On Mar 9, 9:24 am, "Leon" wrote:
"patrick mitchel" wrote in message

...

If yer close to a home depot, you can buy the ryobi packs, gut the cells
from it (they are the same size) and build yer own packs. I've even seen
replacement packs for no name drills at big lots (a US closeout retailer)
that use the same size cells. Though they are of lesser capacity and
quality than the brand named packs....
Pat

With the assumption that the cells of the cheaper brands are of similar
quality, go to Harbor Freight or Sears or Northern Tool and buy a $15.00 18
volt battery pack and use those cells.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...roduct_6970_20...

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93655

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...00&vertical=Se...


I did this with a B&D Firestorm 12V pack and swapped it into a spare
DeWalt 12V pack with dead cells. I was a $10 closeout at Target, so it
was worth the cost.

The resulting battery works well enough, I guess. In my opinion the
$50-60 spent on a replacement XRP batery is worth the additional
expense. The XRP battery runs more powerfully for a much longer time.

Honstly, I'd look into just sending your old batteries in to one of
the online battery shops. One was linked here last week where they'll
actually upgrade your batteries to Lithium Ion cells for a modest
inprovement in cost.

So in my opinion, you're better off keeping your kit and saving
yourself a lot of wasted time and money and just buy some replacement
batteries. If you're interested in recycling and not buying new, look
into getting your batteries refurbished at a local battery shop or
look up that site mentioned here a week or so ago.

-Nathan