I have a 4-year-old Craftsman 18-volt "EX" cordless drill. The two batteries it came with have slowly gotten worse and worse, and are now useless. I need to decide what to do. Sears seems to keep ch
Summer of 2006, I ran into the same trouble with my 18V Craftsman cordless. Offended at the thought of tossing a good cordless, I just took the packs to the Batteries Plus (here in Fairfax, VA) and t
FWIW, I have exactly the same issue with my 12v Ryobi (although I think it's closer to 8 years old). Managed to grab a new pack when Home Depot was closing them out, but my original 2 packs are long
Tough to beat a 1/2" Dewalt hammer drill! Not terribly portable, but it will get er done. Matt I have a 4-year-old Craftsman 18-volt "EX" cordless drill. The two batteries it came with have slowly go
But I bet that you could get a new drill with two new batteries for $79.95 on sale... I opened up one pack. The internal construction is rather complex. Actually, at $40 each, they would not even be
I have an 18V DeWalt 1/2" hammer drill that I have had for about 3 years now that has been flawless. I got it to replace the 14.4V DeWalt 3/8" drills I have been using for about 15 years. Batteries f
This place rebuilds your batteries, with what they claim to be higher grade cells, or can uprade many NiCd to NiMh: http://www.primecell.com/index.html And these guys have inexpensive new packs: http
A corded drill is always a good thing to have. Really nice for those situations where your cordless drill batteries are all dead or you're doing some really heavy duty drilling. Of course, a cordles
FWIW, I started with a "cheap Chinese" from Enco (which usually is a small step above HF). Total junk, IMO; I threw it away in just a few months when the trigger broke. The 12V Ryobi (which I regard
Randall writes... Do tell! I love the dewalt 18v stuff and I have a ton of the tools. My batteries don't last more than a few years. I looked into replacing the cells myself, only to find it costs ab
eh...I have the then-top of the line milwaukee 18v combo pack (drill, circ. saw, and 'hatchet'). the tools are okay, but I have to give the batteries a d and the charger an f-. the charger frequently
I agree with both the Milwaukee and Dewalt comments. I was an active Electrical Contractor, and we abused our cordless drills. We overworked them, dropped them, and used them for tasks beyond their c
If "...always used each battery until it was drained..." means you ran the drill till it stopped or nearly so, you're probably killing the packs. DeWalt (for one) specifically recommends to recharge
Exactly so. The supposed need to drain NiCad batteries completely for long life is basically a myth; a misunderstanding of the "memory effect" that got a lot of press time many years ago. Unless you
Interesting. The electricians I work with at Habitat for Humanity will use only Milwaukee drills. I've seen them walk out of the house to get one of their drills when there is a DeWalt sitting a few
The Milwaukee web site seems remarkably close-mouthed about where they are actually made. I was pretty unhappy with my first (and only) Milwaukee power tool, a 1/2" corded drill. The speed control w
I had three H.F. cordless drill/drivers I bought when I was building my pole shed several years ago. My 7 volt Makita had died and I didn't want to spend a bunch of money and do a lot of research on
Got a copy of those directions handy? I have a couple battery packs that could use some.... rejuvenation, yeah, that's the word..... Cheers! _______________________________________________ Shop-talk
Sent. If anyone else wants a copy, post me off-list and I'll be glad to forward it. But remember that my friend had pretty poor results - they worked for a few charge cycles, then eventually died aga