Cordless Electric Tools

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Sailfree

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About 5 yrs ago bought a cheapish set of Ryobi 18V cordless tools. These replaced two Makita 9V cordless drills (one rt angle) which the batteries have failed. So far they have been good value but the batteries are no longer holding a charge. Also have 2 identical De Walt small drills of same age (free if you spent £x at Trade depot- 5 yrs ago) and they are the same - not holding charge.

Spoke to tradesmen on construction site and they only use Makita/De Walt /Panasonic/Bosch.

Took their advice and now bought top of the range Makita. What I don't understand from the instructions is to ensure the latest Makita batteries have the longest life is it better to keep them fully charged or on a charger when not in use or let them fully dischage before re-charging?

After making new drill purchase I remembered that the original Makita 9V batteries were only good for about 5yrs so do the Forum think that battery life is better on what is considered the quality end (v Ryobi) of the cordless ranges and what would you buy ?

After reflecting on my dormant set of Ryobi tools, rt angle drill, hammer drill, jigsaw, circular saw, ricipricating saw and vacuum cleaner!) I read a comment that the new Li Ion Ryobi batteries have transformed these tools so I have ordered 2 new Ryobi 18V Li Ion but will my old charger be OK for these or do I need a new charger?

Sorry for the many questions but I think informative answers will be of great value to many on here.

Many thanks.
 
I have several rechargable tools and things that have batteries considerably older than your 5 years. I have a deWalt right-angle drill kept on the boat, so only charged very intermittently, that was bought in about 2001. It holds a charge well and works perfectly. I also have an unnamed drill that was a freebie from the chandler we used in Holland, obtained at the same time and used at home, so also charged intermittently, that still works as well as when it was new.

Best of all I have an XM 2000 handheld radio, probably bought in 1998 or 1999, which has proved to be superb. It holds its charge far better than my much newer Icom, receives signals that the Icom does not and transmits from further away. It is charged and discharged regularly, as is the Icom.

I bought a biggish rechargable drill (24 volt) from Aldi a few months ago before commencing major work on my house. IIRC it was £37. Has been brilliant: I never would have thought that a battery powered drill would do masonry as well as a 230 volt one, but this does.
 
vyv_cox said:
I have several rechargable tools and things that have batteries considerably older than your 5 years. I have a deWalt right-angle drill kept on the boat, so only charged very intermittently, that was bought in about 2001. It holds a charge well and works perfectly. I also have an unnamed drill that was a freebie from the chandler we used in Holland, obtained at the same time and used at home, so also charged intermittently, that still works as well as when it was new.

Best of all I have an XM 2000 handheld radio, probably bought in 1998 or 1999, which has proved to be superb. It holds its charge far better than my much newer Icom, receives signals that the Icom does not and transmits from further away. It is charged and discharged regularly, as is the Icom.

I bought a biggish rechargable drill (24 volt) from Aldi a few months ago before commencing major work on my house. IIRC it was £37. Has been brilliant: I never would have thought that a battery powered drill would do masonry as well as a 230 volt one, but this does.
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Glad all your tools are lasting. I suspect I may have been over enthusiastic with the charger!

Can you advise whether its best to keep the batteries fully charged, let them discharge then re-charge or leave them on charge?
 
I have a couple of Makitas whose batteries are going well after a good few years. I charge them when the drill slows down and charge them for the time specified in the manual. To do this I use an old fashioned electric timer with a single "off" pin inserted.

I have an Axminster 25 volt chargeable which was incomparably cheaper. It can drill through masonary with a fresh battery. I have adopted the same approach to charging it. It was great for a year or so. Now, a few years on, it's batteries hold very little charge.

Google/wikipedia the type of batteries you have and you should be able to find out the best storage state. I seem to recall that NiMH batteries, for example, are actually best stored 40% charged in the fridge.
 
Though it varies according to the battery technology used, the general idea is to get batteries fully flat ( but only up to, not within the last inch of their life ), then re-charge.

If one regularly runs a rechargeable unit, be it drill, camera whatever for 5 minutes then recharges it, it forms a 'memory' and decides to only last 5 minutes in future !

Hence the better chargers having a 'discharge' function.
 
Sailfree said:
Can you advise whether its best to keep the batteries fully charged, let them discharge then re-charge or leave them on charge?
Click to expand...

The drills are charged when they no longer turn the motor. Due to our lifestyle of six months aboard, six months at home, this means that each of them spends this period at whatever state of charge they finished up. I never do anything special with any of them.

The radios are treated rather better. We bring them home in the winter and every month or so discharge them right down by leaving them on receive, then recharge to max. These are all oldish batteries, so presumably are Ni-Cd which could develop a memory. The later ones are Li-ion ones, which don't have a memory. I see there is a Li-ion optional battery for the Icom M31 now but I won't be rushing to exchange mine at £50 a time.
 
Seajet said:
If one regularly runs a rechargeable unit, be it drill, camera whatever for 5 minutes then recharges it, it forms a 'memory' and decides to only last 5 minutes in future !
Click to expand...

...with older battery technologies, and I believe some dispute even that.

Pete
 
Not wishing to state the obvious but if the batteries are not holding charge why not replace the batteries.
I use an 18v DeWalt drill every day, I replace the batteries about every 4 to 5 years, currently on Li-ion so will see how long they last, I only ever recharge when they go flat.

Interestingly I also recently (six months ago) bought a Ryobi 18v drill that came with angle drill as well, because I was on a job that meant I had to continually change drill bit size so it made life easier, the Ryobi does not hold its charge anywhere near as long as De Walt if fact I get through two battery cycles on Ryobi to one on DeWalt.

Go back six months and I would forget the Ryobi and buy a second DeWalt.

Regarding the Makita instructions, I have never heard of leaving them on the charger all the time but if you are unsure contact Makita.
 
prv said:
...with older battery technologies, and I believe some dispute even that.

Pete
Click to expand...
Exactly - though it really does depend on the battery technology. Lithium ion batteries are reported as having no memory effect. One of my latops came with a note that said "battery life for this type of battery is purely a function of the number of discharge cycles - always work plugged in if it is possible."

I assume the technologies for cordless tools are specifically designed to be deep cycled, but the thing to do is read the book and do what it says. As I said earlier, I use a simple timer to do the charging so that it I can set it for the recommended time and not depend on me remembering to unplug it.

However, in my experience, cheap batteries lose capacity in a short time.
 
Amulet said:
the thing to do is read the book and do what it says.
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Unfortunately the book often (even usually) doesn't say. Even my Makita drill/driver is unclear on the point; it has quite a sophisticated-looking charger, but I pull the battery out when charged just in case. It would be nice to know that it would be OK left in.

Pete
 
NDH said:
Not wishing to state the obvious but if the batteries are not holding charge why not replace the batteries.
Click to expand...

Yep - did that after I dropped a Makita one in a puddle in the bottom of the dinghy.

Be prepared for a fright - the replacement battery will be a good fraction of the cost of replacing the whole tool.
 
I bought one of the first cheap B&Q 12v many years ago, £24.99 when any other named brand was 4 times the price. It was brilliant and used it for many years until the battery finally gave up and by then it was impossible to get replacement batteries. I threw away the battery, connected two wires to it and a 12v plug and it's used on the boat ans still works well.
I then bought a cheap 12v drill from a local DIY store which was rubbish and then bought an 18v twin battery Bosch drill(on special offer at Xmas) and it's been excellent except that one of the batteries has now died even though I fully drained them and recharged them immediately.
I'll get Li-Ion drill next time - incidently when the Ni-cad batteries died on my H/H VHF, I replaced them with Ni-Mhd from Strikalite - excellent value and don't suffer from memory effect.
 
NDH said:
Not wishing to state the obvious but if the batteries are not holding charge why not replace the batteries.
Click to expand...
I have a Bosch cordless drill which was bought on special offer from B and Q a couple of years ago complete with spare battery. It is brilliant both on the boat and at home BUT one of the batteries will no longer charge at all and the other one needs to be charged up before use. I looked at buying replacement batteries but these would cost more than a new drill outfit.
I think I may have wrecked the batteries by overcharging them - I once left them on charge for 2 days so won't do that again. I've resigned myself to buying a complete replacement as I find it so useful.
The timer idea mentioned above is a good one.
 
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None of the power tool brands make batteries. They buy them in from Panasonic, Sanyo, one or two other names you have heard of and then the very cheap cells. I think all of these are now made in China. the power tool maker creates a battery pack with a number of the cells - 1.2v per cell - so the better the cells used, the best performing and longest lasting generally.

Ni-Cd cells, which I suspect is all of the OP's range, will have deleloped a memory. Its what they do and difficult to avoid. An old trick with these battery packs is to wrap the pack in a freezer bag and put it in the freezer for 24 hours. This will clear the memory. Once back to room temperature, charge for 24 hours or similar and your machine will usually perform like new.

Other, newer technologies like Li-Ion, do not have a memory. But these require sophisticated electronics to be safe and charge properly. This is more expensive and assume it has not reached technical maturity yet.
 
I would only use Makita if possible, all others I have, De Walt, Hitachi, Power pro (B&Q own brand, probably Ryobi) have battery problems. De walt the worst and dearest. Festool are thought to be good.

If you break open a battery pack you usually find a batch of ordinary cylindrical batteries which look like they could be replaced with ones of your choice. Would this be cheaper?
 
Cordless tools

After discovering the cost of replacement batteries for my Bosch cordless I decided to buy a DeWalt cordless from Screwfix where it was on special offer. A great purchase.

The Bosch drill/driver now lives on the boat and has been converted to a corded drill and plugs into the 12v power supply. It's brilliant!

I simply soldered a two core cable (from an old B & D mower) to the drill terminals and then epoxied in a piece of ply to close off the base of the hand grip where the battery used to fit. The supply is of course 12v rather 9v but so far has worked fine. I think I had this idea in the back of my head from a much earlier thread on this forum - so thanks to whoever suggested it.
Morgan
 
When all else fails and you have a box full of dead tools, open the battery case and connect a flying lead to your 12v ship's battery.

With a 9 volt tool, you may get away with it (but wear a mask for the smoke!).

For a 12 volt tool, fine.

I have found even with an 18 volt tool, 12 volts gives enough power for most things.

Leave the battery in;- it gives some stability.

Wouldn't it be nice (for us not the manufacturers) if they standardised on battery box sizes?
 
Batteries

Thanks for the replies.

Finally spoke to Ryobi's technical department and they said that Ni Cad batteries have a memory but slowly wear out. Put them on charge and you can leave them on charge as the charger switches itself off internally when fully charged and then starts to charge again after battery has lost 5% of its charge.

Possibly why mine only lasted 4-5 yrs as I have left mine on charge for extended periods and therefore momory is of the short 5% charges!

Cancelled my order for replacement Ni Cad batteries and replaced them with the new 2.4 Li Ion batteries- unfortunately dearer and meant that I had to buy a new Li Ion charger as well! Neat that Ryobi have kept the same battery format for a number of years now 7 all the tools are OK.

Other advice from technical dept was that Ni Cad tools slow down as battery goes flat but Li Ion keep going until they stop! They also said that the important thing was to NEVER let a flat battery rest to recover a bit and then use it a bit more as that knackers the battery. Fairly sure I am guilty of that when trying to finish a job.

Thanks for the link on battery refurbs - tempted to get my old 7.6V Makita batteries refurb. I will then have cordless tools coming out of my ears!

At least I now have all the Ryobi tools working and a new 24V Makita (max torque) drill. Not cheap but luckily for me tax deductable and I have always got a pleasure from maintenance work, car/motocycle repairs and DIY. Back to laying the solid wood floor now using my new plunge cutter.
 
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