DeWalt 14.4V afterlife?

[garandman]

In NH we have a 14.4V drill and light, two batteries and a charger. One battery is OK, the other is headed south. Got it all for free from work years ago.

Turns out there are aftermarket Li-Ion batteries available, but would need a new charger. That makes the cost prohibitive. At home we have two 18V* drills, reciprocating saw, impact wrench, three Li-Ion batteries and three standard XRP batteries. Just ordered a second charger and will bring the drill and a couple batteries North and standardize on 18V.

But what to do with the 14.4V stuff? I looked on YouTube for a 14.4 -> 18 conversion but didn’t find one. It appears that there are just a couple of ears on the 18V packs to keep them from fitting, but not sure taking the 14.4V stuff apart to try and hack it is worthwhile - probably better to sell it or give it away.

* Yes, we know 18V is another dead-end format, but DeWalt has a 20V adapter (the “20” is actually 18 nominal in a different form factor) so we will stick with it for now.

 

[jmarkwolf]

Get the 14.4V batteries rebuilt. Same charger and get a few more years out of the tool.

 

[mike93lx]

If a modern 12v set would work, i would probably just look for a good deal on a M12 set and donate the dewalt to a habitat for humanity restore

 

[finn]

Sometimes it’s best to move on.

Donate it and buy new 20v Dewalt stuff. It’s not that expensive in the grand scheme of things, especially when on sale, and life is short.

 

[garandman]

DeWalt annoyed me by changing from the 18V [nominal] to the 20V [Max rating] form factor.

Have substantial $$ in 18V and the stuff works great, so staying with 18 for now. Just bought another new Li-Ion 18V battery before they go away forever.