Dewalt batteries

[Ken Parris]

I recently came into several Dewalt battery handtools from a friend that closed his sign business. All excellent except one of the batteries and three others don't hold a charge very well. I checked with Battery Plus and they can repair or sell me new ones. Question one-can you buy the parts and repair yourself? If so where would I find the repair parts? Second will it help to leave the battteries in the charger all the time, will that keep them fully charges. This is not my area of expertise so I can use advice. Thanks for anything you can help me with.

Ken

[Jim Becker]

I did refurbish two DeWalt 14.4v batteries a number of years ago. It wasn't difficult, but the soldering was tricky because of the metal they seemed to have used inside the battery case. It was difficult to get the correct temperature and a good bond. I don't know that I'd do a rebuild myself again based on that experience. I put the tool away when those renovated batteries stopped holding a good charge and recently found some on closeout at my local 'borg....I scarfed those up and the tool is back in rotation.

[Steve Demuth]

In almost all cases when a battery no longer holds a charge, repairing means replacing the actual cells, which means you're going to be at or near the cost of a new battery. Unless they tell you in advance that there is a short or leak that can be repaired short of replacing the cells, I wouldn't bother - find replacements on sale and recycle the dead batteries.

[Ed Labadie]

If they are 18v ni-cad, recycle the batteries and buy DeWalt's adapter to convert them to li-on....

Ed

[John K Jordan]

...the soldering was tricky because of the metal they seemed to have used inside the battery case. It was difficult to get the correct temperature and a good bond. ...

If you do it yourself you can buy battery cells from the battery store that have solderable tabs tack welded to both ends of the battery. Alternatively, you can tack weld them yourself - we've done it with a bank of charged electrolytic capacitors. It is also important to get a set of battery cells tested for matched capacity. Some of the battery store employees don't know this.

I have rebuilt some by tearing multiple packs apart, testing each cell under charge and load, then using only the good cells to rebuild one or two packs. The problem I found was some of the batteries are packaged inside such that they are quite difficult to get the cells out. I also ran into a few that could not be taken apart by removing screws. The battery store told me they would not rebuild this type.

An easy way to get some new batteries used to be buy a new power tool when on sale just to get the batteries. In Dewalt's wisdom, the batteries were a lot cheaper that way. I therefore now have a box of unused Dewalt cordless drills (if I haven't thrown them out).

I did buy Dewalt's kit that has an adapter to use 20V Lithium Ion batteries with the 18V Dewalt cordless tools. It works very well. I may buy another if I find it on sale since I have cordless Dewalt 18v drills, impact drivers, angle grinders, reciprocating saw, and circular saw. The Lithium Ion battery kit comes with a two batteries and a charger.

JKJ

[Mike Kees]

I agree with Ed and John. Li-on batteries last way longer. Mike.

[Jim Becker]

If you do it yourself you can buy battery cells from the battery store that have solderable tabs tack welded to both ends of the battery. Alternatively, you can tack weld them yourself - we've done it with a bank of charged electrolytic capacitors.

At the time I bought the parts from one of the battery places, the cells did not have tabs on them. Hence, the challenge.

[John K Jordan]

At the time I bought the parts from one of the battery places, the cells did not have tabs on them. Hence, the challenge.

I think you have to ask to have tabs added, at least that's the way it was in the store in Knoxville. They had a little spot welder in the back.

[Lee Schierer]

I had my 14/5 volt Dewalt batteries rebuilt by MTO battery several years ago. The performed better than new and are still working well. The were along our route home from visiting my daughter so I called ahead and they had the internals ready to go and it took less than a half hour to rework both battery packs.

[Rollie Kelly]

John, relative to the standard 18v pack, is the adapter/L-ion combo bigger, about the same, or smaller?
Thanks,
Rollie

[John K Jordan]

John, relative to the standard 18v pack, is the adapter/L-ion combo bigger, about the same, or smaller?
Thanks,
Rollie

The adapter adds no height to the overall tool. The weight of the adapter+battery is much less than the NiCad, 550 grams vs 954 grams.

batteries_A.jpg batteries_B.jpg

JKJ

[Steve Rozmiarek]

An easy way to get some new batteries used to be buy a new power tool when on sale just to get the batteries. In Dewalt's wisdom, the batteries were a lot cheaper that way. I therefore now have a box of unused Dewalt cordless drills (if I haven't thrown them out).



JKJ

Me too, sometimes you can get a really great deal on new batteries if you are patient. I got to 60v dewalts and a flex volt circular saw for the price of the bare saw yesterday with an in the store deal.