What is the story of renewing old tool batteries? On EBAY I see people are selling info on how to renew your tired batteries. Is this for real? How is it done? Or is this just BS?
Russell
Allegan Michigan
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Anything you 'do' to the old batteries to magically bring them back to life is hokum.
In contrast, replacing the insides can work. I have had generally good results with Batteries Plus in getting my batteries renewed.
What is the point of the battery rebuilders these days?You can find just about any name brand brand new battery for $50 or less on ebay these days, and most of the rebuilders charge $35 + to rebuild.With all of the combo deals scattered around, folks are breaking up combos to sell by the peice and batteries are everywhere for cheap.Sheet - I saw 2 packs of Milwaukee 18 volts for as low as $75 once, and Bosch will sell you the Blue-core 18 volt batteries at their service center for $40 each new if you are within the 3 year warranty from the original purchase date.JT
Opened the paper just before Thanksgiving. Lowes was selling DeWalt Compact 18v drills, two 18v batteries and a charger for 97.00 bucks. HD was doing the same thing for 92.00 bucks. I think the last 18v DeWalt battery I bought was about $85.00 with tax--one. Had too much to do over the Thanksgiving weekend but checked both places out today and everything sold out--surprise, surprise. Tyr
Seems like a good deal but I believe the 18-volts you get in that drill package are the lower level ones. Not the same as the 18 volt XRP's that you buy as a replacements ( lower amp hrs).Live by the sword, die by the sword....choose your sword wisely.
Could be. I called before going and asked if they would fit my existing 18v DeWalts. The answer was yes but nothing was said about the technology and they were gone when I got there so I couldn't visually determine what they were.
The point is $35 vs $50. And you get fresh cells vs batteries that have been in a warehouse for several years, often higher capacity than the original.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
has anyone ever had the problem of a specific battery for a cordless tool becoming obsolete? i would think that would be good reason to try to rejuvenate what you've got. There are also ecological issues with discarding old batteries.
Batteries can be rebuilt long after new replacements are unavailable. And the battery rebuilding places (reputable ones, at least) presumably recycle the old cells properly.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
that's great news!
Of course, the rebuildability of the battery varies. Some are sealed in epoxy and are a lost cause, some have screws on the case and are reasonably easy to handle.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
There was a thread a month or so ago on this. PT Barnum sold me one of those books(;-). There are some interesting tips in there. The battery thing ws to take a fully charged battery of a higher voltage (only one to three steps) and wire it up in jump start fashion. You flash it something like 2-3 times per second for 10 seconds. Using 12v for up thru 9.6 and 24v for 9.7-19.9.
I think most of the more sophisticated charger using "tune-up" or "soft-start" tech do something similar. I had two 12 craftsman and a "soft-start" charger that just kept flashing saying soft-start. I tried it with a 14.4v and one woke up and one did not.
There are a few tricks that can restore life to batteries that have gone prematurely bad, but they only work occasionally. You certainly can rebuild batteries (or have them rebuilt) with new cells, and often the cost is about 2/3 of the cost of a new battery.
Places like Batteries Plus do the rebuilding, and I'm sure there are a bunch of mail-order places.
people are selling info
You get it free here.
You can zap the dendrites (google the term for all the technology associates) out of NiCads pretty consistently, the problem is than where there is one there are many.
A battery that has had the dendrites fused open will start having a high self discharge rate again within a few weeks'
When I was young and poor, (but designing NiCd battery pack for the 707 emergency escape lights) , I zapped dendrites on home batteries till they would not zap anymore.
Now I have more than $4.97 to spend at a time, I buy the 18V Harbor freight NiCd packs, and use the 1.2 A-hr cells there to rebuild my own (Makita and DeWalt) 12 V and 18 V batt packs.
Only trick to remember is NEVER solder directly to a NiCd cell (heat damage) but just to the sopot welded on tabs.
Good luck - DO NOT PAY ANY sheethed on 'dabay' for advice.
PS: forgot to add that my method of burning open dendrites was to touch a 12 V charger to an individual sub-c cell for about 1/2 second. If you get a good spark and the voltage reads over 1.2V after that, you are good. If you do NOT get a good spark and the cell reads < 0.8V after, recycle the cell, it's DEAD.
edit 2 - by recycle I mean "throw it away' responsibly, dont try to get it to work again. A few years back the reps from a Russian NiCd battery company that made the batteries for MIR visited our company. They said they could make all the cells we needed, but for raw material shortages in Russia. Old/bad NiCd cells were the best 'raw material', essentially used as 'ore'., totally re-refined down to the basic metals.
Edited 11/26/2007 2:37 pm ET by junkhound
Edited 11/26/2007 2:41 pm ET by junkhound
Is there a trick to opening these batteries?You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.
Marv
Bigger hammer.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
Is there a trick to opening these batteries
Assume you mean the battery pack - Judicious use of the bandsaw, stickem back together with a simple hot glue gun.
I like the older DW 12 V units, 6 screws.
I generally just pry with a knife blade, if they don't unscrew. But every unit is a little different.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader