Cordless Drill Battery vs. H.F. Brands

[Manster]

I have a 12V Porter Cable cordless drill and 2 re-chargeable batteries. I'd say the unit is approx. 6-8 years old and it has performed well. The batteries are going kapoot but I use the tool so seldom anymore that I don't warrant a new drill. I checked for batteries online and the cheapest I found them were $53 + s&t, putting them around $60.

I got to wondering about the quality of the Harbor Freight brands (not Makita or DeWalt) of cordless drills, primarily due to their low prices. I realize that for the most part one gets what they pay for, but do these $20-$100 drills have much quality to them? Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[Bob F]

I am guessing that the really cheap units contain really small batteries. i.e. no real capacity to keep going for a long time. Does anyone have any experience on this.

There are people out there that rebuild old tool batteries with new "improved" cells.

Bob

[TH]

$60.http://www.realdealtools.com/product_info.php?products_id=499>

Get a Ryobi from Home Depot. They're cheap and work really well. you can buy replacement batteries 2 for ~30 bucks. I've had mine for a couple years now, and it performs very well. You can buy a whole new drill with 2 batteries for about the price of one replacement battery for a Dewalt or Makita.

[Clark...]

My father would agree with your opinion, he now has two sets of the Ryobi tools, (he is a professional licensed contractor) he has owned and used Porter Cable, Makita,etc He loves the cheaper Ryobi kits and has owned them for almost two years now.

Clark...

[Jim Yanik]

Manster wrote in news:fficdv$vvt$ [e-mail]:

if you read carefully,you will find that the HF drills only have one speed range,maybe a max of 900 rpm.One I saw only had 500 rpm max.

If I were you,I'd just get my P-C packs rebulit by a reputable rebuilder. then you retain your present drill and have a quality tool,not some HF junk.

[Jeff Wisnia]

I concur. I bought one of those for under $20 about three years ago and it's certainly a usable home tool.

But, its chief attribute to me is that it's a great "loaner", so I don't have to worry about friends and family borrowing and abusing my DeWalt and not returning it until I've asked them six times.

Jeff

[IGot2P]

Surprisingly the drill that you referenced (ITEM 44849-1VGA) is actually a pretty decent drill for home use. The chuck works well and the battery holds a good charge. The weak point is the bushings/bearings in the main drive. They will eventually wear out if used a lot, but again they are great for home use. I have three (yes, three) of this exact model that I use regularly for everything from hanging pictures to building 800+ feet of fence. Although I have wore out a drill or two, the batteries have always remained good and thus make great extras.

Don

[Mamba]

I encountered a similar situation when I bought a used Dewalt drill. One of the batteries would hold only a 20-30 minute charge. A friend told me that essentially the battery pack contains more conventional rechargable batteries - ie. If you have a battery pack that opens (clips or screws), it will likely contain 2 or 4 smaller batteries. You can likely find replacements for the 2 or 4 batteries quite inexpensively from an online dealer.

Worth checking before paying big bucks.

[IGot2P]

Surprisingly the one drill (ITEM 44849-1VGA) on the page that you referenced is actually a pretty decent drill for home use. The chuck works well and the battery holds a good charge. The weak point is the bushings/bearings in the main drive. They will eventually wear out if used a lot, but again they are great for home use. I have three (yes, three) of this exact model that I use regularly for everything from hanging pictures to building 800+ feet of fence. Although I have wore out a drill or two, the batteries have always remained good and thus make great extras.

Don

[Bob F]

Would regular lubeing of the bearings prevent the problem?

Bob

[Phisherman]

I wouldn't expect a cordless drill to last longer than 10 years. A Harbor Freight brand, maybe a couple years if that. Costwise, you can't beat a corded drill--the cheapest brand will outlast any cordless.

[DerbyDad03]

-- the cheapest (corded) brand will outlast any cordless.

That's because you waste so much time getting out the extension cord, unrolling it, walking to the outlet, plugging it in, walking to work site, walking back, unplugging it, rolling it back up, storing it etc. etc. that you only get 1/4 of the work done. Any corded drill will last 4 times as long by default. ;-)

[HeyBub]

You can easily get the batteries rebuilt.

"Batteries Plus" is a nationwide chain that handles walk-in trade. There are undoubtedly others.

They wanted $18 to replace the batteries in my dust-buster. I bought a Dirt Devil at Walmart for $16.00. Sometimes it's not a bargain.

[Mike Dobony]

Or go to a pawn shop and get a Milwaukee for under $100 and get a quality unit. I have a Ryobi hammer/drill and the gears were so soft that using the hammer portion once loosened the shaft from the gears. I can not even get the chuck off to replace the gear. It is cheaper to replace the whole drill. Forget Dewalt as the clutch is useless. The minimum setting drives deck screws all the way through the boards!

[DerbyDad03]

Did you use cardboard for your deck?

I've been useing DeWalt drills for years and have never even set a clutch to it's minimum setting. I can't imagine what I would possible use it for, except maybe cardboard.

[Dave Martindale]

Except for the (very recent) LiIon tool batteries, you will find a bunch of NiCd or NiMH cells in series in the pack. The cells are 1.2 V each, so you can easily calculate the number of cells without opening the pack from the voltage: 12 V is 10 cells, 18 V is 15 cells, etc.

The connections between cells are welded straps. If you don't have the appropriate welding equipment, you *can* buy cells that have solder tabs welded to the cells, and then connect those in series via suitable heavy wire. You probably can't solder directly to cells without solder tabs, as the cells get too hot before the solder melts which damages the seals and the cells leak. (If you have a high-wattage iron and you're really good at quick soldering, you might succeed, but good luck).

You're generally better to take the pack to a battery rebuilder who has the welding equipment and a supply of the nickel strap material, and who will rebuild the pack for you for little more than the cost of the cells alone in the quantity that you would be buying.

Dave

[me]

Ok so Milwaukee is a good choice

What abt Makita as well tho?

[Stormin Mormon]

A couple years ago, I bought a two Drill Master 12 volt drills. Figured with

12 volts, if the batteries went dead, I could run them off a 12 volt auto lighter socket, or battery jumper pack. And for $15 per drill and $10 for battery pack, it wasn't a lot of money. Mine are still going, enough to be useful. I used one of them yesterday, with a screw driver tip. Installing some locks for a customer.

For occasional use, they are very well suited. Drill Master has several shapes of battery pack, some don't fit each other. Good idea to get a couple extra battery packs at the same time.

[Chris Lewis]

According to DerbyDad03 :

One gotta wonder.

I've been using my 12V DW fairly heavily for 12 years or more, and I've yet to _use_ the clutch.

Whafor?

Don't need it, even for drywall (and my consistency in not breaking the paper is no worse than "proper" dimpler bits in professional drywall guns).

I occasionally experiment with the clutch - it does work just fine and as consistently as one should. But I always revert back.

[Chris Lewis]

The batteries in most tools (including DW) are "SubC" form factor. They're a bit smaller than C cells. You _can_ get them online, but it's more a specialty item. The more retail-oriented battery sites don't carry them.

It's possible to solder SubCs with a soldering gun (like a Weller), but you have to preheat the tip for at least a minute or two first. Better to use an iron similar to what stained-glass people use - big beefy thing around 300W.

Yes, you have to be quick.

You need to abrade the contact points first - a dremel with a sanding drum is best/fastest, but you can do it with (emory preferably) sandpaper.

The other difficulty is what you use for strap. I use #18 guage stranded wire, with the strands spread flat. However, that still usually leaves a lump, which can make getting the batteries to fit properly a bit of a pain.

Next time I'm going to experiment with some copper tape (still soldered).

Caution: while 18ga wire can take nearly 100A before melting, a single fully charged NiCad SubC battery _can_ melt the wire if you short it accidentally. Newly charged/fresh NiCads can push a _lot_ of current.

The one I deal with seems to do the rebuild (at least for a 10 cell DW pack) for just the cost of the batteries.