MAKITA 18V LITHIUM CELLS?

[357mag1]

Does anyone know what type of cells are used to make up Makita's lithium 18V battery packs?

 

[moderator007]

According to what I found here should be 10 sony 18650's at 1500mah.

 

[Battery Guy]

fyi, I just took apart a Riobi 3 Ah 18 V battery and a Milwaukee M28 battery. The Riobi has 10 Sanyo 1500 mAh 18650 cells and the Milwaukee has 14 Samsung 1500 mAh 18650 cells. Both are great high power cells, especially for the price: $10/cell plus an hour of your time to harvest and clean up the terminals.

A word of caution: both packs were built like tanks. I am pretty good at taking packs apart and harvesting cells, but the Riobi and Milwaukee packs were really, really tough. I hate to admit it, but I actually shorted one of the cells as I was disassembling the Milwaukee pack. This activity is not for the faint of heart and can be dangerous.

Cheers,
BG

 

[357mag1]

fyi, I just took apart a Riobi 3 Ah 18 V battery and a Milwaukee M28 battery. The Riobi has 10 Sanyo 1500 mAh 18650 cells and the Milwaukee has 14 Samsung 1500 mAh 18650 cells. Both are great high power cells, especially for the price: $10/cell plus an hour of your time to harvest and clean up the terminals.

A word of caution: both packs were built like tanks. I am pretty good at taking packs apart and harvesting cells, but the Riobi and Milwaukee packs were really, really tough. I hate to admit it, but I actually shorted one of the cells as I was disassembling the Milwaukee pack. This activity is not for the faint of heart and can be dangerous.

Cheers,
BG

Thanks for the info.
I have the Ryobi packs as well and it is always nice to know what you are dealing with.

 

[Battery Guy]

Thanks for the info.
I have the Ryobi packs as well and it is always nice to know what you are dealing with.

The Ryobi was easier than the Milwaukee, but the Ryobi packs use this annoying pink adhesive foam that is adhered to the ends of the cells. So you need a bit of solvent to clean them up.

 

[Mr Happy]

A word of caution: both packs were built like tanks. I am pretty good at taking packs apart and harvesting cells, but the Riobi and Milwaukee packs were really, really tough. I hate to admit it, but I actually shorted one of the cells as I was disassembling the Milwaukee pack. This activity is not for the faint of heart and can be dangerous.

Might we assume they are trying to make it hard for people to disassemble the packs? Though from your experience, making the packs harder to disassemble seems to be more dangerous than making them easy.

 

[AnAppleSnail]

Might we assume they are trying to make it hard for people to disassemble the packs? Though from your experience, making the packs harder to disassemble seems to be more dangerous than making them easy.

Having seen the abuse contractor gear goes through, they might be making it hard to damage the packs with use and abuse. I suspect that that's their primary goal. If they wanted to make them hard to open, they'd just pour 2-ton epoxy in and be done with it.

 

[Fresh Light]

I had to replace 2 of my milwaukee v28 packs because they would die when put under load. I live close to a warranty center and they replaced the v28 packs that were a month or 2 out of warranty with 2 m28, new style. Total cost was 63.00 for the two m28 packs. Battery Guy, do you know if they are using different cells in the new packs? The seem to outperform the v28 ones when they were new.

 

[Battery Guy]

I had to replace 2 of my milwaukee v28 packs because they would die when put under load. I live close to a warranty center and they replaced the v28 packs that were a month or 2 out of warranty with 2 m28, new style. Total cost was 63.00 for the two m28 packs. Battery Guy, do you know if they are using different cells in the new packs? The seem to outperform the v28 ones when they were new.

The V28 packs used to use Molicel IMR26700 cells. Those were absolutely fantastic cells, but did have relatively short cycle life. My understanding is that Molicel no longer makes the IMR26700 cells.

The new M28 packs use 14 Samsung 18650 cells (they are actually labelled "INR18650") in a 2P7S arrangement.

 

[HB021]

Thanks for this info, I knew it was 10 18650s at 1500mAh but didn't know it was Sony's
The makita 18v is very good compared to other 18v in my opinion, but I'm a true fan to makitas 18v tools hehe.

 

[Fresh Light]

The V28 packs used to use Molicel IMR26700 cells. Those were absolutely fantastic cells, but did have relatively short cycle life. My understanding is that Molicel no longer makes the IMR26700 cells.

The new M28 packs use 14 Samsung 18650 cells (they are actually labelled "INR18650") in a 2P7S arrangement.

Thanks for the great info!

 

[thedeske]

Thanks for this info, I knew it was 10 18650s at 1500mAh but didn't know it was Sony's
The makita 18v is very good compared to other 18v in my opinion, but I'm a true fan to makitas 18v tools hehe.

Same here - have the 2008 & 2010 series impact drivers, hammer drill & their little white Vac all on the same battery. The 061 right angle drill was here for a year, but the trigger position was not the best design. Had no idea it was 18650. Now I can't complain about the price. So far these hold charge better than anything I've used over the years.

 

[andrewalaska]

fyi, I just took apart a Riobi 3 Ah 18 V battery and a Milwaukee M28 battery. The Riobi has 10 Sanyo 1500 mAh 18650 cells and the Milwaukee has 14 Samsung 1500 mAh 18650 cells. Both are great high power cells, especially for the price: $10/cell plus an hour of your time to harvest and clean up the terminals.

A word of caution: both packs were built like tanks. I am pretty good at taking packs apart and harvesting cells, but the Riobi and Milwaukee packs were really, really tough. I hate to admit it, but I actually shorted one of the cells as I was disassembling the Milwaukee pack. This activity is not for the faint of heart and can be dangerous.

Cheers,
BG

I don't suppose you saw if they were INR18650-15Q or -15R? They have different max current ratings, details here