Bought my last Li-ion battery.

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member
I purchased two dewalt 18v batteries with charger. One battery lost a pair of cells,
opened. Purchased two after market batteries. One battery lost all but one pair of
cells. 4 cells were opened, 4 were shorted.

All the batteries had an electronic charging module which monitors each pair of cells.
They obviously didn't do their job. I see no need to even try rebuilding them. If the
factory can't get it right, what makes me think I can.

I've read cell failure is a common problem, along with thermal runaway.

IMHO, Li-ions are too expensive and too easily damaged. I'm batting 500, lost 50%.

The only way I would buy another Li-ion battery is to convert over to Rigid, which my
BIL tells me home depot warranties everything for life, including the battery. I don't
know if Rigid has all the cordless tools I have, like a grease gun, caulking gun and
rotary dremmel like tool. Besides it would cost mega bucks to change over. I have many
duplicate tools for my different locations. Just not worth it.
 

I got lucky with my NI-CADs, 18v Ryobi with a 2009 date code on the batteries. Wouldn't charge, found a web page about turning the power to the charger off and on for a couple of minutes; it worked. Red charge indicator came on, and it took almost 2 hours for it to completely charge. If that didn't work, plan B was to buy a HF 18v battery and transfer that to the Ryobi. HF is about $14 to buy about $30+ of batteries.

At the time I got the Ryobi, they were just starting to sell Li-ion batteries; I thought I screwed up not getting the high dollar ones. Guess not....
 
You reach a point that the convenience of those cordless tools just isn't worth the hassle of keeping the batteries up to par. I finally gave up on them and have gone back to using tools with cords. You are always having to stretch out cords but they ALWAYS work.
I still keep a cordless drill/driver but that's the only cordless I have.
As for Ridged brand from Home Despot, yes they are lifetime warranty including batteries but you can't just run to the store and exchange it.
You Must send in the registration form and then send the tool in for a replacement. Meanwhile you are sol without your tool. Keep that in mind.
Cordless drills are an expendable item.
Use them for 2 years and toss them. Buy another one.
 
As Ultradog has posted, Ridgid has a lifetime warranty, but there are lots of rules and regulations that you have to follow.
You absolutely must register everything, every time. You register them when new and you register the replacements. I've even heard that THEY have lost registrations, so you must keep a duplicate of all of your registrations. I talked to one guy who had the manager of a Home Depot register his equipment for him and then made them print out a copy. Also, depending on the location, it's possible that you don't do warranty work where they were purchased, you may (or probably) have to send them off to a different place than where they were purchased. I heard from a guy on one of our work sites that you might be able to drive to your warranty center to get replacements, but they will only do warranty work for the name on the registration. He told me that you can't give your battery to a buddy and have him replace it while he's there having his warranty work.
As for everything above, I'm just going by what some of the owners have told me, including my brother. All of my cordless tools are Milwaukee Fuel.
 
I'll n,ever be with out cordless tools ever. I'll us Ni Mh, batteries. They are the cheapest and I have one that is 10To me cordless is necessary.
 
Glad that you told me. My Hitachi Li-on batteries are 6 years old and still act like new; I didn't know that there was a problem with them.

P.S. I got rid of all my DeWalt stuff before I bought the Hitachi's.
 
I have mega bucks in Dewalt cord tools. NEVER had issues with tools for the past 18 years, just batteries.

I guess I shouldn't complain too much, NO battery in cars, trucks, mowers, tractors last forever and they are more expensive.

Need to check, I think all the cells are made by same company, Samsung. If true. How can one battery be better?
 
Are you going back to Ni-Cad batteries? I've had great luck with Sears C3 Li-ion batteries, but they came with a special charger.
 
Been using Dewalt for several years now. Had an issue with a charger and the customer service experience was great. They just sent me a new one, no questions asked. Have you called the Dewalt customer service number listed on your battery pack?
 
No more Dewalt batteries. I go to eBay and buy aftermarket Ni Mh batteries. They last longer. Don't have a memory issues. I use Dewalt Li Ion charger

About$30 each. Have best luck with them.
 
I have had no problems with DeWalt batteries, never had to buy a replacement battery, got 2 when buying the drill.
 
Funny, because I've had the exact opposite experience. NiCds won't hold a charge and get worse over time. Have to buy batteries about every year. LiIons are always ready and my oldest ones were some of the first Ryobis, which is ~7 years ago. They finally stopped working last fall. Good thing I hit the after-Christmas sale specials and got two top-of-the-line LiIon batteries for $79. Those have been working mint for two years, always ready to go.

I buy only the genuine batteries, not the cheap aftermarket ones. Maybe that's where you went wrong?
 
I thought Hitachi was better to until I needed a new 3/8 corded drill. I had to take two Hitachi 3/8 drills back to dealer and we tried third one in store and it was just as bad. They all made a loud noise and sounded like gears in gear box were running dry. Paid a little bit more for the Dewalt but runs quiet and smooth.
 
I think part of the trick is, you've got to use them on a regular basis. My FIL had the exact same 18V DeWalt drill driver as I did. His barely got used, mine got used regularly. While his looked all shiny new and mine all beat up, mine lasted almost twice as long driving in 3.5" deck screws. My oldest DeWalt is probably 10 years old, long for a battery of any type IMO. Both batteries that came with it will no longer hold a charge. I found higher capacity NiMh replacement cells, already spot welded together in the proper configuration for under $50 shipped. I think DeWalt wants almost double that for a spare. So far so good, I'm happy with it!
 
(quoted from post at 15:29:00 04/24/16) You reach a point that the convenience of those cordless tools just isn't worth the hassle of keeping the batteries up to par. I finally gave up on them and have gone back to using tools with cords. You are always having to stretch out cords but they ALWAYS work.

Bingo! I have PC and Makita cordless. I went to PC when local stores stopped carrying Makita. I still have some 7.6v Makita batteries that must be 20 years old that hold a charge just fine. Same for the 9.6v. Seems like the more voltage, the wuicker they wear out. 12v Makitas last maybe 3 years, 18v PC maybe 2.

OTOH, I'm still using a Millers Falls 1/4" drill made in the 50's........
 

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