Who still uses NiCad and/or NiMH? Any plans to switch to LiIon?

[Mike Kees]

I did not switch to have new technology . Waited until all my old stuff was shot to heck. Then replaced about four different brands with one brand so batteries can be shared. Really important when you are using tools for a living with employees.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Is the controller in the tool or in the battery? I have been waiting for someone to come up with a hack to rehab the Makita LXT's but everyone tells me there is a board in the battery that when it says the pack is dead there is no getting around it. It'd seem the battery status would have to be in the battery itself to disallow charging when its put on the charger.

This link should clear up any questions about the Makita system. The tools, battery and chargers all communicate with each other.

[Brian Henderson]

Is the controller in the tool or in the battery? I have been waiting for someone to come up with a hack to rehab the Makita LXT's but everyone tells me there is a board in the battery that when it says the pack is dead there is no getting around it. It'd seem the battery status would have to be in the battery itself to disallow charging when its put on the charger.

You can often jump start those batteries if the battery is too low for the charger to recognize it. Just jump across the positive and negative leads from a good battery for a couple of minutes, it will put enough of a charge into the battery for it to work on the charger again.

[Carl Beckett]

This link should clear up any questions about the Makita system. The tools, battery and chargers all communicate with each other.

There are hacks out there. Albeit questionable and likely not safe to prevent over charging. I fought these LXT batteries a few years ago (and you can find some old posts here on the topic). I even tore a battery pack apart and swapped good cells for bad cells and recombined and charged with a current limiting power supply. (There are individual cells, 6 as I remember in the 3.0 versions). If one goes bad it not longer works. It is a hack in the true/original sense of the work 'hack'. Meaning not really a viable solution (and reasonable risk of blowing up a battery which could cause injury).

The newer batteries seem to be better. The pricing is as high as ever. I recently purchased a set of 4 generic/china LXT batteries off ebay, they were a fraction of the Makita branded ones. Two were DOA (but still cheaper overall than Makita branded), but the supplier is sending me two more. Whether they hold up long term is yet to be determined.

Someone mentioned the earlier chargers tried to charge too fast. If that is the case, and the new chargers have changed the charge rate to be more reliable, then I would certainly invest in a new charger (I have two chargers now but older units). If anyone can confirm this please point me to a reference.

Personally if I were just starting out and not already invested into misc Makita LXT tools, I would pick a different brand platform. Simply due to the terrible experience I have had on battery life.

(ps I have also heard to not let them get too cold)

[Mark Bolton]

You can often jump start those batteries if the battery is too low for the charger to recognize it. Just jump across the positive and negative leads from a good battery for a couple of minutes, it will put enough of a charge into the battery for it to work on the charger again.

Ill give it a go and see. Thanks for the tip. I had read an article a while back from a guy disassembling these and the article spoke to the first two cells in the pack failing because they power the onboard battery management even when the battery is sitting three and if the charger/battery gets a red/green error 3 times it locks the battery out permanently. Never looked into being able to swap out or change out the boards.

[Kevin Beitz]

I rebuild my battery's... After my first two I said i would never do it again. Then I tried again. The trick that makes it easy is to hot glue stick melt them together when doing it. Liquid electric tape also helps. If you don't glue them together it get dangerous when the wire end start touching. E-bay sell the cells cheap.

[Curt Harms]

.................................................. ...
Like I say, my main beef, and Im sure its true with much of the new battery technology, is they are no longer rebuildable. It gets old buying $100 batteries when you can buy kit for a couple hundred plus.

MTO offers rebuilds on some LiIon batteries. I don't know about the economics.

https://www.mtobattery.com/collectio...ttery-rebuilds