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I'm really happy that batteries are still available (and at a fair price). This has been one of the best products I have used. It works with the drill and the trim saw.
Quite a few manufacturers are now even selling their new cordless drills WITHOUT a battery - so you have to purchase the new drill and then buy a battery for it - which is just crazy. I have a great old Black and Decker drill that I've bought a few years ago and the battery slowly faded. This was well worth the money. Sometimes though it's just SO convenient to have the cordless to do a quick job and I loved being able to give new life to my old tool, which is familiar to me and works great. I bought this battery and it's like new again. Cordless drills are such a rip off these days; There's a huge variety of battery voltages and options - and for that reason I've always had corded drills in my tool arsenal because they're dependable and they are not subject to technological trendiness.
Great Job Amazon. As a bonus they arrived next day. I had been looking for replacement batteries and could not find them locally without placing a special order. I tried Amazon, and not only did they have the batteries, but at a much better price than I had been quoted.
I will buy more accessories like this again from Amazon. I didn't feel like driving all over to get an extra battery for my drill and this was a great way to get it quicker in my opinion. When it showed up, very nicely packed, I charged it and it has performed great.
I have (had) two 14.4 PS140 batteries and the PS1514BU fast charger for my FireStorm drill. I also expected a more sophisticated charging circuit. I'm not surprised that the batteries have faded, but I am shocked that the charger gave up the ghost. There is no fuse or power limiting device.
The DeWalt battery packs have twice the ampere-hour capacity of the PS140, so they may use a higher trickle charge current. I do not have much faith in Black and Decker, and I suspect the charger is so poorly designed that it will kill itself trying to charge a battery pack with shorted cells. The right approach appears be to chuck everything and get a new drill -- one with a more sensible charging system. Typical trickle charge rates are set to completely charge a battery in 10 hours. I wouldn't trust a new Black and Decker charger because it might die down the road.Although some people have suggested using a DeWalt charger, there may be a problem with that solution. The charger and the batteries have died.
A sensible charger would not die even if asked to charge a dead short.Instead of being in the position of needing just two battery packs (a $60 problem), I now need two packs and a charger (a $100 problem). Charging batteries at too high a rate will cause the cells to vent and age more quickly. I took the charger apart (it uses T15 security screws), and discovered some surprising points. The charger failed with an open circuit in the primary of the transformer.
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