On Nov 20, 12:06 pm, "Mike Marlow"
wrote:


Hey Robert - how's it goin? I missed the opener of this thread. So -
you're saying that HD and like vendors are now halving the battery in their
tools? Is this just Rigid, or other manufacturers as well?

Hey Mike! Good to see you around.

No, it isn't just HD. Almost all of them started with the 3ah
battery, or offered it as a choice. But they changed them batteries
on the drills to a less powerful one, almost across the board. I
believe that DeWalt and Makita still have the 3ah battery as standard
batts on their hammer drill models, but that is it.

Don't get me wrong, you can still buy a 3ah battery for any of these
drills. But they no longer come as standard equipment on these
drills.

And the more I read and talk to guys about the longevity of the Li
batteries, the less I like them. I have spoken with two national
battery rebuilders and they have told me the same thing. Stay away
from the Li batteries as they don't have the stamina needed for daily
professional use.

But... the big plan is for ALL tools to be converted to Li in another
12 months. The Milwaukee/Ridgid rep is a great guy, and he told me
they were told that in one of their meetings. There simply won't be
anymore NiCad tools, and they will be phasing out NiMh as well.

It will be interesting to see of the folks that like their Li tools
will still love them later. I don't care about the weekend guys - Li
sounds great for them. But when the batteries are $85 each, I want
them to stand hard DAILY use like my old NiCads.

The rebuilders I talked to said they would be surprised if the Li
batteries that were used daily to the point of discharge would be
worth putting in the tool after a couple of years.

It seems to me that we will now be subsidizing the prices of the
drills by buying more expensive batteries on a more frequent basis.

Robertt