On Sun, 18 Jul 2010 12:17:33 -0400, wrote:

My wife bought me a 19.2 volt craftsman drill 5 or 6 years ago. I use
it regularly and love it. I added the small circular saw and the
small vacuum a few years later. Both work well for occassional small
jobs. The three original batteries eventually went bad, so I bought
two new ones which are still working but probably will need to be
replaced in the next few years. That leads me to my question. I read
somewhere about having tool batteries rebuilt to save money (and the
environment). I looked at quite a few online businesses and the going
rate is around $50 per battery. That seemed high so I went to the
sears site and found I could buy new ones for $30 to $35 each. What
am I missing? Why would it cost more to rebuild old batteries than to
buy new ones? All the rebuild sites bragged about their price being
half of new batteries, but instead, they seem to be almost double.

It's rare to see new batteries for $35. They're usually closer to $100 (two
almost the price of a new tool) so $35 (what it cost me for my PC drill) is
cheap for a rebuild. If you bought new batteries for less than a rebuild,
good deal. BTW, don't think you're "saving the environment" with a rebuild.
The only thing you're "saving" is a couple of ounces of plastic. The
batteries are new and the old are chucked.

I think all the batteries I have looked at are NiCDs, but some don't say
and could be NiMH. Capacities range from 1500 mAh to 2100 mAH.
Capacity doesn't matter much for my small jobs. Having one in the
tool and another charged and ready to go has worked out well.

Just be careful not to put NiMH batteries in a charger not specifically
designed for them.