This is driving me crazy thinking about it

[lcm1947]

I have a 7 year old Makita 12 volt driver/drill. It has 7 year old batteries and seems to be fading on me. It just doesn't have the speed/ power for drilling much of anything anymore nor do the batteries last as long. Now I realize that old batteries aren't going to last as long as when they were new but I worry that the drill itself might just not be as fast or powerful because of it's age even with new batteries and I hate wasting $120.00 on batteries when I could buy a brand new one for around $199.00. Any thought out there?

[RodKirby]

IMHO -

Time to retire the poor old thing! Li-ion batteries are now the way to go.

When looking at new options, check out the Highest speed - 1,000+RPM makes drilling in wood much easier. The low priced (junk?) drills seem to max out at about 600RPM. Torque, weight, feel, will be up to you.

[niki]

Hi Mac

I have drills that are 10 years old and still working like champs (and they are not Makita but some Made in Chiwan), but not with the original batteries.

If you want to know if your Makita is still good and strong (which I believe, it is), dismental the battery pack, take out all the batteries, solder wires to the metal connections and connect them to your car battery (never mind the polarity) with crocodile clamps and try.

I'm using a few drills with 12V, 5AH bike battery already 10 years.

If you like, I can attach pics of what I did.

niki

[LCHIEN]

I have a 7 year old Makita 12 volt driver/drill. It has 7 year old batteries and seems to be fading on me. It just doesn't have the speed/ power for drilling much of anything anymore nor do the batteries last as long. Now I realize that old batteries aren't going to last as long as when they were new but I worry that the drill itself might just not be as fast or powerful because of it's age even with new batteries and I hate wasting $120.00 on batteries when I could buy a brand new one for around $199.00. Any thought out there?

Lee, At seven years your batteries have had a good life.

One of the symtoms of aging batteries is that the internal resistance goes up. Internal resistance is measured usually in thousandths of an ohm but as the battery ages it goes up significantly and its like adding lengths of undersized extension cord to a corded power tool or squeezing the hose on a water sprinkler. Internal resistance limits the instantaneous maximum current a battery can deliver. It will manifest itself as a lack of power under load and quicker loss of voltage when it out of juice.

OTOH, motors don't really age too badly - a drill motor will wear out its brushes but until they're gone it should not slow the motor down any. The motor, bearings and gearbox should outlast the rechargeable battery.

you really have two options, The cheaper option if you were satisfied with the tool originally is to have the battery pack rebuilt. You can do one first and see if you like the result. Send it in to one of the sellers on eBay or the internet (google or eBay for combinations of the terms battery pack rebuild tool) and you should find some. I had a 13.2V pack rebuilt recently for about $25-30, a lot less than a new replacement pack $60) from the OEM. New batteries from a rebuilder may actually be significantly higher performance than the original batteries with no real penalty.

The other option is a new tool like Rod suggests and this is definately more fun. BUt, $200 is a lot of money.

[maxparot]

First let me say that I have never gotten anywhere near 7 years of life out of a battery pack!

It has been my experience that most reasonable quality drills will outlast a second set of batteries.

But as you are aware the price of replacement pack is high when considering whether to get new packs or a new drill kit.

I have stopped buying replacement packs. Instead I garage sale the old kit and decide on a new drill as soon as the battery packs start to show any noticeable degredation.

[movnup]

I have an identical issue that I posted on the site a couple of weeks ago. Take a look at the thread makita cordless issues. A different option that popped up was to buy a refurb tool and get the two battery packs and charger for about $60 for the 12v and $90 for the 14.4 v. if you do some serious searching.

I am building a double layer trex deck so someone suggested an impact driver vs a replacement drill as it has a lot higher torque for all the self threading screws I'm putting in. The upside besides a new toy to play with (e.g. the right tool for the job) is that I can interchange the new batteries with a drill that has served me very well through many projects.

[jabe]

I second what movnup suggested. Factory refurbished drill or impact driver with the same battery as your present drill makes alot of sense. You got your moneys worth on your old battery.

[sweensdv]

If you decide to trash that Makita drill let me know. I'll send you $15 and you can send it and the worn out batteries to me. No sense in filling up your landfill with a tool that still has some life in it.

Seriously, there should be nothing wrong with the drill itself and I'd definately consider rebuilt batteries in this case. A $50 to $60 investment for a couple of rebuilts is well worth it if you can get another 7-1/2 years out of that Makita.

[Tom Miller]

I was in the exact same situation last winter. The batteries to my Makita 12V, which I really liked, were not performing well anymore. Comparing the cost of replacing the batteries to buying a new unit (which was on sale) pointed to the new unit.

Now, I'm in a new dilemma: I can't seem to toss out the old, but "perfectly good" drill/driver. I could really use it in the garage. Loring's OEM rebuild idea is sounding kind of interesting....

Regards,
Tom

[CrashResq]

I'll throw my 2 cents in... I've done the battery rebuild think for a little 12v Ryobi that my wife uses and my PC 14.4. Both great drill/drivers and I just didn't want to part with them. I went with Battery Rebuilders, LLC (hagles@gte.net). Guy who owns it is Tom and will ship you a package to send the batteries to him in. He rebuilds, charges and test then ships them back. I did the Ryobi batteries about a year ago and I do not have a single complaint (two batteries were approx $50 w/ shipping). I'm waiting for the return of my PC batteries (two batteries were $70 w/ shipping).

[lcm1947]

Thanks all for your suggestions. I really am still happy with this drill/driver but was just worried that maybe the driver itself might be worn out. I checked the brushes and they are in extremely good shape although I really don't know what brushes have to do with a motor but they look good anyway. Another reason why I think I'll try CrashResg's repair guy is that the driver/drill came along with a flashlight that I think I use more then the darn drill. So I should be comparing the price of a new drill that comes with a flashlight against the price of refurb batteries and that drives the new rig price up even over the $200.00 price I was originally thinking I'd have to pay. Yeah, what the heck I'll try some refurbs and thanks CrashResq for the place to contact.

[cabinetman]

Maybe this is just a fluke but one of my cordless drills is a Bosch 12v ni-cad that I bought 17 years ago, and it still works great.



"I'M NEVER WRONG - BUT I'M NOT ALWAYS RIGHT"

[niki]

Icm1947 and Cabinetman

I don’t know which model is your Makita but have a look at this site, they have very attractive prices.
http://www.camera-battery.net/power-...ls-battery.htm

They have also for B&D, Bosch, Craftsmen and Ryobi.

Regards
niki

[lcm1947]

Hey Niki thanks for the site. The prices were great so I went ahead and ordered 2 of them for $66.00 and that includes shipping. Appreciate the site. I can hardly wait to get them in. I really really didn't want to have to part with that Makita so am so happy I didn't have to. Thanks everybody for the advice and suggestions. I do appreciate it.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

http://www.batteryrebuilders.com/

This guy did a lot of work for folks on other sites. I had a few larger batteries done by him a few months ago for friends. Amazingly, (as I live in the middle of a huge farm and have no neighbors) he lives <2 miles from my house. Real nice guy. He explained the differences in cells and why rebuilders cells are often better. He also explained how he got a hold of a bunch of bad cells and replaced all of them at his cost for folks on other boards. Again, just a really great guy with a great service. Two of the batteries I had rebuilt were for an Amish friend. 19.2v Porter Cable batteries. He charges them at work and brings them home for house hold activities. He said that they were much better than the OEM.