Knockoff power tool batteries ?

[sardine]

Has anyone had good results from non OEM replacement batteries ?

I bought a cheap no brand Dewalt NiMH and it only had half the capacity stated and within a few charges is down to drilling one hole in metal , the seller refunded it so I'm not too bothered.

The real Dewalt 981 battery is £40 and for an old drill isn't worth it really.

The other option is replace the cells with quality ones ?

 

[mike os]

Just bite the bullet

 

[Lazurus]

I have had some bosch and makita clones off Fleabay and all been better than the OEM worn ones

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Has anyone had good results from non OEM replacement batteries ?

I bought a cheap no brand Dewalt NiMH and it only had half the capacity stated and within a few charges is down to drilling one hole in metal , the seller refunded it so I'm not too bothered.

The real Dewalt 981 battery is £40 and for an old drill isn't worth it really.

The other option is replace the cells with quality ones ?

Flouren for dewalt mate been running them a year and a half now. Still keeping up with the genuine

 

[stuvy]

Had dewalt where I used to work and they did the job but the clips were rubbish compared to the real ones

 

[willie.macleod]

The other option is replace the cells with quality ones ?

The route I have gone down is to buy adapters so you can use newer, higher capacity lithium batteries with the older Dewalt tools, search DCA 1820 for the genuine thing and the knock offs. If you don't have any newer Dewalt tools this may be of limited use but the adapters/new lithium batteries have revitalised my old NiCad/NiMHtools, I never had much success with the old style knock off packs either.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Oh NIMH still stands flouren. Have a few running my old radio still

 

[graffian]

I have just repaired my elcheapo makita battery. But it put in 4 years hard work before
breaking. A wire inside the battery had broken, probably the result of one of the times it's
been dropped. Seems just as good as the original battery I have.

 

[Kayos]

Nope

I use Makita and part of the circuitry for charging and discharging is in the battery, not worth risking the tool or the charger

 

[8ob]

I am using aftermarket dewalt batteries, not had any issues with them. Built a voltmeter into the handle of a defunct tool so I dont need to cycle them unnecessarily and also check before using them. Makes a big difference.

Bob

 

[Onoff]

Using 3.0AH Makita clones here. Never had an issue. Plenty of grunt. I never leave them unattended whilst charging though.

 

[drjim]

I bought some 5 AH Makita LXT batteries from China via fleabay. excellent price to start with, used them once and they completely died. Wouldn't charge, faulty. Bloke gave me my money back immediately.

So I undid the torx screws holding them together and found the negative wire had disconnected from the battery pack in both. soldered it back on, redid the positive to be safe, screwed back together and I have two perfectly functional 5AH batteries for free.

 

[Morrisman]

Nope

I use Makita and part of the circuitry for charging and discharging is in the battery, not worth risking the tool or the charger

That's the bit that locks you out of charging if you get something wrong. Or when Makita decides you have enough use out of it....

I had four Makita batteries and two chargers, and a drill and impact driver, great equipment, then all of a sudden all of them quit charging, flashing up fault. Coincidence? bad electric in my garage?

Or built in timed obsolescence?

I've found my wicked batteries can be slipped in, and work, but they are an inch proud of fitting in properly, but work with some gaffer tape...... Coincidence, the connections are exactly the same distance apart?

 

[Kayos]

that's the bit that locks you out of charging if you get something wrong. Or when Makita decides you have enough use out of it....

I had four Makita batteries and two chargers, drill and driver, great equipment, then all of a sudden all of them quit charging, flashing up fault. Coincidence? bad electric in my garage?

Or built in timed obsolescence?

I've found my wicked batteries can be slipped in, and work, but they are an inch proud of fitting in properly, but work with some gaffer tape...... Coincidence, the connections are exactly the same distance apart?

I abused a set for 8 years, spent £2k on a new setup recently

 

[Morrisman]

I abused a set for 8 years, spent £2k on a new setup recently

To buy two new batteries and a charger is about £200 for mine. A complete combo kit is not a lot more. They have some odd ways of charging for their gear, Makita do.

 

[Kayos]

To buy two new batteries and a charger is about £200 for mine. A complete combo kit is not a lot more. They have some odd ways of charging for their gear, Makita do.

4 5ah batteries
Dual charger
Big sds
Combi drill
Circular saw
Impact driver
Recip saw
Jigsaw
Multitool

All 18v brushless

 

[jimbo84]

Bought some knock offs from Amazon to replace some old dewalts. They lasted about a year with not much use before they started flashing faulty on the charger and wouldn't take a charge.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Been using the 4ah from these for a year and a half
Not light use in a drill but hammered on planers skill saws and routers
Show no signs of struggling or failing and still going strong.

 

[Gareth0123]

I am using a knock-off spurious 5amp Ryobi 18 volt One+ battery I bought from china for £25.00 all in almost two years ago. Lasts a good bit longer than my Ryobi OEM 4amp batteries.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18V-5-0A...829898?hash=item3da37c2f8a:g:ogMAAOSwqRFesiQo

 

[northwest]

I have been thinking of getting a couple extra batteries and after a bit of research the Flouron (as confirmed by @brightspark above) are what I will buy. But not hefty 5AH ones, 2AH are more than adequate for what I want and the bonus is they are not great heavy lumps when you are up a ladder. I have a couple genuine 5AH units.