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I have a black and decker drill with an a18e battery, which is now capable of driving one screw before grinding to a halt. I could buy a new drill, but that seems wasteful when it's only the battery that has failed.
Having followed many a thread about bike light batteries on here, I have a fairly good idea of what the opinions of the ole 'amazon chinese special' will be (the reviews on amazon are also awful) but does anyone have any idea of a good source from which to purchase?
I've just got a battery for my Garmin from subtel and it was great. They seem to have a UK site as well so I would give that a shot: subtel.co.uk
Don't be afraid to send it back if it's poor but i would be surprised. I don't trust Amazon for this sort of thing but people who run sites mainly for batteries i am much happier with
I bought some replacement batteries for a Bosch drill for just this reason.
Was a few years back. Unbranded, off eBay but cheap and saved the drill from landfill.
Could you buy something else (power screwdriver maybe) that comes with the same battery?
We use batteries from here at work, they are excellent
https://www.allbatteries.co.uk/battery/power-tool-battery.html
Perfect timing, got an old pair of clippers that can only manage half a horse on a charge, needs re-celling as I think it's a proprietary battery pack design
Just googled the battery part number you mentioned (a18e) and confirmed my suspicions - this is a NiMH battery. This outdated battery technology never lasts long. Even if you buy a new NiMH battery now it’ll be dead again in a couple of years.
I wouldn’t normally recommend ditching tools that can be repaired, but NiMH battery technology is best consigned to history. Treat yourself to a tool system running on lithium batteries and the batteries will last and last.
If you don’t want to diy replacing individual cells, talk to Mark at MTBBatteries. He seems to be able to rebuild pretty much any cell pack.
I've just been going through the same thing for my makita drill. I have 2 x PA18 18V 2.5ah NiMH batteries both of which are screwed.
These are discontinued so I have to go to third parties. allbatteries.co.uk linked above look like the best for availability, at £74 each.
Meanwhile, screwfix have a deal on a Dewalt with 2 x 18 V 5ah Li-ion batteries for £150.
I'm sorry, planet, but doing the 'best' thing just doesn't add up....
I have a B&D cordless drill. The battery pack can be opened via screws, and the NiMH cells inside easily replaced.
@jca Given that the Makita drill takes 18V batteries, I doubt the drill much cares whether those volts are coming from NiMH, Lithium or Zinc-carbon. Maybe it's possible to get (or hack together) a Lithium-based pack for the Makita? I mean, this is a quality drill not some cheapo thing from Homebase...
[edit] I found this adapter on Amazon which lets you use Makita Lithium batteries with NiMH tools: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ecarke-Battery-Converter-Cordless-Compatible/dp/B08S6Y41SB
The tool may not care but I suspect the battery will very much care if it's on the wrong type of charger, with potential for a dead battery, or fireworks.
Also the battery packs have chips in them now, when it decides it's fubarred it just disables itself and becomes a paperweight, changing the cell type is not so simple. You can prematurely kill a tool battery by running it flat when it's warm from use, let the battery get cold overnight in your van/garage, then slap it on the charger at which point it's brain detects the extra low charge state and decides a cell has failed.
Given that the Makita drill takes 18V batteries, I doubt the drill much cares whether those volts are coming from NiMH, Lithium or Zinc-carbon.
It will - different battery types have different internal resistance and will deliver more or less current.
But the chargers for different batteries are all different and trying to charge a battery on the wrong charger is a recipe for destroying either the battery or your house.
We bought a Powergiant from Amazon. Huge difference in performance, more power than the dying battery and lasts multiple times longer.
But the chargers for different batteries are all different and trying to charge a battery on the wrong charger is a recipe for destroying either the battery or your house.
Most li-ion battery packs are 'protected' in that they have internal circuitry which stops the cells being over discharged and over charged, as that is the quickest way to knacker the cells, so charging a Li-ion battery pack with a NiMH charger won't cause a fire....
E.g. with Dyson products the charger block is 'dumb' and the Li-ion specific charging smarts is in the battery pack.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52685697787_7973ca8e1e_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52685697787_7973ca8e1e_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2ogDYpM ]Dyson V8 battery pack internals[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
Given that the Makita drill takes 18V batteries, I doubt the drill much cares whether those volts are coming from NiMH, Lithium or Zinc-carbon.
It will – different battery types have different internal resistance and will deliver more or less current.
But the chargers for different batteries are all different and trying to charge a battery on the wrong charger is a recipe for destroying either the battery or your house.
Its more important at the charging end than the power tool end. When Dewalt started producing Li-ion tools it was with a new style of battery pack and obviously a new charger to work with it. But they also released a range of Li-ion batteries and chargers that were backward compatible with their older Nicad / NiMH tools. The batteries were a straight plug in to older tools, the charger was duel chemistry and would charge either ni-cad or li-ion. So so long as you had the updated charger you could mix and match new and old battery types - no noticeable variance (other than longevity) between them in action.
Lupine used to have a lovely charger which detected the battery pack type and voltage and the managed it accordingly.
I gave away all my Lupine lights to someone on here who'd had their bike nicked IIRC...
I sadly ended up replacing it with a DeWalt set. £179 for a combo drill, impact driver, 2 batteries and a fast charger. Much better products than the vintage b&d and the replacement batteries from 'proper' sources were about 55- 70 quid. Got 12 years out of the old one so 🤷♂️