Cordless drill batteries...

[Anthony & Yvonne]

Hi, I have a Bosch 14.4 vold cordless drill. One battery is dead and the second is on its last leg. Is the cells hard to replace in them? How do you get the case apart? Where do you get replacements cells at? Has anyone got a link showing one how to change them?

TIA,

Tony

[Derek]

I'm not familiar with that drill but most have a number of tagged Nicad C cells connected in series I reckon replacing them with Nimh cells is a worthwhile gain however the individual cells are quite expensive. On the drills I own the casing is held together by small self tapping screws and click fit tags often the screws are hidden under labelling. In the UK Maplin sell the cells I note radioshack in the US do not list them otherwise they are also used in Radio control models Derek

[Bruce & Lois Nelson]

A while back there was a discussion about rebuilding battery packs. As I remember it, there were a couple of major points.

1. It is often cheaper to purchase a new kit (case, drill, 2 batteries, charger) than to purchase either packs, or batteries to rebuild.
2. If you cannot purchase batteries that are already tabbed, then there is the issue of possibly heat damaging the batteries.
3. heat used to solder on tabs can cause batteries to explode.
4. you need some way to make sure the initial charge on all of the cells is the same. Otherwise, depending on the pack design, one battery could prevent the others from charging fully (found in a discussion about rebuilding battery packs for laptops)

As to your questions: all of the battery packs I have had (various tools) have been put together with self tapping screws. remove screws, case falls apart (almost). Most cells are available from several vendors - try an internet search on the size you need. If your pack requires that the batteries be linked in series by tabs, then they are difficult to change.

Bruce Nelson

[Fatdaddys]

Go to Ebay and search. They are there ">