What Do The Flashing Lights On Your Ego Battery Mean?

In the olden days of disposable batteries, there wasn't much in the way of efficient power regulation. You just used the batteries until they stopped giving power, and then you chucked them in the trash. These days, portable power is much more efficient. Not only are battery packs designed to be recharged and reused over and over, which helps cut down on e-waste, but they're also equipped with specialized systems to give you a better idea of what's going on in there.

Battery packs from various prominent hardware brands like Ryobi or Milwaukee are typically equipped with meter lights that let you know how much juice is left in there so you can optimize your usage. Another brand that utilizes similar tech is Ego, which utilizes a convenient set of round LEDs on its battery packs for tools and machines. These LEDs can glow and blink in several colors and patterns, though if you don't actually know what the patterns mean, it may not be that helpful. Let's briefly cover a few of these patterns, specifically the ones that involve flashing and blinking.

When you juice up your Ego battery pack in its charging cradle, the segments on the LED fuel indicator will begin flashing green in sequence until the entire meter is full. When the pack is fully charged, all five frames on the gauge should show solid green.

As you use your battery in a tool, the green segments on the fuel gauge will gradually start to wink off. When there's only one segment left, and it begins showing red, that means there's less than 10% of the battery's capacity remaining. If you continue to use your battery pack in this state, eventually, all five segments on the fuel gauge will begin blinking red. This means that the battery has almost completely exhausted its power and needs to be charged immediately, or else it will stop powering the tool. If you don't want whatever Ego tool or machine you're using to suddenly stop dead in the middle of your task, get that battery on its charging cradle ASAP.

If your tool suddenly fails while you're using it, the first thing you should do is press the LED indicator on your Ego battery to diagnose the problem. If all five light segments begin alternatively blinking between green and red, this indicates that the battery pack has experienced some manner of critical failure. It won't work again until it diagnoses and addresses the problem.

Ego battery packs have a self-maintenance mode to address this particular scenario. If you press and hold the LED indicator for 3 seconds, the pack will enter self-maintenance mode and attempt to fix the problem. During this period, there are a few different patterns you may see depending on the precise model of battery pack you're using: the segments may all turn off, they may show solid red for around 10 seconds, or they may blink green every 2 seconds. Whatever the case, let the process run itself, then check the fuel gauge again. If it's still blinking red and green, it's a full-on failure, and you'll need to contact customer service.

On certain models of Ego battery packs, the LED fuel gauge may begin blinking orange when its button is pressed. If you see it blinking orange, you'd better unplug it from its tool because that battery pack is officially overheating.

In this particular scenario, Ego recommends taking a few safety precautions. First, obviously, take the battery off its attached tool. Second, plug it into its charging cradle. The charging cradle has a built-in fan, which will start cooling the pack down. Once it reaches a safe temperature, the cradle will begin its normal charging process, so just leave it alone for a while to juice up.

In the event that your battery pack's LED gauge remains in its blinking orange state for more than 24 straight hours, there may be a serious problem with it. In this case, contact Ego customer service and do not use it again until you've got a more definitive answer.