Replacement Batteries

[Ham]

I've recently had my Bosch 9.6V 1.2Ah batteries rebuilt by Re-Cell. The company has done an excellent job of the rebuild and in the process upped the capacity to 2.0Ah. Cost was £26 per battery, which I reckon to be well worth the money as I've now got my faithful Bosch unit back rather than consigned to the bin.

Cheers

David

 

[colinc]

My other hobby is flying electric model aircraft. We use Ni-Cads (& Ni-Mh, Li-On and Li-Poly) to power these and battery quality (energy density i.e. capacity v. weight) is paramount for performance - current draws are way beyond power tool figures and competitive models live at the edge of current (excuse the pun) battery technology. However there are horses for courses and Ni-Cad remains the dominant technology for cost/high power draw when weight is not an issue (i.e. not in an aircraft)

It seems to me that re-building packs for cordles power tools is the way to go using high quality ni-cad cells from sanyo or panasonic. Anyone skilled enough for woodworking can re-build their packs with a litttle info, research and and a good soldering iron. A good and knowledgeable supplier of quality cells and info is Overlander - www.overlander.co.uk I don't own any cordless tools so have no experience here but I suggest a call to them will provide useful advice.

Of course there are other technologies to explore - from the eco-warrior perspective Ni-Cads are bad news for your grandchildren and theirs and theirs..... Ni-Mh are better...... Li-Po's! well, great in controlled environments, scary when mal-treated - ever seen a damaged lithium cell burn??? try http://rchomepage.com/~dna/LipoFire.wmv For aircraft where weight reduction is all the these risks are controlled but do you really know what you hold against your head when you phone for a takeaway?? To be fair, these batteries are pretty safe when used in the controlled environment provided by phones and lap-tops.

Anyway, don't go there without he correct charging technology as the higher energy densities and current capacities mean that you are risking real danger.

So, replace like with like i.e. Ni-Cad with Ni-cad so that your charger suits the technology. Current cells offer much greater capacity than ealier/cheaper aternatives but your charger will either be constant current so you wil need to extend the charging time accordingly or peak detect which will cut of when the job's done - do you know which?. Don't attempt to replace Ni-Cad with Ni-Mh (it gets worse from there) as the charger technologies are not compatible.

 

[Anonymous]

We've attempted to contact the reader who wrote to GW regarding cheap Bosch batteries, but have not yet had a reply from him.

Presumably still no reply Pete.

As my original premise, I can't say I'm surprised.

Maybe it would be a good idea in the future for GWW to verify such claims before publishing.

 

[Anonymous]

Bilzee

I had an email from our reader yesterday and have had no chance to post it until now - some of us have to work and I've been away!

Regards the Bosch batteries, the reader now tells me (very apologetically) that the drill in question was in fact a Skil, though under the Bosch umbrella. They came from a store in Crowley Oxford.

Before you start crowing from the rooftops that you were right all along, I'd like to comment on your last posting one last time. As I said before, the chap in question was a man of the cloth, and we had no reason to doubt his words. As it turns out he was simply mistaken in his memory, which he corrected when he finally received an email I sent a few weeks back on the subject, and for you to imply that through our absence of comment on the subject we are not doing our job correctly or are misleading our readers I find arrogant and insulting

Now get off our backs and find someone else to pester

 

[Anonymous]

Bill

It is clearly unreasonable to expect a magazine of any type to checkout the voracity or accuracy of letters sent in by readers. Letters are published as the reader's own views and opinions and it is up to the author to ensure statements such as the battery supplier prices are correct, not the editorial staff.

Most people realise this when reading the letters pages :roll:

 

[Alf]

Both of you have made your positions clear. We can all make up our own minds who we agree with and who we don't; repeating you points of view ad nauseam is just tedious. Frankly it's reached the point where I'm inclined to disagree with both 'cos I'm just plain sick of the whole thing. Any further posts on this subject will be deleted, regardless of who posts them.

Cheers, Alf

 

[devonwoody]

My understanding of using these acid batteries etc. is that the cord to the appliance needs to be of a very heavy calibre.