Replacement NiCad Batteries for Old Drills

[Dave Fifield]

This is a bit of a rant, sorry. Not sure if anyone has trodden this ground in another thread before - I'm too tired to go look - but I have to get this off my chest.....

I have a perfectly usable old Black & Decker Firestorm drill (13.2V) with two knackered NiCad battery packs. They did sterling service - lasted for over 5 years!

I enquired at B&D for the replacement cost. It turned out that two new battery packs for the old drill would cost more than just buying a brand new drill kit. I gather this is a common finding. I guess the drill manufacturers want to sell new high $$ drills rather than fix old battery packs for way less moola (Admin: we need a symbol for peanuts :) ).

I opened up one of the dead NiCad packs to see if it could be "repaired" using individual cells. No easy way AFAICT. The cells are all spot welded to each other and they are stacked so that the end cell's terminal forms one of the battery pack's connections. It would take quite a bit of surgery to replace the cells and make it work as intended again. BTW, I did try the old NiCad rejuvination technique using a large capacitor charged to 20V or so - this gave them some more life, but they are all done now.

I wonder if any of you have done this, acheived the impossible, and a) found a source for new NiCad cells with connection strips welded to them and b) managed to cobble a new battery pack together with them. Tell us your story please. Hopefully I will get inspired and fix my old battery packs up.

It just seems like such a shameful waste to junk a perfectly working drill.....(shakes head and tuts).....

Is there anything we can do to make the drill manufacturers be more earth friendly and lower their replacement battery pack prices?

Dave Fifield

[Chet Parks]

Check here:

http://www.batteryrebuilders.com/

Chet Parks

[Lee DeRaud]

I've got that same drill and love it: it balances way better than the 14.4V that replaced it. A pair of replacement batteries was only about $65 at the local Dewalt service center. Of course they were special-order...took them awhile to convince themselves that the "13.2V" label was correct.:p

[Larry Cooke]

It turned out that two new battery packs for the old drill would cost more than just buying a brand new drill kit.Dave,

Been there done that. Bought a Ryobi drill from HD once for $69.00, six months later the batteries went out. HD wanted $59.00 for each battery! Luckily HD allowed me to return the drill for full credit. I bought another one for $89.00 (it came with a flashlight in this kit.) This one lasted almost 6 years so I really got my monies worth out of it. Went back to buy some new batteries for it and now they sell the batteries for this same drill in packs of two for only $39.00 - very reasonable in my opinion.

I learned a lot about batteries through my R/C hobby. My son and I raced electric cars and trucks. It's very easy to solder battery packs once you get the hang of it. But to be honest, it probably costs more building your own than buying and soldering. Though, you can control the quality of the batteries. Rechargeable batteries are a very technical thing these days...

So far, I have found the best bang for the buck has been the Ryobi 18v kits from HD. When on sale they're hard to beat. Are there better drills, yes, but for the occasional home/hobbyist user these are excellent drills. Oh, the other gizmos they include are pretty good too. I recently bought a combo kit that included a drill, flashlight, 5-1/4 circular saw, and two 18v batteries with charger for $99.00. I also came with a coupon for a free sander.

Larry

[Dave Fifield]

Thanks for the link Chet - I see there's another fellow asking almost the same thing in another post not too far from mine. I've sent an email to Jason at batteryrebuilders.com to see if they can rebuild mine. Their prices seem very reasonable indeed.

I love that old drill too Lee - I have a new 18V Porter Cable drill now, but it's too darned heavy for my old arms.

Larry - I was quoted $85 each for new battery packs from B&D about a year ago....way too much....so I bought a new Porter Cable drill instead. I still want to have the old FireStorm drill around, so hopefully Jason can work his magic for me.... :)

You guys are the best - I should have asked about this on SMC ages ago!!

Cheers,
Dave F.

[Ned Bulken]

I'll be in contact with Jason in a couple of days.

[Lee DeRaud]

I was quoted $85 each for new battery packs from B&D about a year ago...Whoa!! If that's for FS132 battery packs, two of them were $72 (with tax) last September. That was at an "official" Dewalt/BD service center here in SoCal.

[Paul Atwood]

I rebuilt a Dewalt 12v pack and the hardest part by far is reassembling the case. It is worth the effort though, I upgraded to fresh 2.1Ah nicd cells for $21. Nimh cells are a straight swap and the cost/capacity is the same, so for $33 you could have 3.3 Ah - but you may need a different charger.

Both types are available with solder tabs.

www.batteryspace.com
many other sources, but I was very satisfied with products, prices and service.

Good luck,

Paul

[Jason Abel]

I'm not going to bad mouth anyone but I will post a few facts. I had batteryspace send me samples for me to test prior to using them as a vendor. The test results were less than satisfactory on the cells they sent me. That was about 2 months ago. The charge rate and discharge rate were perfectly fine but the nominal voltage under load was weak. The 14.4V pack I tested leveled out at 12.8V under a constant 2A load. The cells I currently use (from another supplier) will typically level out at 14.2V.

A common misconception is that all batteries are created equal. Just because your batteries say 2.1Ah doesn't mean they are. Just about every supplier I have dealt with has tried to sell me cells that are labeled for a higher value than they really are. There is alot of what I would consider fraudulant activity going on in the battery industry. Please just be careful what you buy and who you buy from.

[Charlie Plesums]

Jason may not be allowed to promote his services, but I have heard nothing but great comments about his battery rebuilding service

[Jason Abel]

Thank you for the kind words Charlie. :)

[Ken Garlock]

Jason may not be allowed to promote his services, but I have heard nothing but great comments about his battery rebuilding service

Yep, I packed up a pair of DeWalt 12V batteries and shipped them off to Pennsylvania this week. They will be delivered by UPS tomorrow.

I am getting the new batteries and a load test of each for just a little over $70. With out the load test, the cost would have been around $50, IIRC.

[Jason Abel]

Ken,

You will be happy you purchased the analyzation services. During analyzation we will charge/discharge your batteries until they reach their peak charging potential. This way you are guaranteed a fully charged pre-conditioned battery pack that comes with the paperwork to back it up. Your order will ship early next week if received today.

Thanks,
Jason Abel
Battery Builders