I'm thinking that the question of battery in
rating a cordless drill should be of seperate question and not really have a bearing on one's opinion of a drill. All normal cordless tool batteries have a limited lifespan - normally about 3 years with constant use. I have 3.6v Panasonic cordless screw drivers that have half that life yet. At that
point the battery is the cause, you simply replace the batteries and as long as there is not a flaw in the tool design, and it's been maintained it should work properly again. That's about $45.00 worth of a new battery as opposed to what about $200 on average for a new drill? Batteries typically also have a one year warranty on them. If it dies, you
return it for a replacement. (Save your recipts.)
Just finished spending about $350.00 over a period of about six months on my far above 14.4v cordless DeWalt pistol
grip hammer drill to make it run. First one thing broke than another, this time requiring a new motor and other parts, A third time for a part that's discontinued. The Authorized service center was not able to fix it.
As a last chance, I sent it to a Black & Decker / DeWalt service center for their $100.00 maximum charge - no matter what's needed and they were not only able to get the discontinued clutch - given six weeks in the shop, but most of the rest of the parts on the drill including now a third motor were also replaced. I was hoping they would just give me a credit on a new drill but instead there are more new parts on this thing than origional ones. Should have sent it there in the first place and pocketed the $250.00 I wasted at another repair shop.
Given it was only about a month between the first and second manfunction, I still credit that - "what you didn't notice this" or problem the second time around with the repair shop but still paid it given those guys do this for a living just as I
wire fixtures for a living and seem to know what I'm doing. That first repair shop had no warranty thus I paid more still in just hoping to get my favorite drill back. Could have been a new problem not noticed - it is old and well broken in after all. Than again, it took with the DeWalt shop more than just six weeks to get the drill back. The first time I went to pick it up I noted a gear selector
switch problem it did not used to have. Normally it should just
drop into gear. This "repaired" tool had way too much slop in doing so and would not stay in gear dependibly. Seems a new repair tech had "fixed it", and the shop's Master Tech once the problem was noted now had to repair the problem given the parts in
stock were not suited for the drill in me doing the repair. Nothing new for a new tech to
send slop out the door, just new that such inspection of their work passed by the eyes of the "old salt."
Thing is, when a tool does not function as designed, that expense can at times be much cheaper to repair than buying a new drill. I'm sure many tool companies will either give a credit or have a maximum repair price. I note a "factory referbishshed tool" sticker above and on my own Bosh Jigsaw which works as if new even if cheaper in cost given it's used. If you are a pro, you do factoryspec. work and the tool will be in perfect running condition. - good source by way of factory repair center them referbished tools. Given the old drill now also has full warranty coverage again, it for all intensive purposes is a new drill for $100.00 instead of $245 for a new version of it. Granted the $250.00 wasted was more a mistake in sending it to the wrong place.
This new/old drill even has a new break on it's motor that the old one never had. That
bit stops almost instantly in saving the motor from damage. It very much is a brand new drill.
Six years ago I had about 10 or 12 cordless 14.4v DeWalt batteries for five tools using those batteries. Over the years, those batteries have died out and been replaced. I now have about four within one year old batteries but don't use the tools as much. There is also another four of the similar type in the shop I can pull from should I run out of
juice.
Standardization is the key. Two batteries often will not be enough especially once they get older - short of Lithium (available as an option with some brands) which will last longer but have less
power overall. If you have a standard battery in the shop, you always have
power.
The shop just bought a Bosh 14.4v cordless drill. I'm pissed that someone did so. It's an excellent cordless drill and could be a good standard for the shop, but given we are already DeWalt, it was a poor choice. Seems Menards has stopped selling DeWalt equipment and as opposed to just going to Home Depot, the person buying it recognized the standardized battery problem but was too lazy to go the extra two miles down the
road. Now as opposed to two "fresh" batteries put into the shop cordless tool battery
system - given some are no doubt reaching the end of their life, we now will need to buy fresh batteries for the shop tools and three years from now buy more batteries for the Bosh as something that's not standardized.
I hope that the above two points
clear up some confusion I see between the tool and the battery, much cost effectiveness of replacing tools with getting them repaired. Certainly at some
point - given I had already spent $250 on the DeWalt, it would be cheaper to
purchase a new one, but were it only $100.00 with full warranty this than will have been much more cost effective than the new tool. On batteries, it's a given they will wear out. That's just the price of using them. If your tool is not to be used for three months you need to discharge the battery. If shorter than that, but not used every day, take it out of the charger. Leaving a battery in a charger for more than a week is not as healthy as one might think over a extended period of time. After that, if used every day, you simply have to replace the things every few years.
Since the mid-1990's, there is yet to be a major improvement beyond three gear selectivity for speed on
power tools. The older tools still work the same as new ones. Replacing because they don't work so well seems to me more a sympliclistic view of not understanding the investment you have. Go back to earlier "Top Gun" drills and others such as some origional versions of the
Makita, and there were some serious design flaws with both clutch and speed selector. Most more modern tools have these problems solved along with the thermal cut off switches, and chip memories on the batteries taken out which were from Hell on some tools from a cetain era.
No you don't have to completely discharge your batteries any longer no matter what brand unless cheap crap say from Wagner, in order to ensure it will get a full charge. Have I mentioned this
point enough? - Constantly finding people doing the
velcro strap around the trigger in following some1990's inner chip mythology still alive about battery memories - given they even understand the necessity of why they do so.
If your battery is reaching the end of it's usefulness, you can try discharging it, but most likely it's a natural battery type of not holding as good of a charge type of thing and nothing to do with somewhere between the charger and battery out thinking you in only providing as much charge as that battery was charged for last time.
By the way, my 14.4v. DeWalt
T-Handle is about 13 years old now and has been back to the shop perhaps four times - but only for a more or less yearly maintinence. It's the spare drill for when the other is in the shop or I need a higher gear to torque ratio. My other about 12 year old 14.4v Pistol
grip I prefer has been sent in for maintinence yearly for probably it's first eight years when I was using it daily to an extreme, and about every other year since than. It's old and still used daily, just not to the extreme as putting a few hundred drywall screws in a day with it. Just a few hours a day of use. It has seen about either 18month or every two year service calls. That what is it, 12 year old daily used and highly abused drill in needing a new motor and lots of other things now is an excellent life for a cordless drill used that much. You will note that it's been maintained as per the
manual as per a car. No oil in the car... you bet it's going to burn up. So things broke on it. Given the service center couldn't fix it I was all ready to upgrade because it paid itself off. 12 years old, much less older for the
T-Handle that is less used?
Both cordless drills given a good battery still work the same or even better now than they did when they were new. Granted it's some cash spent to get them in for yearly maintinence. Still it's well worth the effort.
