Makita drill battery replacement

Makita drill battery replacement

Author
Discussion

Consigliere

Original Poster:

364 posts

55 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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Hi all,

i had a cordless drill kit which i bought about 10 years ago, makita combi drill, two batteries, charger and bit set all in a case, i was well chuffed at the time. Done all the diy jobs with it over the last 10 years and cost me around £100 at the time.

A few years back, battery 1 started to lose holding charge, it was ok as battery 2 was used and i had to wait for it to recharge when dead before i could carry on.

Had a quick job to do yesterday and battery 2 isnt holding charge either, after 10 years its expected. The drill, bit set, charger are all in great nick and comes in a compact case, i want to keep it all and either get the batteries rebuilt or get new ones, so, any ideas what to do and where to get it done?

The batteries in question are PA18 makita batteries.

cheers

kambites

69,358 posts

235 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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10 years out of a set of NiMH batteries is really quite good going!

It doesn't look like Makita still make those old Ni-MH batteries but there seems to be plenty of aftermarket options out there on Amazon, ebay, etc.

Consigliere

Original Poster:

364 posts

55 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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pocketspring said:
i did see various replacements on ebay and amazon - have you had any experience with the company in question?

anonymous-user

68 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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Consigliere said:
pocketspring said:
i did see various replacements on ebay and amazon - have you had any experience with the company in question?
I've bought plenty of stuff off Amazon..... laugh

Seriously. my dad has some Battool stuff and it's fine for what it does.

megaphone

11,201 posts

265 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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You can get adaptors that fit newer batteries to older kit. Also other makes of battery .

eg. https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/Makita-Battery-Adapter/26...

Consigliere

Original Poster:

364 posts

55 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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just found this one on Amazon - more than 3 x the original mAH. One of these should be good enough to replace two for now. I can get another if needs be.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B14XKHDN/ref=sspa_dk...

biggiles

1,918 posts

239 months

Monday 19th December 2022
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That battery will probably work just fine... but do watch out, it's investing£30 more into a dead-end technology. The newer Li-ion drills are SO much better, even cheap knock-offs from Lidl/Toolstation. e.g. the batteries will keep their charge for ages (years?) so even if you are an infrequent user, you won't have to wait to charge up the tool. If you're a frequent user, it could be a good time to replace it.

I know the pain, I have a couple of old de Walt tools with NiMH batteries gathering dust, but the Li-Ion kit is 100x better.

Consigliere

Original Poster:

364 posts

55 months

Monday 19th December 2022
quotequote all
biggiles said:
That battery will probably work just fine... but do watch out, it's investing£30 more into a dead-end technology. The newer Li-ion drills are SO much better, even cheap knock-offs from Lidl/Toolstation. e.g. the batteries will keep their charge for ages (years?) so even if you are an infrequent user, you won't have to wait to charge up the tool. If you're a frequent user, it could be a good time to replace it.

I know the pain, I have a couple of old de Walt tools with NiMH batteries gathering dust, but the Li-Ion kit is 100x better.
For £30 its worth it for me personally, ill replace it all once the drill is knackered. That being said most of my other tools are parkside but corded and i think they are VFM!

mikey_b

2,305 posts

59 months

Tuesday 20th December 2022
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It is highly unlikely to be anywhere near 3x the mAh of the original, these no-brand Chinese companies just make up any old rubbish for their adverts. However it will undoubtedly be a lot better than the near-dead original, and for £30 you'll probably get several years more use out of it. So you can't argue with the value.

I bought something similar for my old Makita, and to be fair it worked a treat. However, a year or so later I decided to treat myself to a DeWalt twin pack of drill and impact driver, and it was vastly better again - so much so that my corded drill just gathers dust now, and even my SDS only comes out rarely. The interesting thing though is that I stuck my old Makita and it's hooky battery on eBay and got much more than I expected for it, almost £80 in fact, which paid for a good chunk of the brand new DeWalt tools. So that might worth considering at some point.

Rob.

297 posts

49 months

Tuesday 20th December 2022
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I bought some 18v li-ion adaptors for my old man from AliExpress. They probably won't last 10 years, but they work and only cost a few quid


wong

1,355 posts

230 months

Tuesday 20th December 2022
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Consigliere said:
biggiles said:
That battery will probably work just fine... but do watch out, it's investing£30 more into a dead-end technology. The newer Li-ion drills are SO much better, even cheap knock-offs from Lidl/Toolstation. e.g. the batteries will keep their charge for ages (years?) so even if you are an infrequent user, you won't have to wait to charge up the tool. If you're a frequent user, it could be a good time to replace it.

I know the pain, I have a couple of old de Walt tools with NiMH batteries gathering dust, but the Li-Ion kit is 100x better.
For £30 its worth it for me personally, ill replace it all once the drill is knackered. That being said most of my other tools are parkside but corded and i think they are VFM!
Li-Ion will keep charge for a few years and is much lighter than NiMH. I would go for Lidl/Parkside stuff if you're only an occasional user and like their corded kit.
Or Aldi have their 20v drill on offer for a tenner - need to buy a battery and charger on top (And their impact driver is a tenner as well).
The drills all have little LED lights on them now as well.

Consigliere

Original Poster:

364 posts

55 months

Monday 26th December 2022
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Battery arrived, left it to charge fully, works like a dream. £30 well spent imho.

miniman

27,965 posts

276 months

Monday 26th December 2022
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