On Tue, 5 Jul 2011 12:52:34 -0400, "J. Clarke" wrote:

In article om,
says...

Hello,

I recently purchased a Milwaukee 2691-22 18V Compact Drill Driver / Impact
Driver kit. The purchase was mostly for the impact driver for an ongoing
deck project.

After receiving it last week, I charged both batteries before use as
indicated. I only used the drill driver to pull out a few screws from an
access panel and subsequently close it up. Yesterday, I used it to drill a 3
1/2" hole through the side of the house with a hole saw. A couple of pieces
of wood shingle, which I removed to keep the hole saw clear, then the
sheathing and so on. As I proceeded, I removed the pieces, so as to not load
up the hole saw. The drill quit part way through, so I switched batteries.
Then the second battery quit as well. No slow down, as in a discharged
battery, but just dead. Perhaps that's how these new batteries are supposed
to function, I'm not sure.

Lithium-ion batteries. They have a protective circuit that cuts them
off at a certain level of discharge to prevent excessive discharge that
could result in explosion. If you let them sit without charging long
enough they'll hit another level of protective circuit that prevents
them from being charged.

Li-Ions often have a current trip, as well. A bogged down drill trips the
"fuse" until the battery is recharged. This is a bad application for Li-Ion
powered tools.


...