Cordless drill decision

[Bernoulli/OZ]

I'm presently in Australia (230VAC 50 Hz). I have a Porter Cable 12V Cordless drill. I bought two pairs of 12V battery rebuilds - none worked. Looking for a replacement on Amazon, I saw several reviews of the Porter Cable charger that said it was worthless. I can't find a generic charger. So..., I could buy another P-C charger, either 12V or 9.6-19V or another battery (original P-C), or forget the whole thing and get a new Panasonic NIMh 15.6. The charger will be operated off a transformer. Has anyone had any experience with the P-C batteries, chargers or the Panasonic? Thanks!

 

[msb]

Since its 12 volt and if worse comes to worse, try hooking it up to your car battery.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I had one of those Magnaquench drills and it too had a bad charger. I bought a Ryobi 12 volt charger for 17 bucks and it worked just fine. I'm done with the drill and if you were closer I would ship the charger to you free but I don't think I want to ship it half way round the world.

 

[RP3]

"The charger will be operated off a transformer"

Be sure it's a real transformer and not one of those rectifier convertors. It should be heavy like it's filled with iron.

If it's not a transformer then the charger won't work and can even be damaged by it.

 

[KEB]

DO NOT, under any circumstances, hook a cordless tool battery to an automobile battery or charger, even if the voltage rating is the same. NiCad and NiMH batterys charge at a constant current, not at a constant voltage like a lead acid battery. Whatever charger you use for a cordless tool battery must be current limited - connecting a NiCad bettery to a large current source such as a car battery will rapidly result in an overheated and possibly exploding NiCad.

Most cheap chargers with a wall-wart transformer depend on the inherent resistance of the transformer to limit charge current. More elaborate ones electronically limit current based on battery state of charge and temperature.

Keith

 

[msb]

Should have said remove the old battery first.That Will work.

 

[Bernoulli/OZ]

The Ryobi idea is a good one, but the batteries I have are of the slide in contact design rather than the male design. The transformers I have are indeed heavy, so I must have the right ones (I'm electrically challenged). Thanks

 

[Anonymous-0]

The Ryobi CD125, model 4400006, is the slide contact design with the third temperature contact not the spade and lug design of the later models. It is a 120 VAC, 60 cycle charger however.