Thread: Where to get 12V 3AH Nicd batteries like this?

I got two batteries for my old Dewalt on ebay from a dealer called "carmates"
He's got lots of batteries. He might have one for you.
It says he's based in Australia.
The batteries I got were fine and not expensive.
Hope you find them
Cheers
Frank

Carmates have a welded recelling pack 12V 2AH listed on ebay for the battery pack you mention. These are about $50 for the battery set, you dismantle your pack, discard the cells, solder the welded pack to the terminals in the case, and reassemble the pack.

If the battery pack is using Nicad chemistry and sub C cells, I doubt that you will get to 3AH without using specialist cells which were rather expensive the last time I looked for them. 3AH or more should be possible using NIMH chemistry, but you may run into charger issues if the existing charger was designed and manufactured before NIMH tool packs became common. Once NIMH became common, many companies supplied tools with a charger that was compatible with both Nicad and NiMH packs.

for carmates !! I rebuilt a Triton drill battery. Better than when it was new.

Originally Posted by malb

Carmates have a welded recelling pack 12V 2AH listed on ebay for the battery pack you mention. These are about $50 for the battery set, you dismantle your pack, discard the cells, solder the welded pack to the terminals in the case, and reassemble the pack.

If the battery pack is using Nicad chemistry and sub C cells, I doubt that you will get to 3AH without using specialist cells which were rather expensive the last time I looked for them. 3AH or more should be possible using NIMH chemistry, but you may run into charger issues if the existing charger was designed and manufactured before NIMH tool packs became common. Once NIMH became common, many companies supplied tools with a charger that was compatible with both Nicad and NiMH packs.

A google search shows what look like 12V 3ah Nicd batteries that appear to be same size as my current 1.5ah nicd, just wrong connection type.

I prefer Ni-cd because they appear to be very robust & can be stored in low SoC.

3AH nicad cells are available in a C cell form, but my understanding is that your packs use sub C cell (same diameter, but shorter body). I can track down specialty sub C cells to about 2.4AH but they are typically 3-5 times the price of standard sub C cells and can be temperamental if all of the cells in a pack are not very well matched. Pack builders don't worry about matching generic type batteries, it's normally not worth the labour and equipment costs. But once the cell prices soar with the specialty cells, they normally would, because the clients expect the much dearer pack to last longer and perform better. Generally the packs made of the highest performing cells would sell at a decent premium over the packs at nominal capacity, and any cells performing below the nominal or advertised capacity will be scrapped or relegated to use in lower spec'd packs.

Matching involves taking a large number of cells and recording a number of charge discharge cycles for each individual cell, then matching up cells with almost identical characteristics to form the battery pack. To try and get a prime matched set of cells (say 2.6AH or 10% over nominal) for one of your battery packs, someone would have to buy and characterise around 200 of these specialty cells. The rest of the batteries could be used for lower performance packs, and typically about 95% of the cells would meet or exceed the nominal specification of 2.4AH, and the remainder would be in the range of 2.25 to 2.4 AH. But take a random assortment to weld up a pack, and you will get a mixture of capacities, and one or two cells will be significantly reverse charged every time you run the pack to flat, and will fail much earlier than the rest of the cells, but the pack overall will be very weak once they do.

Originally Posted by malb

3AH nicad cells are available in a C cell form, but my understanding is that your packs use sub C cell (same diameter, but shorter body). I can track down specialty sub C cells to about 2.4AH but they are typically 3-5 times the price of standard sub C cells and can be temperamental if all of the cells in a pack are not very well matched. Pack builders don't worry about matching generic type batteries, it's normally not worth the labour and equipment costs. But once the cell prices soar with the specialty cells, they normally would, because the clients expect the much dearer pack to last longer and perform better. Generally the packs made of the highest performing cells would sell at a decent premium over the packs at nominal capacity, and any cells performing below the nominal or advertised capacity will be scrapped or relegated to use in lower spec'd packs.

Matching involves taking a large number of cells and recording a number of charge discharge cycles for each individual cell, then matching up cells with almost identical characteristics to form the battery pack. To try and get a prime matched set of cells (say 2.6AH or 10% over nominal) for one of your battery packs, someone would have to buy and characterise around 200 of these specialty cells. The rest of the batteries could be used for lower performance packs, and typically about 95% of the cells would meet or exceed the nominal specification of 2.4AH, and the remainder would be in the range of 2.25 to 2.4 AH. But take a random assortment to weld up a pack, and you will get a mixture of capacities, and one or two cells will be significantly reverse charged every time you run the pack to flat, and will fail much earlier than the rest of the cells, but the pack overall will be very weak once they do.

Thanks for that info, appreciate.

Battery World may also be able to rebuild your NiCad batteries.


Cheers

Graeme

Have you tried Trade Tools? I recently purchased a NiCd 9v pack for my ancient Makita drill from them. Who would have thought you could get a battery for a drill purchased in 1982? It works a charm. Maybe they have other batteries too.