Vendors for rebuilding/repacking Milwaukee M18 battery pack (1 Viewer)

[alia176]

Does anyone have any direct experience with a vendor that does rebuilding/repacking Milwaukee M18 battery pack with same or higher amp hour batteries? I saw several YouTube vids on how to do this and my time would be better served, oh I don't know, rebuilding an engine or something . I'd rather find vendors that you've dealt with vs random google vendor.

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[wapitimud]

Is it a massive M18 pack? May be easier to replace it or trade in to next size up. Battery shops around here don't do lithium ion rebuilds due to safety. Nicad/nimh only.

 

[alia176]

I don't know if I'd call it massive but I have two of them and they've been awesome for the last eight years.

 

[wapitimud]

The display will light up on them, when you press the button on the batteries themselves, but they won't hold charge? Maybe cells. Those lithium ion batts have a control circuit board in them. If it's failed, no one will likely repair it for you.

 

[e9999]

when I looked at rebuilding a couple of batteries of mine (not Milwaukee) myself where I thought it was the cells, I kind of concluded it would not save much money for the aggravation considering I'd have to change all the cells. And I'd either need to practice my iron soldering a lot or have to get/build a spot welder. Possible but not exactly plug and play.

 

[alia176]

That's right Eric, I came to the same conclusion, need a spot welder and didn't feel like dealing with it. I took one pack apart and couple of the cells weren't holding a charge.

 

[e9999]

you would think it would be cheaper to just change the one or 2 cells that are bad but then your whole pack is unbalanced, which is not great. And the rest of the cells are probably also on their way out anyway.
It is possible to just use a 12V battery and 2 pointy copper rods to improvise some spot welding but it's iffy.

 

[wapitimud]

For the replacement cost, you would be paying most of that in labour to repair them.

Li-Ion cells themselves are quite dangerous to work on, as they can burn extremely hot when shorted. It's unlikely that you only have one or two bad cells, it's a total swap.

I've repaired old nicad packs back in the day, even parted the cells together. It's not worth the labour and danger now days.

Be best to find a Milwaukee program to trade in/trade up your batteries.

 

[alia176]

For the replacement cost, you would be paying most of that in labour to repair them.

Li-Ion cells themselves are quite dangerous to work on, as they can burn extremely hot when shorted. It's unlikely that you only have one or two bad cells, it's a total swap.

I've repaired old nicad packs back in the day, even parted the cells together. It's not worth the labour and danger now days.

Be best to find a Milwaukee program to trade in/trade up your batteries.

Agreed and I wonder if Milwaukee has a trade in program as that would be really good for my conscience.

 

[e9999]

If you get no credit for the old batteries, keep them, it's good to have the housing on hand for improvised wiring jobs. (Although admittedly, more so for 14.4V than 18V.)

I do remember seeing a review of generic vs namebrand batteries on Project Farm YT channel which was well done and interesting and IIRC suggested that some generic batteries are better values.