3 PC Drill Battery packs failed nearly at once.

[Maxwell Lol]

I have a Porter Cable 9.6V drill. It came with three battery packs. I usually use two and switch between them. It's in my handyman's bag, and I use it once every few weeks.

Well, when I plugged the battery pack into the carger unit, pack #1 flashed both red and green LED's. That means the battery's no good.

So I charge up the third pack, while using pack #2. So far so good.

I recharged #2 and #3 a couple of times. I think.

So now, #2 flashes red and green while charging. So i popped in #3, and it too fails. Why would two packs fail at the same time?

It seems like all three failed within two month's timeframe (as I said, I don;t use it much).

Is it the battery packs? Or the charger?

It seems strange that all three would fail at about the same time.

Since the charger is $80, and two battery packs are also about $80, it's expensive to guess wrong. I didn't like the drill, so I'm thinking a new one around Cristmas...

I was just wondering if others have seen this (multiple battery packs failing at same time), or is it just me?

[evodawg]

If this is a new PC then I would take it to your nearest PC authorized service center and try to trade up to a Dewalt. I also would not purchase anymore PC products since Black and Decker has destroyed the brand. PC is now a worthless piece of junk and I say this from prior experience. Bought a PC 18volt drill a few months back and it failed 2 weeks into it's life. Took it to a service center and was told they could not get parts for it. They ended up giving me a new Dewalt. You might look at the new Makita's they are light and have great power. I use a cordless everyday and am very happy with the Makita and the Dewalt but the Dewalt is heavy. Good Luck

[krw]

Look into the Bosch. I have (older) Makitas, (older) PC, and a few Dewalts (12V and 2x18V) and Boschs (12V) I bought in the couple of years. The Bosch are far and away the best of the bunch. If I didn't have the 18V Dewalts I'd certainly go for the bigger Bosch drivers. I'll give the 12V Dewalts to my son the next time we visit.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Not to me. They were made about the same time and will fail about the same time. Get them rebuilt by

or similar and they can be better than news.

[Maxwell Lol]

It's not new. I got it about 4-5 years ago. This was when the wreck was recommending PC. Since then, PC's reputation has gone downhill.

I had a Makita before, and I liked it. But the batteries died, so I got a new drill with a 3-pack.

But the cheapest Makita on HD is $185 (14.4V Ni-MN). The LiON is $200 (with the 15% off, this is $170.) But it has a 1.5 aH battery (I can't tell if it has 2 or not).

After reading the rant about LIOn batteries, I'm not very confident that the $170 is money well spent.

It's a shame that the costs to replace batteries are nearly equivalent to getting a new drill with 2 batteries. Are we at the age where drills are like razors, and the real money is made in the blades/batteries?

[jo4hn]

[snip]

Take the batteries AND the charger to a PC service center and have them checked out. You didn't say how old the drill is; that is whether it was made before thae brand was sold to B&D. It is possible that they would fail in a cluster. If the charger checks out, the batteries can be refurbished by primecell or a competitor. Good luck. charged up and ready (for a nap), jo4hn

[patrick]

Have a multimeter handy? Check the battery and see what the voltage is.I had a similar problem where there was one cell that was dead. The charger recognized this as a defect and wouldn't allow the charge. I touched the contact tabs on the battery with 12 volts from another battery (+ to +. - to-) for a bit of time. Nothing like a long time (perhaps a couple seconds) then took another reading on the multimeter. The voltage was then close to what the battery should have been. The charger then went ahead and charged the battery normally. I don't think this works with nimh cells, only with the nicad type cell. As an aside, I've also gone and bought a cheapy battery from harbor freight and cannibalized the individual cells to cob together a pack for a dewalt battery pack. It was way less than the capacity of the original pack but took a charge and was used as a backup by a neighbor for a couple yrs before that too died. The h freight pack was all of

10 dolla and the dewalt pack was screwed not boded together so that made the replacing of the cells straightforward. I ended up soldering as opposed to welding the cell tabs together and it worked fine (though they weren't dropped or abused). I hate the idea of tossing a usable drill simply because of the bad batteries. Hells bells, you could probably make up a connector and run the 9.6 drill off of 12 volts dc. Pat

[Maxwell Lol]

Hmm. At Home Depot, the only cordless Bosch is $284. My wife won't spend that much on me.

Let's check Amazon and Lowes

I see several on Amazon Bosch PS20-2A 12-Volt Max Lithium-Ion Pocket Driver with 2 Batteries $103.56 Bosch PS30-2A 12-Volt Max 3/8-Inch Drill Driver $131.47 Bosch PS40-2A 12-Volt Max Lithium-Ion Impact Driver $141.47

Lowes at the first two at a cheaper price than Amazon! $99 and $129. I'm not sure if I need the Impact Driver, and Lowes doesn't carry it.

I like the 2-year warrantee on the batteries. And my wife likes to buy it in a store.

This looks like a strong contender. Thanks!

[Maxwell Lol]

Thanks for the link. It looks like 2 rebuilt 9.6V NiCD batteries would be $50+$10 (shipping).

[Maxwell Lol]

I'll try this. Thanks!