Cordless drill batteries

I love tools, the shinier the better. Lots of mine are still in their boxes, just waiting for the day to come when I have just the right job for them   Sometimes I can even remember where they all are, but that's just the ones I remember buying of course   

Why is it though, that ever time I need to use my Makita 18v cordless drill, the battery (and spare) are as flat as a pancake 

Timely reminder there - Thanks!
I have a dead DeWalt 12v battery that I stuck on the car battery charger about an hour ago to try and frighten some life into it, then forgot about it!

Frank

Having studied your avatar Askit can I suggest you have a rummage round in the box the Makita came in. Hopefully you will find a little black squarish box with a black cable attached to it. This is called a "charger" and if you plug one end into the socket on the drill battery and the other into the electric socket ( don't forget to switch it on) and then leave it for a couple of hours you will find your drill works.

I hope you find this helpful.

pablo wrote:I hope you find this helpful.  

That is extremely unhelpful. Are you trying to confuse the chap? Makita chargers are Green - well mine is.

Frank

boxerman wrote:

pablo wrote:I hope you find this helpful.  

That is extremely unhelpful. Are you trying to confuse the chap? Makita chargers are Green - well mine is.

Frank

Flipin eck mine's blue!!!

Brod

Askit wrote:

Why is it though, that ever time I need to use my Makita 18v cordless drill, the battery (and spare) are as flat as a pancake 

Why not turn a negative into a positive, Your drill doesn't work, you have the perfect excuse to pop out to the nearest tool store and buy a shiny new upgraded superior multi functional new model. Simples !

I had the same problem with my Ryobi drill when I came to move our caravan last weekend, both batteries flat and I couldn't remember where the manual steady winder was.

The one that I love are the batteries on my Bosch rotary lawnmower, they hold their charge forever. Luckily the largest size of Bosch mower comes with two batteries as the first runs out of power about two thirds of the way round our grass.

Well Norgil, it was the latest model when I bought it (in my price range that is  ). My charger is green also,(well, greeny blueish) I know this as both batteries had to be charged, yet again, as my skills were required to fix the cellar door back onto it's hinges. I keep telling Mrs Askit to be more careful when she's in getting her lawnmower out

The problem is, the batteries will be flat again in a couple of days. Only saving grace is that they do charge up very quickly, 15 or 20 minutes to full. In fact, just about enough time to brew a cup of tea 

I do love my Bosch ixo cordless screwdriver, holds it's charge, lasts for ages and is extremely powerful 

May not apply in your case but once or twice I've put the drill in with other tools and the trigger has been lighly depressed such that the motor is only just turning.  Guaranteed to have a flat battery next time.  Incidentally if your batteries are not holding their charge a search of ebay will provide after market batteries often with double the capacity of the originals.  My DeWalt drills now have Floureon batteries which seem to go on forever copared to those supplied with the drills.

Tony Comber

shipbadger wrote:My DeWalt drills now have Floureon batteries which seem to go on forever copared to those supplied with the drills.

Tony Comber

I've been looking at those for my DeWalt, wondering if they are any good. If the shock treatment hasn't worked on my two dead batteries I'll invest in one now that you've said they're OK. - Thanks

Frank

NORGIL wrote:



Why not turn a negative into a positive,

That wont do it any good surely you would need a polarity reverser cable?

Oh no don't mention the reverse polarity thing. cost me much lost sleep till iI worked out that all I needed to do if I encountered reverse polarity was to turn the van around to face the opposite way and then the electricery would surely be the right way round.

I once worked for a guy who asked if the volts came down the red wire and the amps down the (as it was then) black wire    We didn't en-light-en him in case he got more con-fused 

We once convinced a guy that to convert his 6 volt bike to 12 volts, all he needed to do was buy another wiring harness and connect it up so that he had two wires going to everything, 6 volts down the first wire plus 6 volts down the second wire makes 12 volts in total yes?

Well he believed us - for a while

Frank

Making a radio is easy just get two wires take one away and you have a wireless.

Thought I would post an update. The Makita batteries gave up the ghost and went from being almost useless to completely useless. I tried to convince the treasurer that a new drill would be a good (I meant great) investment but without success. So, we took the decision to purchase a pair of new 18v Ni-MH batteries from a company on Amazon called “Forrat". Well I have to report that my scepticism was ill founded and they are brilliant. They take a little longer to get up to full power but they hold their charge really well. Great to have a properly functioning cordless drill again  

That's a big disappointment then.

The shine must have worn off that drill by now, and you've just chucked away the perfect excuse to buy a new one.

What handyman with any standards at all would use a drill unless it dazzled him in the sunlight!!!!

I'm beginning to think you're a bit of a bodger. Next thing you'll be admitting that you don't even bother to polish your wood screws before driving them in!!! 

Well, strangely I went to use my Makita t'other day and found it was still charged up (and hadn't been used since last summer).
Not only that but it ran for over 15 minutes trying to make headway on a rock hard concrete wall.

Strangely, yesterday I took it out to start undoing some screws in a blown down fence and it was still charged.
Maybe there's a charging fairy mysteriously visiting me unawares. Certainly the best drill I've ever owned.

nuevoboy.

Gromit wrote:I'm beginning to think you're a bit of a bodger. Next thing you'll be admitting that you don't even bother to polish your wood screws before driving them in!!! 

I only buy the ready polished ones, makes them easier to see when I'm knocking them in with the 2lb hammer 

My problem is the drill is in immaculate condition because it has hardly been used. Almost every time I'd tried to use it with the old batteries had me having to dig out my old B&D and extension leads.

nuevoboy wrote:Well, strangely I went to use my Makita t'other day and found it was still charged up (and hadn't been used since last summer).
Not only that but it ran for over 15 minutes trying to make headway on a rock hard concrete wall.

Strangely, yesterday I took it out to start undoing some screws in a blown down fence and it was still charged.
Maybe there's a charging fairy mysteriously visiting me unawares. Certainly the best drill I've ever owned.

nuevoboy.

I'm pretty sure I got the drill with duff batteries, unfortunately it was well out of warranty before I discovered that 

Swear by Makita, even got a nice new impact driver waiting to be picked up tomorrow to match the 18v drill I already have. The 10.8v one I use at the moment is a bit shy on power for long no 10 or 12 screws and it is caning the batteries. 

If the old ones only took 15 - 20 mins to charge to full even on a fast charger then they were already knackered.

Nimh are basically the same as Nicd with a different metal. Like every choice there are advantages and disadvantages, Nimh have higher capacities than Nicd per kg (energy density) but also an even higher self discharge rate. So as they couldn't store much energy in the 1st place they would go flat faster.

They also suffered from memory effect so needed to be fully power cycled at intervals to maintain condition. i.e. run to completely flat and recharged repeated a couple of times. Not easy to do as a tradesman when you need them fully charged for each job.

L-ion supposedly don't suffer from memory effect but the instructions with my circular saw say avoid always recharging if only 1/2 flat, use their full capacity if possible