Price of Batteries

[Gary Dean]

I'll keep this short. I live in UK. I have a cordless Bosch 24v combie drill. Gets heavy daily use. 3 years old, batteries no longer hold charge. Searched internet for UK suppliers of replacement batteries. I need 2. Best price - £120 each - check my maths, that makes £240 for two new batteries. Searched internet again for new drill. Came up with the same Bosch drill - latest version - with three, yes three, batteries thrown in for only £264. So I bought a new drill.

Whats going on? - does this occur in USA?

[Greg O]

Yes it is the same here. I have tossed more than one good cordless tool because the replacement batteries were almost as much as the tool. I just tossed a 12volt DeWalt drill, Batteries were about $50 each, a new drill of simular model can be had for around $125. I have a great deal now on a cordless drill. The company I work for supplies one for me for my job. It is in my work truck, which is in my driveway. Greg

[Gfretwell]

Yup the same thing here. The only use I have found for these tools, when you buy a new one for the cost of the battery, is to put a long cord on it with a cigarette lighter plug. Then you can use it on your boat or in your car. I have a 9v that I have been using on 12v and waiting for it to blow up. So far so good.

[Morgans]

Yep. I say, go to a RC supplier, like tower hobbies, and buy new cells, cut your pack apart, and replace them yourself. Cut the case with a cutoff wheel in a dremmell, and put it back together with J B Weld.

[John Keeney]

Heck fire, mail me your old DeWalt junk, I'll give it a good home. Oh, send the old battery too, I'll need the case to rebuilt it.

[DJ Delorie]

Or buy a cheap drill - my battery packs have screws and disassemble easily, and I plan on replacing the cells when they go bad (15 3Ah NiMH SC's = $45).

However, I did buy a smart charger from

- a Triton. I can charge my drill in under 20 minutes :-) It hooks on to a 12v battery, which is a plus and a minus - at home I have to go to the garage to charge the battery, but if I'm somewhere else, I don't have to find a 120v outlet to charge it. It also has cycling and testing built in, so I'll *know* when the batteries are ready to be replaced. And the one charger can charge any of my rechargable tools.

Cheapest cells I've found so far are at

A 2100 mAh SubC NiCd is only $4, or $20 for a 10 pack.

[Mark & Juanita]

Yep, I have a 14.4 v Porter Cable, about 4 years old. The batteries have started to die, one won't hold a charge, the other doesn't last very long. Best price I can find for a single battery is $54, for two, that's $128. I could have replaced it with a Porter Cable for $169 (I wound up "upgrading" to a Milwaukee for a bit more). I decided that the batteries were not worth it because I had already shaken some plastic pieces out of the PC a couple of years ago. I think they were associated with a part that guides the forward/reverse switch. Although apparently not critical to operation since I have been using the drill for a couple of years after the part broke, I did not have a warm fuzzy that the drill would last long enough to justify the battery purchase.

[Charles]

You might check with:

[john moorhead]

It might be an urban legend, but I think this came up here before... someone posted that HF's replacement battery packs can be cannibalized ala dremel, solder, and hot melt glue to install HF batteries in your old kaput battery pack.

Their 12v battery pack is 1300Mh and is 8 bucks...

Moorhead Lakeport, CA

[Phisherman]

[Ray R]

An even better deal I bought a Homier 12 drill for $9.95.

[dicko]

The local Ace Hardware store (McHenry, IL) has a 2 pack of Dewalt 18V DW9096 batteries for $99.99. Thats $50 a battery. Haven't seen them that cheap, even on ebay. They're 2.4 Ah. Needless to say I snapped up a pair.

I believe the 14V batteries were 2 for $79.99.

[Upscale]

I just had two batteries for my 10 year old Milwaukee cordless rebuilt. Cost me $60 each (Canadian) but it was far cheaper than buying new ones. Drill works great. It had been so long since the batteries had held a charge that I'd all but given up on the drill. Now, it's all I'm using again.

[yeshess]

I was wondering, seeing that you guy are so knowledgeable, if you can give me some insights as to where I can find a recharger for my 18v crafstman saw.

TIA

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

Barry

[P©WÉ®T©©LMAN]

At Sears presumably.

Jon