Makita driver/drill set needs a new battery
kray
| Posted in Tools for Home Building on
I need to replace one of the batteries for a Makita drill/driver set. These are the 14.4v 2.6A version. Does anyone know if there are options beside the Makita brand batteries, or am I best off sticking with original equipment as replacement? Also, does anyone know if a larger battery will fit in these tools, or do I need to stick with the 14.4?
Replies
For what it's worth the last
For what it's worth the last time I researched replacing a Makita 12v 2.6a the price difference between the generics and factory wasn't sufficient to tempt me to go generic.
Glad to see I am not the only one still having this old technology. I might suggest a few options: A new drill- The Makita 6339MXT uses the same batteries but has 450 in lbs of torque compared to 350 on the 6336 or the M-force drill. Do you have an impact driver? The Makita 14.4 NIMH is a great one...(Again, uses the same batteries) The Circ saw is great as well.
Amazon had a really good deal on the 6336, selling it for 150 dollars, whereas a 2 pack of batteries is 140 dollars.(I own both this and the 6339 mxt drills, both are great)
Or you could check E-bay for deals. I checked CPO Makita- They have the 6336 for 129 dollars! CPO MAkita has alot of reconditioned stuff in 14.4 volts, including combo kits. There was also a deal where you got a free dill when you bought the impact driver. Hope this helps you decide. I think the NIMH stuff is fantastic- No problems with hot or cold, very reliable over the long haul.
My 14.v Makita batteries for my drill bit the dust about 6 months ago. If you want to keep the drills etc that you currently have the best option is to buy a reconditioned 14.v tool from CPO Makita (comes with two new batteries) like bubbajames suggested. The cost difference between new Makita batteries and the whole reconditioned set was minimal at the time.
I looked at a couple of aftermarket batteries but didn't really see any big break in cost. I also ask the guy at the tool repair place if I could run any 14.4 Makita battery in the drill and he said as long as the voltage is the same. But he did say to make sure that the charger is correct for the type of battery you are using. I had both NiCad and NiMh and the older NiCad charger would not charge the NiMh batteries.
Check clearance at the big boxes. I needed new 18 volt and they were selling them for 10 dollars apiece. Bought all they had.
I just picked up 2 Makita 14.4v on clearance at Home depot for $29 each!
Everytime HF has their 1.2 A-hr 18V batteries on sale for $6.99, I buy a few and remove the cells.
Pretty easy to swap out the cells, just do not solder directly to the cells when you rearrange them to fit you Makita, solder to the SS tabs - use acid flux and clean well with methanol afterwards.
Generally NiMH batteries are "plug compatible" with NiCad, but the charging characteristics are different enough that it's not unlikely a NiCad charger would refuse to charge NiMH, and there's some chance that either charger or battery could be damaged.