Replacing Batteries on power Tools

I have a 14.4 volt cordless drill I bought about 2-3 years ago, branded 'Marksman'. It came with two batteries, one of which is kaput & the other on the way out. I'm having difficulties finding replacement batteries, and I wondered if anyone could help in locating a source, or how I could find a generic battery that might fit?

It's been a reasonable drill/scredriver until now and it would be cheap enough to buy the same kit on Ebay or Amazon for £20-30, but I object to the complete waste in doing that: chucking away a perfectly good drill/charger/case, all of which are quite hefty, seems like a terrible thing to do!...

Thanks in advance for any help..

Mark

Reply to
Mark Nicholls
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AFAIK, there isn't a generic battery pack for drills - not only are battery packs often physically non-interchangeable, many (even on cheap drills) have more then cells in the the "battery", they also have thermal sensors used in the charging process.

Plus, if you open up the pack, you will find that the cell contact strips are welded to the cells and the cell physical arrangement varies from pack to pack. So replacing cells individually from, say, a different pack is problematic.

However, all is not lost! Disconnect the battery contacts in the pack and run a pair of reasonably thick wires out, connected to the pack connector. Connect those to a 12v sealed gel lead acid deep discharge battery. Put that in a bum-bag, small rucksac or whatever. Result? A drill /almost/ as wire-free as the original, but will run for hours and hours and hours (depending on battery size). Unfortunately the drill needs to have the original battery pack in for balance, so it won't be any lighter. A 12v 7AH battery can be had for

Reply to
Palindrome

A good tip would be to scour catalogues such as Argos, Tesco Direct, Screwfix, Toolstation, etc for pictures of cordless drills that are identical to your own. There are of course companies that produce drills (and other tools) under many different names. I have a cordless screwdriver from Argos under the 'Challenge' brand. It is identical to my son's cordless screwdriver branded JCB.

Kev

Reply to
Uno-Hoo!

Trouble is the batteries make up most of the cost of the tool - and the cells might not have been that good in the first place.

Take my Erbauer Screwfix combi - I now have 4 not-very-healthy old-style (is there a clue here?) 18V batteries so its gonna have to go.

It is possible to get tagged cells from the likes of RS

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to make up new packs but they are expensive so it's rarely worth it PLUS if the charger isn't that good, it could send the new cells the same way.

I did change the two cells in my Bosch cordless screwdriver some years ago for heavy duty Sanyo cells and they've been great - but with 12 in a 14.4V pack, you can only take the principle so far!

HTH Midge.

Reply to
Midge

What brilliant ingenuity! But a bit complex for my needs and abilities, I fear!..

Mark

Reply to
Mark Nicholls

How about this company;

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used them for work.... trouble is they didnt fit cells that could cope with fastcharge 8 years ago.. causing premature failure...they have maybe changed now?... worth asking

Reply to
BigGirlsBlouse

Many thanks to you and everyone else for your suggestions: re-cell look interesting, but for the price of them re-building my single 14.4v battery, it looks like I can buy a complete new drill kit of my original brand with 2 x 24v batteries from Amazon

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. Or Wickes has an 18v powerdrill with one battery for £30:
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Amazing and quite ridiculous really: no wonder the planet's going to hell...

Mark

Reply to
Mark Nicholls

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That's bulk buying for you. Buy cells by the tens of thousands and it would be economic. Relatively few single, tagged, cells are shipped to the UK or sold here.

If the cells hadn't been heavy and hence shipping costs significant, I would have suggested buying them direct form Hong Kong/China.

-- Sue

Reply to
Palindrome

I don't know how much you paid for it but if it was a mid range model and you have used it heavily, then my guess is that it's paid for itself so why not save yourself any hassle, and just buy a new one, they are comparitively cheap anyway unless you want a DW class of unit. (this is the age of obsolecence!)

Reply to
AJH

I think all roads lead to that conclusion - I can now buy a more powerful unit at less than the price I originally paid for my old unit, and less than the price of a replacement battery, seemingly...

Mark

Reply to
Mark Nicholls

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