Replies

1. 
   swenson | Oct 22, 2010 02:09am | #1

   new bat

   I had the same problem.  I liked the size of the 12V deWalt so much I just bought another battery.  I didn't know you could rebuild them.  I don't think I treated the first pair of 12V bats very well.  Every time I used the drill I put a bat from the charger into the drill and swapped out the one in the drill into the charger.  They never got a chance to discharge and were always stored in the charger.  I'm being better to the new one.  I did see a little Makita that looked handy in tight spots, but bought the battery anyway.

1. 
   jimmiem | Oct 22, 2010 05:13am | #2

   lots of blogs will give you instructions on rebuilding power tool batteries.  Just involves a little soldering. Bunch of sub 'C' batteries in the pack which are soldered together.  Rainy day project.  There are also places one can send batteries to and they will do the rebuilding for less $ than a new batttery.  There are aslo aftermarket batteries for half the price of Dewalt's own.

   Thank You

2. 
   JohnWW | Oct 27, 2010 07:03pm | #3

   Rebuild

   Most battery powered tools seem to have a long life, so, if the drill is working well, just replacing the batteries, if it can be done at a reasonable cost is probably the best way to go.

   I would be inclined to have the work done by an outfit like Voltman, replacing the batteries yourself can be quite a project especially if you don't have experience with soldering.

1. 
   jimmiem | Oct 29, 2010 01:13pm | #5

   Rebuild Batteries

   Dewalt's replacement batteries are pricey so I'm buying their 12 volt Impact Driver.  The impact driver batteries will fit my drill. Everybody recommends having an impact driver so who am I to disagree.

   I would like to have the weak batteries rebuilt.  You mentioned Voltman so I'm assuming their work is good.

   Thank You  

3. 
   gpssam | Oct 28, 2010 11:49am | #4

   what I did

   I had the same, weak battery, issue several years ago. Two OEM batteries cost all most as much as a new drill with two batteries and a charger. So, I bought the new drill kit of the same voltage as my old one. It has been very handy having two cordless drills. I often have a drill bit in one and a driver in the other. 

1. 
   jimmiem | Oct 29, 2010 01:15pm | #6

   I'm following your lead, but instead of another drill/driver I'm getting Dewalt's 12 volt Impact Driver whose battieries will also work on my drill.

   Thank you

1. 
   Tinkerer3 | Nov 12, 2010 12:38am | #8

   With a predjudice against them to start with, I had never bothered looking much into battery operated tools.  But when a nephew came with a 19.2 volt PC drill/saw combo and said it was mine I felt obligated to pay him for them.  Worked pretty good until the charger went bad.  Bought new charger.  Then a Friend had his drill stolen so bought his charger also at greatly reduced price.  The batteries went bad so bought one new battery.  Drill went bad so had Lowes send it in to be fixed.  When I got it back it smelled like motor burning out when I use it.  Never did use the saw.  I know everyone raves about this stuff but I just haven't had that good of luck.  So now I just don't know what to do.  With all the good reports, maybe I should close my eyes and start over again.  I wish you well. 

2. 
   tkarlmann | Nov 09, 2010 09:18am | #7

   Two Cordless drills NOT required!!

   I have, and really enjoy, my 14.4V Black&Decker Firestorm drill/driver.  Along with all the usual features other than impact, it negates the need to have one tool for drilling and another for driving screws.  It does this using a unique removable drill chuck.  Drill your hole, press the quick-release and remove the chuck -- with drill bit still attached -- and underneath is your choice of driver bit!

   I use this all the time and find it to be the most useful drill I own.  (I also have Dewalt 18v system and the older Makita 9.6v system)  It is just the right weight that I can use it with just one hand (unlike the Dewalt 18v).

   Give it a look..

   PS:  I find that cordless impact drivers pale in comparison to my corded Milwaukee impact driver for concrete and masonry.  I would not spend any $$ on them.  Rent the Milwaukee when you need it for impact driving.

4. 
   Idonno | Sep 04, 2011 04:50pm | #9

   I've Been in the same boat. I tried my local battery store (Batteries Plus) and was very dissatisfied with the price and results. Their rebuild lasted only 6 months.

   Since I own a lot of Dewalt cordless tools (7-18v + 3-12v + 1-7.2v) I had a lot of batteries in various conditions (most Poor).

   A couple of times I bought the 18v XRP 2-pack which is a pretty good deal, About $60 apiece with tax and/or shipping.

   Unfortunately you will probably not find any good deals with Dewalt's smaller batteries. The average price for one 12v XRP is $65

   I bought 2-12v XRP's on sale at Home Depot for $126 (W/Tax) only to go over to Lowes and find the 12v Heavy-Duty XRP Drill W/charger and 2-12v XRP's on sale for $99. So of course I bought it and returned the batteries to Home Depot and now I have 2- 12v Heavy-Duty XRP Drills when all I needed was batteries!

   With only 2-18v, 2-12v and no 7.2v in top notch condition I decided to find a better more cost effective way than buying more battery packs or shoddy rebuilds all the time.

   So after allot of Internet research this it what I found:

   Trying to revitalize batteries (without rebuilding) isn't worth the time, at best it's a very short term fix and not a very good one at that.

   Just replacing that one or two bad cells isn't a good option either. Because if you've had the battery pack for any length of time the other cells won't be far behind and if you haven't it's most likely under warranty. Send it back!

   If you do decide to go the rebuild route, your battery pack must be the kind that have screws to hold the top and bottom together. Some times Dewalt's new tools come with the glued type, although not usually.

   The best way to rebuild a battery is with a battery tab welder (Capacitive Discharge welder / CD welder). You can buy a cheap new one for a mere $10,000 - $14,000 or you might be able to find a cheap used one on eBay for around $5,000. CD welder's aka battery tab welder's are what all good professionals use, they weld the battery tab to the battery without generating damaging heat to the rest of the battery. If you are up to the task you could actually make your own CD welder for about $200! I actually gave this serious consideration.

   Heat Kills Batteries!! So if you decide to solder them like I finally did keep this in mind.

   The first thing you will need is a fairly high powered soldering iron/gun so you can heat up the spot you need to solder fast without heating up the rest of the battery. I bought the "Craftsman Professional Dual Heat Soldering Gun" for $60 from sears. It's 400/150 watts, has a rated soldering temp. of 1000 deg.F. and works better/faster than any Weller gun I've ever owned.

   Here's the link: http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_10155_12602_00927320000P?sid=comm_craftsman_productpg

   The next thing you'll need are reasonably priced / quality supplies. They can be bought here: http://www.voltmanbatteries.com/servlet/the-NICD-fdsh-NIMH-CELLS/Categories I'd like to add here that by no means am I pushing anybodies products. This is just what I used after a lot of research and maybe it can save someone else some time and headaches. If you can do better by all means go for it! That said I've found all of Volt-Man's products to be great quality and very reasonably priced. Plus if you have a problem/Question you can call and speak to a knowledgeable (American) person since they also rebuild batteries on site.

   Keep in mind, I can only speak for Dewalt Battery packs since they are the only ones I have rebuilt but as far as I know they are all similar.

   All Dewalt's XR and XRP packs use "SUB-C" type batteries. The non-XR/XRP Battery packs are noticeably shorter and use "4/5 SUB-C" type batteries.   

   I used these: "SUB-C 2100MAH NICD BATTERY $1.88" and "4/5 SHORT SUB-C 1300MAH NICD BATTERY $1.88" (all with tabs) These are all 1.2v batteries so if you divide the (volt) size of your battery pack by 1.2 that is how many batteries you will need.

   Some other things you might need are "THERMISTOR FOR DEWALT & MILWAUKEE" Each pack has one and from what I understand they rarely go bad but for an additional $2 it might not be a bad idea to have one just in case. I bought two, rebuilt 12 batteries and didn't have to use them. Up to you.

   And "FISHPAPER STICKER (50 PIECE STRIP)" $10. Kind of allot (50 pieces). This I didn't buy and I kind of wish I did. However I wouldn't buy it for just a couple of battery packs. Dewalt packs have this sticky thick paper covering both the top and bottom of the batteries (one piece top, one piece bottom) and its a real pain to pry off the bottom without damaging either the paper or the battery tabs. I had to use a wood chisel. Keep in mind that you want to keep the tabs intact so you can copy the connections.   

    Anyway to actually rebuild:

   Open the pack and pry the batteries out of the bottom of the pack

   Pull the paper from the bottom of batteries

   Put new batteries in the bottom plastic casing (to keep shape, you will flip them over later) and copy the pattern of both the tab and +/- layout of the bottom of the old batteries. Trim tabs (where necessary) with common household scissors and solder tab to tab only, not tab to battery (Keeps battery heat low).

   Put sticky paper on newly soldered batteries, carefully remove new batteries from bottom plastic case and flip over so unsoldered side of batteries is on top.

   The top is the hardest. Remove the sticky paper from the old top and line up tabs on the new batteries. you will have to fold the tabs so they go in the right direction and solder, all but the top battery that slides into the tool handle.

   This last (top) battery is kind of a bitch and if you screw just one thing up this will be it. First you have to get that plug off the old (top) battery. A reasonable tap with a wood chisel where the plug is welded to the battery worked well for me.

   Now for the new top battery. Cut away paper battery covering where thermistor connects, pull off the top tab and prep all solder points on battery (top plug and Thermistor) and top plug by lightly sanding to rough up.

   Pre-solder all prepped spots before actually soldering any thing together. Do this as fast as possible so you don't heat up the battery to much. Let cool then actually solder everything together.

   Replace paper and screw case together. FINISHED!

   Note: be careful not to get to much solder build-up or you might have a hard time closing the cases with the paper installed. I rebuilt about 12 batteries and had to leave some of the paper out. If you have this problem double-sided carpet tape is a good alternative.  

   Just so you can see just how cheap this works out to here are some costs. These costs don't include the $2 Thermistor (that you probably won't need) or the fish paper that while nice, it isn't absolutely necessary. These prices also don't include S&H for the batteries I bought from voltmanbatteries.com but their S&H was reasonable and only a small part of my final costs. 

      7.2v = $11.28,      9.6v = $15.04,      12v = $18.80,      14.4v = $22.56,      18v = $28.20,      24v = $37.60,      36v = $56.40

   This has worked great for me as a much cheaper alternative to buying new batteries and all 12 of my rebuilds are as good as if not better than the original battery packs! One year later and still going strong!

   I hope this post helps.