I am wanting to rebuild some 18 volt Black & Decker battery packs that contain the SubC battery. Any members have some suggestions as to where I can get some inexpensive? Or other suggestions.
So far, I have found them on Ebay, US sellers, for about $1.50 each shipped as the “best deal”. I also know about harvesting them from the Cheap Harbor Freight 18 volt battery pack for about $13. Those are 1300mAh batteries. I believe the black & decker comes factory with 1500mAh Sub C Cells. I am open to upgrading the mAh if the price is right. I would also prefer the tabs pre attached, but thats not necessary.
Do any of you members have any suggestions, ideas or experience you could share?? Help a brother out!
I honestly don’t know what B+D packs will cost you new, but I went through the same thought process with Dewalt 18v packs, and the best price I could find (a few years ago, admittedly) was pretty much inline with the price of a new pack.
I am kinda seeing the same thing. Looks like my best bet may be just to rebuild the pack (for the fun). And upgrade the mAh. But, you right, it will cost about what the new pack will, if not more. But, I could really use one pack that is upgraded for my blower. It take me 2 packs to blow my drive/yard. Guess I will keep searching. Thanks.
Be cautious - off-brand NiCad cells are incapable of high currents, and NiMHs are quite unsuited for power tool usage as well.
Sanyo Cadnica series is your best bet, they come in 1300 mAh capacity if I remember correctly.
One last idea: 4x18650s will get you between 14.8 and 16.8v, which might be enough to make your blower work. No personal experience, but this case: http://dx.com/p/pannovo-b-c04-water-resistant-4-x-18650-battery-pack-case-for-bike-lamp-black-254957 appears decent, though it would need a mod for series. Plus, I hate DX, but whatcha-gonna-do? (The same case sometimes gets branded solarstorm, but all I could find was alibaba and I consider them worse than dx.)
i rebuild quite a few packs, the best nicd cells i used are tenergy sub c with the logo on yellow wrapper, they come with tabs, so soldering them is easy. 15 cells (18v) can be bought for 35-40.
new oem battery is over 100.
another thing i’ve noticed, lately manufacturers, (dewalt, milwaukee, B&D) started using no name cells, that die a lot sooner than old sanyo cells they used to use. so it is a lottery now, when you buying new oem battery you may get one with no name cells.
i use Li-po RC packs and hack the original battery case to stuff them in there. they dont always fit 100% inside but i now have a ~18v, 3000mah pack that can do 60A easily.
Good idea. Of course I’ve thought a little about using a LiPo as a replacement for power tools, but it never dawned on me to convert the original battery casing in that way! I was always focused on getting the LiPo fully stuffed inside.
How that’s a great idea. Gonna look into that. I need a new hobby charger for my r/c gear, so that would work excellent. Perfect hack/mod for me. Thanks.
no prob fellas. now if you buy a slightly smaller capacity 2c and a 3c and wire them in series, you may be able to cram them totally inside the case. youd want to rewire the balance plugs to effectively make them a 5c provided both are the same current rating and capacity.
i just went for what capacity i wanted and said forget the size lol.
i have a RC battery checker with alarm on the one side of the battery to monitor the voltages and alarms if any cell drops below 3v.
ill probably make a metal shield to cover up the exposed bits though as im concerned about trashing the exposed end while doing construction work around the house.
A friend overbought sanyo 1800 mah sub c for a project.
2.50 ea.
they are the high rate type.I think kr-1800scE.
iirc there are over 100 left.
I have them here.
edit to correct type
did not measure capacity as i didn’t have a dmm.
