Makita LXT battery graveyard

[Carl Beckett]

Sighs.....

So another Makita LXT battery is dead, which brings the total to 5 dead and 3 working batteries. I keep buying new ones but have kept the old ones with the hope that I can someday find a rebuild option. I run two different hand drills, and the small circ saw with these, but only get about 1 year, 1.5 year at the MOST out of a battery before it dies and will not take a charge anymore.

So I decided to take one apart and see what could be done. A fair bit of surfing on the internet didnt give me much info on rebuilding them. Yes, they have a proprietary circuit board coupled to their proprietary charger.

I took one apart and found a dead cell (out of the 10 cells, one was reading ~.6volt instead of the 3+ volts out of all the other cells).

I left all the wiring and pc board connected the same. Put it back together and nope, wont charge on the Makita charger.

So tried a laptop AC adaptor (18.5V output) and it DID charge, and was usable in the drills again. The circ saw pulls a lot more current so depleted quickly in this, but perhaps I didnt give it the full charge. Also, I timed the charge so I wouldnt overheat the cells.

I love the tools and ergonomics and capability. I am concerned that I will be feeding these a steady stream of batteries over the years..... My 15 yr old Dewalt set has only seen two replacement batteries in the lifetime of the tools.

I did read not to put them on the charger while still hot after running high currents. Am now more careful about that. Also read not to fully discharge them before recharge.

Anyone want to offer some additional advice, before I tear apart the other 4? (well... using one to salvage the good cells out of)

[Brad Gobble]

I just switched all of my cordless from Bosch to Makita, and my first battery is fading.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Here's some advice: stop before you hurt yourself. That "special circuit" is what keeps these lithium batteries from overcharging and literally blowing up. You can't just remove one cell from the string - there's a real possibility you are overvoltaging the remaining cells.

Your 15 year old Dewalt probably doesn't go through batteries as quickly because they aren't Li-Ion batteries. Likewise, it isn't as small or high powered. It's a trade-off. If you want longer life, you don't want Li-Ion batteries.

Li-Ions are rarely good for ~500 charge/discharge cycles.

[Jay Allen]

I must just be lucky with mine then. I have had the main 5 piece set since Nov '05. I added the jigsaw as a complete kit w/batteries and charger about 2 years ago and the smaller 1.5Ah 2 piece set a few months before that. I modified my blue impact-driver to accept the 1.5Ah batteries and split a pair of 1.5Ah batties with a friend at work. So in all I have 4 3Ah batteries and 3 1.5Ah batteries of various ages. I alternate the 1.5Ah batteries between the impact drivers and the 3Ah units on the other tools. All of them are still going strong....2 of the 3Ah batteries even survived a fire 2 1/2 years ago. The charger wasn't so lucky, that's why I bought the jigsaw as a complete unit.

For those who haven't examined them; The blue tools have a "tab" that prevents the use of the smaller batteries, but the bigger batteries will work on the white tools. I assume that this was to prevent dissatisfaction with short charge life or maybe even heat build-up from the quick discharge that would happen with the bigger motored tools and the small batteries? That is definately not the case with an impact driver. You can run one all day even on the smaller battery. Makita has since removed the "tab" from the blue model of the impact driver. One of the guys I work with has a newer one.

[Carl Beckett]

Thing is, I get about 20 charges out of a battery before going dead.

(one charge every other weekend... or even less frequently.... 1 to 1.5 years)

To me, this isnt very good battery life (a couple of the small 1.5 size batteries went dead the first month, and were returned and exchanged under warranty still)

I do see others having problems, so am not certain it is just me. To date I havent found a place that rebuilds these. At a minimum I would think we should be recycling them, since Lithium is a finite resource and there is not sufficient quantities in the world to keep up with the current battery demand pace (making hybrid and battery based automobiles questionable for significant adoption, but I digress.....)

Something just doesnt seem right with the current battery life, and popping $150 every year to replace a couple gets noticed in my tool budget.

[Leo Graywacz]

I'm pretty sure your batteries are within the warranty period. Otherwise, if you find one bad cell and have a bunch of these dead cells around you should be able to take one of the good cells from a bad pack and replace the single bad cell. This should get you all good cells again and it should charge.

With all the dead batteries you have you should be able to scavange a good cell for all the other batteries you have and only be out 2 battery.

[Carl Beckett]

This is what I did - swap a cell from one dead one.

It doesnt allow the original charger to work (maybe once its deemed 'bad', the circuitry prevents any future charging).

One option that was suggested was to piggy back the disabled battery with a good battery (tricking the charger into reading the good battery, but then piggy backing the dead one in parallel). I went the universal power supply route and was careful with charge rate (amps) and timer).

I will double check warranty time..... thanks for the reminder

[Leo Graywacz]

LXT Lithium-ion Tools

Every Makita ® 18V and 14.4V LXT Lithium-Ion Industrial Power Tool is thoroughly inspected and tested before leaving the factory. If you are not satisfied with Makita 18V and 14.4V LXT Lithium-Ion tool within 30 days of purchase, return it and Makita will provide a replacement or refund. Every Makita 18V and 14.4V LXT Lithium-Ion tool is warranted to be free of defects from workmanship and materials for the period of THREE YEARS from the date of original purchase. The Makita LXT Lithium-ion battery has a limited one-year warranty. Should any trouble develop during the three-year period, return the COMPLETE tool, freight prepaid, to one of Makita's Factory or Authorized Service Centers . If inspection shows the trouble is caused by defective workmanship or material, Makita will repair (or at our option, replace) without charge. This warranty does not apply to Makita Accessories, like flashlights.

[Karl Brogger]

I just bought one last week. $70 I wasn't too happy to spend. :mad:

The only thing that really appeals to me about the Makita impact is its size. The price isn't bad either. I think you can find just the impact kit for $170 now, which is pretty reasonable.

The Panasonic Li-Ion stuff is really expensive at $360 for the impact, but I've had really good luck with everything Panasonic I've had in the past.

[Steve Griffin]

Cool!

While I can't see living without my 4 small cordless drills for cabinet assembly and install, the continueing complaints about battery life of bigger lithium drills is good to hear--

My $60 corded drills, which seem to last 10 years for a yearly cost of $6, seem like they right way to go when I need the power. Sure you have a cord, but unless you are building a cabin in alaska bush, electricity is usually close by. And no charger to plug in, no batteries to horse around with and replace makes them seem like a good deal to me....

-Steve

[Mark Bolton]

Cool!

While I can't see living without my 4 small cordless drills for cabinet assembly and install, the continueing complaints about battery life of bigger lithium drills is good to hear--

My $60 corded drills, which seem to last 10 years for a yearly cost of $6, seem like they right way to go when I need the power. Sure you have a cord, but unless you are building a cabin in alaska bush, electricity is usually close by. And no charger to plug in, no batteries to horse around with and replace makes them seem like a good deal to me....

-Steve
The only thing I miss in the shop (we use a lot of corded in the shop) is the low speed and low end torque. Also, out in the field I have become quite addicted to impact drivers. I do keep a couple cordless impacts in the shop but they are on almost constant maintenance charge.

We about swore off cordless all together for several years out of frustration over battery cost. We fell into a batch of these very drills (makita LXT) from a guy who was injured and getting out of the biz. Bought the lot and I really like them but havent had to buy any batteries yet.

Its easy to get hooked on no cord but man when you plug one in you sure see what youve been missing.

Mark

[Devon Shannon]

I'm going to be purchasing the drill and impact kit, and I'm a little concerned after reading so many complaints about battery life on the white 18V LI tools. While, the tools themselves are excellent, possibly the batteries are below average? Has anyone seen or heard of a comparison, akin to FWW's Tool Tests, on LI batteries of different makes? Although, now that I that I mention it, the batteries are probably all made by the same 1 or 2 companies anyways...? Anyone know any thing about that?

[Steve Griffin]

The only thing I miss in the shop (we use a lot of corded in the shop) is the low speed and low end torque. Also, out in the field I have become quite addicted to impact drivers. I do keep a couple cordless impacts in the shop but they are on almost constant maintenance charge.

We about swore off cordless all together for several years out of frustration over battery cost. We fell into a batch of these very drills (makita LXT) from a guy who was injured and getting out of the biz. Bought the lot and I really like them but havent had to buy any batteries yet.

Its easy to get hooked on no cord but man when you plug one in you sure see what youve been missing.

Mark

I was late to join in on the impact driver craze and didn't like them at first, but now I reach for them for all screws, even little 5/8" x 7 screws for drawer slides.

Isn't it fun to drive screws without pushing?

-Steve

[Dave MacArthur]

there's a guy here, Aaron I think, who has a battery rebuilding operation that gets high marks from all his customers. Battery Rebuilders? or MTO batteries? Can't remember which is his new name. Search for it, and try him for rebuilds, the feedback folks have posted has been great.

[John McClanahan]

Here's some advice: stop before you hurt yourself. That "special circuit" is what keeps these lithium batteries from overcharging and literally blowing up. You can't just remove one cell from the string - there's a real possibility you are overvoltaging the remaining cells.

Your 15 year old Dewalt probably doesn't go through batteries as quickly because they aren't Li-Ion batteries. Likewise, it isn't as small or high powered. It's a trade-off. If you want longer life, you don't want Li-Ion batteries.

Li-Ions are rarely good for ~500 charge/discharge cycles.

I've rebuilt battery packs many times over the years, and for lithium batteries, Dan's warning is worth repeating. Be safe!

John

[Doug Carpenter]

Wow. I use mine professionally and I haven't had any trouble with the batteries.

I would like to try impact driver because I have cronic shoulder trouble and pushing with the cordless is usually how I couse myself a sleepless night.

I did get a charger that went out but they said the case had too much dust in it. The guys that work for me often have the case open right were they are working so they get all kinds of junk in the case.

I gave them hell for it after I had to have the charger replaced. But the batteries have lasted for a few years. so far.

I was thinking of ketting the kit that has the impact driver and drill so I had more batteries and an extra drill.

[Russell Smallwood]

I've had similar frustrations with my Milwaukee batteries. Just had another go bad last weekend. That's two in 3 years.

[Kevin W Johnson]

Sighs.....

So another Makita LXT battery is dead, which brings the total to 5 dead and 3 working batteries. I keep buying new ones but have kept the old ones with the hope that I can someday find a rebuild option. I run two different hand drills, and the small circ saw with these, but only get about 1 year, 1.5 year at the MOST out of a battery before it dies and will not take a charge anymore.

So I decided to take one apart and see what could be done. A fair bit of surfing on the internet didnt give me much info on rebuilding them. Yes, they have a proprietary circuit board coupled to their proprietary charger.

I took one apart and found a dead cell (out of the 10 cells, one was reading ~.6volt instead of the 3+ volts out of all the other cells).

I left all the wiring and pc board connected the same. Put it back together and nope, wont charge on the Makita charger.

So tried a laptop AC adaptor (18.5V output) and it DID charge, and was usable in the drills again. The circ saw pulls a lot more current so depleted quickly in this, but perhaps I didnt give it the full charge. Also, I timed the charge so I wouldnt overheat the cells.

I love the tools and ergonomics and capability. I am concerned that I will be feeding these a steady stream of batteries over the years..... My 15 yr old Dewalt set has only seen two replacement batteries in the lifetime of the tools.

I did read not to put them on the charger while still hot after running high currents. Am now more careful about that. Also read not to fully discharge them before recharge.

Anyone want to offer some additional advice, before I tear apart the other 4? (well... using one to salvage the good cells out of)

Do you have just the one charger or multiple chargers? For the few times that you say the batteries are charged, it all most sounds like it could possibly be a bad charger that is maybe damaging the batteries. Aside from that i would look at how the batteries are stored, ie., too hot or too cold. Li-ion batteries have excellent storage habits, so long as they arent ever allowed to overdischarge, or subject to temp extremes.

[Joe Fenwick]

One of my Makita LXT batteries died a week ago. If you do a search for " Makita LXT Batteries Problems" you can find a lot of people with the same complaint. Moral of the story - Don't buy Makita!

[Matt Radtke]

One of my Makita LXT batteries died a week ago. If you do a search for " Makita LXT Batteries Problems" you can find a lot of people with the same complaint. Moral of the story - Don't buy Makita!

Meh.

I bought the LXT compact drill and impact driver set over 2 years ago, from HD no less. I go through stages where I don't use them much and then go through stages where I need to charge each battery multiple times in a day due to hard use.

They're still work and continue to hold a charge just fine. I'm quite pleased with my purchase and recommned them to friends and family.

Sadly, all of our experiences combined are still just anecdotal. Without hard statistical analysis, that's all it will ever be.

[Jay Allen]

In the shop where I work there are more Makitas than anything else, by a long way. There are at least 5 sets of the white Drill and impact driver combo and 3 of the blue. As I said before, some of mine are over 5 years old ans none of them have failed.

[Greg R Bradley]

In the shop where I work there are more Makitas than anything else, by a long way. There are at least 5 sets of the white Drill and impact driver combo and 3 of the blue. As I said before, some of mine are over 5 years old ans none of them have failed.

My experience is similar.
I have had ONE battery and ONE charger fail since my first LXT kit in Feb, 2006. Several years of heavy use. This includes 3 Flourescent flashlights that are used hours per day in a commercial environment. It is rare that we don't charge a battery every day and most days we charge several. I have steadily added new batteries to the stock but this is to have charged batteries on hand, not to replace bad ones. I think I have more than a dozen batteries at this point, two purchased recently enough that they have only been used a few times.

The batteries have become much cheaper lately, starting out at $110. Now I paid that for two.

[Bob Winkler]

I'm not sold on Lithium battery chemistry yet. Although they have great power density, I've had two Bosch Li-on batteries die (and cannot be charged) after leaving in a cold workshop for a couple of months. Some trades I know, keep their li-on batteries in the house during the winter.

I never had this issue with Nicad or NiH batteries.

Bob

[Ruhi Arslan]

Cordless tools are like those inkjet printers which are free most of the time when you buy a computer or such and then you pay hundreds of dollars to buy the ink they suck. Only difference is that with the cordless tools, you pay for the tool too unlike printers.
I have a few Bosch and Ryobi drills/drivers. I gave up on the Bosch long time ago. I had five pre-LI batteries for the Ryobi. Only two are in "working" condition.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Thing is, I get about 20 charges out of a battery before going dead.


Sorry, Carl - I assumed you were using them professionally and charging every day or something. They should be good for many hundreds of cycles, not 20!


You aren't letting them freeze, are you?

[Brian Penning]

Wonder if some of the issues, good and bad, are related to the method used to recharge.
I'm pretty happy with my white Makitas.
I rotate the batteries and have the charger hooked up to a timer.
Comes on for 30 mins or so every 24 hours.

[Daniel Berlin]

Sorry, Carl - I assumed you were using them professionally and charging every day or something. They should be good for many hundreds of cycles, not 20!


You aren't letting them freeze, are you?

The other thing is that they are not happy with being fully discharged.
In fact, you can get them into a state of excessive low discharge, where the circuit inside will not let them be charged again (because it is dangerous).

You also shouldn't store them in a fully discharged state for this reason.

Cadex makes lithium battery analyzers/charges that can deal with this up to a point, but past a certain discharge level, irreversible damage starts to occur.

[Todd Crow]

The batteries have become much cheaper lately, starting out at $110. Now I paid that for two.

Where did you find them for that price?

Todd

[Dave Gaul]

One of my Makita LXT batteries died a week ago. If you do a search for " Makita LXT Batteries Problems" you can find a lot of people with the same complaint. Moral of the story - Don't buy Makita!

Gonna have to disagree with that conclusion!

I bought the white drill/driver with two 1.5ah Lithium Ion batteries in 2006, both batteries still going strong today. In 2007 I bought a 3.0ah LI battery, still going strong. In early 2009, I bought a green set with the driver, impact driver & recip saw, and two 3.0ah LI batteries.. all going strong still today... I bought all of them recon from cpo makita... maybe I got lucky, maybe I use them properly, maybe I store them properly, but my Makitas have been absolutely perfect for me!

I never leave the batteries on the charger longer than they should be, and I always stop using the battery as soon as I feel the power start to drop off even a little bit. I keep them in my shop, which is not even temp controlled 24/7. On the extreme cold days, I try to remember to bring them in the house.

[Greg R Bradley]

Last ones I bought were at the yearly sale at my local tool supplier - Tools-R-Us in Montclair, CA. They were $58. They had a Makita event last week and they were the same.

I am assuming that there are similar prices at most other sales. Before that I bought two from Toolking.com for $72.

[Leo Graywacz]

One of my Makita LXT batteries died a week ago. If you do a search for " Makita LXT Batteries Problems" you can find a lot of people with the same complaint. Moral of the story - Don't buy Makita!

People with problems complain. People without issues rarely put up reviews saying how pleased they were. If someone asks them they will tell you how nice the tool is. If someone is displeased with something they will shout it out to the world without anyone asking.

Just the same way contractors get a bad name from a few bad apples that get reported on TV and in the newspapers makes them all look like crooks.

[Carl Beckett]

I do believe there are some user habits that could affect life, I just dont know what they ARE!

Some possibilities:

Dont run them all the way down
Run them all the way down occasionally
Dont put them on the charger when still hot
Dont leave them in the cold
Dont trust the charger (I bought a second charger)

What did I miss?

Which ones are important?

I gotta believe I should be getting longer life out of these before the go belly up, Im doing something wrong....

[Leo Graywacz]

I do believe there are some user habits that could affect life, I just dont know what they ARE!

Some possibilities:

Dont run them all the way down
Run them all the way down occasionally
Dont put them on the charger when still hot
Dont leave them in the cold
Dont trust the charger (I bought a second charger)

What did I miss?

Which ones are important?

I gotta believe I should be getting longer life out of these before the go belly up, Im doing something wrong....


If you run them down don't leave them that way, put it on the charger. The charger knows what the battery temp is. Leaving them in the freezing cold is not good for them or any rechargeable battery.

[Steve knight]

I have had my second battery die. it was right after I got the reciprocation saw. I would be lucky to get 10 minutes otu of it cutting a small tree. I used 4 battery charges and now one battery out of the two is dead. I had the same thing with my saw. I wonder if they are draining too fast in the heavy use tools?

[Jim Finn]

The construction trade that uses battery powered drills the most is Sheet Metal Workers. I worked in this field for 36 years and we all used Makita impact drills. I understand they still use Makitas. I have two Makita impact drills that I bought when I retired in 2001 and I use them every day in my wood shop. 11 years later I finally had two of the four battery packs rebuilt, at a cost of $22 each. Lithium batteries are not the most durable when used to drive a motor. My Ni cads last a good long time. These are 9.6 volt drills and are strong enough to break off a 3/8" bolt!

[Steve knight]

My tools sit around a lot. so they would drain and never be ready for use. so that's why I went away from cheaper batteries. I can go a month or more between charges unless I am sawing stuff.

[Henry Ambrose]

Strange.
I have 2 LXT batteries from 2006 that are still going strong. I used them enough that I had to rebuild the drill. My new battery is from 2010 and its fine too. I wonder if Makita had a bad lot of batteries?

[Larry Edgerton]

I switched from Hilti to Makita because of battery issues with the Hilti's. I have 4 impacts and three drills at least one battery for each. Mine are all the 14.4V blue ones, don't know if they are LXT's. I have lost 2 batteries in six years, but these take an incredible beating on the job site, so it could have been a fall from height that toasted the two batteries. They are tough, and have survived a lot of falls.There is a curcuit in the Makita chargers that will not let them charge until they have cooled I was told, so I have never worried about letting mine cool. Out of the gun and in the charger.One thing that will toast them, and I am not sure why, is being left in the charger when the cord is unplugged. Not sure why this happens, but any time, with several brands, if left in the charger with the charger for extended periods like over a weekend unplugged, the batteries are junk. Subs are good for unplugging my stuff, so I make myself clear when they start, and then rip them a new one when they do it anyway.Did someone say there was a way to put the 18V batteries in the 14.4V tools? I think the tools are still going to be going strong when the batteries are gone. These drivers have put in hundreds of thousands of screws and just keep going. Larry

[Bruce Wrenn]

One of my Makita LXT batteries died a week ago. If you do a search for " Makita LXT Batteries Problems" you can find a lot of people with the same complaint. Moral of the story - Don't buy Makita!Exact reason why I buy Ridgids, and do the paper work for the LSA. On one drill. I'm on my THIRD set of FREE BATTERIES! Two batteries = $80 and tax, times three= $240 saved. In a week, I put a years worth of "home owner" wear on my tools.

[Jim Finn]

[QUOTE=.......... While, the tools themselves are excellent, possibly the batteries are below average? Has anyone seen or heard of a comparison, akin to FWW's Tool Tests, on LI batteries of different makes? Although, now that I that I mention it, the batteries are probably all made by the same 1 or 2 companies anyways...? Anyone know any thing about that?[/QUOTE]

LI batteries do not perform well when running a motor...... I know......, I know,...... they are stylish but my Makita NICAD's lasted 10 years with almost daily use. NICAD's are much more durable. And cheaper. I finaly had them rebuilt at a cost of $22

[Mark Denovich]

They have "self-destruct" circuitry that will irreversibly render the battery unable to charge if there are 3 charging faults in a row. What constitutes a charging fault can be pretty dumb and/or easy to accidentally trigger. The company I used to work for made wearable computers and the Li batteries to go with them. They were quite nervous thanks to their use of Sony's cells which later revealed to on very, very rare occasions catch fire. Unfortunately, exceedingly rare often isn't rare enough when liability is involved. I suspect Makita took a very conservative approach to their battery charging circuitry to avoid such an issue... but the result is the not so rare battery failure which instead burns a hole through your wallet.

[Carl Beckett]

This thread seems to have come back to life a little - what has happened since:

I have had two batteries replaced under warranty - no hassles, but a pretty long wait time (weeks)

I have two additional batteries that were out of warranty, but that the service center I work with made the replacement request anyway and it was honored. I am in line for these two to be replaced. But note that I havent gotten these two - I was told that Makita had some problems between the batteries and one of the newer drills, so they had made a design mod and hence the delay (maybe 4 months now wait - I call back regularly, and am told I am still in the queue and first in line once they receive the new batch)

Then for those interested - I did try a rebuild. Took some apart, rewired the circuitry, swapped out the bad cells, and charged with a DC power supply (had it wired at one time to charge using the charger, but this was even more a pain). Net net - it worked, but hacks up two batteries, doesnt have temp overload circuitry, etc etc - so I dropped that route.

[Steve knight]

I wonder if anyone would repair them? I just bought a new one one ebay for 77.00

[Phil Maddox]

It certainly sounds like there is a great deal of inconsistency in the Makita product to say the least. I have the 3.0 Ah batteries and have had them for about 3 years - I can't rave enough about how long they hold a charge and how powerful they are. I am no longer a professional and i am particular about how I handle and charge them but so far they hold their charge really well.

Just my experience.

[Steve knight]

I am thinking it is the ehavier tools that may be causing issues. my batteries have died after using the skillsaw and the last one right after using my new reciprocating saw. that one drained the battery in 5 minutes or so. Thats a big drain on the batteries.

[Jerry Ingraham]

LI batteries do not perform well when running a motor...... I know......, I know,...... they are stylish but my Makita NICAD's lasted 10 years with almost daily use. NICAD's are much more durable. And cheaper. I finaly had them rebuilt at a cost of $22

Where did you have them rebuilt for that price?

[Ryan Lee]

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but has anyone used these guys?

http://www.batteryship.com/htmlos/htmlos.cgi/batteryship/catalog.html?item=BL1830&model=BTD140SFE

[John Coloccia]

FWIW, I've gotten decent life out of my Makita batteries.....not great life, but not terrible, either. I use mine a lot more than the average weekend warrior, but not as much as a contractor. Mine are starting to die, now, and I have to decide to replace them or move one. Honestly, the drill chuck on the Makita was never that great. The impact driver is the perfect size for shop work, though. Not really sure what I'm going to do. I loved them when I first got them, but the entire experience has left be lukewarm.

[phil harold]

The Makita LXT Lithium-ion battery has a limited one-year warranty
because lithium batteries have a shelf life of 3 years
so if you use them or not they will be reaching the end of their life cycle in three years

Nicad and Nimh last much longer

[John Coloccia]

The Makita LXT Lithium-ion battery has a limited one-year warranty
because lithium batteries have a shelf life of 3 years
so if you use them or not they will be reaching the end of their life cycle in three years

Nicad and Nimh last much longer

That explains it. Mine are just about 3 years old.

[Ryan Lee]

I went on a deployment to Afghanistan for a year and I came back to one of my two batteries going dead. The one that went bad worked for a short period and now it just makes the funky sound on the charger and indicates a bad battery. I have the white makitas and the reason I got the set was to drill and drive without having to switch bits.....So I'm in the market for a new battery. What is my best option. Amazon? "Real" makita? The link I posted above?

[Greg R Bradley]

I'm really amazed at the thought that Makita LXT batteries have a high failure rate. I bought several sets in 2005-2006, followed by several individual and bare tools, extra batteries over the next few years. Recently I've bought the 3 speed Brushless Impact. Between business use, employees, and personal use, I have 20-25 batteries. About half of those are charged more than once a week and some probably 20 times a month. I have had exactly TWO batteries fail. One seemed to be a very old one and failed after a good 5 years of use. The other failed pretty quickly after purchase and was replaced under warranty. One of the very early chargers failed but that was no big loss as the later quick chargers are nicer anyway. I used to buy the extra batteries during the Makita events at my local tool store or when they had sales where a tool included an extra battery. For example, when I bought the Brushless Impact, it came with two batteries and the sale was a third battery at no cost. I know I only paid $100 ONCE for a Makita 3.0ah battery. I think I've paid around $80 when the batteries were on sale. I've never bought the compact white tools with the 1.5ah batteries.

I think there is an occasional bad battery that fails pretty quickly. In my experience with my son's battery powered RC cars, there is an occasional dud unless you buy the really expensive tested/matched sets designed for serious competitors that cost a lot of money.

I have heard complaints about LXT batteries going bad when used after sitting overnight in extreme cold or when run hard in extreme heat. Extreme cold doesn't happen where I live and I don't leave batteries sitting outside much when it is 100+ so maybe that is a factor.

I do know that you cannot rebuild the LXT batteries by replacing the cells since there is a sensor/chip that is triggered when the batteries go bad. I don't know if anyone has figured out a way to reprogram that sensor/chip.

[Carl Beckett]

Thanks for this post Greg. Glad you have had a positive experience. I thought about this post for a day and came back here to advise that if I were starting from scratch, I would NOT choose the makita again. I like the tools, but have just had bad experiences with the batteries (and at over $100 to replace this just gets painful)

But you have had a different experience s thus is good to hear.

I guess my conclusion is....... I just don't know if I can recommend them. (still using them, two drills, the small white impact driver, circ saw, and now a right angle drill..... They all work great!). Have had a good run of about a year now with no battery failures... Maybe it was early stuff causing the issues.

[Carl Beckett]

I am thinking it is the ehavier tools that may be causing issues. my batteries have died after using the skillsaw and the last one right after using my new reciprocating saw. that one drained the battery in 5 minutes or so. Thats a big drain on the batteries.

There may be something to this..... I haven't been using the circ saw as often as I once was.

[Clint Baxter]

I got the LXT 4 tool set back when it was first introduced way back when and they threw in a free reciprocating saw with the deal. Have picked up many additional items since as well as some additional batteries. Now have seven batteries that I use until they run out of juice before I plug them back into the charger. I use them as a general contractor and they see the greatest use in the impact driver and the circular saw. The reciprocating saw and the angle grinder are the two hardest tools on the batteries and I will often grab a corded tool in their place, (if available). I have probably only replaced maybe four of five batteries since I started using the LXTs. I still have at least three of the original batteries working that I got in the first year of use. I try to keep them relatively warm during our frigid winters here in ND, and we don't really have that many days where we worry about the 100+ degree days, (but we do have some.)

I still like my LXT tools better than any of the other 18V offerings out there, more for their comfort of use than for any other reasons, but have picked up some of the M12 offerings now for their compact size and some of the unique new tools they have for that platform.

I've heard some of these complaints about the Makita 18V batteries from some of my other compatriots on the job site but just haven't experienced it yet. Until I start having issues such as those mentioned, I'll continue to buy and use the LXT line.

Clint

[Ron Kellison]

Cordless tools are like those inkjet printers which are free most of the time when you buy a computer or such and then you pay hundreds of dollars to buy the ink they suck. Only difference is that with the cordless tools, you pay for the tool too unlike printers.
I have a few Bosch and Ryobi drills/drivers. I gave up on the Bosch long time ago. I had five pre-LI batteries for the Ryobi. Only two are in "working" condition.

I have a bosch 12V Li-ion kit (drill, driver, impact driver) that has worked exceptionally well for the past 3 years. I also have a Ridgid $100 drill (18v Li-ion) which includes two batteries, a charger and (most importantly) the LSA agreement which says I won't be spending money for batteries until they stop making them. I've had the Ridgid for 3 years now and I've replaced both of the original batteries with no arguments, bureaucratic grief or delays. For those things where I need some real torque I have an Hitachi corded drill that feels like it could snap my wrist!

My gut tells me that the higher voltage Li-ion battery systems still have some development work to be done.

Ron

[phil harold]

Li-ion battery systems still have some development work to be done.

Ron
I think you need to tell that to Boeing and the FAA

[Leo Graywacz]

Pretty sure Boeing knows this already

[Nick Williams]

NiCads have a runaway self discharge temp of about 550 degrees. Lithium about 165. Most professional rebuilders won't even touch them.

[Nick Williams]

Lithium batteries are made throughout the world as there are no heavy metal by products involved. Nicads are the ones only produced by a few (5-6) manufacturers.