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  1. #31
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    HEYFIELD Victoria
    Age
    48
    Posts
    348

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    I have a very old Panasonic cordless drill that I got for my 21st in 1996, I have only just this year started using my second battery. It's an old Nicad 12V and the drill has worked fine for all these years, it was only recently that the original battery stopped holding a charge and was getting worse compared to the newer battery replacement I bought off Ebay. It was the latest technology at the time and the charger is a 15min quick charge (they called it a coffee break charge). These old Panasonic drills are in my opinion the best they ever made. Does anyone else know of a cordless drill battery lasting this long? I used to be an electronic tech manager at a battery manufacturer here in Vic, (mainly work for Bosch in Clayton). My boss used to swear by the old Ni-cad technology providing the batteries are treated right. I think batteries and charging circuits for power tools have gone backwards in recent years, it's all marketing crap and trying to cut manufacturing costs. Probably influenced by mobile phone technologies. Our phones have the latest so they assume we want the same tech for our cordless tools. Personally I think we'd all be better off with the old Nicad technology for drills, it worked well, why change it and over-complicate things? There's enough of that in all other areas of life already. One of the reasons I left electronics and became a full time woodworker was because I don't like things changing all the time, quite often it's for the worst, especially 'upgrades' to software. Drives me nuts. If something works well why change it.
    I'm just glad there are still manufacturers making these old replacement Ni-cad packs, they work well and at this rate my drill will probably out last me.

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  3. #32
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Melbourne
    Age
    64
    Posts
    848

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    My original cordless drills were Makita from about 1990. The NiCads lasted a good 10+ years, with daily abuse.
    Nothing I've had since comes close for longevity, but we use them for much more now, rotary hammers, grinders, saws, planers, etc. So the new batteries are much more powerful and do heaps more work.
    I suppose we can't have our cake and eat it, too.

  4. #33
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Newcastle
    Posts
    498

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    Nicad batteries were rubbish and I am glad they are gone, as a kid I had a few RC cars and the difference between the Ni-Mh and a Ni-Cd was night and day, the later batteries would output a constant current for 80% of the run time, Ni-Cd was good for two minutes then performance dropped slowly. With the Ni-Mh batteries I was drawing an average of about 50amps and they lasted a couple of years with frequent use.

    My Panasonic drill is near four years old and the Ni-Mh batteries are dying but the gearbox is too so it's not a great concern, when I see a Metabo at a good price I will buy one, they still feel nice and solid and have a three year battery warranty like Milwaukee sadly they don't have a five year warranty on the tools like Milwaukee.

    EDIT- Running matched cells made quite a bit of difference for the old RC car stuff too, I guess that doesn't matter now as(I think) each cell has it's voltage monitored so you don't have to worry about cells going reverse polarity.

  5. #34
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    HEYFIELD Victoria
    Age
    48
    Posts
    348

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    I'm happy with Nicad rubbish if it lasts 20 years and does everything I need. I think half the problem is the way they are treated and the charging circuit. Also the Panasonics from 4 years ago are completely different than the ones from 20 years ago, just like almost every other tool. As I said, sometimes I think they take a backward step and over complicate things when the original design was actually better. I still say that Nicads if treated correctly and charged at the proper rate with cut off circuitry etc they will out last any other battery. Sure you can get better performance from a brand new Nimh but in terms of bang for buck over a 20 year period I have the evidence to prove it. I would have upgraded to the Nimh if I had a correct charger for them but my old one just handles the Nicads and does a great job, especially at 15min charge time. I'm always reluctant to 'upgrade' anything, I always get burned if I do, maybe it's just me, I like old stuff. If it ain't broke don't fix it

  6. #35
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Newcastle
    Posts
    498

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    Yeah I used some Mexican made Panasonic drills 15yrs ago and decided that I'd buy one when I needed a new drill, my Chinese mad one looked very similar but it is garbage in comparison. I had a Makita Ni-Cd drill for about a year and a half and both batteries died, it was a great little drill, I should have re-packed the batteris with Ni-Mhs and just used my RC car charger, it was 12-240V which would have been handy.

    I am impressed your batteries lasted so long with a 15min charge, you usually have to leave them on trickle after something that brutal to get any sort of performance out of them.

    Nicad batteries may well last the longest but I find the tradeoffs just aren't worth it for me, I am hard on my gear which is why I try to always buy trade grade gear, if one part fails it makes economic sense to repair it, I usually seperate my tools/bike parts so they can be recycled more easily.

  7. #36
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    660

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    Over the years on the tools I cant complain about NiCad. Only one I can complain about is the old makita stuff about 25 years ago! I have used all sorts of gear over the years on a daily basis and I have killed most gear. Off the tools now, but Panasonic was the best of the crop, only ever managed to kill one of their devices which is pretty impressive if you put it in my hands. Bosch is next but I killed one of their drills about 2 years in. Makita would be my new choice but that is purely based on the number of tools that have that run on batteries now. I digress, NiCad as a tradie you always run them dead, then charge. Maybe thats how we made them last longer. Lithium is defiantly better though, but I have just killed one of them too.

  8. #37
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    Southern Germany
    Age
    44
    Posts
    20

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    Hi,

    I also had been faced with a similar problem with my Makita liion batteries. I have two batterie packs. The first was indicated as defective by my makita charger just after one year without any extensive use. Maybe about 30 charge cycles. The second one gave up 3 month ago, means about 3 years after purchase.
    As electronics engineer I decided to solve this annoying issue for ever by using my own balanced rc charger from my kids. All to be done was to solder a standard balancer cable to each cell of the pack. Now with the rc charger connected I have full control of my packs. I can use any program like long term storage, fast charge,...
    Both packs are healthy and charge to their full capacity without any problem.
    For Makita packs I found that they have problems with their electronic circuits in the packs. Sometimes the temperature sensor fails or a misdesigned fuse causes to set a error entry.
    I also have read that the charger blocks a pack permanently if it fails loading 3 times.

    I lately made a video about this, maybe it helps...

    https://youtu.be/vuGIkkYFt5g

    I recommend this only if you are known to liion batteries and if your warranty has already gone.
    In general I always charge my batteries in a fire proof metal bowl.

    Greets
    Daniel

  9. #38
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Newcastle
    Posts
    498

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    Well, it would seem that I didn't need to worry about the longevity of the batteries, the hedge trimmer lasted about half an hour and it's dead, hahaha!

    I started using my little Li-Ion Bosch sander again a couple of weeks ago and it has been quite badly abused, left in the sun, charged in the sun and stored flat for probably a year. It still seems to go as well as it did when it was new, I do have to pull it apart to lube a bearing every few uses as I couldn't remove it.

  10. #39
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Location
    Brisbane
    Age
    57
    Posts
    1,311

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    So far my replacement batteries have been fine. This time I have charged them after every little use. Also I have not left them on the charger overnight. I'm not sure if any of that has made a difference but at least I'm trying something. We'll see what happens over the next few months.

    Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
    My YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/2_KPRN6I9SE

  11. #40
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Calgary
    Posts
    8

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    Good for you getting them replaced. I have set up my charging station with a timer. My shop is also in my garage so I have put my chargers in a spot where they are quite visible when I am in there for the car. So if I notice a battery was forgotten in the charger I just take it out as I pass by. The timer works great and I intend to get another...seems like there is quite a shift over to battery powered tools for everything including garden tools.
    I live in Canada so I will move the charge station inside the house for the winter.

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