I've had a firestorm 18 volt drill/flashlight combo for over ten years and the original batteries were dying. I bought some aftermarket batteries which did great for the project I needed them for but stopped holding a charge within a couple months. After considering disposing of my batteries and getting a new drill system I thought I'd give a smart charger a shot. This thing is awesome. Not only did it bring back all my aftermarket batteries but it also brought back one of my decade old original firestorm batteries. Some of these batteries had been sitting dead on my workbench for well over a year.

This is a smart charger. That means it won't overcharge your batteries if you forget them on the unit overnight. It also indicates when the batteries are fully charged or when you need to replace them. Besides that, it fits a multitude of B&D batteries of varying voltages.

Works as described, charges NiCd black and decker batteries quickly (NOT for lithium), does not overheat the battery with a quick charge over 2 hours, and has a maintenance cycle that keeps a trickle charge to keep the battery full so you can leave it plugged in and not have to plan in advance when you want to use your cordless tool. Have had no issues with several months of regular use. The one thing I dont like is that the flashing led is confusing as to whether the battery is charging or the charger is flashing an error, the light blinks either way but blinks faster if there is a charging error, but you won't know which is which until it happens. I would prefer a green light showing charging / charged and a red light showing an error.

Just received this yesterday. The person that wrote review about this charger being able to revive "apparent dead B&D 18V batteries" is absolutely right. I've just finished recharging four "4" old batteries (from 2005&2011) that I couldn't get charged on the cheap OEM charger that came with my drill & weed wacker. All four now are charged and ready to go, although one battery seems to have slightly less (but adequate) power output with my drill. Don't yet know how long the old batteries will hold a charge, but it fully charges a totally drained battery in one hour. This has saved me the cost of new batteries or a new drill. ðŸ'‚

Forget any and all the other battery chargers for Black and Decker batteries... this one WORKS perfectly and quickly (from damn near dead to full charge in less than 90 minutes). The chargers that come with original B-D products are crap and in short order will kill any battery you use them on - speaking from experience on this. I used the original BD charger for the batteries on 2 string trimmers I own. Both batteries died in less than a year (would not take a charge beyond a small surface charge) when I was using the original small style charger from BD on them. I bought yet another brand new battery and used it also on the old small style charger.... and yep, that garbage original style charger killed a brand new battery in 5 months. THIS charger works great with zero issues... and gives my battery a 100% charge fast.

As advertised, works on Firestorm 18V battery's! It took a Five year old battery that did not hold a charge and got it fully charged and holding that charge!