Reconditioned tools

[Wheeldog]

It's time to replace my 15+ year old cordless drill. I'm leaning toward a DeWalt 12V or 14.4V, and I see that some places sell 'factory reconditioned' units. I was wondering if anybody had experience with these, or with reconditioned power tools in general.

Thanks.

Rob

 

[scruffy]

Wheeldog, I've purchased many factory reconditioned tools, and have yet to have a problem with them. Price is certainly better, and the warrenty may or maynot be full length. Mostly in my experience, the warrenty has been full term, but I have found a few items where it was considerably shortened.
Always a point to check, and to decide if it is one you can live with on that particular item.

 

[cp1969]

Sometimes there was nothing wrong with the tool when it got returned; somebody just didn't like it, wanted a bigger one, etc. They have to sell it as reconditioned if it has been used at all.

Example: Ice storm took down limbs here a couple years ago. A co-worker was bragging about how he bought an electric chainsaw from one of the home supply places (HQ, I think. They're out of business now. Wonder why?), used it to cut up his limbs, then returned it as 'defective' and got his money back.

The guy must have a special mirror for shaving.

 

[JRP]

I called porter cable to buy a new battery for my drill, a 12V Magnaquench. $60 each. The guy said he had reconditioned Magnequech drills with two new batteries, charger, and case for $100, and that they were available in 3/8" keyless and 1/2" key chucks. Yes, 1/2" cordless. I got the 1/2" drill and when it came it looked and was packed like it was brand new. For $100 I ended up with (including my old drill, that just needed a battery) two drills, two chargers, two batteries, and two cases.

Very pleased. When I called to buy another for a gift I was told the military liked this drill more than the newer models and bought all Porter cable had for use on on aircraft carriers.

Porter Cable has a center in Houston that sells reconditioned tools and parts.

Black and Decker bought the Dewalt brand. When you buy DeWalt, you are buying Black and Decker shot with yellow plastic. It is an attempt to avoid the reputation B&D got from selling so many $9 drills. B&D makes three quality grades. Best - Industrial, Good - professional, Bad - consumer, designed for 20 hours of operation. Dewalt is the professional grade, suitable for contractors. Dewalt advertises a lot, but it does not make them the best.

Ya got me started. You wil like DeWalt, and reconditioned is good.

 

[Bird]

Rob, like the other guys, I've bought a number of "factory reconditioned" tools and have never had a complaint. If it's factory reconditioned, it's probably as good as new. If an individual did it; depends on whether he knew what he was doing. I rebuilt air tools for 3 years, sold them with a 90 day warranty, and had no complaints. My personal half inch impact was a busted trade-in that I rebuilt with all "used" parts for my own use. It's as good and strong as a new one.

Bird

 

[RichNJ]

I purchased a reconditioned B&D ( same as DeWalt) 12V cordless drill 6 years ago. Saved about $50 over new price and it's still going strong. Have gone thru about 6 battery packs but the drill can't be stopped.
For those that have some time and want to save a few bucks on battery packs - You can carefully open up the DeWalt packs and replace bad NiCad cells individually. I have found that usually 1 or 2 cells go bad. No use throwing all the cells away when most are still good. I glue the case back together using black GE silicon. These repaired packs get used for backups when I use up the newer packs. When the repaired packs go bad again then I pull out any good battery cells and toss the rest.

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Rich,
NiCad battery chargers rely on equally matched cells for proper charging. Mixing old cells and new cells will lead to premature failure of the pack. The same is true for discharge. Old cells which have less capacity than new cells will suffer cell reversal during discharge. Making up new packs with all new cells can save you money, but the welded tab construction of the manufactured pack is hard to duplicate at home. Soldering the cell interconnects can damage the batteries from overheat.
Hope this helps.
Al

 

[Wheeldog]

Thanks for the replies. It makes sense that a respected manufacturer wouldn't want to turn out junk even if it is less than brand new. I'm going to give one a try.

Rob

 

[RichNJ]

Thanks, that explains some of the cell failures. Even still, If I spend $3 on a new cell that makes the pack work for 3 months (premature failure?) than what's there to lose? During the past 10 years I'd say I've bought maybe 5 new cells. I buy the solder tab sub-C size cells. The tabs are easy to solder and don't overheat the cell.
When the pack dies again I pull out the good cells (they do have limited capacity at their age) and use them for replacements in other packs.
I don't bother replacing all the cells with new cells because it just does not seem to be worth it. I'm only saving about $5 per pack at that rate. When you run thru 2 new packs drilling holes in studs for wires and you only have 10 holes to finish - that's when the old, limited capacity pack comes in handy. My charger is a one hour charger and it sure helps to get 15 minutes out of the old pack until a newer pack is recharged.
When all the packs are dead for the B&D then I use my older Makita 9.6V drill. Too bad it took a fall off 12 ft scaffolding. The chuck wobbles ever so slightly.
I found that B&D has an outlet store near me in Reading, PA. The battery packs are less $$ there than even at Home Depot.

 

[fishman]

Jrpoux,

I agree that Porter Cable makes excellent tools. I have a 19.6 volt drill and saw that are first-rate. I got them at Lowe's I believe, and they were a bit pricier than DeWalt. I was a little afraid of the Black and Decker heritage there. Probably unreasonably so.

Does the PC center in Houston have a flier, catalog, or web address? I need/want/lust for more power tools, particularly an air nailer and compressor./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Any contact information you have would be appreciated.