On Feb 25, 7:15*pm, "
wrote:
On Feb 25, 5:59 pm, BDBConstruction wrote:

Have you done one of their 3300 rebuilds? Sounds juicy but wondering
if more han 2x price is worth it?

Mark

No, not yet. *I might... but they didn't have those last time I needed
batteries.

I can tell you one thing, though. *I am not going to buy any more
lithium ion batteried tools until they quit making NiCad.

I have had two different tools using the LI batteries and they both
sucked. *My NiCads will stay charged for quite a while in the truck
tool box until I need them. *I just rotate around on the job as the
one in the drill always has a little juice left in it. *I keep the
second battery (or alternate) charged and ready. *When the power
fades, the battery in the tool goes in the charger and the one in
reserve goes in the drill.

But with my Lithium Ion stuff, both drill batteries go dead *or show
significant drain in just a few days, even when sitting. *I know the
advantage of the LI battery is that you can top them off at any time,
they keep their power in use longer, etc.

I don't come home after a long day and think to myself, "hey - you
should go dig out the drill batteries and top them off in case you
need them tomorrow." *If I was going to fool with that crap I would go
back to corded.

My old 18v DeWalt drill batteries would stay charged in the truck for
a month. *My super Makita LI batteries on my 14v won't hold a good
charge for half that time.

I guess if I was working in a shop the Makitas setup would be good as
I would plunk the batteries down on the charger every night.

When I get in home late, tired, hungry, with material tied over the
tool box onto the headache rack so I can't get the lid up, the last
thing I want to do is untie material, off load it in the front yard,
get the friggin' drill, charger, etc. out and set it up to charge
overnight.

No thanks.

Robert

Whooops, hit send by accident on that last one,
Your post is all too familiar to us. That said, we have had a little
better results with Li than you it seems. I only have a couple tools
using them (bosch Idrive and impactor) and they have held charge for a
long time and worked fine. Our primary cordless' however are a bunch
of makita 12v and 14.4v impact drivers running NiMH batteries. My only
complaint with the NiMH is they dont perform well in extreme cold
which hurts in the winter. We also take pretty good care of them as I
have read alot about NiMH not wanting to be deeply drained a lot (swap
at first sign of slowdown), and that they like an overnight charge
periodically. This hasnt been a problem for us so far. We are only
about a year or so back into cordless as we quit on them all together
for about 10 years or so. I got real sick of paying 3-4 hundred
dollars a year for batteries when extension cords are all over every
job and free. When I finally quit on cordless I wondered why I hadnt
done it earlier. The power, no batteries, far outweight the issues of
stringing a cord. With the new compact impacts however the tables have
again turned. I dont know what I would do without the half dozen
impacts laying around the job. They are just astounding the work they
will do and how long they run.

Anyway, I was always thinking of getting some of the 3.0ah NiMH
batteries from makita for these impacts but now I am thinking about
rebuilding a couple of the dead ones with the 3300 option on that
site. Will let you know if I do.

Mark