Tools & Fabrication - Cordless drills and thier $hitty batteries.

I have owned almost every brand of cordless drill(DeWalt, Craftsman, Milwaukie,and Mikita) All of the drills performed flawlessly, but the rechargable batteries always take a crap after a few years, and with the high cost of replacement batteries,I always end up getting a whole new drill kit because a new drill with batteries is usually only a few bucks more than just the replacement batteries. I have heard that one company offers lifetime replacement batteries, has anyone heard of this??

I got the dewalt 18v drill, havent had any problems.. yet

but the 1st dewalt was a 9volt, and that took a crap after about 5 years

I've had a Dewalt 12v with VSR packs. Not sure how long I've had it, but I know more than 5 years. No problems yet (knock on wood).

one of the ways to save the batteries is to remove them from the drill when not in use atleast thats what the book that came with my craftsman said and if you do leave the battery in it put the directional switch in the neutral position to minimize or stop parasitic drain that can hurt the batteries life. those are the 2 things that most people i've talked to agree about helping battery life.

My Ridgid 18v came with lifetime warranty on it's batteries from Home Depot, but it was a limited time offer though. That's funny how the warranty will be for 3yrs and both batteries always seem to go out at 3yrs & 1day.
P.S.
My drill has more torque than my girlfriends Saturn, is there a writeup that details switching out the engines? I'll check www.18vSaturnPwr.com

Cordless are nice but I am weird. I still prefer a nice power cord Milwaukie drill.

Hey Skippy, I just ordered the Ridgid 18v kit, http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/18-Volt-4pc-Cordless-Combo/ and was curious about your impressions on the kit, or at least the drill. I have heard great things about their X2 technology for the batteries so hopefully it will live up to the hype.

I like the Ridgid tools more than Milwauke's, I just think they feel better in my hand :cool: (lighter and more balanced). I wish I could help you but this is my first time to buy Ridgid. Hopefully, it will be a long time before I have to discover how "ridgid" they really are.

kyle

Here's a good discussion on cordless impacts ...

http://mtfba.org/rrforum/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=201&

Well, I can't say that I use my cordless drill on my car, 100lb/ft is alot on a cordless! I use pneumatic or air tools for that stuff, and my cordless for carpentry stuff.

I have had no problems with DeWalt been around 4 years. We have around 5 batteries. We have the drill, some lights, saws, etc.