Dewalt battery life?

I own a complete set of DeWalt 18 volt cordless tools and 6 batteries (2 chargers). Some of these batteries are over 5 years old. I’ve never had a battery failure problem yet.

-- Rich, Cedar Rapids, IA - I'm a woodworker. I don't create beauty, I reveal it.

Battery replacement has made me swear off cordless tools. I have an old B&D 18V (and I mean OLD) that still has the original batteries. It’s been great. In the meantime, I’ve had three other 18V drills. All of them are sitting now, unused, because I’m sick of replacing batteries every year. Two of those are Craftsmans and one is a Ryobi. I have spent so much on batterys for them it’s ridiculous.
I thought about buying another B&D. A buddy bought one a couple of years ago though, and has had the same one a year battery replacement luck that I’ve had out of the others.

-- http://wddsrfinewoodworks.blogspot.com/

Try cleaning the contacts before you give up on the batteries, I had to do that on one of mine, it worked but isn’t a sure thing. Otherwise I haven’t any of my batteries die, 18v DeWalt.

-- Bill - "Freedon flies in your heart like an Eagle" Audie Murphy

`I dont know if it means anything but I have had problems with the 14.4 not meeting their expected life (whatever that is). I never had trouble with the 12 or 18 s. Good luck with it. BTW I still use corded drills when I can.

If it’s NiCad you can always try to ZAP it…

be careful though

-- Childress Woodworks

Cant speak for Dewalt but I have some 18v Ryobi tools and I have gone through 4 batteries in as many years. The last two that I bought lasted maybe a year. One thing I think may have cut the life is that my shop is in my garage and they were kept in there over winter. I heard that the cold temp can hurt them.

I told myself I was not going to buy another set of batteries BUT Ryobi now offers a 2 year warranty on there regular batteries as well as the option to buy another 2 year extended warranty. I decided to buy another set and the extra 2 year warranty was less then 15 dollars. So as long as its a good warranty I should be good for at least 4 years…

-- Dan - "Collector of Hand Planes"

Well, I sent my problematic battery in to Dewalt earlier this week, and they just told me that they can’t find anything wrong with it so they’re sending it back. They checked it in three chargers and it worked fine in all three, charging to and holding over 19V. I’ve got about 6 months of battery warranty left, so I’m just going to use this battery as much as possible during that time to try and get it to fault again within the warranty period.

I live in Ottawa Ontario Canada and there is a company here that specializes in batteries.
They will actually take your battery pack, open it up and change the cells.
They say that their cells are superior to the original and it is 1/4 the cost of a replacement pack.
Perhaps there is a battery place near you.

-- Close to Ottawa Ontario Canada

Based on Dewalt’s findings, could it be the charger? Not sure about the dust quantity in your shop, but you might want to clean the charger’s contacts and see if it blinks on any other batteries you use on it.

David

-- There is little that is simple when it comes to making a simple box.

The charger works fine with the other battery that came in the set with the problematic one. I have another charger that I’ll try when I get the battery back.

I am replying to this question a couple of years after you posted it, vrtigo1, but i am getting disgusted with battery life and charge life, on my dewalt 18 volt batteries. They last, like someone said, about a year, one they replaced that was just barely within warranty. Others just dead. Give me Milwaukee or give me electric.

I think a lot of these battery powered tools are really vehicles to sell batteries. I don’t trust the chargers either – had one blow up and that was the end of that drill/batteries. Now I always buy two of the same thing so that I have 2 chargers and lots of batteries – as the old Who song says “won’t get fooled again !”.

-- Dwight - "Free legal advice available - contact Dewey, Cheetam & Howe""