Thats pretty neat.:thumbsup:

 

I felt like I kept hearing different things about how to take care of batteries, so I'm sure there's a lot of misinformation out there.

Just trying to clear the air.

 

i'm surprised what i dont know about batteries.:001_huh:

 

I think I'll stick to my NiCd for them moment.

I'll stick with my lithium batteries at 1/3 the weight and abuse the hell out of them and have Dewalt replace them with their 2 year battery warranty.
I like how it says only use to 80% capacity, how do you know? I use it till it stops, lol.

Lol, in the last 3 weeks both my Nano Dewalt batteries bit the bullet, just took them in and was handed brand new ones, was told if they die within 2 years of the date stamp on them they will just hand me a new one.

 

You would think by now, every cordless tool maker would also make a power supply with a battery-size and shaped jack, so in a pinch you could run the tool off of ac.

 

Well the charger would be alot bigger and more expensive ,

But them small batts put out some amps when you think about it that wire would be large to the drill and the charger would be bigg . lots of amps flowing in them little drills .

Guess ill just stick with the batt but ya it would be nice to just plug it in sometimes . Take care

 

One of the features I really find handy on my Milwaukee M12 and M18 tools is the "fuel gage" on the batteries/tool. When I get down to one bar/dot I slap it on the charger.

 

The battery meters are nice, however this website, and wikipedia both state that lithium batteries deteriorate over time, regardless of use, and that it's preferable that they are not run until their dead. And similar to other batteries, depleting their voltage past a limit will damage their efficiency.

NiCd on the other hand are often stored fully depleted. Though there's mention of the "memory effect" which in essence reduces the batteries run time. Though my research on it has been mixed.

NiCd batteries suffer from a "memory effect" if they are discharged and recharged to the same state of charge hundreds of times. The apparent symptom is that the battery "remembers" the point in its charge cycle where recharging began and during subsequent use suffers a sudden drop in voltage at that point, as if the battery had been discharged. The capacity of the battery is not actually reduced substantially. Some electronics designed to be powered by NiCds are able to withstand this reduced voltage long enough for the voltage to return to normal. However, if the device is unable to operate through this period of decreased voltage, the device will be unable to get as much energy out of the battery, and for all practical purposes, the battery has a reduced capacity.

Just seems like there's similar cons to each battery type, and that lithium ions aren't as clear cut a successor as they're made out to be.

 

Just seems like there's similar cons to each battery type, and that lithium ions aren't as clear cut a successor as they're made out to be.

I think the fact they are so much lighter makes the lithium batteries the winner in my opinion.

Dont know about other manufacturers, but the milwaukee li-on batteries have built in circuitry that wont allow them to get below the minimum charge. Thats why if you're using them and the charge gets low, they just stop running the drill, period. No fade out as the battery goes dead. I've been told that li-on batteries have a nasty habit of exploding if the battery is fully depleted.

Dewalt does this too.
Wish the dewalt had the battery meter like milwaukee though.

 

Dont know about other manufacturers, but the milwaukee li-on batteries have built in circuitry that wont allow them to get below the minimum charge. Thats why if you're using them and the charge gets low, they just stop running the drill, period. No fade out as the battery goes dead. I've been told that li-on batteries have a nasty habit of exploding if the battery is fully depleted.

 

I don't think that link is accurate for all batteries.

Dewalt clearly states that A) you should never purposely discharge your batteries and B) you should leave your batteries in the chargers full time when they are not being used.

The info at that link in the first post says differently on both accounts.

I've been taking Dewalt's advice with good results for years. I bought a bunch of extra chargers on Amazon for $14 each, all my batteries get put in chargers when not used and they are always charged and last a long time.

 

Didnt DeWalt have the big 36V drills that had a corded power supply that could be bought for them? I thought I remember seeing it somewhere.

 

great info... thanks!

 

The 36 volt Dewalt stuff is lithium ferrite, not lithium ion. Max voltage on Li-Fe batts is 3.6v as opposed to 4.2v Li-Io or Li-Po (lithium polymer). The nice thing about Li-Fe is that you can charge them at 10 amps and it doesn't hurt them. Doing that with any of the other types of rechargables can result in an explosion or a fire. Li-Fes can also go thru 1000s of charge/discharge cycles which means they are cheaper in the long run. I buy dewalt packs and tear them apart for packs for my RC Heli. 6 cells is 22 volts! I abuse the heck out of these batts and have been quite pleased with their performance.

This forum has all sorts of stuff about batteries http://www.rcgroups.com/batteries-and-chargers-129/