ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Renew cordless drill batteries..

Does anyone know if you can renew your codless drill batteries?

well I know you can both have the batteries rebuilt, and buy new cells for them that you can solder together yourself, this link should help https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/007438.html

You can get the batteries rebuilt at "Batteries Plus" or other similar stores.

I had a battery rebuilt at "Batteries Plus" it was $15.00 cheaper then a new one and had to drop off and pick up the battery so where are the savings?

I rebuild them myself. You can buy NiCd and NiMH cells with solder tabs from DigiKey or other electronic suppliers, and stick new packs together with a soldering iron and some hotmelt glue.

There was an article on a machinist BB the other day about this and they talked about zapping NiCads with a lot of current to burn the whiskers off. The safe way is with a big capacitor, charged up to about 1.5x the working voltage. Other thoughts were automotive battery chargers or just using jumper cables to a car battery for the 9.2v
It was pointed out that if the vent is plugged these things might blow.

I have zapped a NiCad before and it does work but some battery packs have a fuse in them that blows when you do this. (notably the IBM "Convertible" PC battery)

I would suggest putting these batteries in a piece of 4" and don't stand near the ends if you try it.