anyone rebuild 18v cordless battery packs?

[JustinH]

I have a 40 dollar skil brand 18v cordless drill from walmart. I've had it about 3 years, and the battery is not holding much of a charge.

Is this thing worth rebuilding the battery pack in? Anyone know what kind of batteries to get? Any soldering involved?

I'm going to shop ebay for aftermarket batteries to rebuild mine with.

Buying one extra battery for this tool costs more than a brand new drill with another battery. Also, I need to make sure not to lose the charger, that is about 40 dollars as well!

 

[Texas Aggie]

You could try Harbor Freight, they sell dirt cheap batteries.

 

[tom slick]

It'll cost more than $40 for just the cells. Those battery packs usually use sub-c size NiCad or NiMh cells.

Here is a service
http://www.primecell.com/pctools.htm

Instructions
http://www.dwaynesthisandthat.org/batpack.htm

Bare cells
http://www.all-battery.com/subcscsizeseriesni-mhrechargeablebatteries.aspx

Check with these guys also
http://www.batteriesplus.com/

 

[expat]

If you want to be Cheap: buy a new one, switch out the batteries then return it to Walmart

 

[JustinH]

Originally Posted By: expat
If you want to be Cheap: buy a new one, switch out the batteries then return it to Walmart

After borrowing a buddies truck to get a TV stand home from walmart a few months back, and opening it up to find it partially assembled and missing most of the parts, I would never do this!

 

[65cuda]

I know of a guy that said he would go to a store that sold the same model and buy it and then wait a week or so and put the old one in and bring it back saying that it didn't work. Don't really like the idea of doing that though. If it quits before you think it should then talk to the manager.

 

[Scott P]

That is just outright theft.

 

[expat]

Originally Posted By: Scott P
That is just outright theft.


I agree, I think he got what he paid for, it served him well, it seems that buying a new drill might be the way to go.
$40 seems a bit steep for that drill with one battery though!

 

[NYEngineer]

My friend owns a battery store and has rebuilt some Dewalt 18 volt packs for me. He only charged me like 18 bucks, but that just covered the cells. For anyone else, it would have been 40.
He also sells these aftermarket battery packs called TopCell. I bought a couple of those at the exact same time I bought a new Dewalt battery from Lowe's. The Dewalt battery was 90 bucks, the TopCell, 65. The TopCell outlasts the Dewalt battery by a bunch.
check out topcellbatteries.com

 

[wapacz]

The problem is you really need a tab welder to build a battery pack right.


seems every battery listed on that topcellbatteries.com are all Nickle cadmium.