Will we ever see 'universal' cordless batteries.

We have De-Walt, Mastercraft, Bosch and Craftsman batteries; all different. Most of the batteries or the associated chargers are 'shot'! And are incompatible with each other.

Just wondering if we will ever see a 'standard' range of (rechargeable) cordless tool batteries; along same lines as ............... 'D', 'C', 'AA' ...... etc.?

And just looking at a Ryobi catalog ............... advertising that their battery powers 40 different tools! Bet that's a different battery pack again!

BTW, last night, fiddling around with a DC supply to power some older

12 volt cordless drill found that they work fine on anything from 10 to 18 volts. (With adequate amperage of course). It's always the batteries (or occasionally the chargers) that are gone; the drills are fine. **

Haven't measured yet; but hypothesizing: If a 12 volt drill takes say

8 amps (96 watts) at full load before stalling that means that a (good) 12 volt 3.5 ampere hour pack might last 20 mins. to half an hour? That makes sense?

** Maybe battery packs are one of those self-defeating schemes like 'too small' printer cartridges or 'sub standard tires' as original equipment on new cars? Deliberate and planned obsolescence?

Anyway we are planning using two substantial UPS supplies for our several computers; using old truck batteries. That means we will have

12 and 24 volts in significant amounts of current for occasional use, adjacent to main work bench! So our battery packs may end up with disconnected cells and DC plug in cords ready to go at a moments notice. Kinda gets away from the idea of cordless tools but saves our few good De-Walts etc. for which we have several up to date battery packs, for outdoor and portable work!

Any suggestions or better ideas welcomed.

Reply to
terry
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There is standarization inside the packs. They all use the same type of cell.

Selling batteries is a source of income. It makes a lot of sense for something like the Ryobi setup where one battery can power many tools in the brand, but you'll never see interchange amongst brands as long as they make a profit on batteries. Once you have a couple of tools in the brand you'll likely stick with them for convenience also.

OTOH, places like

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solve the replacement problem by rebuilding the old packs for you.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

I doubt it. Same deal with cell phones. About a zillion different type of batteries. Compare that to FRS walkie talkies which take AA or AAA cells. Cameras can be bad, with AA, CR2, CR123, and so on. I'd like to see some standardizing on cordless tools. I doubt I'll ever see it.

Years ago, I found a Sears cordless 12 volt drill on the trash pile. Brought it home, and as expected the batteries aren't any good. I kept it for a couple years, and planned to wire it to zipcord and a lighter plug. I could then run it off a vehicle battery jumper pack. I never quite got that project done. But, I do have a couple 12 volt Harbor Freight drills for when the batteries die.

The newer NiMH cells in AA size have good storage capacity. Some up to 2600 mA hours. I'd like to see cordless tools on AA cells. Most of them run on sub C, with 1600 mA hours. But, alas, I'll probably either never see one, or have to build my own.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Yes; gather expensively and have myself rebuilt a battery pack using 'good' cells from another pack!

Also OTOH I have a an old AC hand drill bought at a K mart for around $8 on sale some 40+ years ago. And a large 230 volt drill bought in

1953 still going strong!
Reply to
terry

Yes! It will happen on the same day that we see universal ink cartridges for computer printers.

Reply to
norminn

Yes, what a lot of folks probably don't realize is that a lot of manufacturers make nothing on the original sale and depend on the sale of accessories/spares/replacement parts to make a buck.

Reply to
George

How about a battery operated battery charger?

Reply to
Van Chocstraw

primecell does a excellent job at rebuilding packs the cells are often better capacity than the ones that originally came in the pack.

connections are welded on, now go price new high capacity cells with attached leads.

primecell is very affordable

Reply to
hallerb

It's just like them damned printers. They next to give the things away, but they ream you on the ink.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

Blame some dude 100 years ago named Gillette, for that business model. The cell phone companies sure have taken his advice to heart, as have the printer companies.

-- aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers

My first color printer was $400 in 1985 dollars (about $800 today's money). Today you can get one that scans, makes copies and faxes for $39. But they still get you for the ink.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Which will be a couple weeks after the Second Coming of the Undecieded for atheists and agnostics?

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Standard Oil, giving away oil lamps in China? Then, charging for the lamp oil.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I have two. One plugs into the lighter socket or any 12VDC source and recharges NiMH AA and AAA batteries and the other uses a lighter socket or any 12VDC source and recharges AA, AAA, C, D and 9volt Nicad cells.

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Maybe. Seems like folk have got their heads together and are working on universal phone chargers now in the interests of saving the planet - and if they can manage that, maybe they can do the same for battery packs. Might be another 20 years away, though...

Reply to
Jules

When I last moved, I couldn't find the charger for my (very good) Milwaukee 12v drill. I ended up buying a black and decker 12v on sale for about $15 at WalMart and used jumper wires from it's charger to charge the Milwaukee batteries. The B&D was actually useful at times for simple things, so when lowes put their "Firestorm" branded version of the same batteries on closeout I bought 2 @ under $10 a piece. I'm going to open up one and put the individual batteries into a Milwaukee battery case.

Reply to
Tony

I've only had HP printers and I have excellent results changing the default setting to "Fast Draft". It prints well for most everything I print. It used about half or less the ink and that works great for me.

I have seen other brands that print too light on fast draft/rough draft/... but on HP it really works great.

Reply to
Tony

Stop and think for a moment. How much are you paying per ounce for INK? The way HP sells it, it is more expensive then good perfume. It's INK, for cry eye. The same stuff that prints newspapers, and is sold by the barrel. A few pennies per ounce, until HP gets a hold of it. Then it's $75 an ounce.

Why do you suppose HP makes a different cartridge for almost every model printer? It's to keep them as proprietary as possible to keep the prices ASTRONOMICAL. Many of these "different" cartriges are different only by a small bump or groove that allows them to only fit one model. It's not by accident.

Reply to
salty

So... do you use a computer printer or do you type everything?

Reply to
Tony

I don't marvel about how I get great savings by using draft mode while paying $75 an ounce for INK. Even the lowest rung of laser printers is vastly cheaper per page than the most economical inkjets.

Reply to
salty

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