Seems to manage alright! There are accessories available which plug into cigar lighter sockets which *must* take more than 3 amps. For example, if those little immersion heaters for boiling a cup of water were only 36 watts, you'd wait all day for your drink!
They're rated at 10 amps.
Not far wrong. When I saw one of those little kettles in Halfords Im sure it said 'warning takes 1 hour(or something in this ballpark) to boil one cup'. I sniffed and thought sod that and would rather buy a gas bottle/burner/whistling kettle.
Dave.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Rod saying something like:
Easy done. Especially if you just hook a couple of medium croc clips to a portable car starter pack. My 12V Bosch has that about to happen to it and given that I very rarely use it up ladder, it's no problem to have it as a transportable rather than a true cordless. I've been meaning to re-cell it for a while, but I'd rather do it with decent cells and molish a battery pack that can be used for other things, if possible.
Its doable, but worth noting that if you take away the weight of the battery cells on many drills you spoil the balance of the tool. So you may need to leave the dead cells there to make up the weight.
Has anyone actually found a place that can do this for less than a cost of a new battery.
(the original 2.6Ah Ni-Mh batteries on my 18V Makita combi are starting to go now. Still they have done over five years, so I can't complain)
This any good John?
only 36
Mine takes 20 mins for about 450ml of water, slighly more than a mug full. It pulls about 10A, the flex gets warm...
I can't fault my Makita circular saw.
20 mins ?!! Ive got a home made meths stove from the bottom of a beer can that will do a pint in 3 1/2 mins. Yes, all right I know, you wouldn't want to use a live flame in a car, but it does show how pathetic these kettles are.
Rob
The NiCd batteries on my Bosch were s**te. Lasted about 2 years of light usage.
I doubt it. You'd have to buy the cells by the million on a regular basis to get anywhere near the cost per unit the makers pay.
Quality of 1) battery chemistry & 2) matching of battery voltage is critical, the major players can do a quick selection on making up their battery packs and thus get higher-end assembly-quality than the individual cells alone may suggest.
Panasonic have the benefit of a good industrial arm re batteries, motors, bearings; marketing and graphics will be crap so that might spin up a good offer if you hunt around. However I think brand is secondary to price because special deals on the main players anywhere on the net can tip the balance hugely. Hitachi & Panasonic can often be picked up discounted because they have a "shelf life" re inventory turnover, it's a quick Cash(flow) Convertor
NiMH are not so great for infrequent use re self-discharge rate (compared to NiCd) and L-Ion worries me re "finite life determined by chip", the chip monitors when a cell is too far out of spec and shuts down the battery pack. I've a 81-cycle laptop battery in this X60 (hence the typos as keyboard small!) which albeit 2yrs old is now down to 45% of original capacity and falling rapidly.
So shop around, the problem with some "offers" is the batteries with them are just 1.3Ah. That is hilariously sad for Pro use. However, you can get generic 2Ah on Ebay for not a lot of money and they seem to be "not improving nor deteriorating" - by that I mean the factory cells NiCd & NiMH are perhaps declining in an attempt to push people to L-Ion so the gap between generic and OEM is closing. I notice a few reviews on screwfix indicate the "10yr Makita NiMH stick battery only failed because I used it as a hammer" are being replaced by "stuffed at 2yr" and same with other brands.
I bought a Makita 'package' about 3 years ago, 12v driver & 12v impact driver with 3 x 1.3a/hr NiCds.
Soon realised that the impact driver, whilst great, was going to knock 7 bells out of the batteries, so I bought a mains impact driver to take the load off.
Still using 2 of the 3 batteries daily. My 'pro use' though is vastly different to a full time chippy. I use them daily, but not all day.
If you can convert the battery to a "dummy" with weight & connector on the base to a 12V SLA, things begin to look better. You need a cyclical vs standby duty battery, but 12V 7Ah can be had very cheaply
- or just a pile of D NiMH or similar. Removes the proprietary nature of the OEM battery, but cost saving isn't that huge.
There are 24V or 48V DC power tools made with external batteries, used in specific areas where 110V is not permitted. Might be equivalent of ATEX or similar approval re working in grain areas or such. Probably a silly price unless used, then again RS may do them in which case a silly price is guaranteed.
I am surprised we have not come up with 24V "corded or cordless". Just a central big pack you sit on the floor, so you get near the power of corded and get the convenience of cordless when needed. Then again, like inkjets the money is made on the batteries and not on the actual toolhead itself in many cases. Never investigated how easy (or not) it would be to change the 240V motor in a corded drill to a 24V motor. Truck battery might be a bit on the heavy side to carry around. Turning it on its head, a mains (or 110V) drill running via an invertor off batteries might be useful although expensive.
Cordless drills are so wimpy when you occasionally pick up that long forgotten worn out cheap corded.
I have ordered one "compatible" batt from one - supposedly 3Ah rather than the 2.6 of the originals. I will see how that works before deciding what to go for next. (one of mine is dead - the other two are working at reduced charge capacity)
An example of "small battery", but cheap...
- Hitachi Drill
- Hitachi Impact Driver
- 2x 1.5Ah L-Ion 12V, I bet it is 10.8V re part number
- Charger
- =A3139, KC10DFL
On the USA model it has a 10yr battery warranty, not checked the UK - and cheaper at 130$US or =A380 for anyone going to the USA in the next few weeks, at that price it gives the conventional brands a good kick. The "Pro" 14.4V L-Ion are twice as expensive but have 2x 3Ah.
1.7Ah would be a better size, as by that time most DIY have either destroyed it, finished it or are just knackered.The problem with names like Hitachi, Panasonic and others is their brand doesn't suit "tough powertools" re marketing, good if it means you can pick stuff up at better discounts than the more well known touted brands.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Grimly Curmudgeon saying something like:
Just browsing around, I came across a ten-cell AA holder which would easily attach to the drill body or on a belt clip. Given than I've got an AA stock of a couple of dozen, it's easy enough to have ten ready to go any time.
The cheapest place to buy tagged sub C cells is Alliexpress but make sure you buy ones with the highest Ah as these will last longer
Quite possibly these days, but possibly not 12 years ago when the question was asked!
In theory higher capacity will give longer run time, but there is much more to it than that.
Firstly some Chinese manufacturers will "inflate" (i.e. lie about) the Ah rating. Many won't come close to the stated capacity. So the sensible move it to buy a few samples and test them first.
For those that do have the capacity, you also need to test they can delver the required peak current. You tend to pay more for ones that can deliver a sustained 25A than ones that will only do 10A.
Lastly cell quality matters, in that some will give fewer total recharge cycles than others. So sticking to genuine cells from Samsung or someone similar is often a good idea.
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