Cordless drill/drivers

scoutcub · Aug 28, 2010

I had a craftsman 18V 5 piece set that lasted well for several years under lots of work/abuse. Batteries finally started dying last year, and couple of them wouldn't even charge. Made the mistake of taking them to a battery shop to get em rebuilt, they lasted under a year and went dead again.....and it wasn't cheap rebuilding them. I searched long and hard, found a like-new 5 piece DeWalt 18V set for $300 on Ebay. Bought 2 additional batteries for $50, I should be set for several more years!

DougM · Aug 29, 2010

scoutcub said:
I had a craftsman 18V 5 piece set that lasted well for several years under lots of work/abuse. Batteries finally started dying last year, and couple of them wouldn't even charge. Made the mistake of taking them to a battery shop to get em rebuilt, they lasted under a year and went dead again.....and it wasn't cheap rebuilding them. I searched long and hard, found a like-new 5 piece DeWalt 18V set for $300 on Ebay. Bought 2 additional batteries for $50, I should be set for several more years!

Well I have been doing buss. with a co. in Wooster , Ohio and the are very good to me.

voltmanbatteries.com

Doug

WH401 · Aug 29, 2010

Dargo said:
No they are not. I have 4 of the DeWalt 18v flashlights that don't have the long twisty neck on them and the LI batteries will NOT fit those flashlights. They will fit the flex neck DeWalt flashlights, but I generally like using the others better. Since cheapo Ryobi makes a clone to the DeWalt 18v flashlight I like, I bought some of those to go with my "recon" Ryobi setup. I now prefer their flashlights over DeWalt since DeWalt screwed up and didn't make the new LI battery compatible with their model flashlight I like.

I believe there are 4 tools that DeWalt didn't make compatible, not sure why though. One of those is the flash light that has the swivel head to allow it to point in a number of directions, which I do have and dislike the fact that I can't use it any more. Though, I do also have the flashlight with the snake-like neck to it that can be bent into any shape to put light anywhere and it does work with the new li-ion batteries. Everything else I have works fine with the new batteries too.

scoutcub · Aug 29, 2010

DougM said:
Well I have been doing buss. with a co. in Wooster , Ohio and the are very good to me.

voltmanbatteries.com

Doug

That's good to hear - I had been told by a few people that they could be rebuilt, and cheaper than purchasing a new battery, guess either they didn't do it right or I just had bad luck, I think it was around 40-45 bucks each to be rebuilt, and they all died again within a year, even with little use. For a few bucks more the new replacement batteries on Ebay aren't much more.
Thanks!

tglass · Aug 29, 2010

Brother told me one time of a battery replacement place he goes to in Omaha that opens your old case and replaces the batteries at a fraction of the cost. Will have to check on the source and see if anyone has heard of them. I've quit using recharchable batteries simply because of the time between use and the battery is always dead unless I leave it on the charger constantly. Heard that will shorten the lifetime.