Charger OP401 (72W)
Battery OP40601 (rated 6.0Ah / 216Wh)
Total Charge Time 05:40:07 (20,407 sec)
Current In 6.9669A (extrapolated)
"Bulk" charge rate 1.29A
Average charge rate1.232A
Measured Capacity 5.65Ah / 206.525Wh (94.2%)


What happened on the OP401 was totally unexpected. After starting the charge cycle, the charger began charging the 6Ah battery but then stopped abruptly after about 1:50. I returned a few hours later to see that the charger indicated it was done and the charge current was at 0.0, but battery's voltage was around 37v and the datalogger indicated that the total charge was only about 2.2A. So I unplugged the charger, waited a minute, then plugged it back in and the battery started charging again. But again the charge cycle stopped way too soon. So I power cycled it again and again it started charging. It took a total of FIVE cycles before I was convinced that the battery was fully charged (initial plus 4 extra cycles). Weird. I wonder if this is a one-time anomaly, or if the battery and/or charger are exhibiting some sort of defect? I've recorded the Current In as "extrapolated" because the datalogger has an upper limit of 65535mA (16 bits) and records "0" if the total exceeds this value, which it did at 5:11:47. (I've modified the probe on my datalogger to record current 10x greater than actual to increase resolution.) I'll repeat testing on the OP401 once I've finished testing on the other 40v chargers.

6.0Ah OP40601 Battery on Ryobi OP403 Charger

Charger OP403 (80W)
Battery OP40601 (rated 6.0Ah / 216Wh)
Total Charge Time 3:52:01 (13,921 sec)
Current In 5.7036A
"Bulk" charge rate 1.48A
Average charge rate1.486A
Measured Capacity 5.238Ah / 189.775Wh (87.3%)


6.0Ah OP40601 Battery on Ryobi OP406A Rapid Charger

Charger OP406A (295W)
Battery OP40601 (rated 6.0Ah / 216Wh)
Total Charge Time 1:15:51 (4,551 sec)
Current In 5.7913A
"Bulk" charge rate 6.15A
Average charge rate4.629A
Measured Capacity 5.625Ah / 205.705Wh (93.8%)


6.0Ah OP40601 Battery on Ryobi OP407 3-Port Quick Charger

Charger OP407 (194W)
Battery OP40601 (rated 6.0Ah / 216Wh)
Total Charge Time 1:39:37 (5,977 sec)
Current In 5.5420A
"Bulk" charge rate 4.05A
Average charge rate3.368A
Measured Capacity 5.352Ah / 195.86Wh (89.2%)


It's not obvious from the full plot, but the OP407 does not start at the 4.1A charge rate. The charge rate starts at 1.07A for 3/4 sec, then it takes another 5.75 sec to ramp up to 4.1A. The OP407 is a smart charger indeed!



6.0Ah OP40601 Battery on Ryobi OP403 Charger with Mean Well ELG-240-48A-3Y set at 45v@4.0A

Charger OP403 (45v@4.0A)
Battery OP40601 (rated 6.0Ah / 216Wh)
Total Charge Time 1:18:32 (4,712 sec)
Current In 5.1936A
"Bulk" charge rate 4.01A
Average charge rate4.006A
Measured Capacity 4.770Ah / 171.089Wh (79.5%)


I re-tested on the OP401 since it didn't go well the first time

6.0Ah OP40601 Battery on Ryobi OP401 Charger

Charger OP401 (72W)
Battery OP40601 (rated 6.0Ah / 216Wh)
Total Charge Time 4:51:14 (14,465 sec)
Current In 5.9310A
"Bulk" charge rate 1.29A
Average charge rate1.230A
Measured Capacity 5.364Ah / 194.874Wh (89.4%)


Once again, the charger stopped before the battery was fully charged. I didn't notice it until about an hour after the charger had quit, and when I did I unplugged the charger until the the LED went dim then plugged it back in. The battery was fully charged on the second try. For the "Total Charge Time" and "Average Charge Rate above I didn't count the time in the middle (1:09:47 or 4,187 sec) when the charger was not charging the battery. Both the unedited chart (left) and the edited chart (right) are shown above.

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Last revised 25-Feb-2021