Time for new batteries! Five years is good usage from batteries. Over
time the internal resistance of the batteries increases therefore
charge does not last as long.
Bubba wrote:
> My Ryobi 14.4 v cordless drill has four or five years on it now. The
> battery packs will just barely hold a charge. Before I spring for a couple
> of new battery packs, is it possible that it is the charger that is not up
> to the job? Any experience along these lines?
"Bubba" <[email protected]> wrote:
> My Ryobi 14.4 v cordless drill has four or five years on it now. The
> battery packs will just barely hold a charge. Before I spring for a
> couple of new battery packs, is it possible that it is the charger
> that is not up to the job? Any experience along these lines?
My 12V Ryobi's packs crapped out recently. If the charger lights, it
probably works. After pricing new packs or rebuilts, I bought a 12V
Panasonic at Amazon for $79 (now back to $89). Definitely happy with the
purchase and the drill!
>
>
>
"toller" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:
> 5 years is reasonable life.
> I had a thread about a week ago where people were talking about
> combining cells from 2 packs to get one good one. All the cells don't
> go bad; one is enough to ruin a pack.
> It is a lot of work for the results, but might be fun to do.
While it's true that all of the cells in a pack haven't all gone bad
*yet* if you go to the trouble of opening the pack you might as well
replace them all while you are there. You'll be back in soon enough to do
the rest.
I just did this to one of my Makita "pod" style NiCd packs. I replaced
them with MiMh versions with higher capacity. 12 sub-c cells per pack at
$3.00 each (from nicdlady.com). I have yet to seal up the case but it
took a charge and seems to work. Be sure to order the cells with the tabs
already welded onto the terminals for easier soldering. Here is a link to
a guy who also opened his battery packs up
http://chuck.kichline.com/fixit/makita/Default.htm
My packs are 10 years old and have seen mainly light use so I got my
money's worth from them. I don't know if it's really cost effective to
re-build them or not. I did it because I wanted to. Since the original
Makita charger also had died a few months back I had been using a jury
rigged charger which may have helped the weak pack to an early grave. I
bought a new general purpose charger (MAHA MH-C777 Plus II) since it will
charge pretty much any pack up to 14.4V (NiCd, NiMh or LiIon). Full
retail on a 3Ah pack from Makita is around $100 and I would have needed a
charger as well so for me it worked out. YMMV.
Bill
reply to double u schoenbeck at cox dot net as the header address is no
good.
"Bubba" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> My Ryobi 14.4 v cordless drill has four or five years on it now. The
> battery packs will just barely hold a charge. Before I spring for a
> couple of new battery packs, is it possible that it is the charger that is
> not up to the job? Any experience along these lines?
Time for new batteries. You can't expect more that four or five years from
any of the battery packs. A few of the cells are dead and the others just
can't keep up and lose charge rapidly. They are now $25 at Home Depot or
you can have them rebuilt with better cells at www.primecell.com IIRC, it
will be $38
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/
On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 01:43:37 GMT, the opaque "Bubba"
<[email protected]> spake:
>My Ryobi 14.4 v cordless drill has four or five years on it now. The
>battery packs will just barely hold a charge. Before I spring for a couple
>of new battery packs, is it possible that it is the charger that is not up
>to the job? Any experience along these lines?
My charger is hanging in there just fine after 3 years. I got the
Ryobi kit with the drill motor, circular saw, charger, case, and 2
batt packs for $99 from the Borg.
My two packs died at the 2.5 year point and I just replaced one after
attempting to hack together one good one from the two old packs. You
can get a working (but severely limited life/strength) pack from the
old cells, but the new cells are the only way to go.
I got a replacement off Ebay for under $35, delivered.
An alternative is to have the packs rebuilt if you have a local
rebuilder, though it may be the same or higher price than Ebay.
--------------------------------------------
-- I'm in touch with my Inner Curmudgeon. --
http://diversify.com Comprehensive Website Development
============================================================
On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 02:22:04 GMT, the opaque "toller"
<[email protected]> spake:
>5 years is reasonable life.
>I had a thread about a week ago where people were talking about combining
>cells from 2 packs to get one good one. All the cells don't go bad; one is
>enough to ruin a pack.
>It is a lot of work for the results, but might be fun to do.
I did that and it was as frustrating as it was fun. In the end, it was
a futile effort and I won't ever do it again.
--------------------------------------------
-- I'm in touch with my Inner Curmudgeon. --
http://diversify.com Comprehensive Website Development
============================================================
Bubba wrote:
> My Ryobi 14.4 v cordless drill has four or five years on it now. The
> battery packs will just barely hold a charge. Before I spring for a couple
> of new battery packs, is it possible that it is the charger that is not up
> to the job? Any experience along these lines?
If the charger charges the battery at all, it's not the problem.
Chargers are pretty much a go/no go item. Most likely, given the age of
your packs, the NiCad's are crapping out. They have a finite number of
charges in them and their longevity is severely affected by use,
non-use, and charging or topping them off when they have not yet been
fully (or nearly so) discharged. It's called Memory Effect and ruins
more NiCads than anything else other than loss off the truck<g>
Buy a new cell and see for yourself. DON'T keep topping it off, let it
run down in the tool and THEN recharge. It will keep them in shape.