Hi Folks,

About 7 years ago I bought a cordless drill and have used it lots since.
IIRC it cost about £70 - not a professional's standard but good for DIY.

Following a period of irregular use, about 18 months ago the battery began
to not hold its charge for long and I discovered that there was a common
problem with the charger/battery for that model.
I bought a new battery pack for about £25 off eBay ( at the time I didn't
know there was a charger problem too ).

Anyone guessed the brand yet?

Soon discovered there was a charger problem and replaced a blown power
transistor in the charger though I became aware, soon after, that the
replacement didn't resolve a problem with the charger not switching to
trickle when the battery was fully charged thus overcharging if not watched.

The original set-up recharged the battery in about 1 hour ( one reason I
chose it over cheaper models ).
I know that is far quicker that the recommended charge time but with auto
trickle switching thought OK.

Anyway, all was well, watched the time during recharging and all OK for 12
months or so.
Until I was distracted during the recharging whilst practicing plastering
( not one of my skills ).

The first I became aware of a serious problem was as a result of my wife
shouting for me regarding the smoke coming from the battery/charger last
week.

The replacement battery plastic housing was overheated, swollen and
distorted and the replacement £25 battery is knacked.

Jump ahead 1 week. I need a cordless drill for the renovation I'm currently
doing so began to look urgently for replacement.

Wife saw advert in newspaper - special offer, 2 selected power tools from
Wickes for £29.99 includes cordless drill option, choice of 4 or 5 different
tools.

I already have all of the other power tools on offer ( having bought a new
sander [about £30 ] only about 3 weeks ago [sick as a pig]).

Anyway, as the charge rate, for the Wickes cordless drill, required 3-5
hours I decided to buy 2 of 15.6 volt cordless drills. I'd have a second
battery to be charging whilst the first was in use.

The drill is OK for for DIY but lacking some of the options of my 7 yr old
original.

Now a 15.6 volt cordless drill has 13 of 1.2 volt subC rechargeable cells in
its battery pack.

My original drill was 12 volt and had 10.

Each of the new Wickes drills cost me £15 and each included 13 cells in the
battery pack.
So assuming the mechanical part of the drill is free the cells cost only
£(15/13) [ just over £1 ] each and they are making a profit even at that.
Looking on the web I can't buy tabbed subC rechargeable cells for anywhere
near that price.
Unless I'm looking in the wrong place.

Have thought about repairing, by replacing cells, my original 10 cell
cordless.

I could strip 10 new cells from one of my new Wickes drills and install them
in the ( plastic undamaged ) original battery pack for my original cordless
drill.

I could then make a PROPER charger to fit into the original charger case to
prevent overcharging.

I'd prefer to buy 10 tabbed subC cells at something like a reasonable price
which all the above would suggest was about £0.50 - £0.75 each.

Does anyone have a source for such.

TTFN - Colin

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