Cordless Question DW Drill 14 V

[Tom A Walker]

I've had my DW 14.4 for nearly 10 years. The drill itself is great and has survived a night in a bucket of water (some idiot left the valve open on the garden hose in his garage). I've never had a power issue with it.

However, I did have a problem with the charger/batteries about 3 years ago. The charger blew out both batteries in a messy little battery explosion. I think it had something to do with the wall outlet it was plugged into since I'm still lusing the charger with a new battery but I was still disappointed the charger didn't have a fail safe.

My biggest problem with the batteries is the cost. I still haven't replaced the back up battery because I find it hard to justify the extra $70 or so for it. I would buy another in a second though.

[paul meli]

You could do like I did and wire a cord to an old battery after removing the cells and connect it to a 12v tractor or marine battery. I use a lighter plug/receptacle to make the connection. This is semi-cordless since it's easy to carry the battery (in a bucket or battery holder) to where you're working and you can also plug it into your car lighter socket, not much more inconvenient than continuously charging cordless batteries.

I use the cordless batterries when I have them charged but the tractor battery lasts weeks between charges.

Regards,
Paul

[Doug Shepard]

I have this one:

Which you can see here:
AMAZONTOOLS

I read quite alot about this before I bought, and it seems many think the Panasonic battery technology is about the best available. So far, many months of hard use and I am still very impressed with it.

You just had to go post a pic with a 44% off label didn't ya?
This got me wondering if the last Amazon 10% storewide promo they emailed me was still in effect. Nope. But in the small print I notice they have another 10% off deal on select tools thru 3/27. So after checking and realizing the Panasonic is included in this offer I went ahead and ordered one - at 54% off. Ended up costing me less for the 3.5 Ah version than the 3.0 I bought for my dad for Christmas. Only drawback is they're not going to be in stock for about 5 wks or so. Looks like I can put off getting my bad DW battery rebuilt for a while.

[Stephen Dixon]

Comparing the Dewalt batteries to the Panasonic batteries is like comparing apples to oranges. The Dewalt and most other drills, have Ni-Cad batteries, while the Panasonic uses NMHds, the nickle metal hydrides will produce a longer run time on a charge, and more power (torque), but it also has fewer charges in the battery life, and is more expensive.

Ni-cads have a charge cycle life of nearly 2000 charges, NMHds have a cycle life of around 1500 charges, and the new Lithium batteries, have much better charge life and power per pound but are limited to about 500 recharges. If you get one of the newer Lithuim Ion devices make sure that you use as much of the battery as you can before recharging, because you have a limited number of charges to work with.

Thats my $0.02 opinion of battery life
Steve

[Jim Bell]

I have an 18v Milwaukee cordless. If it breaks I'll get another no questions asked. Also have 2 Dewalts, compared to the Milwaukee it's not even a race.
Jim

[Art Moore]

I'm gonna blaspheme here... I've had (2) cordless Makitas (3/8 and 3/8 right-angle) and a corded Bosch 1196 (1/2 hammer drill) for over 15 years and have just about worn the Makitas out ( I don't think you could hurt the Bosch with a hammer and anvil). BUT, when I replaced the cordless drills earlier this year, I went with the Craftsman DieHard 19.2 volt series. Excellent torque, excellent battery life, and the price is hard to beat at $129.00 for the pair. We'll see how long they last, but so far I'm impressed with'em.