Sunday, May 7, 2023

Generic Powertool Batteries?

Has the price of lithium-ion batteries for power tools come down?  Maybe.

A friend of mine gave me an older Ryobi 18V jigsaw.  It didn't come with a charger, so I had to buy one on eBay.  I plugged it in, and the charger said, "bad battery" which makes sense because the battery had been dead for several years.  I went online and lo and behold, you can buy batteries for this for as little as $15 apiece - which is far less than the $60 that they are asking at the local "big box" lumberteria.  I noted this before - you can buy a drill with two batteries for under $80, but if you want a third battery, it will cost you nearly as much.  It makes no freaking sense at all.

I guess the Patents (Design Patents?) on the plug configuration have expired - the world has moved on from 18V.  It is interesting, but the batteries are rated in Amp-hours or Milliamp-hours.  I guess 3500 mA-h sounds better than 3.5 A-h.  But they go up to 6000 mA-h or more, and are priced accordingly.  I am guessing the only difference is the larger battery is two of the smaller, in parallel.

I checked also for Black and Decker 20V batteries and the Chinese are making these, too.  They are not labeled "Black and Decker" but just "Lithium" instead.  Although I have a plethora of B&D batteries, I ordered two ($30) for fun.  We'll see if they work very well or set the house on fire.  I hope they are not some sort of scam, where the battery housing is filled with a piece of scrap metal for weight, and some tiny watch battery to make it seem it is making voltage.  We'll see.

I was also looking for a new two-speed B&D drill.  I use these on the jack stands of the camper (instead of a noisy impact wrench) and it worked great for a year, and then the clutch stripped out.  Even in "drill" (locked clutch) mode, it will reach a torque limit and go clakity-clack.  I need to lubricate the acme nuts on the jack stands, I guess.  So I went on the B&D website to read up on the drill (model number, etc.) and noticed a disclaimer that, although listed as a 20V battery, it only produces 20V right after a full charge.  Standard voltage is 18V.

Oh, Black and Decker - how could you have lied to me?  All these years I was looking down at those lowly 18V people who couldn't afford the spectacular world of 20V.  And now I realize, I was one of them.  But of course, the 80V people are looking down at all us peons, if they even notice us at all.

Anyway, I ordered these generic batteries and will report back as to how well they work.  Why I did this, I do not know.  I bought a really nice jigsaw (corded kind) at a garage sale for $5.  And you know what?  I've never used it.  Jigsaws are one of the worst tools available - next to the reciprocating saw, of course.  The blade just goes every whichaway and never makes a nice cut.  Actually, most handheld saws are this way - circular saws never cut in a straight line, it seems.  Even a tablesaw will wander on  you, if you are not careful.

But my days of cutting non-linear pieces of plywood are far behind me. Even if I get this Ryobi to work, I likely will never use it.

What was I thinking?  Oh, right - it was free.  $30 later......