Cordless Drills & Batteries

I have a Sears 18 volt cordless drill that is about 8-10 years old. It came with two batteries, and one fails to take a charge. I queried Sears and found that a new battery would cost in excess of $75 with shipping and tax. A new 18 volt drill costs about $74 plus tax.
I have been through the battery problem before with another brand of drill, and also found the cost of the batteries was excessive.

I am wondering what brands of rechargeable drills some here have found to be good, and the availability and cost of replacement batteries. I also wonder about the shelf life of extra batteries. Would the life be extended of extra batteries if kept in a freezer?

I am planning to look at Makita also.

Thanks.
Jerry

If you were adventurous you could go to a BigLots and buy an 18v drill pack there for about $9 and transplant the batteries in it into your sears battery case. You can pick up cheap no name 12-18v drills for $15-$40 all the time and get two batteries. My dad has a no name 12v drill and when it was having problems after two years he got a new one for $15 which comes out cheap. I wouldn't bother freezing nicads but it is a good idea to charge them up at least once every 4-6 months.

Thanks, Lynx. That sounds like a good plan, and I'll see if I can find one.

Jerry

I'd think twice before moving "up" to a new one. I find that when I buy a new drill it frequently lacks some feature that I'd grown to like on the old one.

Skill used to make a "warrier" model that was super slim. You could drill a hole parallel to a wall just 3/4 inch from the wall. It was only 4.5 volts, non-replacable. I miss it sometimes.

You might get lucky by looking for a part number on the battery and doing a google search for a replacement. It's amazing how often that works.

I've 3 cordless drills and I'm not wild about any of them. Too much play in the bearings, funky chargers, keyless chucks that won't tighten.....

Good luck,

Dan

Another thing I have noticed is every few years the manufacturers make *new* models requiring *new* battery packs...... IMO there is usually NO improvement made it is just the way for them to sell you more battery packs with the same type batteries the old ones have but perhaps a little more capacity/runtime definately not worth $30-$50 a pack for 20% more runtime when you have to replace everything because your *new* drill from the same maker wont take your *old* battery packs.

Another approach is to open the battery case and replace the cells. Before the CPF software change there was a thread entitled "dewalt 18v battery." I wish I could find it. As I recall it discussed changing the cells.

This is what I want to do. Dewalt's old NiCads suck. It would be nice to exchange them for new NiMHs. Does anyone remember who posted in that old thread?

Paul

I bought an 18 volt Craftsman cordless drill set with a light about 4 years ago. The set cost around $90.00. It also came with a tool bag.

Both batteries won't charge. The cost of one replacement battery is $60.00. So if you buy 2 batteries it will cost $120.00.

I bought a new 18 volt Craftsman cordless drill set with a light for $80.00. The set came in a hard cover plastic brief case.

If both batteries won't charger... there is a chance your charger isn't working right. I would use a meter on it and see if you are getting any voltage out on it.
There is a place that actually will rebuild drill motor battery packs but IMO if you have any knowhow and a decent soldering iron it shouldn't be too hard to do with some care.

if you decide to go with new. Dewalt and Milwalkee hold up the best.

Many of the Craftsman chargers have a replaceable fuse this may be a place to start. I had a 14.4 and thought it had died so I gave all the parts to my father to go with the one he had and bought a Dewalt 12v. A couple of days later dad called to rub it in that I had just bought $130 drill to replace a $0.50 fuse.

I will say the dewalt has more power and better runtime than the craftsman ever did even though it's only a 12 volt.

You can find some cordless tool info. in the "gadgets" forum.

I bought the Ridgid 18v Impact driver. Comes with 2 batteries and a twin 20 minute charger. The main reason I bought it was the lifetime service agreement on the drill as well as the batteries. Yes, lifetime batteries.

I've got the Ridgid also. They're great.

Thanks for the advice.
My only complaint with the Sears is the cost of replacement batteries. I found the same problem some years ago with Porter Cable. It was an excellent drill, but when the batteries gave out I learned that the cost of the batteries cost more than a new drill. I had hoped Craftsman would improve on that, but no soap.

Most of the brand name cordless drills in the 14 -18 volt category are twice the price of the Sears model. My primary use for the drill is to raise and lower the jacks on my travel trailer. It saves a lot of effort and time. It takes a 12 volt or better to have the torque necessary to do the job.

I did not find a source for Rigid drills.

Jerry

Home Depot

Ridgid is sold at home depot.

As somewhat of an expert in nicd/nimh cells, I will say that they last longer if used some. I could provide references to the sources behind this, but just take it on faith for now please.

If you're using it so little that you are having problems with packs dying, you should get a CORDED drill. If you find that too inconvenient, get used to buying replacement batteries or new drills every few years. Sorry.

Dewalt has provided me with some very good drills. There is very little reason to pay extra $ for a high volt drill. You increase your chances of pack failure the higher the voltage is. Most cordless drills are used for 3/8 bits. A 9.6v unit will work fine with that size bit.

I ran a 9.6 dewalt for about 5 years. I was able to drill anything I wanted to. I used 2" hole saws with no problem.

I only replaced it when:
1) 1 of the 2 packs died from abuse
2) I started building my house and needed to drill a lot of 1.5" ship auger holes, very quickly


Sorry to sound short, but you best solution is one of these:
1) buy a new 9.6v drill
2) buy a corded drill

I had the same situation as you; my Skil cordless drill wouldn't hold a charge any more, replacement batteries cost $40 and the drill originally cost $30!

I ended up buying one of these Igo drills that uses AA batteries:

http://www.igohomeproducts.com/drill.asp

It's not heavy-duty, but most of my uses are simple fix-it jobs around the house. I use the Rayovac 15 minute rechargeable batteries so if I run run them down I can be back in business in short order. No proprietary batteries to replace down the road. The same batteries power alot of my flashlights and other gadgets.

I have a corded drill for the bigger jobs.

I have owned a couple of drills. My deWalt 9v battery is pretty weak now. My newest drill is a makita 14v .5''. I bought it because it seemed lightest among the competition and has a good feel. The bosch is supposed to be unbreakeable, but it is way heavier. After carrying the thing around all day you will want a lighter tool. Unless you're really clumsy and need one you can drop out the window.

I think a lifetime warranty on batteries sounds like a good selling point. That's what I would look for in a new product. Anyone besides rigid offer that?

I appreciate all the good comments, and recommendations.
I do need a reasonably high torque drill, and I have not found anything less than 12 volts sufficient. I had a 12 volt Porter Cable, and that was the first one that was adequate.

I will try to find some useful things to do with a new one that will use the batteries more often. I will say that the drill I have is anywhere from 8 - 10 years old, and one of the batteries is still good. I am not sure that a battery will last longer no matter what I do to it. I would like to be corrected if that is not correct.

It appears that the Sears 14.4 V drill is about the best buy as it is about $75 on sale, and most of the "good names" are at least twice that. I have not checked the Rigid yet but will make a trip to Home Depot today.

Thanks again, and I appreciate any comments.

Jerry

Ahhhhh, cordless drills!
It has been 20 years since my first 2.4V Skill cordless back in 1985. It introduced me to cordless and I went up to a 9.6V Makita in 1987(died in 1994), a 9.6V Milwalkee in 1994 (died this year) and have used 18V Dewalts for the last 5 years at work.
My 9.6V Milwalkee is being replaced with a 28 volt Lithium-Ion powered Milwalkee kit with two batteries ($419 a kit) We had a 12V Dewallt start on fire at work while attempting to drill through marble (what the floors are made out of) Decided to go with the big dog and the Milwalkee 28 volt monster is now available... what the heck, I have dozens of things that need to be mounted or bolted down and a Hilti makes too much noise and costs waaaaay too much.
The $129 Milwalkee Lithium-Ion packs have a battery life indicator built-in so that will be helpful to prevent over discharge. Imagine a 4 LED Luxeon K2 mod running a 28V Milwalkee Lithion pack! Now imagine 7 Luxeon K2's running direct drive off the same pack!
I have found for use at work, the best one to go with is the most powerful monster that is easily handled and the 28V Milwalkee is the same weight as the Ni-Cad Dewalt. My old 9.6V Milwalkee is the longest lasting rechargable drill I have ever had and I beat the living crap out of that one. The 28V should be soooo much better and it should be... the 9.6V was $185 and the 28V hits at almost $420.
And you thought flashlights were bad.... hopefully the 28V lithium-ion packs are under $100 each when I need to replace them in three years.

Lynx Arc,

I forgot to mention that my second battery lasted 3 months longer than the first battery.

This is a picture of the Craftsman 18 Volt Cordless Drill and Cordless Light. Both batteries will not charge.




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