older battery powered drill- what to do?
edwardh1
| Posted in Tools for Home Building on
I am an active homeowner and do not have a business where I use battery drills.
I have a 12 volt Makita- I always liked it but both the batterys have slowly died, I think with age, easily 10 years old,
what should I do just throw away the 2 batteries, charger and the drill, and get a newer battery powered kit with one or two batteries and a charger? Batteries for this are $55 plus shipping and sales tax. Even considered going back to a corded drill
Replies
Old worn batteries
Do as many of us who have batteries that are worn out. Take them to" Batteries Plus " and have your new batterys repacked. Your good as new.......
edward
From the looks of the end of that drill..................
you of course could price out a rebuild on the batts.............here in ohio at Dynalite battery-35 bucks for a 15.6 panasonic rebuild.
but jeez, that drill motor looks bad.
probably looks worse than it is. but it runs good.
I see amazon with the same set up- 2 batteries, charger and new drill for $109- makes 2 $42 local batter rebuilds look like a bad deal.
edward
Can you check around? provided you really want to keep it...............the 15.6 was 35 at Dynalite here.
I asked about my panasonic 12v and the gent said oh, about 30.
The 42 seems high...........especially compared to the 109.
Look for a combo tool deal-impact driver and drill motor (2 separate guns). If you've never used an impact driver-it'll make you real happy.
I've had some batteries rebuilt at Batteries Plus and they turned out well.
But of course the drill is 10 years old, and the units available now are more powerful with lots of fancy features, and some are very attractively priced.
So it could go either way.
Sell what you have on craigslist - you'll be amazed how old worn out drills with a good name get snatched up. I had an almost identical drill as yours with equally bad batteries that I sold for $35 the first day. Since it was purchased on sale for $99 and rode hard for 6 years, I'd say less than $10/yr is a bargain!
You should get the new 18v makita - it's about the same weight as your 12v....love it!
While I'm a big fan of Makita I'm also a fan of keeping my money. As you say your drill is old technology and rebuilding reqiures 2 trips to the battery store. Since you don't make your living with tools I'd go get a Ryobi cordless with 2 batteris for $89.00 and call it a day. I know a few pros who use Ryobi and they don't have to second guess what to do when the batteries die, they just throw them away and buy another set.
I hope they don't really throw the old batteries away, but rather recycle them in an appropriate fashion.
No, we wait until we have a good pile then burn them.
I believe you would...
No, it's okay. that's where we dump the residue and ashes.
Thats a lot of work, I just throw the old batteries into the storm sewer. I'm a republican and like dirty air and water. But your method does seem to be more effective at polluting air and water than mine.
You know, conservatives used to be the ones that protected the environment. Barry Goldwater was an environmentalist.
You know what? Conservatives still protect the environment. There has been the same noise from the democrats for years that we're for dirty air and water.
And you know what? I recycle, and was kidding about throwing batteries in the sewer.
Surprised?
Not surprised that you recycle -- I think most of the folks here are responsible in that regard. But it's the conservatives that are whining about "environmentalists" all the time -- it they want to be known for protecting the environment they should at least talk like it.
Save the whales... and guns!
Old Makita
My Makita of the same vintage just died, too; went over to Lowe's and bought a Hitachi 14.4v lithium ion drll for $40. It weighs about 3 ounces less than my old Makita and has twice as much power. You will like the grip on the Hitachi better than the old Makita (God rest its soul).