nicad sub c cells?

Hello,

My cordless drill needs to be re celled. Can anyone recommend a good supplier of sub c nicads?

Thanks, Stephen.

Reply to
Stephen
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Be careful of Ebay. Some junk on there.

If you find one, I'd like to know.

They are the sort of thing you need to buy by the thousand to get a good price. I used to have a pro film camera (etc) battery fixer nearby, and they'd sell me them at a good price as a favour. But sadly closed down now.

You might do as well to have them professionally fixed. At least you get a warranty.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I was in the same position a while ago. I failed to find a supplier of decent cells at a price that made sense so bought a new drill driver with Li-Ion batteries instead - it's been an excellent buy. No more finding that the batteries are flat when you need the drill, fast charge, much more torque ... it was worth the cost. Now I need the right tuit to re-cell the Ni-Cd batteries for the old drillls with Li-Ion (with protection, before anyone shouts) cells. So much to do and so little time!

Reply to
<no_spam

I re-celled some dewalt 18v packs about 18 months ago, and although initially they were fine, after a few months their capacity was miniscule. I ended up buying new ones from 168onlinegoods on ebay - they are guaranteed one year and were so good I actually bought a second pair from the same seller:

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Andrew

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

/I re-celled some dewalt 18v packs about 18 months ago, and although initially they were fine, after a few months their capacity was miniscule. I ended up buying new ones from 168onlinegoods on ebay - they are guaranteed one year and were so good I actually bought a second pair from the same .../q

I faced same prob a year or so back with Makita drills. I modified the drills to take new Makita lithium battery packs charged by the correct but ebayed Makita charger. Haven't looked back since.

Anyone want the old (containing sub C I believe) Makita 18v nicds to pick over? Yours for postage costs...

Jim K

Reply to
JimK

I've recelled my excellent ~25 year old B&D screwdriver a few times. That uses shorter C cells. About 6 months ago, I tried to locate a supplier for someone else's drill, and a few suppliers told me they can no longer get NiCd cells made - they still have stock of the common sizes, but not the sub-C.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

I used some similar nickel metal hydride cells to redo an old mini vacuum some years ago, though of course the charger was pretty basic, it worked better than when it was new.Eventually the motor fell to bits though. Sulk. Built to a price I think the phrase is. Brian

Reply to
Brian-Gaff

this is why I like old tools

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Why not use NiMH cells, they are have a higher capacity and are more 'robust'. Finding some sizes with tags these days with tags isn't always easy, although CPC tend to be a good source.

Depending on how 'smart' the charger is, you may get away with just increasing the charge time in proportion to the capacity.

I 're-celled' some radio battery packs for an amateur radio handheld and they have lasted over a decade. The packs have an internal charge circuit which I modified to increase the charge current to match the new cells.

In another radio, I modified it to accept AA cells rather than sub C, as the NiMH AAs are higher in capacity than the sub C NiCads. I also added a constant current charger. Again, over a decade on, the NiMH cells are still good.

Reply to
Brian Reay

Radios tend to be a lot kinder on cells than power tools. And for decent performance, the peak current available is important. I doubt any AA sized NiMH can match a Sub-C for that.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

One issue with 'power' NiMH is they have substantial self-discharge - it's not unusual to go flat in a month. So you get out the power tool from the cupboard thinking 'I'll just...' and it's flat - you need to wait to recharge it. NiCd tend to retain charge better over long periods.

There are low self discharge NiMH, but I haven't seen them in industrial sizes (beyond memory retention cells). Maybe they exist, I don't know.

Theo

Reply to
Theo Markettos

I used these people about a year ago

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they still seem to have quite a range of sizes available, and they do bulk packs for 12, 14.4 or 18 V batteries which makes the cost slightly more reasonable.

Reply to
CB

yep, NiCd has more or less disappeared. NiHM is very similar but without the major problems of NiCd, ie rapid self discharge and the "memory effect".

I've recelled a couple of times an ancient but the best powered screw driver I've ever used. 1st time was NiCds didn't last long, 2nd was NiMH still going strong after a good few years.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Against NiCd I've found the opposite.

NiCd based drill is in that mode ATM. With the self discharge period about a week.

Recelled (Tagged, plain card sleeve, "industrial"), Sub-C NiCD based screwdriver "just works", even when not used for a month or more.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Actually NiMh is worse at self discharge than NiCd and is also more damaged by being flattened.

NiCd disappeared because of cadmium, which is a metal that it is politically incorrect to use, and because NiMh is a bit more energy dense.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Must admit to not having found a vast difference between the two. More difference between different makes of the same type.

Really, if something really is used only occasionally, cordless is an extremely expensive 'convenience'. And actually a time waster if you have to wait while the batteries charge.

Trouble is it really is a gamble buying replacement cells - given how much they influence the performance of most tools.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

What about internal resistance? NiCd is very low, and I suspect many power tools relied on that. Never measured NiMH.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Consider replacing with NiMhy cells as they are much more readily available, especially in the Sub C size and especially good quality ones. Also, Nicads have to be specially re-cycled at considerable expense to remove the very nasty cadmium.

NiMhy cells have a much less definite 'peak' than Nicads and so a NiMhy capable charger must be used. Additionally, if you charge them too slowly they won't show a peak and the charger will just keep going. There have been fires. I recommend a charger with a temperature sensor to cut off the charge (in addition to the delta peak cut off).

When we used to use NiMhy cells for high current aeromodelling applications the GP 3300 sub C cells were a favourite, capable of many hundreds of amps when warm. I don't know about self discharge, though, as we used to fast charge them for every flight and they were pretty much empty after each one. We all use Lipo cells now (mainly because they are so much lighter).

- Mike

Reply to
Mike

Can't say I've noticed any in use preformance degredation between NiCd and NiMH in the screwdriver so I'd guess that the internal resistances are similar.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

period

That can be worked around with a bit of common sense. You know the batteries are iffy, so when you start the job that needs that tool the first thing you do is check it or put it on charge anyway. then you get on collecting all the other bits you need and preparation by which time teh tool will have picked up enough chrage to be useable and can b put pack on charge during the task.

I find the GP industrial things from CPC etc satisfactory and good value.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

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