lithium battery cordless tool user question- the charger

[patrick]

After reading a bit on the care and feeding of a lithium battery,it appears the battery would benefit from slow charging as opposed to the fast charge that all the supplied chargers I've looked at thus far, supply. Is anyone aware of a charger they received with their tool that allows that option? F ailing to have that, has anyone managed to connect a tool battery to a inte lligent lithium charger and managed a charge. I'm guessing that the circui try on board the battery might not allow that. Thanks Pat

[RobertMacy]

Don't care now that Rockwell supplies a 'lifetime' warranttee on their battery - reason I sprung for the tool to begin with, plus supplied TWO batteries and charger station, so never run out of power.

[RobertMacy]

YES! bought it from Rockwell directly [prefer direct contact], bought the one with all the tools. You can't believe how much wear I've given that thing already. The second feature [besides the lifetime batteries] was the SHAPE! it fits perfectly into my hand, light weight, and without the bulky ?? on most of these cordless, I could get into some very tight places. when that didn't quite work there was the extension and there was the right angle, ...etc

I've had it break off the head of a rusted/seized screw, can't get much better than that.

[DerbyDad03]

How does the performance of a 12v lithium-ion powered impact driver compare to an 18v NiCd non-impact drill-driver?

I have a DeWalt 18v NiCd drill-driver (non-impact). It's a few years old, so the batteries have quite a number of charge cycles on them. I also use the batteries in my DeWalt boom box for hours upon hours, so the batteries are quite well used. I'm not seeing any significant issues with the batteries just yet, but I haven't used it on any major projects recently.

I'll be replacing the railings on my deck next year and was wondering if I should get an impact driver. The Amazon price on that 3rill would make it a great gift from the kids.

Will it outperform my 18v DeWalt or will I be disappointed?

[krw]

There is quite a difference. Impact drivers are easier on the screw heads. I don't know if I'd want my only impact driver to be a 12V, though. It was my first and worked well (and convinced me to buy the

18V).

I certainly recommend the impact driver, though suggest an 18V for this application.