Where the hell does Dewalt list the battery specs?

I called Dewalt at 1.800.433.9258

It took them about an hour to call me back with the specs which are DC9098 1.2Ah 18V NiCd battery DW9099 1.7Ah 18V NiCd battery DC9099 1.7Ah 18V NiCd battery DC9096 2.4Ah 18V NiCd battery

Since you can't get the batteries from Dewalt they suggest you recycle the tools. If you still want to use your 18 volt Dewalt tools they suggest you buy the Dewalt DCB205 (or DCB201) 20V battery and the DCB1104 20V battery charger and then connect it all together with the Dewalt DCA1820 adapter.

DCB201 1.5Ah LiMH DCB205 5.0Ah LiMH

There are places that rebuild battery packs. Cheaper than OEM and all new cells. May be worth checking

Yeah, I agree it's absurd to buy Dewalt 20V batteries plus a charger plus an adaptor when all we really need is a rebuilt/aftermarket 18V battery.

I saw aftermarket batteries on Amazon & rebuilding outfits too, so I'm not sure which is a better deal - new or rebuilt 18 Volt Dewalt batteries.

I bought a new aftermarket battery through Amazon. It worked but the electrical contacts were flaky. I finally tossed the 18v stuff. The 20v Li-ion tools are much better anyway.

Around Christmas time you can get a new drill and driver kit with batteries just about as cheap as just the batteries.

I have a Dewalt drill that uses the nicads and probably only charged the 2 batteries about 20 times each and they will not hold a charge . Probably becase of self disdcharge as they needed charging about every time I used them. I do not think the Li-ion batteries do that.

Bought the combination kit a few years back instead of new nicads.

That doesn't work so well when you're invested in multiple tools from the same family.

I agree with the famous Sherlock Holmes writer above that some of us are invested in a ton of Dewalt 18V tools where I, personally, feel let down by Dewalt that they don't even give us a choice on 18 volt NiMH replacements.

I picked up an 18V supposedly 3.6Ah aftermarket battery today which works. a. I charged it in the DW9116 18V NiCd charger and that 'seemed' to work. b. I used it in all my 18V Dewalt tools and that 'seemed' to work also.

I just wonder though, because I don't have the experience you guys have, whether the DeWalt Nickel Cadmium charger really knows how to handle these

How can the nickel cadmium charger handle nickel metal hydride batteries?

I've used rebuilts - and most were better than the originals (assume a good rebuilder using "prime" cells)

They are very similar in their charging requirements. Just do NOT leave the Nimh batteries on a nicad charger long term (like for days) as it could overcharge them. When the indicator indicates full charge remove from charger. If left on they will overheat