Topic: Drill battery question.

[silly billy]

I have just spent a little bit more than I usually do on a drill. It comes with 2 batteries, can anyone tell me the best way to store them? The drill doesn't get a great deal of use so I don't know wether its best to store the batteries fully charged and keep topping them up or to allow them to run completely flat. Any help gratefully recieved. Thankyou.

[nilly71]

The best way to use all batteries are to let the run flat then charge to full, especially when they are new.

Neil

[Digindep]

As Nilly has just said..always make sure the battery is completely DEAD before re-charging..I even hold the trigger until it totally runs out...
In the long run the batteries will last a heck of a lot longer....last time I purchased a batery gun ...eer! 4 yr back....and use them all day 5-6 days a week...Over the past years I've paid 2-3 -hundred pounds for the top makes..
Not now...best in store of own make....and they last...as long...if you treat them with respect....50 quid against 200+...yeah okay.....even if they last....for the same price...I would have ' 4 '..... ;) ;)

[Mr Smith]

The idea of having two batteries was for working on site all day, I doubt very much if you are only a DIY'er that you will need to fully charged batteries unless you are doing a big job at home,  but I do go along with the info from the above posts,  :)

[Melbourne12]

What sort of batteries are they?  Many power tools sold for domestic use use NiMH batteries, that do benefit from a full discharge/recharge occasionally.  They also have the shortest life, and will deteriorate after 500 cycles, and be pretty dead by 1000.  But they might be NiCad, which last a lot longer, and need a full discharge/recharge about every 30 cycles.  No need to discharge them fully every time, but if you do, charge them up again.

If you've paid out for Li-Ion then you shouldn't discharge them fully.  It's difficult, because my experience of these (I have only one drill that uses them) is that they go flat quite suddenly, whereas the nickel based batteries tend to run down with noticeable loss of power.  Anyway, charge them as soon as they falter or stop, and certainly don't deliberately run them flat.