Cordless drill battery repair or replacement?

[george formby]

Thought I would start another battery thread as it is raining..

I have a Makita drill which has 14.4v, 1.3Ah Ni-Cd battery impersonators. They will hold enough charge to put a self tapper about 3mm through toilet paper (double ply, wet, with little dolphins on it). Not ideal. I priced up replacements, $80 each. I can buy the same drill new with batteries etc for less than 2 batteries.
Can the existing batteries be nurtured back to life or am I buying a new drill?
Seems a bloody shame to bin a good bit of kit for the sake of batteries.

Opinions & options?

[BoristheBiter]

Buy a new drill.

[george formby]

Buy a new drill.

But I'm of Scottish decent!

[The Reibz]

Sorry bro, your out of luck with Ni-Cad. Once they are gone, they are gone
Best option is to buy a new drill, pref a 18v lithium Ion supply. Had my current drill for 6 years and the batteries can still go a entire day on one charge. (18v Black and Decker) Desperately want a Dewalt for the street cred it brings

[BoristheBiter]

But I'm of Scottish decent!

In that case just steal it.

[george formby]

Sorry bro, your out of luck with Ni-Cad. Once they are gone, they are gone
Best option is to buy a new drill, pref a 18v lithium Ion supply. Had my current drill for 6 years and the batteries can still go a entire day on one charge. (18v Black and Decker) Desperately want a Dewalt for the street cred it brings

Got a Dewalt Sabre saw, phwoar!

I figured a new drill would be the way to go.
I just use a cordless for odd jobs round the house so how do brands like Ozito stack up in the 18v Li-Ion stakes? Cheap as chips. Yeah, I know you get what you pay for but a dozen screws once a month does not warrant a tradie tool. Got Metabo & Bosch with plugs on for proper jobs.

[george formby]

In that case just steal it.

That's how I got this one.

[The Reibz]

Yeah Ozito are apparently alright. I brought a 100mm angle grinder of theres and its still going 5 years later, doesn't see alot of use though.
Lithium Ion is awesome

[george formby]

Cheers. Looks like I'm going to have to prise open me wallet & leave the Makita on the shelf for the next 5 years before I chuck it.

[unstuck]

Solder a couple of wires into it with crocodile clips on the end, then you can run it off the car battery.

[Laava]

Hey George have you tried downtown tools in whangas? They may be able to help or you could try Cellmate. He replaces the cells and can go up a notch on the aH as well. What about trade me? They often have good deals on new batteries. Another option to save chucking out what could otherwise be a useless tool, would be to bust open the dead batt, prise out the cells and wire in a long lead with a ciggie plug on the end to run off your car etc. of course this means you will need to park in the lounge to get anything done but meh!

Edit, just read Unstucks post and he mentions same thing.

[geoffm]

I replaced the cells in a couple of B&D drills (I had 2 the same with 4 batteries) and a Bunnings cheapie. Can you open up the battery pack or is it sealed. these had a couple of screws so you could open it up. They used Sub-C cells and i bought a pack of 50 with solder tabs on Ebay.
Cheap drills have lousy batteries - it is where they save money.
Geoff

[R650R]

Got one of these from Bunnings awhile back on special, batteries last well and has done some serious work.
Mate in the trade reckons the lithium batteries do degrade a bit of not getting used often so make the time to vandalise something on a regular basis with them
Mostly used drilling and screwing ply and timber but has drilled steel no worries when needed, takes up to 13mm drill too.
Yep those older battery drills are worthless now, had old Makita too. there is a new version of the Ryobi battery out too.

[george formby]

Hey George have you tried downtown tools in whangas? They may be able to help or you could try Cellmate. He replaces the cells and can go up a notch on the aH as well. What about trade me? They often have good deals on new batteries. Another option to save chucking out what could otherwise be a useless tool, would be to bust open the dead batt, prise out the cells and wire in a long lead with a ciggie plug on the end to run off your car etc. of course this means you will need to park in the lounge to get anything done but meh!

Edit, just read Unstucks post and he mentions same thing.

Cellmate? Hmmm, somebody mentioned a place in Whangas that recondition batteries.
Looked on trademe & cheapos are still over $50. Also checked out DIY repair & feel that I will end up with broken battery bits rather than broken batteries.
Got me plug in drills so I just cart the extension cable about.
I'm more miffed that a good tool is obsolete so easily.
Will check out cellmate & Downtown tools. Cheers.

[imdying]

I have a mate who runs Milwaukee 28v (it's not actually 28 volt though, just their branding, AFAIK) gear. It's done about 10 years, and the batteries don't hold charge like they used to. It's had serious trade abuse. Given that, I'd recommend them, if you're looking for a replacement. At least I would, but is there new gear as good as that, I don't know :-/

You can still buy nicad batteries, so pop open the battery and measure the dimensions of the cells. After that it's relatively trivial to buy some from the net and refurb the packs for not a lot of money. If you can't get any to fit, then you're out of luck.

Nicads are shite compared to the new lithium gear, if you're flush they're a better option. If you're not doing sustained work, it probably doesn't matter too much.

Personally I don't do a huge amount of work away from a power point, so I buy corded tools, the batteries in those never fuck out