Stopped into Home Depot today to pick up a new battery for my dewalt
cordless drill and saw the new line of Rigid power tools. I didn't buy any
as all I needed was a battery. I see that they are having some real nice
incentives to get people to buy their new line of tools. The HD guy said
that they are offering free replacements of batteries for the lifetime of
their cordless drills. That seems like a nice feature in addition to their
normal warranty. It also looks like you get a HD gift certificate with each
purchase. If you are thinking 'bout a new power tool, give them a look.
Alas, I didn't take the plunge. I just got a replacement pack. I am
curious if the Ridgids will be worth anything or not.
Frank
BTW, I thought I read somewhere that those batteries can be reconditioned.
Anyone have this done? Costs? Thanks
Well, I just picked up the Ridgid14.4v X2 cordless drill. It was bought to
replace a several year old B&D 12v firestorm. The B&D is still working fine,
I just needed something that could stand up to daily use a little better.
I like it so far, the battery charger has a fan that cools the battery pack
while it's charging. The drill has torque to spare and is very quiet. I'll
have to use it for a few days to decide if it was a good purchase.
Wayne
They look like very reasonable quality tools in general. The only worry I'd
have it how to get parts if/when HD changes suppliers. The cordless drills are
all custom jobs. Corded tools are just repainted Metabos.
Hmm, a fan on the changer? Charing a battery so fast it generates enough heat
to need a fan sounds like it would hurt the lifespan.
GTO(John)
>Well, I just picked up the Ridgid14.4v X2 cordless drill. It was bought to
>replace a several year old B&D 12v firestorm. The B&D is still working fine,
>I just needed something that could stand up to daily use a little better.
>
>I like it so far, the battery charger has a fan that cools the battery pack
>while it's charging. The drill has torque to spare and is very quiet. I'll
>have to use it for a few days to decide if it was a good purchase.
>
>Wayne
GTO notes:
>
>Hmm, a fan on the changer? Charing a battery so fast it generates enough heat
>to need a fan sounds like it would hurt the lifespan.
Oddly enough, several NiMH battery chargers for small batteries (AA) used in
digital cameras and such use fans to allow higher speed charging. The newest
batteries have reached far enough into the milliamphour stratosphere that
charging times are ridiculous even with last year's fast chargers. A 2200 mha
AA can take much,much, much longer to charge than a 1400 or 1600 mha AA, so the
chargers are getting more sophisticated, working harder to keep the batteries
cool. Rayovac now has a 15 minute charger for their new batteries.
Presumably, the cooling power of the fan prevents deterioration from heat,
which is said to be the primary cause of battery failure. If you hear a lot of
screaming in 6 months, that's not totally true.
Charlie Self
"Ain't no man can avoid being born average, but there ain't no man got to be
common." Satchel Paige
"B a r r y B u r k e J r ." <[email protected]> wrote
in message news:[email protected]...
> On Fri, 31 Oct 2003 03:51:12 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> >Not all that odd. I used to build and fly RC airplanes.
>
> Me too. Did you ever fly at Woodstock Airport or Mansfield Hollow?
>
> Barry
I've flown at Woodstock in real (Cessna 150, 172) planes. It is about 3
miles from me.
I used to fly RC when I lived in Philly. Our runway was the one at the
Phila. Navy Base. The airfield was built in the 1940's but has not been used
for many years. Flat, no trees, paved runway. Great place to fly, but I've
seen a couple get away and get lost going over the Delaware River.
Keeping on topic, we used a lot of balsa wood. Everything was Neander. No
bandsaw, just an Xacto knife and sandpaper.
Ed
"B a r r y B u r k e J r ." < wrote in message
>
> Oddly enough, leading battery technology is often found in the radio
> control industry, mainly _competitive_ electric cars, boats and
> planes. (NOT Radio Shack or Toys-R-Us stuff! <G>) Some of these folks
> gladly pay hundreds of dollars for a successful battery pack. Cells
> are tested and matched, based on discharge statistics, before being
> hand assembled into packs.
Not all that odd. I used to build and fly RC airplanes. After spending a
hundred hours building a plane and hundreds of dollars in engine, controls,
and radio receiver, you don't want a 99¢ battery cell going dead and the
whole thing just keep on flying into the wild blue yonder. It is especially
disheartening when flying near large bodies of water and the fuel tank is
full. ;(
Ed.
On Fri, 31 Oct 2003 14:05:31 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski" <[email protected]>
wrote:
>I've flown at Woodstock in real (Cessna 150, 172) planes.
Me too! The "Miss Woodstock" maybe? Is Rudy still alive?
> The airfield was built in the 1940's but has not been used
>for many years. Flat, no trees, paved runway. Great place to fly, but I've
>seen a couple get away and get lost going over the Delaware River.
Airfields are awesome for r/c. I used to fly at P&W in East Hartford,
until we got tossed when the construction of the new UConn stadium
commenced.
>Keeping on topic, we used a lot of balsa wood. Everything was Neander. No
>bandsaw, just an Xacto knife and sandpaper.
I used a small band saw, jigsaw, drill press, and my contractor's saw
(w/ zero clearance insert). The power tools are excellent for shaping
plywoods, birch, spruce, and maple.
One of the best hobby hand tools I ever used was a Master Airscrew
razor plane.
Barry
On Fri, 31 Oct 2003 03:51:12 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski" <[email protected]>
wrote:
>Not all that odd. I used to build and fly RC airplanes.
Me too. Did you ever fly at Woodstock Airport or Mansfield Hollow?
Barry
On 31 Oct 2003 00:51:04 GMT, [email protected] (Charlie Self)
wrote:
>Presumably, the cooling power of the fan prevents deterioration from heat,
>which is said to be the primary cause of battery failure. If you hear a lot of
>screaming in 6 months, that's not totally true.
But it is true!
Oddly enough, leading battery technology is often found in the radio
control industry, mainly _competitive_ electric cars, boats and
planes. (NOT Radio Shack or Toys-R-Us stuff! <G>) Some of these folks
gladly pay hundreds of dollars for a successful battery pack. Cells
are tested and matched, based on discharge statistics, before being
hand assembled into packs.
Forced air cooling, before and during charging, has been in that realm
for 5-6 years.
Barry
On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 03:31:10 GMT, "Leon"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
>"Frank Ketchum" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>
>> The HD guy said
>> that they are offering free replacements of batteries for the lifetime of
>> their cordless drills.
>
>
>Now that sounds like a heck of a good deal..
>
It really does.
I wonder if "lifetime" is ours, or the life of the sourcing agreement
with each manufacturer? <G>
Barry
"Frank Ketchum" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> The HD guy said
> that they are offering free replacements of batteries for the lifetime of
> their cordless drills.
Now that sounds like a heck of a good deal..
One thing that may be worth looking at is what you have to do to get
the new batteries? Do you just walk into HD and get a new battery?
Or do you have to mail the old battery to the manufacturer, etc.
One time I bought a disposable lighter with a lifetime guarantee. At
that time, I think the other dispoables were less than a buck. This
one with the lifetime guarantee was $5.00, but it specfically included
running out of lighter fuel as something for which the lighter could
be returned.
I lost the lighter before it ever ran out of fuel.
The guy at the pipe store laughed and said, "There's no differnce I
can tell between the 'lifetime' lighter and the regular lighter. I
think the manufacturer just realized that almost everyone loses
dispoabel lighters before they run out of fuel. So they sell the
lighter for an extra $4, and very occasionally have to give one away."
That made me realize that the real cost to the manufacturer of a
warranty really depends on how likely they are to have to honor it.
If you have to ship the old battery back to Rigid, they may figure
that most people need a new battery when the old one wears out, so
they can't wait 4-6 weeks for a replacment in the mail. So they figure
that what happens is, I discover the battery had gone bad, so I go buy
a new one. Then the old one sits in the bottom of the toolbox. Once I
have the new battery, I would probably forget/decide it's not worth
the hassle/shipping is too expensive and the battery will sit in the
bottom of the toolbox until I dispose of it.
Is the warranty a "take this to HD if it's broken and get a new one
free", or is is a "ship the broken one to Rigid with a copy of the
original receipt, pay shipping both ways, and we'll send you a new one
in 4-6 weeks"?
Mike
Frank Ketchum, decides to chip in.
> Stopped into Home Depot today to pick up a new battery for my dewalt
> cordless drill and saw the new line of Rigid power tools. I didn't buy
> any
> as all I needed was a battery. I see that they are having some real nice
> incentives to get people to buy their new line of tools. The HD guy said
> that they are offering free replacements of batteries for the lifetime of
> their cordless drills. That seems like a nice feature in addition to
> their
> normal warranty. It also looks like you get a HD gift certificate with
> each
> purchase. If you are thinking 'bout a new power tool, give them a look.
>
> Alas, I didn't take the plunge. I just got a replacement pack. I am
> curious if the Ridgids will be worth anything or not.
>
> Frank
> BTW, I thought I read somewhere that those batteries can be reconditioned.
> Anyone have this done? Costs? Thanks
I mentioned this in an earlier post and folks thought I had been out of
touch. Glad someone else saw those orange and black drills completely
taking up valuable shelf space.
Rich
--
You can lead them to LINUX
but you can't make them THINK.
Atten: Micro$oft Outlook users, please take me
off of your address books!
Email, remove the DOT
>...free replacements of batteries for the lifetime of their cordless
drills...
I would make sure to get that in writing if it were a deciding factor in a
purchase.
> BTW, I thought I read somewhere that those batteries can be reconditioned.
Some battery packs (eg. some Hitachi, Porter Cable, Milwaukee) are held
together with screws. If you want to replace the cells, unscrew them, get
similar replacements from Digikey, etc., do a little soldering (or spot
welding if you have the equipment), then reassemble. No big deal. But if
you have to pay money to a company like Batteries Plus to do the work, then
it may not be worthwhile. Other battery packs (like those used by Dewalt)
are glued together and opening them is difficult (and not worth the trouble
in my opinion).
B a r r y B u r k e J r ., decides to chip in.
> On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 03:31:10 GMT, "Leon"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>
>>"Frank Ketchum" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>news:[email protected]...
>>
>>> The HD guy said
>>> that they are offering free replacements of batteries for the lifetime
>>> of their cordless drills.
>>
>>
>>Now that sounds like a heck of a good deal..
>>
>
> It really does.
>
> I wonder if "lifetime" is ours, or the life of the sourcing agreement
> with each manufacturer? <G>
>
> Barry
It means when the company is sold, the warranty is null and void. So this
company could be getting sold just in time to offer this great deal only to
be void in less than a year. What a deal, what a rip off.
Rich
--
You can lead them to LINUX
but you can't make them THINK.
Atten: Micro$oft Outlook users, please take me
off of your address books!
Email, remove the DOT
In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] says...
> Stopped into Home Depot today to pick up a new battery for my dewalt
> cordless drill and saw the new line of Rigid power tools. I didn't buy any
> as all I needed was a battery. I see that they are having some real nice
> incentives to get people to buy their new line of tools. The HD guy said
> that they are offering free replacements of batteries for the lifetime of
> their cordless drills. That seems like a nice feature in addition to their
> normal warranty. It also looks like you get a HD gift certificate with each
> purchase. If you are thinking 'bout a new power tool, give them a look.
>
> Alas, I didn't take the plunge. I just got a replacement pack. I am
> curious if the Ridgids will be worth anything or not.
>
> Frank
> BTW, I thought I read somewhere that those batteries can be reconditioned.
> Anyone have this done? Costs? Thanks
>
>
>
Take this for what it's worth, but I was told by a long time HD tool
crib employee that these Ridgid cordless tools are/were designed by
Bosch and Panasonic. If you pick up a cordless tool before the end of
the year, battery replacement will be free for life (whatever the
lifetime warranty ends up being).
Tools are built by ITC - the same people who build Ryobi, Crafstman, and
a few others. Specs were written by Bosch (tool guts) and Panasonic
(battery technology).
I don't work for HD, and I can't confirm whether this info is true or
not. Just what I gathered from my last trip to the Borg.
--
Regards,
Rick
(Remove the HIGH SPOTS for e-mail)
KEYWORDS
ridgid lifetime warranty
ridgid cordless tool problems and praise
home depot HD
hi all, i bought the following tools a month ago,
5" ridgid orbiting sander
ridgid jigsaw
4 pack of ridgid 18volt cordless tools, here is some real world
expierence for you to consider in your quest to find information
the orbiting sander is very smooth, has been used alot. i would
estimate 10 hours in the last month and a half. it comes with 2 sander
bases, one for sticky discs, another with velcro for the hook and loop
pads, this has performed excelent! i am a big time dewalt fan for 10
years, but figured i would give ridgid a try considering i know they
make some excelent heavy duty tools. the sander has a soft start
feature that definately helps to not stress the motor, this soft start
feature is also seen in my jig saw, very good idea!
the next item is the ridgid jig saw, it has been used in 4 projects
and i would say it has been used for a total of 30 minutes continous
timed running over a month. i have had no major problems with it, but
a minor problem i found is the clear plastic cover used to keep wood
or dust contained does come off sometimes, and i find it is sometimes
easier to just leave it off when cutting. but other than that, i like
it alot.
then i bought the 4 pack of cordless tools, the circular saw. the
drill, the flashlight and the reciprocating saw. i will start with the
flashlight, the flashlight is quite rugged, it has seen several 8 foot
drops and the battery popped off once during one of those falls. i use
the light alot, and finally burned out a bulb after a month of heavy
use. they do include a spare bulb under the lens, but it is tricky to
remove, i broke my spear bulb trying. i bought a 2 pack of 18V dewalt
bulbs from HD and they work fine. ok now on to the circular saw.... it
is smooth and quiet, but seems to get bogged down easily if the saw
gets slightly twisted or the battery is less than half charged. i have
not used it alot as of yet so thats all i have on it. next is the
reciprocating saw, this saw has been thru some heavy duty abuse and
has performed flawlessly during all of it. i put on an 8 inch blade
and started hacking up a orange tree, over the course of the day i
sawed off about 1/2 to 3/4 of the tree, and the saw acted normal the
entire time, i do want to say that a fully charged battery pack would
last about 10 minutes of continous hard sawing. more on the battery
packs later. finally the cordless hammer drill, this drill has
performed very well, under some various uses, the selectable gear
range is great, it works great as a hammer drill, i bought a 5/8
cement bit and have done alot of hammerdrilling, no complaints there.
i have one complaint tho......i was doing alot of slow and medium
speed drilling, and the drill was getting quite warm in the upper
handle area, i should have stopped to give the drill a break i
suppose, but in the true nature of the tests i have been doing, i
continued hot drill and all, well after about 20 minutes the drill
stopped running slow, and now will only do a slight variable speed
from about 75% to full output, i cant get it to creep anymore, when
you squeeze thr trigger it jumps right up to 75% speed and ifd i fully
press the trigger it goes full speed. i believe the problem will be a
PWM control (pulse width modulator control) i intend to take it back
to home depot.
finally the batterys... the lifetime warranty is the deciding factor
in me buying the cordless kit, 18 v batts are expensive, so heres what
i have observed from real world battery stats..
if the battery goes dead, and is about room temperature, it will
charge in about 30 minutes. now if the battery is fairly hot, say from
heavy tree cutting with the reciprocating saw, the charger will cool
the battery with internal fand first by blowing air thru the battery,
then it will charge, this process can take as much as an hour to cool
the pack down and then the 30 minutes to charge giving you a full
charge in 1.5 hours. that bugged me but i have learned to deal with
it. overall i am very satisfied with my ridgid tool and might buy
more, i have been looking at the angle grinder.
jackofalltrades
Good review. I'm not usually an off-brand tool fan, but you can't go wrong with
the Ridgid angle grinder. It (and the big random orbit sander and jigsaw) is
made by Metabo in Germany, renowned for the best grinders in the world.
GTO(John)
>hi all, i bought the following tools a month ago,
>5" ridgid orbiting sander
>ridgid jigsaw
>4 pack of ridgid 18volt cordless tools, here is some real world
>expierence for you to consider in your quest to find information
>
>the orbiting sander is very smooth, has been used alot. i would
>estimate 10 hours in the last month and a half. it comes with 2 sander
>bases, one for sticky discs, another with velcro for the hook and loop
>pads, this has performed excelent! i am a big time dewalt fan for 10
>years, but figured i would give ridgid a try considering i know they
>make some excelent heavy duty tools. the sander has a soft start
>feature that definately helps to not stress the motor, this soft start
>feature is also seen in my jig saw, very good idea!
>
>the next item is the ridgid jig saw, it has been used in 4 projects
>and i would say it has been used for a total of 30 minutes continous
>timed running over a month. i have had no major problems with it, but
>a minor problem i found is the clear plastic cover used to keep wood
>or dust contained does come off sometimes, and i find it is sometimes
>easier to just leave it off when cutting. but other than that, i like
>it alot.
>
>then i bought the 4 pack of cordless tools, the circular saw. the
>drill, the flashlight and the reciprocating saw. i will start with the
>flashlight, the flashlight is quite rugged, it has seen several 8 foot
>drops and the battery popped off once during one of those falls. i use
>the light alot, and finally burned out a bulb after a month of heavy
>use. they do include a spare bulb under the lens, but it is tricky to
>remove, i broke my spear bulb trying. i bought a 2 pack of 18V dewalt
>bulbs from HD and they work fine. ok now on to the circular saw.... it
>is smooth and quiet, but seems to get bogged down easily if the saw
>gets slightly twisted or the battery is less than half charged. i have
>not used it alot as of yet so thats all i have on it. next is the
>reciprocating saw, this saw has been thru some heavy duty abuse and
>has performed flawlessly during all of it. i put on an 8 inch blade
>and started hacking up a orange tree, over the course of the day i
>sawed off about 1/2 to 3/4 of the tree, and the saw acted normal the
>entire time, i do want to say that a fully charged battery pack would
>last about 10 minutes of continous hard sawing. more on the battery
>packs later. finally the cordless hammer drill, this drill has
>performed very well, under some various uses, the selectable gear
>range is great, it works great as a hammer drill, i bought a 5/8
>cement bit and have done alot of hammerdrilling, no complaints there.
>i have one complaint tho......i was doing alot of slow and medium
>speed drilling, and the drill was getting quite warm in the upper
>handle area, i should have stopped to give the drill a break i
>suppose, but in the true nature of the tests i have been doing, i
>continued hot drill and all, well after about 20 minutes the drill
>stopped running slow, and now will only do a slight variable speed
>from about 75% to full output, i cant get it to creep anymore, when
>you squeeze thr trigger it jumps right up to 75% speed and ifd i fully
>press the trigger it goes full speed. i believe the problem will be a
>PWM control (pulse width modulator control) i intend to take it back
>to home depot.
>
>finally the batterys... the lifetime warranty is the deciding factor
>in me buying the cordless kit, 18 v batts are expensive, so heres what
>i have observed from real world battery stats..
>if the battery goes dead, and is about room temperature, it will
>charge in about 30 minutes. now if the battery is fairly hot, say from
>heavy tree cutting with the reciprocating saw, the charger will cool
>the battery with internal fand first by blowing air thru the battery,
>then it will charge, this process can take as much as an hour to cool
>the pack down and then the 30 minutes to charge giving you a full
>charge in 1.5 hours. that bugged me but i have learned to deal with
>it. overall i am very satisfied with my ridgid tool and might buy
>more, i have been looking at the angle grinder.
>
>jackofalltrades
i did call ridgids 800 number, they said i need to get it to a service
center, they have a list of all the service centers in your area, you
could either send it there or take the battery or broken tool there.
they should have replacement batterys in stock. heres a follow up for
my original post, i took my 18V drill back to HD, because i only
bought it a month ago they opened a new 4PC box and took my broken
drill and gave me the new drill. they did say they were replacing ti
because it was within the 90 day satisfaction guarentee, but they were
not a warranty drop off for ridgid power tools.
also if i did not mention it before, i would recomend copying your
reciept and laminating the copy and the bar code cut from the box and
the lifetime clipping from the thin flyers that home depot has
floating around the ridgit cordless display. as well as the small
picture from that same flyer that shows the items you bought. that way
everythings all in one place and cant be disputed. i really recomend
people to copy thier reciept, because it is possible home depot and
ridgid are betting that your reciept will fade before you need
service, or get lost. i keep my original and my laminated copy in my
safe. also donot laminate your original, the heat from the lamination
machine will turn it black and possibly make it useless.
to addresss the concers of the other person about the idea that the
charger has fans in it and that could be bad because they are putting
too much power it to the battery or something like that, well i think
the fans are an extra great idea, as they cool the battery down first,
and while charging, heat hurts batterys and the cooler you can keep
them the better, it's about time somebody stepped up to the plate with
a great idea like that!
Think about that for a moment...
"...offering free replacements of batteries for the lifetime of their
cordless drills."
Again...
"...offering free replacements of batteries for the lifetime of their
cordless drills."
--
The software said it ran under Windows 98/NT/2000, or better.
So I installed it on Linux...
"Frank Ketchum" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Stopped into Home Depot today to pick up a new battery for my dewalt
> cordless drill and saw the new line of Rigid power tools. I didn't buy
any
> as all I needed was a battery. I see that they are having some real nice
> incentives to get people to buy their new line of tools. The HD guy said
> that they are offering free replacements of batteries for the lifetime of
> their cordless drills. That seems like a nice feature in addition to
their
> normal warranty. It also looks like you get a HD gift certificate with
each
> purchase. If you are thinking 'bout a new power tool, give them a look.
>
> Alas, I didn't take the plunge. I just got a replacement pack. I am
> curious if the Ridgids will be worth anything or not.
>
> Frank
> BTW, I thought I read somewhere that those batteries can be reconditioned.
> Anyone have this done? Costs? Thanks
>
>
There is a time limit on that offer. I beleive it is either the end of this
month or the end of this year, its one or the other. The new drills look
pretty good, all steel chucks instead of the plastic ones on the older
series. Get one if you need one, the battery deal is a winner. I went ot buy
an 18V battery for a Ryobi circular saw I have and it was $129.00. They had
a Ryobi cordless handvac with 18V battery for $79.00! Go figure...
"Frank Ketchum" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Stopped into Home Depot today to pick up a new battery for my dewalt
> cordless drill and saw the new line of Rigid power tools. I didn't buy
any
> as all I needed was a battery. I see that they are having some real nice
> incentives to get people to buy their new line of tools. The HD guy said
> that they are offering free replacements of batteries for the lifetime of
> their cordless drills. That seems like a nice feature in addition to
their
> normal warranty. It also looks like you get a HD gift certificate with
each
> purchase. If you are thinking 'bout a new power tool, give them a look.
>
> Alas, I didn't take the plunge. I just got a replacement pack. I am
> curious if the Ridgids will be worth anything or not.
>
> Frank
> BTW, I thought I read somewhere that those batteries can be reconditioned.
> Anyone have this done? Costs? Thanks
>
>