If "...always used each battery until it was drained..." means you ran the
drill till it stopped or nearly so, you're probably killing the packs.
DeWalt (for one) specifically recommends to recharge when the tool begins to
noticeably slow down.
Remember that a battery pack is many cells in series. The cells are all the
same kind, but of course there are tiny manufacturing variations between
them, and thus one is the weakest and one is the strongest. If you run the
tool till it stops, the weakest cell goes to zero volts first, and the rest
of the cells "push" power through it, effectively reverse-charging it. This
happens to the second-weakest cell, etc., until the drill completely stops.
Reverse-charge a nicad cell a few times and it's ruined.
The battery-pack rejuvenation "secrets" you can buy off e-bay tell you how
to locate these dead cells and individually force then back to the correct
polarity and burn away any shorts in them. I have a copy of a set of these
instructions that a friend bought and sent me. He tried it and was thrilled
at first, but after a couple of charge/use/recharge cycles his Crapsman
packs were shot again.
Karl
> eh...I have the then-top of the line milwaukee 18v combo pack (drill,
> circ. saw, and 'hatchet'). the tools are okay, but I have to give the
> batteries a d and the charger an f-. the charger frequently won't charge
> the batteries and the batteries died after two years of exceedingly
> infrequent use (maybe 10 charges each). I think that may be the
> problem--I use them so infrequently they died. I always used each battery
> until it was drained, then charged it fully before storing it.
>
> anybody know how to make them last longer when they're not being heavily
> used and charged every day?
_______________________________________________
Shop-talk mailing list
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/shop-talk
|