Re: Makita cordless drill battery, useful life?

[Gfretwell]

Even though it's six years or so old, we

>didn't use it a whole lot.

That is what kills these batteries. I am still using the Makita I got as a retirement gift in 1996 but the difference is I use it all the time. The batteries are not as strong as they used to be but it still works.

[Steve]

[Swingman]

batteries to better than factory spec. I've used them twice now and am still impressed. My rebuilt batteries are stronger and keep a charge longer than they did when brand new.

[Fred McClellan]

Yes, for a poorly-maintained NiCd battery.

My Makita battery packs are about four years old, and I work 'em hard five days a week.

Plenty of NiCd battery maintenance information at

site focuses on radio controlled model aircraft flight systems, but the NiCd information itself comes from a retired GE/Energizer NiCd battery engineer.

Cheers, Fred McClellan the dash plumber at mindspring dot com