Ebay replacement power tool batteries?

[Jim Andrew]

My makita drill batteries are worn out, and was looking at replacing the batteries, and was searching ebay for the replacement cells, and found a company called web sales that makes replacement batteries which are reasonably priced. Has anyone used them? Are they quality replacements? They say they have high capacity batteries, and will recharge in your makita charger. NOT made by makita. They have dewalt also.

[Jim Matthews]

This is an interesting coincidence -

My Makita BL1815 just breathed its last.
Most of these failures are in the first cell.

The problem is that the kits are nearly as expensive as replacements.

I found two Makita BL1815 in factory packaging for $50 each,
roughly the cost of the aftermarket versions.

I'm more comfortable leaving the Makita made product in the charger.

[eugene thomas]

I bought 12 volt battrie for my right angle dewalt drill off ebay fit right in charger. Not use much but for only 25$ figured worth a try.

[Kevin Groenke]

I've bought 2ea knock-off BL1830's from 2 different ebay sellers to be used in our white Makita drills and drivers. The 1.5ah ($35-45) and 3.0ah ($40-50) batteries can be used and charged interchangeably - the 3.0 ahr knock-offs seem to be a better value.

We haven't done any quantitative testing, but these batteries seem to have comparable performance to the OEM batteries. Torque and battery life seem the same. Engagement with the tool body and the charger may not be quite as smooth as the OEM batteries but they fit fine. Two of these batteries have been in use in a school setting for over a year and show no sign of fatigue, one of two bought later stopped taking a charge after a month or two - but then 3 of 8 of the original Makita BL1815 have quit charging in 2 years as well (this seems to be a common problem with these smart chargers).

All in all, considering the high price of OEM batteries, I will likely continue to replace batteries for our LCT tools with knock off replacements.

-kg

[Kevin Bourque]

I bought some Ebay replacement batteries for my former Milwaukee drill a while back.
They were a few bucks cheaper, but one of them died a few weeks later and the other one died in about 6 months.
The drill was perfectly fine but I had to trash it for lack of reliable batteries.

Just yesterday my newer Milwaukee drill had a battery malfunction so I went to find a replacement.
$79.00 for one battery!!! Highway robbery!!!

[Keith Pitman]

You can also have batteries rebuilt. I used primecell.com to rebuild two Bosch batteries a couple of years ago. Still going strong. There are other companies that rebuild batteries as well.

[Jim Andrew]

I ordered 2 new 18 volt batteries with free shipping for 60.16. Total.

[CPeter James]

Well, you win some, you e lose some, and some get rained out. I have had mixed results with EBAY batteries. I bought 2 DeWalt 14.4 and they were fine. I bought 5 more and all of them were NG right from the get go. I waited too long and the seller had disappeared form the face of the earth. I had some of mne rebuilt by MTO battery (he is a member here) and they were fine. Get them rebuilt!!

CPeter

[David C. Roseman]

My makita drill batteries are worn out, and was looking at replacing the batteries, and was searching ebay for the replacement cells, and found a company called web sales that makes replacement batteries which are reasonably priced. Has anyone used them? Are they quality replacements? They say they have high capacity batteries, and will recharge in your makita charger. NOT made by makita. They have dewalt also.

Jim and others, don't know which Makita drill batteries you have, but some of the older ni-cad models can be rejuvenated with a few strategic zaps from a wire-feed welder. Call me crazy, but it worked for me. It knocks off the crystal dendrites that form on the plates over time, so the battery can start taking a charge again. I did this with great results on an old Makita 9.6v "Battery 9000" that had been dead for years after seeing a young guy at a salvage yard do it with another style of Makita battery. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzIlVLOH9XI

When I first heard of this, I thought the idea was nuts. But after some research, a deep breath, and a fire extinguisher nearby, gave it a try. Two 30-year old Makita 1020HD drills that I'd long since tossed in the back of a cabinet are now back in service. I couldn't recall if the drills even worked, so hadn't wanted to risk wasting money on a new battery to test them out.

Some big caveats (and I'm sure there are others): (1) Pay attention to the polarity of your welder set-up. If it's set up for MIG (as mine is), the polarity will likely be the reverse of the set-up for flux-core wire. (2) The method reportedly doesn't work with ni-cad battery packs that have multiple cells unless each cell is removed and zapped separately. Probably isn't worth it in those cases, because if you have to disassemble the battery pack, you might as well go ahead and just rebuild it with new cells. (3) Also, it does not work with lithium battery packs.

David

[Tom Ewell]

Haven't tried them (yet) but check out Battrx, source for cells and no solder connections.
Not particularly inexpensive though.

[John Zay]

I needed a battery for a PC 14.4V drill. Radio Shack has NiCads for many power tools. It matched the mAh rating of the original battery (something to look out for on some cheap batteries). The battery was much cheaper than a PC battery. It came with a label reading "Premium Gold". The battery has worked very well.

[Matt Meiser]

I had some old nicad packs rebuilt by Battery Builders/MTO Battery (http://www.mtobattery.com/store/). 2 18v nicads rebuilt and shipped run around $86.50 plus the cost of shipping to them. They used higher-aH cells that worked great, but one caveat is that they took longer to charge. The Ryobi packs went from a 60 minute to close to a 3 hour charge IIRC. On the other hand though, the circular saw could make more than 2 cuts before needing a battery change. The difference wasn't as dramatic with some Porter Cable packs (back when PC was a reputable brand.) You can buy cores from them too, but oddly its more expensive than having them do the work???

Best deal though is that I was able to replace my Milwaukee M18 compact packs that are approaching end-of-life for $20 a piece during a sale at a local store last week. :D:D:D