Power tools batteries - bloody hell

Got to let this out of my system.
Anyone got hcordless powertools? yeah, they're so fine, no cord, no extensions, fancy technology, brushless motors hitting the market and space age technology.
But how I bloody hate them batteries. Fourth nicd battery went down permamently in my Bosch drill. Li-iions have a limited lifespan due to degradation over time. Nimh is basically same story as nicd. The bloody batteries cost me more than powertools themselves.

So dudes of the garage and trade, pray tell how do you deal with this. Any voodoo magic you recommend? Should I ditch my entire line and go full nuts on them new space age Milwaukees/Dewalts? Sometimes a cord is simply not an option (cutting a cord of a jigsaw with said jigsaw anyone?) I suspect my bosch charger burns the fuck out of them cells even though it is supposed to have overheat protection, my father uses same one with same results.

Dudes, help.

Use the power pack until dead flat then charge gets you more life out of them, also if you unscrew the power pack and look inside it is just a bunch of batteries in a sequence, they look like AA batteries. Grab a multimeter and you can sometimes find the dead cell and replace it with a good cell from another left over battery pack so you essentially can extend the life of 1 power pack by pulling apart another power pack. There is a little bit of messing about to get the cells working in sequence again but if you are handy with solder it shouldn't be a problem.

And yes sometimes the charger can be the thing over charging the cells and cause them to die prematurely.

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Darko wrote:

Use the power pack until dead flat then charge gets you more life out of them, also if you unscrew the power pack and look inside it is just a bunch of batteries in a sequence, they look like AA batteries. Grab a multimeter and you can sometimes find the dead cell and replace it with a good cell from another left over battery pack so you essentially can extend the life of 1 power pack by pulling apart another power pack. There is a little bit of messing about to get the cells working in sequence again but if you are handy with solder it shouldn't be a problem.

And yes sometimes the charger can be the thing over charging the cells and cause them to die prematurely.

Done all of it, with all the packs. Most cells are dead and cost of new cells is barely cheaper than third party replacements. Not to mention I hate soldering cells lol.

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JohnGrammaticus wrote:

Done all of it, with all the packs. Most cells are dead and cost of new cells is barely cheaper than third party replacements. Not to mention I hate soldering cells lol.

Yeah i hear that, pulling apart all the paper that holds them together makes it such a fiddly job to put back together. I would often just do it as a hobby at my job when there is nothing to do because all the power packs had no grunt left. So i was getting paid to mess around with it and pass the time so it wasn't so bad for me.

Problem is that apparently two new, third party batteries will cost me almost as much as the bloody drill is worth and I am on the fence if I should opt for Li-ion replacements with a new charger or not. They are damn expensive but beats having new nicds burnt to ashes after a year or so.

Nothing beats the power of a corded drill, 20 meter extension cords might suck to haul around but at least it is reliable. The life of these brand new 24+volt power packs that come with cordless drills is a turn off for sure.

Due to overwhelming interest this thread has I am here to inform, that I found what's causing the problem. Hundreds of people asked me if I checked the inside of my charger so I eventually did. I am here to inform thousands of curious people that your batteries may have a termistor inside to prevent overheat but that doesn't mean the charger recognizes it. Bosch AL 1404 does in fact not and if you exceed your C time of charging it will burn your house down and all you batteries are belong to it now.