Replacing 18Volt battery pack for drill

Mistral001

I have a JBC cordless drill whose battery pack will not hold its charge for more than a few minutes of drilling.


The drill is in good condition, so replacing the whole drill for the sake of the need of a new battery seems to be a bit of a waste.


I have looked on ebay etc and they do not seem to sell battery packs to fit my drill.


I Have thought of just replacing the cells with 12 AA rechargeable batteries. Has anybody here done this successfully? BTW I am fairly handy with a soldering iron and do not see a problem in doing this, buT I was wondering whether anybody else here has done it and saved money overall.

Gloomendoom

Have you looked on Youtube? I'm sure there were several relevant vids when I was considering doing the same thing.

enfield_freddy

OK not going to comment on a drill , however I have rebuilt many battery packs from 2 way radios , if you are doing this you need "tagged" batteries , those can be safely soldered together


eg: , not sure if the size is right http://cpc.farnell.com/gp-batteries/gp180aahhb/battery-ni-mh-aa-1800mah-tagged/dp/BT02811


edit: look here http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Component-Shop/Individual-Cells-/_i.html?_fsub=204077319&_sid=68173889&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322




last time I bought (in bulk) they came from this guy http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Component-Shop/AA-Batteries-/_i.html?_fsub=204071919&_sid=68173889&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322


although I cant see any listed , a quick email might help you

kwikbreaks

If this is a NiCad pack you can temporarily revive it by running completely flat and recharging a few times. I've done this myself and it does help but isn't a permanent fix.

enfield_freddy

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-2V-NiMH-Single-Cells-Tags-All-SIZES-DIY-custom-battery-packs-/231512711506?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item7b940b3f44


type "Q"

Mistral001

Enfield Freddy

With regards to the drill, I got it in Macro along with a mains drill for a bargain price about 10 years ago. The mains drill is of very low quality and barely works now despite not using it much, but the battery drill despite very frequent use over the years is fine apart from needing new batteries.

I looked at your links which are just what I was looking for, thanks. The cost will be over £40 so it looks like I need a new drill.



Kwikbreaks

The battery has been completely discharged a few times but I think it is like proverbial parrot. thanks for the suggestion anyway

Mistral001

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Have you looked on Youtube? I'm sure there were several relevant vids when I was considering doing the same thing.

I have looked Youtube and there are a lot of useful videos there. One suggested that you only replace the dud cells. Since I have two battery packs, I might try cannibalising the good cells out of one to replace the bad ones out of the other.

Chrishazle

I have exactly the same problem with my Axminster White 18V drills, the battery packs take tagged sub-C cells, I found an outfit that can rebuild them, but at about £60 per battery pack it's just not economic. I'm annoyed that Axminster no longer supply replacement battery packs, as the drills still work well - and I have 3 in total (2 x 18V, 1 x 14.4V)!!

kwikbreaks

I've ditched several drills because the battery packs couldn't hold charge too. I'm hoping my latest one will last as it has li-ion packs rather than NiCad. The one it replaced isn't actually binned I kept it for use at my holiday caravan.

gjchester

enfield_freddy wrote: »

OK not going to comment on a drill , however I have rebuilt many battery packs from 2 way radios , if you are doing this you need "tagged" batteries , those can be safely soldered together

Is it actually worth rebuilding packs, I have some GP340 radios with iffy packs, I found its usually cheaper to replace with a OEM pack than recell them.

kwikbreaks

The problem there is finding one that fits the drill and the OP says they can't find one.