Rebuilding battery pack

[crokett]

I have a DeWalt 14.4V cordless drill/driver that I don;t use because the battery packs no longer hold a charge. Is it possible for me to rebuild the packs myself? Is it as straightforward as disassembling the pack and soldering new cells together?

[Tom Miller]

Is it as straightforward as disassembling the pack and soldering new cells together?

I think it's fairly straight-forward, but I think the cells are tack-welded, not soldered. But I don't know that for sure.

There was some discussion a while back about some places that rebuild battery packs for a reasonable fee. Have you looked into these? I'm considering it.

There's this place, for instance.

Regards,
Tom

[TheRic]

Not knowing how much you know about soldering and electronic, but yes it can be done. The batteries in them are not your standard rechargeable batterers you buy at Walmart. The size of the battery MAY be different than standard size that you are use to. For example 2/3 AA or a Sub C battery.

You also will need batteries with Tabs on them. You solder on the tabs not the batteries. You can ruin the batteries if you try to solder onto them, basically overheat them.

There is a small circuit inside them. Thats needs to be soldered back into place. This circuit board is tuned to the batteries. SO you will need batteries that are as close as possible to the old ones, not talking size but rating.

I have not done this myself YET, got a couple of Craftsman been thinking about doing it to.

[LCHIEN]

I think it's fairly straight-forward, but I think the cells are tack-welded, not soldered. But I don't know that for sure.

There was some discussion a while back about some places that rebuild battery packs for a reasonable fee. Have you looked into these? I'm considering it.

There's this place, for instance.

Regards,
Tom

Yes I have used the place you mention.
http://www.batteryrebuilders.com/
They can rebuild the pack if ou send it to them or they will sell you a kit of the right batteries with tabs and (general) instructions.
I've soldered many things in my life but I took the convenient route and let them do it.

I was satisfied. and saved a lot over the cost of a replacement.

[jseiler]

I had a ryobi drill that had its battery pack die. It was a 12V. I took the battery pack apart, and as the other posters had mentioned, it had sub-C size cells in it that were all tabbed together. I was just about to give up on it, but I had wandered into Harbor Freight and they had 14.4 v packs on sale for $7. The base looked to be the right height (the height of a subC cell) and I decided to go for it. Of course, the batteries were laid out in a different fashion, so I had to cut a few tab links and solder them back up into a different configuration, but it worked like a champ (until the drill bearing died).

If you are good with a soldering iron, electrical tape, its something one can try. One word of caution...wear safety glasses. NiCd batteries can explode if shorted or overheated...and definately make sure you are replacing with like type (nicad for nicad, nimh for nimh, etc).

(note: of course, I had two extra cells. Each cell is 1.2 V. 14.4-12 = 2.4 or 2 cells)

regards,
J

[Ken Massingale]

Battery Rebuilders can be a life saver, but also I have found new batteries at Amazon for less that their rebuilt ones. It depends on the battery and what's available.

[crokett]

J,

I will see what HF has and whether those packs would match what I need. I assume you moved the circuit that Ric mentioned? Or did you just move the cells?

[TheRic]

The circuit is designed for the batteries, charger, etc. I think (99%) it is used more for charging than when in use. So I would keep the circuit with the original.

The "circuit" is one to several small electronic parts soldered together. Not a "Circuit Board". The parts are normally wrapped in tape / plastic (so they don't make a connection with a battery). Just want to clarify that, so you didn't miss it while looking for something bigger.

The HF battery back idea is interesting. Never thought about that. Might have to give that a try myself.

[jziegler]

Watch out on the new batteries from Amazon. I got one for my 12V Ryobi. It works alright (and might be a bit higer capacity than the original batteries), but the plastic case is just slightly larger. So, it's a tight fit in the charger and hte drill.

Jim

[Tom Slick]

I looked into rebuilding some 14.4v battery packs and the cells alone cost almost as much as buying a new pack on sale.
pro rebuilt or generic is the best way to go if you are cheap IMHO.

[sweensdv]

Battery Builders is currently running a 10% off sale:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Battery Builders Sale
Save 10% on all battery rebuild services and rebuild cores. Here is how you do it.

1. Order through the website at www.batteryrebuilders.com
2. Email sales@batteryrebuilders.com and identify yourself as a Woodnet member and provide the email address you provided during checkout.
3. A refund will be processed for 10% of the services / merchandise purchased. This refund is credited back to where the payment originated (Ex.Credit Card, Paypal)S&H is not discounted as part of this offer.

There are no quantity restrictions on this sale. Offer ends 2/11/07. No rainchecks. Not valid on orders placed prior to 2/8/07.

Any questions or problems email or call me

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Jason (owner of batteryrebuilders.com) lives about 2 minutes from my house. I took 5 batteries over there for him to replace the cells. He did a really great job. While he does sell the cells for DIY I would not undertake that without full knowledge of the requirements. He uses a pretty heavy duty machine to do the soldering. He explained that some folks have had problems DIY.
As others note, sometime it is cheaper to buy a whole new drill with new batteries than have one rebuilt. Example : The current PC 19.2 deal at Lowes of the PC 1.4 for $50 on Amazon a couple months ago.

[crokett]

Jeffery,

Sounds like I should send them off to him then. When I do (its not all that urgent) I will PM ya and you can ask him to pay special attention to the package from NC.

Dave, I saw that over on Woodnet and that's what got me thinking about it. I just wanted to find out if it was worth trying to save the 10 or 15 bucks to do it myself.

[TheRic]

Hey Jeff, Any chance there being a BT3 Central discount in the future??!!