Dewalt Cordless Battery Questions

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15 Years ago I built my house. That meant purchasing plenty of tools. I've always looked to corded over cordless for the always available power. I do however love the convenience of cordless drills and I also went for a cordless circular saw. My drills are in good shape and my saw is in excellent shape. The batteries are NOT very good anymore. Won't last forever. Question is buy replacement batteries for them (18V) or sell them and suck it up for a new drill and saw?

Anyone know if the batteries were improved for the older 18V tools or just same tech? I don't believe you can use the newer tool 18V batteries int he older tools.

And if replacement......there has been a lot of changes in companies even though they are mostly owned by the same conglomerate. DeWalt? Makita? Rigid for the warranty? Milwaukee? I've never been a Bosh or Ryobi fan.
 
Honestly just get some new batteries. You can get a pack (2) of DeWalt 18V XRP batteries for $100. The 18v DeWalt tools are good quality, don't throw them away. My set (drill, impact, hammer-drill) are 11 years old and still in great shape. The original all black batteries lasted 9 years, so I just bought some new ones.

The new lithium batteries in some drills are a little better, but that would require buying an all new set of tools. DeWalt does make an adapter for the 20V lithium batteries to go in 18v drills, but honestly it's not worth it to me. The adapter is a little wonky IMO, we have a couple at work. Always fighting with those things...
 
Thought you might have some interest in this. Read the reviews and see if it will work for you. Some of the reviews suggest just purchasing the OEM Dewalt NiCd batteries.

https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-18v-2...v+battery&qid=1570536206&sr=8-12

Also, there are some aftermarket batteries for the 18V Dewalt. Look on Amazon. A few have good ratings too.


I have the larger 20V tools and batteries and I'm very, very pleased. Even the little shop vac is great.
 
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I'll never go back to Ni-Cad for ANY reason!!! Lithium until something else better comes along.

I'm having problems with Ridgid replacing a screwdriver with a lifeline guarantee. After 2 months, it's still in review???

I upgraded my Ryobi 18v Ni-Cad to Lithium, fits, only a different charger.

I've had drive? gear? failures with 2 of my 3 Makita drills.
 
This is a repeated theme. Technology moved ahead and now it's all Lithium Ion. Sure you can buy NiCd batteries and use the old tools. Completely up to you. I moved to Dewalt 20 V Lithium Ion and I'm completely satisfied with that decision.
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I believe you can get Dewalt 18V LiIon battery for the OPs tools. You will need a new charger but the batteries will work fine. And there are aftermarket batteries that fit the Dewalt tools.

You can also send your batteries out to get new cells and in some cases slightly more power cells. And you can order new cells and install them yourselves. But make sure they have tabs spot welded on as you cannot solder directly to the batteries.

I have moved away from my old Dewalt 18V tools to Milwaukee M18 Fuel. Never going back to NiCad.
 
I am pretty sure DeWalt also sells an 18-20V adapter, which allows you to use newer 20V batteries on older 18V tools. If you don't want to spend alot of money, you can always find the Chinese knock-off replacement batteries for around 1/3 the price. Not sure how long they last though.
 
If you don't mind the rapid replacement cycle, they only have to last > 1/3 as long as OEM to be worth it. Assuming $$ is the only concern.
 
Buy the adapter to use the newer and superior 20V batteries in your 18V tools. Then, as your 18V tools need replacement you can upgrade to the 20V ones without a wholesale system change. IMO, the 18V tools run better using the adapter and the 20V batteries.
 
Batteries have definitely changed since you bought your DeWalt set. As has been said, you can buy new batteries in the old housing style, however, you will need to replace your charger because a NiCad charger isn't suitable for charging the new cells. Or, you can buy NiCad replacements. Or, you can buy the new 20v (just repackaged 18v in reality) with the adapter, which is the way I'd recommend going if the tools are still in good working order.
 
I run the amazon batteries on my dewalts, the battery life is probably close to the OE batteries, however the casing and locking tabs is where they fail. Most of mine wont lock into the tool anymore, so sometimes they lose connection mid use. Gets annoying, but they were like 25$ each as opposed to 100. I bought a 10$ amazon nicad battery for the dewalt 9v drill Ive had since the 90s, and its working fine for my bs around the house.
 
The only 18 to 20v adapter I have seen adapts the new 20V batteries to the old 18V tower style batteries, not the old 18V slide lock brick style batteries of black & decker...I say that because some of the old B&D stuff was the same as dewalt, wasn't sure what you had.

When my dewalk 18V impact battery quit on me, I bought the generic amazon replacements, 2 for 40 bucks IIRC, that was a couple years ago and those batteries are still fine.
 
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I checked out the adapter and wasn't exactly a seamless application. Thanks for all the help. I ended up selling my old stuff at work for $225 and picked up a DeWalt 5 tool kit box that is all XR for $650. The quick sale of the old stuff made the decision much easier.

The XR saw with new tech 20v battery is impressive!
 
Grats on the new tools. They are so much lighter than the old 18v lineup. Only problem with the 20v tools is they have so many very useful tools you will want to buy.
 
I bought a 9pc Dewalt kit about 2 months ago for $550. I was trying to decide which kit I wanted and by the time I was ready it jumped up to $750 on Amazon. Continued to monitor the price, then over Labor Day weekend it dropped down to $500 and I bought it!

I have not had a chance to really use it yet. Tried to used the angle grinder, but it didn't have a wrench so I had to use the corded grinder, come to find out, instead of a fork they use an allen key, so i had the wrench all along. A few weeks ago I had some shrubs to cut down, started with the sawzall and with less than 5 minutes of continuous cutting the batteries (2 came in the kit) were too hot and the saw quit running. Later that same day I had some exterior trim work to do and used the circular saw for that, cut well, no issues there. Had to clean up the pile of branches and used the circular saw for those too, worked like a charm! I have yet to use the rest of the kit, though I'm looking forward to putting all the pieces through their paces.

Side note, I had the 18v DeWalt sawzall 20 years ago and it was less than stellar. It couldn't even make a simple cut before the battery was dead, let alone being incapable of any serious work, so I simply stayed with my Milwaukee corded sawzall. Fast forward to today, I don't think the 20v sawzall is any better, it is rough to use, meaning it vibrates the heck out of you. All that vibration is wasted energy that isn't doing any cutting. Again, I will rely on my Milwaukee corded saw, which is amazingly smooth and cuts extremely well, even with bad/dull blade
 
Originally Posted by dareo
Grats on the new tools. They are so much lighter than the old 18v lineup. Only problem with the 20v tools is they have so many very useful tools you will want to buy.


I do agree that they have really expanded the types of tools over the years. Unfortunately, it seems that DeWalt has taken more of a "shotgun" approach and are playing games to meet price points. They have over a dozen drills that are all about the same spec, but one has a light, one has a dual speed, one has some other bauble, and of course, they put the least useful stuff into their kits with the smallest possible batteries. The worst thing is the deceptive markings on packaging that imply you're getting a better tool or more accessories than you actually do.
 
I believe your issues with the 20v recip saw are due to using the bundle batteries. They are often 1.0 to 1.5 AH only. Plenty for a drill or screw driver but a high draw tool needs a 3-5a AH. Grinder, leaf blower, recip saw, ect use a lot of current. Drills, palm sander, hedge trimmer, even the string trimmer in low wont draw that much. The oscillating tool barely sips battery.
 
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