Replacement Batteries for Makita Drill

[Paul McGaha]

I have a couple of battery drills from Makita which take batteries that are Ni-MH, 18 Volt, 2.6 Ah.

I need at least 1 but might buy a couple. I'm satisfied with these drills and they seem to be in fairly decent condition still. These were bought around 2005 and just used part time in the shop as i'm a hobbyist.

Know of a good source for replacement batteries?

Thanks.

PHM

[Lee Schierer]

I can't speak directly about Makita batteries, but I recently had two battery packs for my 14 volt Dewalt drills rebuilt by MTO (http://www.mtobattery.com/product-category/power-tool-battery-rebuild-services/) and am very happy with them. You can check their web site or email them and they will tell you if they can rebuild your batteries and what they will cost.

[Jim Andrew]

About that time I bought 3 Makita drills, they each had one NIMH battery and one NICAD, the NIMH batteries were supposed to last longer, but the Nicad batteries lasted longer on all 3 drills. Now I just buy the Dewalt drills when they are on sale at the Ace Hardware promotions. The drill with 2 batteries are cheaper than buying 2 batteries.

[Mark Carlson]

I recently used primecell to rebuild my festool 12 volt NiCd batteries. The drill and accessories are great but the batteries no longer were holding a charge. Now they are better than new, for $42 bucks each (that includes shipping). New replacement batteries were $180 each, and were probably manufactured years and years ago.

~mark

[Paul McGaha]

About that time I bought 3 Makita drills, they each had one NIMH battery and one NICAD, the NIMH batteries were supposed to last longer, but the Nicad batteries lasted longer on all 3 drills. Now I just buy the Dewalt drills when they are on sale at the Ace Hardware promotions. The drill with 2 batteries are cheaper than buying 2 batteries.

Yeah, I'm kind of seeing that in the pricing Jim. The best pricing I've found so far extends to about half of what a new drill costs.

[Bob Wingard]

MTO will send them back literally better than new ... he rebuilds with top notch replacement cells. He's done several for me with excellent results.

[Mitchell Garnett]

I recently had a DeWalt 7.2v NiMh battery fail and after looking at alternatives, I purchased an extended capacity battery from battnation on that famous auction site. I'm happy so far but it is too new to give a true opinion on how well the battery will hold up. They seem to offer a wide range of batteries so you might check them out.

[Walter Plummer]

Go see the guy at Batteries and Bulbs in the end of the shopping center there in Ashburn. He may be able to rebuild them or have the aftermarket battery. He was having a sale so I got the aftermarket for my old 9.6 stick.

[Paul McGaha]

Go see the guy at Batteries and Bulbs in the end of the shopping center there in Ashburn. He may be able to rebuild them or have the aftermarket battery. He was having a sale so I got the aftermarket for my old 9.6 stick.

Easy enough to see what he has to say Walter. I live maybe 3 miles from the store. We've used the store some.

The best pricing I've found so far is about $48 per battery for aftermarket batteries from Amazon.

Thank you all for your comments.

[Greg R Bradley]

The Ni-Mh batteries from Makita didn't seem to have a long life. Their Ni-Cd did and so do the LXT Li batteries after that, which bizarrely have the opposite reputation on the internet.

Ni-Cd and Ni-Mh are easy to rebuild as they don't have the extra circuitry required on Li batteries to keep them working properly. If you don't mind the extra weight, they are great tools. I still have some Makita Ni-Cd tools working every day in shop environments after 20 years.

Of course, I also have lots of the very first Makita LXT Li tools still working after 10 years and the internet says they fail in minutes - guess the battery re-builders have spread their nonsense and it stuck.

[ed vitanovec]

You can see if Batteries plus can rebuild them.

[Jim Finn]

I have three Makita drills and had batteries rebuilt at a local "Battery Joe's" for a good savings from new. Mine are nicads.

[Jeff Tollison]

I needed two new for my makitas earlier this year. I ended up buying a new dewalt with a pair of batteries on sale for $40 more than the replacement batteries alone. If you "need" or plan on buying more tools in the future like I am its also cost effective and convenient to move towards one brand of tools with interchangeable batteries.

[michael langman]

Paul, I too have a nice Makita drill with bad batteries.
If you can solder, which is not that difficult, and have a small die grinder with a cutoff wheel, or even a hack saw, you can cut through the batteries on the seam where the push release buttons are on the batteries and separate the 2 pieces.
Use a multimeter to check for the bad cell, or replace all of the cells if you are not good with a multi meter, and put the 2 halves of the battery back together. You can buy very good replacement cells that are better then the originals and will last much longer for probably under 20.00 a battery.
Or else send them out to one of the places suggested above.

[Brian Elfert]

The Ni-Mh batteries from Makita didn't seem to have a long life. Their Ni-Cd did and so do the LXT Li batteries after that, which bizarrely have the opposite reputation on the internet.


The early LXT batteries do fail often. Makita redesigned them and added a star to the battery to designate them as the new ones. Two of my three old design batteries have failed. I have only had new ones for a year so the jury is still out.

To clarify, they don't fail like ni-cads which lose life gradually until they are no longer usable. The LXT batteries would be working fine until you tried to charge them and they wouldn't charge at all. There is a safety feature that triggers too easily in the original LXT batteries.

[Greg R Bradley]

Between tools kits and an extra battery, I bought 9 LXT batteries in 2006. Up until yesterday, I could have said 8 of the 9 were still working. Amazing coincidence is another failed today. I can't complain as it has been used on one of their heavy impacts in truck maintenance for 9 years. Tools and battery pretty much look beat-to-death as you can hardly read "Makita" on the tool and pretty much can even tell the battery is original as the labeling is destroyed.

I do think there may be something to do with Li-Ion battery life and extremely cold weather. Obviously not a problem for me in SoCal.

[Robert Parent]

I just went down this road and ended up buying a new Bosch kit to replace the Milwaukee drill. Yes, it sucks to junk a perfectly good drill but the economics just don't justify rebuilding battery packs. BTW: In the past I had packs rebuilt and they never performed as well as the originals.

Good Luck,
Robert