Tired of Batteries, Going back to Corded Drills

[Steve Griffin]

While I have a half dozen cordless drills, I still love my $60 dewalt corded. Great for things like drilling 50 pocket screw holes in hickory. At the workbench, it's often just as easy to plug something in as mess around with a charging batteries.

I wonder how many batteries I would have had to charge and replace for 10 years of using this old school drill?

I really should get a retractable cord wheel for this zone. Does anyone have one they recommend?

[Steve Meliza]

For me cordless is for driving screws and for locations not easy to get power to, corded is for the heavy work.

One lithium battery is not the same as other lithium batteries, it depends on what you pair the lithium with. For example, DeWalt has some "nano" packs (eg. DC9360) with LiFe (aka A123) cells that the RC model airplane community tears apart to use for electric powered flight as they can output enormous amounts of current (~60A) and are nearly impossible to kill from over charging or discharging and can be left fully charged with little or no degradation. What kills most lithium packs is being left fully charged as the high voltage causes breakdown in the cells, reportedly as much as a 10% loss in capacity per month. The ideal voltage to store a lithium pack at when not being used is half charged, but anything about 10% below fully charged will help extend their life.

[Scott T Smith]

One lithium battery is not the same as other lithium batteries, it depends on what you pair the lithium with. For example, DeWalt has some "nano" packs (eg. DC9360) with LiFe (aka A123) cells that the RC model airplane community tears apart to use for electric powered flight as they can output enormous amounts of current (~60A) and are nearly impossible to kill from over charging or discharging and can be left fully charged with little or no degradation. What kills most lithium packs is being left fully charged as the high voltage causes breakdown in the cells, reportedly as much as a 10% loss in capacity per month. The ideal voltage to store a lithium pack at when not being used is half charged, but anything about 10% below fully charged will help extend their life.

Steve, this is the first time that I've heard this information, and my explain why some of my LI battery packs have lasted for years and others haven't. Thanks for the insight.

[Ron Natalie]

While that is true to some extent, the thing that kills Lithiums is much as any rechargeable battery: HEAT. While the rapid chargers are usually pretty regulated to prevent this (though doing stupid things like continually unplugging and plugging a charged pack sometimes defeats this) most power tools do not have any regulation (like a computer or cellphone would) to stem heating due to heavy discharging.

[Andrew Joiner]

I wonder how many batteries I would have had to charge and replace for 10 years of using this old school drill?

My thoughts exactly as I started this thread Steve. I have 3 cordless driver/drills and one impact driver. Great tools when new and fully charged. They are all aging, but even when new some had unpredictable battery reliability. Even the expensive ones had battery issues.
I've heard varying theories on battery life NiMH vs. NiCad vs. Li-Ion. For my use a big factor is I only work daily part of the year with 4 months in the summer of 1 hr a month use.

I'm tired of this cycle: Oh, I need new batteries, but they cost so much I can just get the next greatest technology with batteries,drill and charger for similar $.

So I guess this may officially qualify as a rant? Maybe just a reality check. Sure I'll keep using cordless, I just want to solve a problem and keep things simple.

I bought the corded Ryobi D47CK. It's the only drill with a clutch I could find and a $30 retractable cord reel. To be honest I almost grabbed the latest greatest technology in cordless but I want to break cycle.

[Mike Henderson]

There's no doubt that a corded drill is less expensive than a cordless drill. What you gain with a cordless is convenience. If the convenience doesn't mean anything to you (or very little) then corded is the way for you to go. For me, I'll pay for the convenience of the cordless.

Mike

[Ron Natalie]

My DeWalt hammer drill was my go-to tool for several years now and then the brushes smoked. I bought new ones and cleaned things up but it wasn't quite the same. Then the gear box siezed up. I gave up and just bought a bare bones replacement. I'vv had 2 XRP packs die out of the dozen or so that I have. I can pick them up for $50 if I hit the right sales.

What I have decided is my little 12V milwaukee cordless is a whole lot more convenient to use for most things than the big Dewalt. Of cousre I realized that the 3HP ryobi and PC plunge routers are great for a router table and a few other uses but they're too darn heavy for a lot of other handheld use.

[John Lifer]

There is nothing convenient about grabbing that great shiny cordless lithium ion powered tool and finding the battery is dead and you didn't charge the other one (or you only have one battery that's working). By the time you remove the dead, and plug the charged into the drill and put the dead one on the charger and turn on the charger (don't burn down your house by leaving it on!) you could have plugged in the corded and drilled that hole. Hey, I use battery powered, but they really aren't that convenient unless you are toting out 200 feet away from the nearest outlet. THEN it IS convenient!
And honestly, there is NOTHING Green about a battery powered tool.........

[Matt McColley]

I'm setting up shop with two benches with power strips mounted and shelves underneath with corded tools plugged in and ready to go...

I'm ditching all of my plastic cases (well acutally, I'm stowing them in the barn loft).

I still use my cordless.... but like to have the corded option readilly avaiable.

[Byron Trantham]

Ok, here goes...
I have a company rebuild my batteries (NiCads). When I first started working with them, I aksed about charging - leaving them in an active charger. Here is what they told me. HEAT is a battery killer regardless of the technology. So what they recommended was buy one of those cheap timers you get for christmas lights. plug the charger into it and then set the time to start and stop for one hour or less. Now your charger turns on once a day for what ever time you set and the battery is not stressed but alway charged. I have been using my battery packs for 15 years and I aleays have a fresh battery ready.