HPC Electric Gun

by **EvoRed** » 17 Nov 2004 7:57

For those that have these picks, how good is your battery?

My gun appears to lose the ability to pick anything open after a couple of minutes of use after a full charge. The battery appears to be drained enough after this short period of time to lose it's speed and bounce... Should I adjust the gun to give a larger bounce when this happens, have I got a dud battery, or is this the norm?

For instance, yesterday practising on a cylinder with a full charge, it opened it very easily but, after a couple of minutes use, wouldn't open the cylinder at all until I charged it again.

I don't have it on constantly either when picking, just fairly short bursts.

by **toomush2drink** » 17 Nov 2004 9:20

Is the gun new because some batteries take a while to hold their charge and need a few full discharges and recharges to reach full capacity. I have one of these and i must say it lasts ages especially using the on off technique.

by **pinky** » 17 Nov 2004 10:24

id say you have a dud battery, as mine lasts a week on a full charge and i use it daily.

by **EvoRed** » 17 Nov 2004 11:06

It's a couple of months old. How do you charge yours, when the battery's dying or whenever?

I usually stick mine on charge after whenever I've used it so it's on full charge for the next time I need it. The instructions that came with the gun even said you could leave it on constant charge so I assumed the battery didn't need to be fully discharged before charging each time to get a much better performance from it...

I certainly don't get a week out of it, that's for sure!

by **pinky** » 17 Nov 2004 11:09

i charge it for 8 hours once a week, never had a problem with my 2 , i always carry 2.

by **toomush2drink** » 17 Nov 2004 13:21

never had a problem with my 2 , i always carry 2.

Surely you mean "i always carry 2 of every tool available" :lol:

by **pinky** » 17 Nov 2004 13:23

no , ive 9 curtain picks

by **toomush2drink** » 17 Nov 2004 13:27

I bet your insurance premiums are crazy. Ive just you could work as a "consultant" for locksmiths tool makers ie freebies

by **stick** » 17 Nov 2004 14:58

If you've been charging your battery that way for months, that may be the reason why it doesn't hold much power. Unless your battery is advertised to be memory-free, by recharging your battery when it isn't fully or close to fully depleted, the chemical reaction that happens in the process of the use of your battery pretty much becomes permanent, which prevents you from fully recharging the battery. My suggestion is to just get a new battery.

by **acl** » 17 Nov 2004 16:54

Does anyone use anything other than the hpc or the multipicks gun? I was lucky enough to get hold of an orion electric pick a few years back,works off a separate battery ,havent charged mine for a good three weeks and use it every day.Got mine from Italy ,think theyve stopped making them now though.

by **mbell** » 17 Nov 2004 17:28

I got the SouthOrd pick for about Â£50 inc shipping with "Blemished handle".

I had a lot of trouble to begin with. For maybe two days of hard use the power just wasnt getting through the body of the pick from the bottom of the batteries to complete the circuit, hence it just didnt work or it was extremely intermittant.

After fiddling about for ages, taking it to pieces & re-assembling (nightmare), it just started working of its own accord and its worked fine ever since.

For those who don't know, this tool just uses standard C size batteries. I always keep at least one spare set of batteries in the tool case just in case.

I also had the HPC gun but only for a couple of weeks, then sold it for substancially more than I bought it. From that short time and not owning both tools at once overall I'd say they were about equal, the HPC maybe slightly wins.

by **Romstar** » 17 Nov 2004 17:35

Your battery is hosed.

Was your HPC pick purchased new stock, or was it a second hand unit of some sort?

Ni-Cad batteries are the ones most commonly associated with "memory effect", but it can plague other types such as NiMh or Li-Ion or Li-Polymer. Although the later batteries are supposed to be much less susceptible.

In your case, I would say that your charge schedule has made the battery weak. A possible solution would be to remove the battery, and drain it completely, and then recharge it. Do this several times in an attempt to remove the memory effect. If this fails, obtain a replacement battery direct from Black & Decker, as it will be cheaper than getting one from HPC. Your local hardware store should be able to obtain the proper battery.

The HPC pick gun is after all, a modified B&D cordless screwdriver.

Romstar

by **EvoRed** » 17 Nov 2004 17:59

I've only had the gun for a couple of months. I wouldn't have thought the battery's performance would be that bad after such a short period of time, regardless of charging schedule.

I will look into a new battery from B&D as I'm relatively poor and can't afford two guns like some top lockies!

by **randmguy** » 17 Nov 2004 18:56

You don't really need 2. Pinky is living proof that the boy scouts started in the UK.

I've got an HPC Electric and I charge it weekly. If it starts to die during a job I can generally charge it for 10 or 15 minutes and get enough juice to finish the job.

by **pinky** » 17 Nov 2004 19:10

i bought 2 due to an incident when i 1st started, i went on a call out at 4am one morning, broke my pick gun and started a 26 job warrant run at 8am with no pick gun, i never took that risk again

HPC Electric Gun

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