Lithium Ion Batteries

[G6 at Snook, TX]

Who sells a good rechargeable battery pack for cordless drills and impact drills? I bought two from Harbor Freight, the drills were good, but the batteries didn't last. Can you mix one make of drill with another, different battery?

 

[rustyfarmall]

Did you ever wonder why the drill is relatively inexpensive to buy, but the battery packs are ridicously over priced?

 

[john *.?-!.* cub owner]

I have never seen any manufacturers whos batteries would interchange. Lithium Ion batteries big enough to run a drill will be very expensive and require a special charger to prevent there being a big flash and a bang followed by flames.

 

[guido]

Hello G6 at Snooks, TX,

Are you looking for a higher capacity pack? Not all lithium
battery ars created equal. More capacity more money. You have
to know what you have to get a more capacity pack. Also the
charger has to be able to do it in a reasonable amount of
time. Here are some lithium batteries all kinds of capacity
out there. These are just some,

Guido.

 

[guido]

Hello John *.?-!.*

Most lithium Ion cordless tool batteries are 18650 cells. Regardless of
manufacturer they are ALL the same. 18 x 65 MM. You can take the cells out of
one pack, and put them inside another. You maybe mean the packs are not the
same?

Guido.

 

[G6 at Snook, TX]

To be clear, I am looking for the snap on (not the brand) battery pack that slides and snaps into place on a cordless drill. Can you mix battery brand and drill brand? If so, who sells a solid battery pack? If not, who sells a good cordless drill? I am a Milwaukee man by experience and like their corded stuff.

 

[guido]

Hello G6 at Snook, TX,

Most power pack have the 18650 Lithium ion cell. Capacity in Milli amps has to
be the same in the pack, so they all charge fully at the same time. You can just
by New cells and put them in,

Guido.

 

[larry@stinescorner]

where is George ???

 

[rustyfarmall]

(quoted from post at 11:11:43 10/20/17) To be clear, I am looking for the snap on (not the brand) battery pack that slides and snaps into place on a cordless drill. Can you mix battery brand and drill brand? If so, who sells a solid battery pack? If not, who sells a good cordless drill? I am a Milwaukee man by experience and like their corded stuff.

Sounds like you are describing the Black and Decker 18 volt batteries.

 

[Ken Macfarlane]

The milwalkee M18 line is great. The newer 4.0 amp hour batteries will outlast 3 or 4 old nicad packs. The only downside I've found is below -10 C or so you have
to use them a bit at a time until the battery warms up or the low voltage protection will just keep shutting it off.

 

[dcarp]

Batteries Plus in Bryan & College Station should be able to rebuild yours. Not sure of price but should be less than cost of new. Stop in and have them give you a quote. If you are pretty handy you could try yourself, the process is as Guido described. I went the easy & cheap way for my Dewalt & ordered generic one from Amazon for about 1/4 th the cost of new Dewalts

 

[guido]

Hello G6 in Snooks, TX,

If the pack is a Snap-on, it probably has NiCad cells. Just
buy them and make up the pack. Get cells with good capacity.
The picture shows the grey 2400SCR NiCad cells. 2.4 Amp hour capacity. They are very seldom marked,

Guido.

 

[Jon Hagen]

You might check if HF has replacement batteries for your tools, their prices used to be very reasonable. I used to run HF cordless power grease guns and bought a few replacement batteries. I remember looking at a 12V Lincoln grease gun battery on a store rack. The voltage and Ma capacity was the same on both batteries, both said made in China, the difference, was the Lincoln battery was priced at $70, while the same spec HF battery was $15.

 

[Stephen Newell]

Batteries are usually proprietary and will only fit one brand or another. Your best bet would be to have someone rebuild the battery pack however HF changes manufacturers a lot so when the drill wears out chances are the good batteries won't fit the replacement drill. There are a few brands that sell an adapter to use one drill battery on a different brand drill but I bet they don't include HF.

 

[OldFarmTractor]

I bought a HF cordless drill over 6 years ago. I wanted another battery but it was only $1.00 less
than the entire kit. So I have two cordless drills, two batteries and two chargers now. Always
handy to have replacements.

 

[old bc]

I bought a battery for my drill from the website in the link.
It is a better battery than the original equipment.
Batteries