Carpenter: Bought a new driver

[SoMplsHawkI]

 

[Torg]

I love Makita stuff but gone almost totally battery powered.

 

[SoonerBeAHawk]

I love Makita stuff but gone almost totally battery powered.

How are the batteries on some of your bigger tools?

My 40V string trimmer's battery crapped out, $150 to replace. Whole trimmer is only $170 new. Not expensive, but not used a lot and just past its 3-year warranty. Lil' frustrating.

 

[Kakaw83]

How are the batteries on some of your bigger tools?

My 40V string trimmer's battery crapped out, $150 to replace. Whole trimmer is only $170 new. Not expensive, but not used a lot and just past its 3-year warranty. Lil' frustrating.

Brand?

 

[SoonerBeAHawk]

Brand?

Lol, it's Ryobi but the tool itself has ran and still would run perfectly for me.

Deal is, they put a circuit on the battery so the charger won't recognize it if it gets below 30% charge. There are hacks to get around this, but nothing easy.

 

[Kakaw83]

Lol, it's Ryobi but the tool itself has ran and still would run perfectly for me.

Deal is, they put a circuit on the battery so the charger won't recognize it if it gets below 30% charge. There are hacks to get around this, but nothing easy.

They do that to prolong the life of the battery. Most lithium’s will only go to about 20%, so 30 isn’t crazy out of line or anything.

 

[SoonerBeAHawk]

They do that to prolong the life of the battery. Most lithium’s will only go to about 20%, so 30 isn’t crazy out of line or anything.

I think you're right, but the charger rendering it dead doesn't prolong its useful life either.

Just haven't ran into this problem with 20V batteries and such. Guess I'm learning.

 

[HROT]

How are the batteries on some of your bigger tools?

My 40V string trimmer's battery crapped out, $150 to replace. Whole trimmer is only $170 new. Not expensive, but not used a lot and just past its 3-year warranty. Lil' frustrating.

Congrats. You’ve now justified the purchase of another Ryobi tool with another battery thrown in.

 

[Kakaw83]

I think you're right, but the charger rendering it dead doesn't prolong its useful life either.

Just haven't ran into this problem with 20V batteries and such. Guess I'm learning.

You’re right about the charger, missed that part. Seems like they could be opening themselves up to a lawsuit for purposely making a useable product obsolete perhaps? I know Apple got into trouble because of some kind of battery issue related to software.

 

[Kakaw83]

Oh, check amazon. I’m pretty sure you can find knockoff batteries for just about any brand out there. I can’t attest to their quality as I’ve never gone that route but I’ve seen them for Dewalt etc.

 

[jamesvanderwulf]

I spent a whole hour yesterday prying a 2 3/4 inch nail out of my Hitachi nail gun, breaking off the end of my needle nose pliers in the process. I doesn't cost any more to go first class, I wish I would have...

 

[SoonerBeAHawk]

Oh, check amazon. I’m pretty sure you can find knockoff batteries for just about any brand out there. I can’t attest to their quality as I’ve never gone that route but I’ve seen them for Dewalt etc.

Yeah, there are.

Might do a knock off, might go back to gas but a 4-cycle. Thanks, and sorry to OP for taking thread a little off course.

 

[jberesford]

Oh, check amazon. I’m pretty sure you can find knockoff batteries for just about any brand out there. I can’t attest to their quality as I’ve never gone that route but I’ve seen them for Dewalt etc.

The knockoff batteries I've seen are terrible. Not a huge sample size though, I imagine the generics vary with every order.

I'm all branded DeWalt 20v Max. And I use them professionally. I have over a dozen batteries of various sizes that I use on about 20 tools. So far they've all been decent.

However, guys I work with have dabbled in the generics. Not really sure how you measure the cost savings vs quality, but I would say I am still way ahead. Short run times, physically just breaking when you drop them.... I'd have a better handle on it if I used them myself but nothing I've seen from others at work makes it seem justified to buy the generics. And I'm not that construction guy that gets a hard on about defending my tools or what kind of truck I drive. If I felt it was a worthwhile savings I would be on board.