[Shop-talk] Cordless tool battery packs - the current state

[PJ McGarvey]

I'm brand-agnostic with cordless drills though I own a few Craftsman 19.2v drills and impacts that have served me well for house and car work.


Anything I've bought with Li-Ion has worked out well for me (Craftsman and Bosch). By that I mean, if I leave a battery pack uncharged for a few weeks in a cold garage, it will still have plenty of juice. And they don't wear out overtime.


The Ni-cads I used to have were all junk after a year or two (DeWalt and Craftsman).  And were bulkier and heavier.


________________________________
From: Shop-talk <shop-talk-bounces at autox.team.net> on behalf of Matt <mbarre at juno.com>
Sent: Friday, February 3, 2017 11:31:27 AM
To: shop-talk at autox.team.net
Subject: [Shop-talk] Cordless tool battery packs - the current state

I have 2 questions for this august body, but for simplicity I will break them up:

Time to repower my fleet of Porter Cable 18V tools.
I have seen over the years the various options to rebuild the battery packs and it looks like there are services and do it yourself packs that are already assembled for the DIYer to put into their plastic housing.  THe rebuilder folks claim they use quality batteries and they produce better packs.
EBay seems to have plenty of "new" options as well, mostly from China.  I currently have nicad chargers but the availability of dual nicad or li-ion widens the options.
I don't use these every day, or even every week, but a couple of times a month I am working on something.

Any guidance from the group re nicad vs li-ion.
Off the shelf vs US rebuild or battery pack?

Thanks!
Matt in GA
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