Cordless drills and battery revival

[RobertArthur]

Last week I thought: it's getting time to buy a new drill, with a lithium-ion battery and brushless motor. More power, less weight. My two Makita drills (one with 12 V ni-cad batteries from 1997 and the other one from 2001. heavy duty, with 14.4 V nickel-metal hydride batteries) were capable of drilling ten, twenty holes in wood, not more. Problem: capacity was almost nothing anymore after all those years. The charger declared them to be full after only five minutes.....They have served me well for twenty years, so it's perhaps time to say goodbye.

Window shopping, looking for affordable drills. Was it in June this year that @ Mysty mentioned his new Skil cordless drill? Let's have a look at what the internet has to say. In several tests the new line of Parkside drills (LIDL) outperformed many other competitors: bonus, low price. An impression here. Other options: a super compact 12 V Dewalt or Milwaukee.

Then I remembered lessons from the past: the revival of batteries. Again a tour d'horizon on the internet: about high current flashing of Dewalt batteries to the art of disassembling and installing new batteries.

I decided to take the easy route: ten deep discharge/charge cycles. How low can you go? With the help of my 19-inch rack with high-power resistors ( 2 x 8 Ohm for amplifier testing) I went down to about 1 V for the nicad batteries and 2 V for the NiMmh. It takes them now about 35 to 45 minutes to charge so I suppose (fingers crossed) that they are back to about 60 % or 70% of their nominal capacity. One problem now suddenly appeared on my to-do list: where to start drilling? Everything here is okay...

[hughnique]

I have the DeWalt, came with 2 batteries about 17 years ago, obviously they don't last forever , one would not charge up about 6 years ago so bought 2 new ones from, think it was ebay uk, they did a reasonable job then petered out repeated the purchase from Amazon UK, think it was 2 for £29, should have read the reviews again alright for 10 minutes, then they start to run down quickly. Bit like yourself most of my DIY has finished, so to invest in a load of tools that use a common rail battery would be money down the drain, must say I was intrigued by my carpenters Ryobi kit especially the little chainsaw

[RobertArthur]

Little Ryobi chainsaw? Something like these new Bosch models? I spotted them when visiting our local Weldom. My first reaction: interesting I thought, such a nice little chain. But how long is it going to last and how many traditional jigsaw blades can I buy for the price of one high-tech chain? The nano blade design in more detail. Now waiting for the feedback from the DIY guys.

[Char]

Do you find that battery powered drills and things like that are less powerful than their electric counterparts?

[niemeyjt]

Do you find that battery powered drills and things like that are less powerful than their electric counterparts?

Not for most day-to-day tasks - cordless are fine. Sure, at the big end of things mains / air will have more power, but 99% of the time batteries are fine.

HOWEVER, for dust extractors, for me it is still mains every time.

[niemeyjt]

@RobertArthur

Is that NiCad or NiMh - I think Lithium came later. Also, not sure the same techniques / chargers work for the different battery types do they?

[RobertArthur]

Char, as soon as the going gets really tough I do prefer stronger 230 V members of the family. Or a very tough low speed AEG drill, produced in the late sixties. Good battery hammer/sds drills are availaible at eye watering prices. The ENEDIS technicians have very powerful Makita hammer drills: as soon as you have to do something useful when you switch off the disjoncteur de branchement, a welcome addition in their toolboxes. Easier than starting a generator or searching for a socket a few hundred meters away.

The power that they pack into these lithium ion batteries of today is however impressive in combination with these brushless motors.

[RobertArthur]

@ Niemeyjt: my Makita DC1414 charger covers a voltage range of 7.2 - 14.4 V (2.6 A) and does Ni-CD + Ni-MH. I'm however a bit disappointed: Ni-MH, once the new kid in town, suffers from a rather high auto discharge, at very low temperatures outside I prefer Ni-CD and the nicads last longer.

The charging of Lithium-ion batteries was once almost a black art, you do need a special dedicated charger. They've mastered it now with incredible clever one chip solutions and taking into account that when connecting batteries in series there is always the danger of the weakest link in the chain. So they monitor what's going in each individual cell in a battery pack in the more advanced charger/battery solutions

[Hotrodder]

I have a pair of Bosch rechargeable drills. The first one is a 7.2v nicad model I bought in the mid 80s. It still gives sterling service and one of its two batteries is a generic Chinese replacement. It remains my favourite tool because it is the lighter of the two. The second one is an 18v lithium powered unit that has been a real disappointment. It is very heavy in comparison and is very tiring to use over a period of time. And the worst example of design I can imagine. The battery pack is difficult to remove. The locking mechanism is very stiff and you have to push the release button very hard in the opposite direction while pulling the battery off the handle. I have to hold the drill in one hand, push the button with the other, and knock it against a door jamb or edge of a bench to slide the battery pack free of the drill. I used to like Bosch tools because of their superior design but this one is a dud.

[RobertArthur]

So every now and then I visit brico sheds, to inform myself and others about what might be interesting. This morning I noticed that the combo kits are getting quite popular. Drill + jig saw kit from 249 € for 179 € and the drill + impact driver kit from 299 € for 239 €. Not bad for Makita tools. Only a photo as a souvenir.....