Years ago I was given a set of Black & Decker Firestorm 18V tools. I was pretty happy with them so I added to the set from time to time to the point that I now have just about every hand tool you can imagine including multiples of some tools. I'm not a daily or even weekly user of these tools so I have always been happy with the performance of them other than the batteries which don't seem to last very long at all. After maybe 6 months of intermittent use they won't hardly hold a charge anymore. I probably have a dozen or more of them now and they're all completely dead.
Recently I inherited a Porter Cable 20V drill with two lithium ion batteries and a charger. When I received it it probably hadn't been used in a couple of years and I was surprised to find that the battery still had a ton of juice in it. I've been using it off and on for some light duty screwing and the battery still hasn't run down. The other battery is charged and waiting but now I'm just curious to see how long it will run.
I got to looking at the differences between the two and other than name brands and a slight voltage difference the huge difference seems to be NiCad on the Black & Decker stuff versus Li-ion on the Porter Cable. I looked at replacement batteries for the Black & Decker and there are now Li-Ion replacement batteries. What is odd is that all the chargers - even the ones that come in a package with some Li-ion batteries - say they are for NiCad and NiMH but don't mention LI-ion.
That's the background, now my two questions.....
It would cost me about $1000 to start over with Porter Cable if I replaced all my Black & Decker tools or less than $150 to get four new Li-ion batteries and a couple of chargers to work with my Firestorm 18V tools. If I do the latter am I throwing good money after bad? Also, I suspect that the poor life I have gotten out of the B&D 18V NiCad batteries is because they get stored in my non-temperature controlled barn. If I go with Li-ion should I charge them up and then put them in the fridge (about 34 degrees) versus having them see a month or two a year of 120 barn temps?
Thanks for any thoughts you might have on this.
Bryan
Recently I inherited a Porter Cable 20V drill with two lithium ion batteries and a charger. When I received it it probably hadn't been used in a couple of years and I was surprised to find that the battery still had a ton of juice in it. I've been using it off and on for some light duty screwing and the battery still hasn't run down. The other battery is charged and waiting but now I'm just curious to see how long it will run.
I got to looking at the differences between the two and other than name brands and a slight voltage difference the huge difference seems to be NiCad on the Black & Decker stuff versus Li-ion on the Porter Cable. I looked at replacement batteries for the Black & Decker and there are now Li-Ion replacement batteries. What is odd is that all the chargers - even the ones that come in a package with some Li-ion batteries - say they are for NiCad and NiMH but don't mention LI-ion.
That's the background, now my two questions.....
It would cost me about $1000 to start over with Porter Cable if I replaced all my Black & Decker tools or less than $150 to get four new Li-ion batteries and a couple of chargers to work with my Firestorm 18V tools. If I do the latter am I throwing good money after bad? Also, I suspect that the poor life I have gotten out of the B&D 18V NiCad batteries is because they get stored in my non-temperature controlled barn. If I go with Li-ion should I charge them up and then put them in the fridge (about 34 degrees) versus having them see a month or two a year of 120 barn temps?
Thanks for any thoughts you might have on this.
Bryan