Bosch is soon coming out with a new 6-bay 18V cordless power tool battery charger, model GAL18V6-8.
The new 6-port Bosch 18V battery charger is said to recharge a 4.0Ah battery to 80% in 32 minutes.
Advertisement
It features an 8-amp charging rate, for speedy charging of Bosch’s higher capacity batteries (and of course older standard packs), and has active cooling – a fan to help keep components at an optimized temperature.
This is a sequential charger, meaning it can only recharge batteries one at a time.
Bosch designed this charger with a 2-cycle process, with a fast charging cycle to 80% and then slow charging to top off the battery the last 20% to a full charge.
A fully discharged 4.0Ah battery will recharge to 80% in 32 minutes, and to a full charge in 50 minutes.
If you have Bosch 18V 4.0Ah batteries in each port, it will take up to 5 hours to fully recharge all of them, but 3.2 hours to charge them all to 80% – IF the charger is set to only fast-charge as it recharges multiple batteries in order. Bosch’s product imagery doesn’t show controls that might allow for switching between fast and full charging, and their marketing language is unclear as to how the charger will behave with multiple batteries connect to it.
Advertisement
The new Bosch 6-bay Li-ion charger also has a top handle, for convenient carrying of the charger by itself or with a load of batteries, and a built-in cord wrap.
Size and Weight
- 11.92″ long
- 8.89″ tall
- 8.27″ wide
- Weighs 4.0 lbs
The charger is compatible with all Bosch 18V Li-ion batteries.
Price: $99
Discussion
Thumbs Up
- Wide-looking base
- Top handle and cord wrap
- Fast charging rate
- Clear communications about battery charging order
- Reasonable price
Thumbs Down
- Sequential charging (and not simultaneous)
- Uncertain rechareging behaviors
I would have liked to have seen a pass-thru plug, like on Milwaukee’s M18 six-port charger. Bosch doesn’t describe the plug at all, suggesting it’s an ordinary plug and not a pass-thru. The benefit of a pass-thru is that you can connect something else – such as another charger – to the same AC receptacle, saving space.
An 8-amp charging rate is convenient, but can be confusing to end users. Bosch says that an 18V 4.0Ah battery fully recharges in 50 minutes.
It’s not a big deal that the charger takes 32 minutes to recharge a 4.0Ah battery to 80% and then another 18 minutes for the final 20%. But does this new charger allow for user controls to stop it at 80%?
Bosch says:
Each bay sequentially charges a spent CORE18V 4.0 Ah battery to 80% in 32 minutes and full in 50 minutes.
But does this mean it charges a 4.0Ah to 80% and then to 100% and then moves on? Or does it charge a battery to 80%, move on to the next, and then tops all of the batteries to 100% of the user hasn’t removed them yet.
That is, which recharging behavior is true? For two batteries, how does the charger work?
Option 1
- Battery 1 to 80%
- Battery 2 to 80%
- Battery 1 to 100%
- Battery 2 to 100%
OR
Option 2
- Battery 1 to 100%
- Battery 2 to 100%
Option 1 would be a big deal, if the batteries all charged to 80% and then topped off after that, but, as Bosch only describes the charging rate for a single battery, there’s indication that it does this.
I have a Sony camera battery charger, and it has “normal” charging mode, which fast charges the battery to partial capacity, and “full” charging mode that does the same but then tops it off for maximum charge capacity.
Many cordless power tool brands’ battery chargers have 80% indication – or thereabouts – where it will blink a different color when charging, when mostly charged, and then when complete.
80% indication would be convenient on any charger, but on a sequential charger it would be much more convenient if the charger could stop at 80% and then move on to the next battery.
Bosch’s official product imagery doesn’t show any buttons or user controls where you can change the charging settings in any way, nor is there any commentary about any user interface.
We’ve asked Bosch PR for clarification and are waiting for their response.
In my opinion, this would be a hugely impactful feature, if the charger was able to charge each battery to 80% and then start a series of top-off cycles. If you can connect 4.0Ah batteries to every port, taking advantage of only the quick charging cycle would result in all 6 batteries being charged to 80% in around 3 hours and 12 minutes. If each battery must go through quick charging and slow top-off cycles, the total charging time increases to 5 hours.
The biggest benefit of a sequential charger is to recharge multiple batteries without having to watch over and swap batteries in a single charger.
Let’s say the charger operates in the first manner described above, where it charges each battery to 80% before moving on. After 2 hours into the 5 hour charging sequence, you 3 batteries charged to 80% and a fourth nearly there. If the charger operates where each battery is recharged to 100% before moving on to the next battery, you will have 2 fully charged batteries and the third halfway there. This is all assuming 4.0Ah batteries. The effect will be multiplied with higher capacity batteries.
That top-off charge extends the charging rate of a 4.0Ah battery by 56% to get you the last 20% of charge capacity.
Now, think about how long sequential charging will take if you have even higher capacity batteries. If things are proprotionate, an 8Ah battery might take 64 minutes to fast-charge to 80% and 100 minutes total to get to 100%. And if you have 6 batteries connected, that’s an extra 36 minutes per battery for the top-off charge.
Why would Bosch mention the 2-cycle charging behavior if the charger could only charge each battery to 100% before moving on? As mentioned, we’ve asked Bosch for clarification, and hope they can clear things up.
Maybe Bosch is also working on a simultaneous 4-bay or 6-bay charger?
Or maybe an 18V + 12V multi-port charger? They came out with a 12V/18V charger back in 2017, and I was hoping that would become standard, similar to how Dewalt and Milwaukee all have multi-volt chargers.
Some Bosch 18V users will love this new 6-bay charger, but others will lament that it’s a sequential charger rather than a simultaneous charger capable of 2 or more concurrent charging cycles.
What do you think?
See Other Brands’ Multi-Port Chargers
Metabo Multi-Bay 8-Port Simultaneous 18V and 36V Battery Charger
rob
Just the thing we needed for all of the tools they never release. 😂
Tom D
Batteries you don’t have and don’t use charge really fast as far as I can calculate.
But realistically my M18 6-charger is mainly a convenient place to store batteries without them getting lost – as very quickly you end up with more chargers than you can use.
King duck
Yeah I regret buying mine like you said a few home depot package deals and you start giving away charges to friends.
Steve
I’m still not a fan of 6 pack sequential chargers. I think the Dewalt 4×8Amp simultaneous charger is the all around best charger. Charging on all ports at once at a fast charging rate at the expense of two ports. At least this Bosch one charges at 8Amp. Some of the other 6 pack chargers out there have lower charge rates. The 6 pack sequential’s best feature is at the end of the day you can charge up 6 overnight, but again, I’d sacrifice 2 ports in that respect to have 4 charging instead of 1 while I’m more likely to be waiting on them.
Stuart
I’d like to see a 4-port charger with 2 separate charging circuits. Or 3+3 like the Milwaukee M12/M18 Rapid Charger.
https://toolguyd.com/milwaukee-rapid-charging-station/
Corey Moore
The DeWalt is awesome, it lives on a small toughsystem box full of batteries when on my dolly, and a medium with all my batteries when in the tool box. TS compatible is under rated. Pretty sure it’s still their only charger that does 12/20/& 60v, too.
Big Richard
Pretty sure all their chargers do 12v/20v/60v with the exception of the DCB118, new DCB1112, and portable power station DCB1800, which only do 20v/60v.
Julian Tracy
Can’t beat Makita’s dual charger that’ll charge two 4.0’s in 40min, two 5.0’s in 50min. And it’s cheap at around $100 new, $65 used. What the heck is the point of a useless sequential charger?
andy
It’ll charge just about any combination of batteries from when you get home at 5pm to when you leave at 7am.
Stuart
True. Wait. If you have 12Ah batteries, and they charge proportional to the 4Ah, that’s 50 minutes x 3 x 6, or 900 minutes for 6 batteries to fully charge.
That’s 15 hours.
Technically, if you start with (6) 12Ah batteries that are fully depleted, they won’t all be charged to 100% between 5pm and 7am the next day, given Bosch charging times and some assumptions.
Jim Felt
Especially if you’re trying to charge 12Ah M18 batteries in the Bosch charger. ;-)~
Indrek
According to Bosch, this will charge a 12 Ah battery to 80% in 65 minutes, which means 6 of them will be charged in 6.5 hours. Full charge takes 96 minutes per battery, or 9.6 hours for 6 of them.
So it’s feasible to get six 12 Ah batteries fully charged overnight, even if they were completely depleted.
I’m not entirely sure why charging times aren’t proportional to battery capacity. My guess is, higher capacity batteries can support higher charging currents, just like they support higher discharge currents.
andy
A simple charging profile is constant current for 80%, then constant voltage for the final 20%. The CC portion of the cycle will be limited by the charger output, but the CV portion will be what the battery can take. A larger battery will take more.
Zoltan
My 18V tools are also from Makita, however, I really miss such a compact charger with handle. I usually use 4-20 charge per day of my 5Ah batteries. That even includes occasional wall chasing and drilling a lot. Now I have 6 batteries stored different places, left attached to thw tools, etc. Having this kind of charger would help a lot to keep the batteries in one place, arrive fully charged to the workplace and charge them there when power is available. In the EU, such charger is definitely a good idea for almost all tradesman. Tbh, the the charhing time is not that relevant in such use case, you will charge your batteries overnight anyway. (Think about EVs, no one have a fast DC charger at home and still no issues for the average EV owner.)
Indrek
The manual for the EU version is here: https://www.bosch-professional.com/binary/ocsmedia/optimized/full/o340162v21_160992A5KP_202008.pdf
It provides answers to a few of the questions mentioned in the article. Specifically, all inserted batteries are first charged to 80%, and only then are they charged to 100%. Also, each bay has a priority button (the one that looks like the Youtube logo), which causes that battery to be charged to 80% first (when pressed once), or to 100% (when pressed twice).
Ziyadsaeed
What ever happened to the industry moving to high volt batteries like flexvolt. Recently their are lot of news abiut 29V systems and no news regarding high voltage batteries.
Stuart
Dewalt FlexVolt
Metabo HPT MultiVolt
Makita XGT (coming soon?)
The current push seems to be of higher powered 18V/20V Max batteries.
Indrek
Also Milwaukee MX Fuel.
But yes, most manufacturers seem to be focussing on 18 V systems and increasing amperage to get more power.
Stuart
Well… Milwaukee Tool will insist that MX Fuel is a cordless power equipment system, and not cordless power tools, and they’re right. At this time I consider MX Fuel to be in a completely different bubble, separate and outside the one that encompasses 18V to 60V Max cordless power tools and tech.
Peter
No usb ports?
Stuart
Not that I’ve seen or read about.
Peter
Bugger, I have a 12/18v Bosch charger with an usb port and something is almost always plugged in there and I am working alone most of the time.
David
Bought on dec 16 2020. Sending it back January 22 2021. I plug all batteries in then plug into charge. Works for about 1min then all the red lights flash. Manual says internal fault. Tried plugging charger in wall first. Then add batteries. Same result red lights of death… internal fault… sending it back Tuesday.
Good idea as a product but needs work. What would be clever is 2 USB port on there.