Batteries for Makita drill/driver

[RobertN]

Birds "disposable" thread got me thinking, I need new batteries for my 9.6V Makita drill/driver and flash light.

Has anyone had any luck with 3rd party batteries? Any company recomendations?

 

[RollTideRam]

I bought an off brand battery off the net for a porter cable drill. It worked fine until something in the drill broke driving in lag bolts. JC

 

[JCB]

Robert,

My dad has had good luck with "better quality" off brand batteries. You get what you pay for with batteries. A $14 battery from HF will make you curse. A $50 battery at a battery store will hold a pretty good charge.

 

[orezok]

I rebuild my own. If you can solder, you can do it yourself. I buy the NiMH with tabs from www.all-battery.com. Most tool batteries use the sub-C size and I buy the 2500 ma or better. I get about twice the useful life from each charge.

Just connect them in the same order the originals are in and don't miss the temperature sensor.

Make sure you get the ones with tabs or you'll be sorry!

 

[marimus]

I rebuild my own. If you can solder, you can do it yourself. I buy the NiMH with tabs from www.all-battery.com.

There are also battery repackers that will do that for you, at much less cost then buying the whole battery (generic or original).

 

[Bird]

I have a 7.2v Makita and don't know how old it is. It belonged to a friend who died and his wife gave it to me. It looked new in the case, but wasn't working because the battery was dead and would not take a charge. In March, 2003, I bought two new batteries from a Makita factory authorized service center. So 7 years ago, they were $30.47 plus tax each. I see that Batteries Plus now has them for $29.99; don't know, but would expect the factory authorized prices to have gone up a bit, so if I had to have another battery, I'd sure be trying Batteries Plus.