I have had two Dewalt 14.4 cordless drills in the last 14 years. First one was used extensively while redoing my house....dropped it , kicked it, knocked it over... Cordless drills do not lend themselves well to being free standing, hence unless you have a "holster" they end up falling quite a bit. I was starting another room, put the batteries on the charger overnight ( like always) started to work that Sat morning got prepped and went to get the drill...puled the battery out of the charger and put the other one in and plugged the first one in to the drill motor...ready to go!! within a minute I smelled something like burning plastic...looked everywhere BUT my holster...saw noting but the smell was getting stronger.... shortly I felt heat on my side...the side my holster was on....looked down and saw that the entire bottom of the battery appeared to be liquid!!! moving kinda quickly I ran outside, released my holster grabbed the drill by the chuck pushed the 2 black holding clips on the battery and let it fall to the grass.....it instantly started to smoke!!!! OK I have another one ...plugged it in and smelled the same thing...unlatched it from the drill motor and the battery was gettin hot!
Took the whole mess back to home depot, they looked it over and gave me an entire new set!! damn!! that first drill motor was just under 5 years old.
took the new set and followed charging instructions to the letter.....and they are pretty specific! drill lasted just under 5 years and the bearings went would not back out a screw drilled into an ORANGE much less from wood....got tired of messin with Home depot and picked up a 12 volt craftsman from a garage sale...6 bucks...went to batteries plus had then replace the batteries, in my 6th year no issues.....
moral of the story...WHILE very nice and very handy, cordless drills have a somewhat short lifespan.....FAR FAR less than corded drills ( which we are all used to, cuz thats all they had back in the day) Cordless has a purpose, it makes using a drill motor easy & convenient for that ease and convenience you sacrifice longevity ..... it sucks having to toss what appears to be a perfectly good drill motor, but I can assure you that the motor is not far behind the batteries as far as being worn out.
The only reason I spent the $$ on the sears drill is because it was visibly brand new and the guy said it had never been used and he could never get the batteries to charge.....I figured we were starting pretty darn close to NEW stuff so i got the batteries redone.
My thoughts NOW seeing the new stuff out there and the fact that the entire battery line up has changed completely, meaning that finding and buying your old battery will cost you more than a new drill set with 2 batteries!! REFURBING batteries prices have gone up also...getting close enough to consider a newly purchased drill & battery set.... I hate wasting things too but this stuff is NOT made to last forever...it is made to last for5 3 - 6 years TOPS and then it begins to fail...BY then there are several NEW models and new kinds of power sources ..... step up,,,get a new set...and budget yourself for another one beginning in three years ...if it lasts till 5 or 6 BONUS!!! but you will still need to buy a new one then...
POINT? they got ya coming & goin.... dont waste your life worrying about the planned obsolescence period of time on a cordless drill motor, use it up, work it to death and when it dies go get a new one ON SALE
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my 2 centavos
rotest:
