Power Tools & General Tools Recommendations & Advice

If you are buying/using 3rd party batteries, never leave them charging unattended, ideally outside. Corners will have been cut.

Like cheap dodgy scooters and e-bikes, 99 will be fine but 1 will not and it will burn down your house.

P.S. don’t store batteries in tools, even when not in use, they add a tiny amount of vampire drain. Say you put it away low and didn’t use it for a for 6 months, you could come back to an irrecoverably dead battery.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
P.S. don’t store batteries in tools, even when not in use, they add a tiny amount of vampire drain. Say you put it away low and didn’t use it for a for 6 months, you could come back to an irrecoverably dead battery.
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Interesting, I didn't know that.
 
Phil2008 said:
I haven't thrashed my tools yet, so the batteries might be rubbish when I make them work hard and thanks for the heads up... The battery didnt damage your saw did it?
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Thankfully no, it was just something to bear in mind. This was a couple of years ago so they may have got better by now. The aftermarket ones I bought were 5.5ah not the 5s I got from Makita. On that note I have a couple of genuine 5 ah batteries from the USA and they have a noticeable lower running time than the uk ones I have but they run fine in any tool.
 
ristac said:
No recommendations on this then
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Well I can't recommend the 12v tools enough(but NOT the impact driver), so Id go for the same as mine.... And it has wayyyy more torque than 30nm as that is on screwdriver mode, but set to drill mode on gear1 its got more torque then most people need.. Bought mine for £50.... Makita 12v Drill Driver Screwdriver

4amp battery+charger
I bought this non-gen charger and battery with mine because it gets rather pricy if you buy a proper charger and battery aswel.. Ive seen the set(screwdriver, 2x 2amp batteries and charger) priced a little under £200, stupid money.
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
If you are buying/using 3rd party batteries, never leave them charging unattended, ideally outside. Corners will have been cut.

Like cheap dodgy scooters and e-bikes, 99 will be fine but 1 will not and it will burn down your house.

P.S. don’t store batteries in tools, even when not in use, they add a tiny amount of vampire drain. Say you put it away low and didn’t use it for a for 6 months, you could come back to an irrecoverably dead battery.
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Well the idiots are buying 2nd hand batteries for there scooters, not new batteries so there asking for trouble... I would never buy 2nd hand batteries would you?...

Ive always bought compatible batteries for my dyson hoover, because with dyson your paying mainly for the name and I refuse to pay more for the blumming brand name then for the item... Plus you can buy much higher capacity compatible batteries than the genuine ones and they last just as long too... Ive had 2 compatible batteries for my dyson and both lasted 2-3yrs, the same amount of time as the genuine ones..
 
Why said anything about second hand batteries?

Buying a no name battery from a marketplace which isn’t UKCA or CE tested carries an inherent risk which you don’t get from buying the legitimate product. Particularly one where the manufacturer has to rip off someone else’s IP to make it. The latter is really not a good indicator that the product has been manufactured in a safe and reliable way.

Buying a new battery doesn’t guarantee it’s quality.

That’s not to say you can’t get good quality third party batteries but you’ve got absolutely no idea what you are buying when you get one from random Amazon seller X or Y.

All I’ve said is, it might be fine, but it might not. Buyer beware.
 
I bought 2 "Yates" Makita clone 5Ah batteries from Amazon. They are more like 3Ah batteries honestly, but the price of two was cheaper than one original. Unfortunately I left one in a low state of charge for too long and the charger refused to charge it as it's voltage was too low.

There's a trick to resurrecting such batteries if you're brave enough and that is to have one good battery boost the bad one by connecting the positive to positive and negative to negative for a short time. More info in the video below:

 
I've been given some Makita LXT power tools without batteries so I need to buy 2x Makita 5ah batteries and charger. Wheres the best place to buy from?
 
panthro said:
I've been given some Makita LXT power tools without batteries so I need to buy 2x Makita 5ah batteries and charger. Wheres the best place to buy from?
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If you have or are planning to have any 2x18 LXT tools then get the dual charger or 2 single chargers. Then you can charge both batteries at the same time (around 45min from flat) rather than waiting twice that for them to charge on a single charger. It's especially useful if your lawnmower is 2x18.

I've bought a few tools from Howe Tools and they've been good on price and delivery.
 
Was just looking at genuine Makita chargers and batteries on amazon and I came up with this Charger which I dont think is too bad, but a 12v 4amp battery is a ridiculous price considering the compatible 4amp batteries Ive bought were only £21.... They are more or a rip off then Dyson batteries
 
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Phil2008 said:
Was just looking at genuine Makita chargers and batteries on amazon and I came up with this Charger which I dont think is too bad, but a 12v 4amp battery is a ridiculous price considering the compatible 4amp batteries Ive bought were only £21.... They are more or a rip off then Dyson batteries
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Careful - the battery you linked is CXT 12V which is not compatible with LXT 18V tools or chargers.

The price of genuine batteries is what it is sadly.
 
I was thinking about getting a genuine battery charger to use with my compatible batteries, ummm but maybe not such a good idea as the genuine battery charger being 3-4 faster then my current charger. Im guessing Its better to charge nice and slowly with compatible batteries, less chance of fires etc?

edit: Im guessing thats 1 and probably the main reason why these e-bikes/scooters catches fire when people replace the batteries.. Because either the charger is too fast for the batteries, so heating them up and then catching fire...Or the charger is to slow for the batteries making the charger having to charge faster and catching fire.
 
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Phil2008 said:
IBecause either the charger is too fast for the batteries, so heating them up and then catching fire...Or the charger is to slow for the batteries making the charger having to charge faster and catching fire.
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It doesn't work like that (at least not with genuine tool batteries) as the BMS (Battery Management System) within the battery monitors the temperature, state of charge and other parameters to ensure bad things don't happen (i.e. by refusing to charge if there is a fault).
With 3rd party batteries the BMS is either less sophisticated or missing entirely and therefore most of the protection is missing.
 
Phil2008 said:
I was thinking about getting a genuine battery charger to use with my compatible batteries, ummm but maybe not such a good idea as the genuine battery charger being 3-4 faster then my current charger. Im guessing Its better to charge nice and slowly with compatible batteries, less chance of fires etc?

edit: Im guessing thats 1 and probably the main reason why these e-bikes/scooters catches fire when people replace the batteries.. Because either the charger is too fast for the batteries, so heating them up and then catching fire...Or the charger is to slow for the batteries making the charger having to charge faster and catching fire.
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The normal Lithium Ion batteries normally have a charging control that balances the charge across the cells and disable shorts etc. Some of the controls can control the charging by essentially "chopping' the current. Those that do use a on/off to maintain a rate of charge. However that's normally in the charger itself for cheaper stuff.

I think they worked out that they can charge 80% of the capacity quickly and then trickle charge the remaining 20% and not hurt the batteries too much. Also repeated cycles of charging to 100% without fully discharging harms them too. Seems like a flaw in the design if you ask me but it seems people will pay the price of Lithium Ion with its quirks.

The replacement batteries they purchase are usually badly designed and often not up to the specifications, specifically by non reputable sellers wanting to make a quick buck with little or no blow back (read China). People have cut open multi-celled batteries only to find the cell(s) inside are fraudulent - both in terms of voltage, charge and capabilities. That's why they short quickly, or overheat etc.
 
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NickK said:
The normal Lithium Ion batteries normally have a charging control that balances the charge across the cells and disable shorts etc. Some of the controls can control the charging by essentially "chopping' the current. Those that do use a on/off to maintain a rate of charge. However that's normally in the charger itself for cheaper stuff.

I think they worked out that they can charge 80% of the capacity quickly and then trickle charge the remaining 20% and not hurt the batteries too much. Also repeated cycles of charging to 100% without fully discharging harms them too. Seems like a flaw in the design if you ask me but it seems people will pay the price of Lithium Ion with its quirks.

The replacement batteries they purchase are usually badly designed and often not up to the specifications, specifically by non reputable sellers wanting to make a quick buck with little or no blow back (read China). People have cut open multi-celled batteries only to find the cell(s) inside are fraudulent - both in terms of voltage, charge and capabilities. That's why they short quickly, or overheat etc.
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These are the specs for the compatible battery+charger I bought for my makita tools... If and a big IF the specs are true, these shouldnt burst into flames...But saying that there's a lot of genuine stuff made in China, so the stuff can't be all that terrible?
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