[Shop-talk] Rebuilding a Battery Pack vs Buying New Generic
DAVID MASSEY
dave1massey at cs.com
Wed Jun 25 05:48:16 MDT 2025
I used to have an old Makita drill that came with Ni-Cad a battery that eventually stopped being usable. I bought a pair of lithium-based replacement batteries. On the surface they looked like a much better option with double the capacity and they worked with existing drill and charger. But (there's always a but, isn't there?) to make Lithium batteries work in a Ni-Cad environment required a electronic circuit and this circuit was always on and drew enough power to deplete the battery overnight. I could charge them up in the evening and the next morning they would be close to dead.
But I see these are Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries. Ni-MH batteries have characteristics more similar to Lithium - at least with regards to the charging regime (I've designed a battery charger for Ni-MH so I am familiar with this) but are less susceptible to abuse. I also see the bullet point about no self-discharge - which was my problem. This is a $45 gamble (as it is with most no-name stuff from the Pacific rim) but YMMV. This might be a good one. Let us know.
BTW I bought a pair of Milwaukee 12V tools and never looked back. I pitched all my Ni-Cad drills and recycled the batteries.
Dave
On Tuesday, June 24, 2025 at 01:36:47 PM CDT, Jim Stone <1789alpine at gmail.com> wrote:
I have an old Bosch 24v miter saw that I would like to be able to continue using for quick, non critical cuts. The only problem is that the NiCad batteries won’t hold a charge long enough to be useful. And, I don’t think there is a way to utilize other, e.g. Milwaukee M18, batteries in a 24v system. Besides, there don’t appear to be any adaptors available.
So, that leaves me with two choices: rebuild my current batteries or buy new ones on Amazon. I’ve taken one of the battery packs apart and can see that it just uses standard Sub C 1.2v batteries - 20 of them! I’ve never rebuilt battery packs but it looks pretty straight forward; just time consuming. 20 Sub C batteries would run me about $40-50. (Having it done professionally looks to cost at least twice that.) Or, I could just buy a Chinese-made replacement pack for just a few bucks more. (https://www.amazon.com/Exmate-Replacement-Battery-Compatible-BH-2424/dp/B073Z9QHXS/ref=sr_1_17).
I’m sure the replacement batteries are also made in China, but is there any reason to assume that rebuilding the packs myself will result in a better, longer lasting battery? Any advice from those who have done this before will be much appreciated.
Thanks,Jim_______________________________________________
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