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Sears Battery Pack

I ahve a Sears drill with a rechargeable battery pack. The battery pack will no longer recharge. Can these be repaired? Is the cost too high? Thanks.

Reply to
PeteXX
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Repaired? Not usually, unless you want to attempt it yourself by opening the case and seeing if the batteries inside are a common enough type to be replaceable. There are some companies that offer rebuilt battery packs - try Googling for them.

As to cost...."too high" is in the mind of the poster.

Reply to
Travis Jordan

Sears sells replacements but according to Consumer Reports, latest models are so good it is often better to buy a new drill with battery instead of replacing a battery.

Reply to
Art

You may find your local batteriesRus type store may be able to rebuild it cheap. You can also buy a new battery. However depending on the age of the drill and the quality of the drill, you should at least price out the cost of a new drill and maybe a upgraded model. Those batteries are expensive. I just upgraded my 12V drill for a 18V with more features and a lot more power for just a few dollars over the cost of a new battery. Look for sales on the new drill, the old batteries are not likely to go on sale.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

No one will repair it 'chep'. You can however, buy tabbed batteries on ebay and replace the defective batteries yourself (if you can solder).

Reply to
PJx

PJx wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

He could get an estimate from a store that does battery rebuilds. He could take the model number of the drill/batt.pack to Sears and see what a new pack costs. Then he could determine whether it's worthwhile to repair or replace the pack,or go for a new drill.(hopefully with TWO batt.packs)

Reply to
Jim Yanik

Buying a new drill/battery/charger is almost always a better choice. That's assuming that you don't have a fairly modern, high-voltage, top-of-the-line drill. Purchasing an individual replacement battery is expensive.

On the low end, you can pick up a drill/battery/charger combo at reasonable voltage under $20 from Harbor Freight, Homier, etc. Even if you have to order on-line and pay shipping, it is economical. The batteries will usually have less capacity then higher cost units - this is due to intentional slight undersizing or to lost cell capacity do to the age of the units. Not a big problem. I have friends who have walked into Harbor Freight and bought 6 or 8 cheap drills because they cost just a few dollars more than the cost of the battery packs. This way they've got extra drill bodies and extra chargers.

I've got a very comprehesive Black and Decker 14.4 volt setup with many tools, batteries and chargers. I've watched for great sales and closeouts on this system. For example, I bought one extra case, drill, light, charger and two batteries for much less than the list price for just the 2 batteries.

As for your existing drill and battery: It usually isn't that difficult to cut open the existing pack and replace the cells inside. Sometimes you may need a dremmel tool to fit generic replacement cells inside the case if the manufacturer purposely used non-standard sizes to prevent this. Sears is one culprit for such games. The same advise goes for cordless phone battery packs - often one needs to "Dremmel out" bits of the handset interior to fit in replacement cells which are slightly larger than the intentionally sub-sized originals. Any battery pack can be replaced - it's just a matter of how difficult the manufacturer intentionally made the task, how handy your are, and the value of your time.

I hope this helps.

Reply to
Gideon

Any sizable town will have one or more places that have the tools and expertise to rebuild virtually any pack, almost always at reasonable cost...

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

Or he could go to Harbor Freight and get a new drill (with battery pack) for $14.

Reply to
George E. Cawthon

I hope he has better luck with the "drillmaster" drill- the harbor freight bottom end drill- than i did. while the drill itself is ok (i bought the 12v and discovered that the thing had space in the pack for 2 more cells), the batteries themselves self-discharge at a surprising rate-2 days from a full charge to nothing.I bought a bunch of the packs on sale and was going to use the cells to rebuild other packs. It didn't work that way- first the cells were 1300mah cells- pretty feeble in comparo to the 1800-2200 mah that the typical sub c cell, second, they didn't take kindly to the 9.6 makita fastcharge(the drill I bought the additional packs for). After a couple of cycles, they were dead to the worldI ended up buying surplus cells from an electronics surplus place that were out of date but still held a decent charge. If I'd bought the cells from "batteryspace.com , I woulda paid pehaps twice the price than the surplus cells. which were double the cheapie drillmaster cells- but they would have been matched and 1800 mah. There's a big variety of cells that are useful- some are meant for fast charge, some aren't, some also have a higher self discharge rate than others- then there's nimh cells that are better than nicads when it comes to power- up to

3000mah) for the same size cells but may not take the same # of cycles before they're ready to be "recycled".I read of one estimate that nicads will go 1000-1500 cycles before they're "dead" nimh are 500-1000 cycles and the latest lithium ion cells possibly less than 200 cycles before dead. What bugs me is the trend to shitcan the drill when the packs call it quits because the tech has improved in the new drill (more features, less weight, more power). We're tossing a lot of material ...because of the "cheapness" of a new one. Pat
Reply to
patrick mitchel

Harbor Freight has drills with rechargable batteries. Soemtime down about $15 for a drill and battery and charger. They also have replacement batteries. I got two 12 volt drills, $15 each, and a couple batteries $10 each.

I have long since earned back the cost of the drills.

I doubt it's cost effective to repair it. Even the replacement batteries can end up costing more than it's worth.

My good rechargable drill is a Makita, and I'm very pleased with it. One friend uses Panasonic, and he's very pleased with that.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

"Stormin Mormon" wrote in news:Av%Dd.130720$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.nyroc.rr.com:

New battery sticks for my Makita 9.6V drill are only $29.00,available at HD or the local Harbor Freight store.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

I've got two Black and Decker drills in my junk box- battery pack costs more than a new drill.

Reply to
PJx

Sorry, but that's not true. Their cost is about the same as buying a new drill with new battery pack.

Reply to
PJx

PJx wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Maybe you should have bought worthwhile drills,like Makita,Panasonic,DeWalt. Packs(sticks) for my 9.6V Makita only cost $29.00,a new drill kit with 2 sticks costs around $130.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

...and he would have been out $14 and have a piece of total junk.

Reply to
davefr

"cheapness"

Hey are those the old 7.2 (3.6) round tubes batterys?I could use them if you don't want them. Also need a old stanley 6.0 volt for a switch that no longer made? thanks!!!

Reply to
stan hofacker

I took a defective 18 volt craftsman into sears a couple months ago.. they no longer had repalcement batteries for it. the newer 18 volt packs are differnet and won't fit. Ended up buying a new set. Got a perfectly fine drill that I habe no battery for. How do these packs open ? seems all sealed to me. Remove NO-SPAM from email address when replying

Reply to
Rein

the charger on my 19.2 set went bad and now i'm shopping on ebay for one. sears tried talking me into just buying a new drill/charger set. what a waste!

TB

Reply to
T.B.

Rein wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Did you try the on-line (or local) Sears parts store,where you get replacement parts for Sears products? Or just walk into a Sears store and ask a clerk? All they know is what's on the shelves.(if that much)

Battery pack plastic bodies are usually heat-welded.Takes some work to get them open and still be able to re-close them.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

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