Battery repacking

[Basilg]

I have a 12V Festool drill driver on which the Nicad batteries no longer take a charge. they were repacked a long time back by " Akkupak " in Sydney but I can't seem to relocate them. Have they gone out of business? Can any one recommend a company that does reliable and cost effective repacks ?

Regards

[Lappa]

Try "Batpak".

[ecsk]

Just wanted to ask another question about battery, so I just hijacked this thread
my Hitachi 18v battery is dead, it is Hitachi EBM1830, I can buy compatible battery from eBay for about ~$50, genuine Hitachi is over double, has any used compatible battery in their cordless tools ? what is their comment ?

There is another option, this repair kit http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Repair-Hi...3D221450605289, but it'll cost over $70 anyway so I'm not that keen.

[rwbuild]

There are a couple of non oem suppliers in Australia, I got 3 x 18v Li for my Makitas and no probs at all $45-00 each, your ebay one would require extra work for same cost and no warranty but mine came with warranty.

[Bob38S]

I'm interested Ray.

I have a couple of 18V lithium Makita batteries, a few years old now, so I have that little niggle in the back of my mind as to when are they going to fail.

Any chance of telling us where you bought yours and how long you have had them.

[rwbuild]

http://www.power-battery.com.au/POWE...30-battery.htm

$46.80 + postage, very well packaged and fully charged when they arrived, I purchased 3

Mine have had a real workout building our new house and haven't missed a beat yet.

[Bob38S]

Thanks.

Have noted the site and will certainly give them a go when that time comes.

[Basilg]

Many thanks guys.

At around one third the price of a genuine Festool battery, I figure I can't go too far wrong, so I have placed an order with Power Battery.

Regards

[ecsk]

power-battery.com.au does not have Li-ion battery for my Hitachi, so I bought from this guy http://www.ebattery.com.au/Power-Tools-batteries.html
I also ordered another battery for a 12V AEG drill.
They all charge up and work fine so far, however the AEG battery fitting is very poor, it is close to impossible to pull it out by hand once it's fitted, I have to use a big plumber plier to pull the battery out.
So yes, they are half the price of genuine battery, I hope they last long. but quality varies a lot.

[dinosour]

I got an after market 18v battery for makita. First up it was very hard to fit into charger and drill, found where it was binding and removed some plastic with a file and it worked ok. Well for six months any way, then died. I have sent three emails to eBay supplier with no response. It was advertised with 12 month warranty, well some much for believing everything you read. Probably should try to push the point through eBay.
probably easier to just buy genuine.

[Knurl]

Provided you buy a pack of six you should get as-new replacement-life. But, with any OEM, you run the risk that it's not as good as the original. But at those prices what risk are you taking - as long as you replace all six internal cells at teh one time. I bet the Festool and the eBay are all made by the same Chinese factory.

Some time ago a friend with electronics experience helped me pry-open two of my Li-Ion packs and he replaced two of the cells that were well-below the 3v rating, i.e. 0.5v. In the second one we replaced the lot because only two of the cells were Ok. WHat happened with the first pack was that the old cells pulled down the voltage on the two new cells and the who pack died within about 6 months. The second pack lasted about 3 years with high useage.

As already noted, opening those battery packs can be a PITA. In the end we almost destroyed one before we figured how to do it.