Thread: Makita 18v Li-ion - what's a good non-OEM replacement

just a heads up, my charger was flashing the "bad battery" signal to one of my batteries yesterday, i was not happy, then it did the same to the rest of my batteries.

works out the charger dc18r has cr_pped itself.

I did a Price match with Bunnys today, i gave them Syd tools price and they dropped their price from $199 down to $85.50 for the black dc18sd

got home and its charging my batteries no worries. I have one of the old makita batteries, so i will test that over the new charger,

G

Hi,
If you have a few spare battery packs my suggestion is NOT to "store fully charged" for long period of time. Shelving a fully charged pack will accelerate performance deterioration which is why most products with rechargeable Lithium battery is delivered partially charged.

The small amount of charge is to keep the BMS(battery management system) alive and also to ensure above minimum cell voltage. If the voltage becomes too low, some BMS will not allow the battery to charge. This is when you get the dreaded error LED blinks.

I usually full charge my battery pack before heavy use. Once I am done I put it away. If the battery is empty, charge it for 5 minutes it in the 30 minutes charger. This will ensure there is enough charge for storage.

There are a few more important practice for keeping LiIon battery packs healthy for example, shallow charging and discharging cycles but its difficult to perform without proper charging tools. Also it becomes a chore where convenience of LiIon becomes a hassle.

Regardless of the amount of care, Lithium Ion cells in power tools are designed for high current delivery and not built for longevity so the internals start to degrade as soon as the cells are made. So having just enough battery packs to get by is better than buying lots of them.

Just read this entire thread. Most informative and interesting!! thanks all contributors!!

Now_ do I have your permission to be a heretic and talk about Ryobi?? OK, good!

About 4 years ago I bought A Ryobi 1+ 18V Li battery powered drill, 2 speed. I bought it for a number
of reasons:
#my trusty 20 odd year old B&D Marathon finally shat itself.
#I needed a more physically compact drill to do a certain job.
# I was sick of having to haul leads everywhere with all the inherent problems associated with that.
# The price was within my budget and the deal was 2 batteries.

I have been more than satisfied!! The drill has done all I have asked of it and some things I should not
have asked of it!! It does not have an impact function and at times I would like more torque, but they
are minor issues for the work I do.I have used the drill in high temperatures and dust and never once had an issue.

The batteries are rotated and are still charging well. When the batteries do fail I will probably go to the newer
4Ah batteries if the price is reasonable, failing this it will be a re-pack job.

Go Ryobi!!!!

Originally Posted by GCP310

well, this is a strange one.

went to charge the battery yesterday and the charger wouldnt allow it, got the flashing lights, even an hour later.

pretty much wrote it off, and put it in the shed. Today, i grabbed the battery for a "just one last check before i throw it" and it charged up, no problems.

so its got me buggered whats going on.

same pack did it again this week, i had used it on the grinder to cut gpo's out of tiles, the battery needed charging and it wasnt overly hot.

put it on the charger [a new one at that, the old charger has since died] and the dreaded flashing lights came on.

gave it a couple of hours, put the battery pack on the charger and it charged up fine.

since then i have charged it a few times more and still no further issues.

GP

Yes I get this occasionally - just take it out and refit it to the charger usually fixes it. Sometimes I have to wait a while.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Yes I get this occasionally - just take it out and refit it to the charger usually fixes it. Sometimes I have to wait a while.

So if the aftermarket copies can make them not "brick" themselves, why does Makita choose to have the circuit that "bricks" the battery?

is it a litigation issue? Makita dont want a potential lawsuit after a battery has a catastrophic failure?

Makita is (probably) the world's biggest manufacturer of cordless tools. More tools, more batteries, more sales and probably the biggest R&D budget of them all.

Does it make them the best? While we all might have different opinions, the sheer numbers and ubiquity of their tools speaks volumes to me of their relative quality. Millions of tradesmen, apprentices and DIYers use, misuse & abuse them daily the world over. They didn't get to be so popular without developing a favourable reputation.

The LXT range is designed as a system, with tools, batteries and chargers "talking" to one another, communicating their likes & dislikes. If a battery temporarily refuses to charge, then there's some issue within that is outside the preset parameters that allow safe (to the tool) recharge. Maybe internal cell temperature, cell imbalance, ambient temp. or other cause.

The point is, they're designed to work TOGETHER. If you introduce aftermarket cells, then there's a chance that sub-optimum protection of the tool, battery cells or charger may result, as the "safety" parameters & protocols used may be different or even absent.

Given that Makita are at last marketing 5.0ah batteries for their range, why would you wish to look elsewhere anyway.

I'm a past Makita user. I don't use any currently, but have closely observed and discussed dozens of fellow tradesmens' tool useage.

http://www.power-battery.com.au/POWE...30-battery.htm Got 2 of these, came fully charged, only con is they are a bit tight in fit where they slide in to the charger and tool (not the actual electrical contacts) other than that they are great. Postage was an additional $12.50 for the 2 batteries, came very well packed in solid cardboard boxes and bubble wrap, pickup at post office.

Originally Posted by Ratbag

Given that Makita are at last marketing 5.0ah batteries for their range, why would you wish to look elsewhere anyway.

because it only works with the newer LXT range, and not the older LXT range.

there are 3 metal tabs on the powertool now, that "talks" to the battery, where as before it didnt have this feature.

Given the cost of replacement batteries, and having "bricked" all of my genuine batteries, I am happy with my decision to buy aftermarket batteries.

I also would need to replace the biscuit joiner, the rotary hammer drill, the handy vac, the grinder, the circular saw, one of the impact drivers, one of the hammer drills, just so i can run the 5.0ah battery on all tools, or stick with the 3.0ah battery. I might as well upgrade to Festool 18V, at least they have woken up and have their 18v batteries going cheap [in relation to the rest of their gear]

Originally Posted by GCP310

because it only works with the newer LXT range, and not the older LXT range.

there are 3 metal tabs on the powertool now, that "talks" to the battery, where as before it didnt have this feature.

Given the cost of replacement batteries, and having "bricked" all of my genuine batteries, I am happy with my decision to buy aftermarket batteries.

I also would need to replace the biscuit joiner, the rotary hammer drill, the handy vac, the grinder, the circular saw, one of the impact drivers, one of the hammer drills, just so i can run the 5.0ah battery on all tools, or stick with the 3.0ah battery. I might as well upgrade to Festool 18V, at least they have woken up and have their 18v batteries going cheap [in relation to the rest of their gear]

I'm astonished they're incompatible. Are you sure? I was lead to believe that all the LXT range: tools, batteries & chargers are backwards & forwards compatible.

Certainly the newer batteries work on the older chargers, and if that's the case then surely they work on the older tools too. It just doesn't make sense, from either a practical or marketing perspective, for Makita to do otherwise! Two entirely separate LXT ranges would be marketing suicide & I don't think a company as large & well respected would be so stupid.

Lots of interest in batteries, not surprising.
I have a Makita set, bought 4 years ago with 3 batteries, some "anniversary" edition of sort, and it is still going strong as new. I have since bought scores of naked tools and use them with this 3 batteries and no problems so far. Touch wood.

I only read the first page so apologies if this has been posted already.

Some generic information about batteries:
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/a..._ion_batteries

How to fix dead batteries:
http://mods-n-hacks.wonderhowto.com/...ymore-0147197/

The above link talks about jump starting a battery, I wonder if this would work for the OP dead battery to trigger the switch that stops the charge from going in?
May be not, seems a bit far fetched.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

I've just sent an email to these guys, asking them how long their batteries should last. Price is good $75 each for two batteries, and 3.5Ah.

Well those guys no longer sell the 3.5Ah non-OEM batteries for $75.

They have changed their name to MTS, and are now selling 4.0Ah batteries for Makita, but they are also $90 each now. Think I'd rather have a 3.5 for $15 less, especially since Mak have an OEM 5Ah now (but still exxy at ~$140 each),

I have turned up another option though:
eBay 2x 4.5Ah for $126 out of Sydney.

They are pretty clearly Chinese made with a warehouse in Sydney. Offering a 3 year warranty.


Bosch have just released a 6Ah.

Have another look here

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

3.5, 4.5 & 6.0 for Makita

The 2 x 3.5 that I got earlier are performing faultlessly