Hitachi Drill/Impact Conundrum

[wotan]

I bought a combo kit in November 2012 of a Hitachi 18v Lithium Ion drill and impact driver. Bought it refurbed (This kit: http://bigskytool.com/Hitachi_KC18D...3-Tool_Combo_Kit_(Reconditioned)___i1585.aspx) My understanding was that it was a factory refurbished kit but would come with new batteries.

I'd bought this after seeing a friend use his Makita 18v. Since the get-go I've been disappointed with the battery life on this. When it's charged, it works great but it exhausted itself pretty quickly. I don't use them often but when I do, his regularly go for a few hours on a charge and mine is dead within 20-30 minutes. I've taken care of the batteries -- left them inside and tried to leave one on the charger when not in use.

As a test the other day, I charged both batteries and then drilled into some steel. In "low-speed" one of them ran out of juice in under 20 seconds and the other one only last a hair over 80s.

A 2-pack of replacement batteries is $120. Slightly more to upgrade to 3ah batteries. For that price, I'm what I'd be at to buy the tools + battery combo kit again if I waited for a decent sale. I'd probably get some accessories thrown in, too.

I don't want/need 2 sets of drills/drivers/lights but it just seems stupid to not go that direction. And then I think about just tossing this system (which I've had bad luck with the longevity on) and "upgrade" to something like a Milwaukee or Makita. The idea being that I'd spend more now but save money because the batteries would (hopefully) last more than 18 months?

What would you do?

 

[rice rocket]

Did you try contacting Hitachi? I believe they have lifetime warranties on all batteries.

 

[wotan]

Did you try contacting Hitachi? I believe they have lifetime warranties on all batteries.

That would be incredible. I now see that on their main website.

I've contacted both Hitachi and Big Sky Tool. I suspect they may tell me to pound sand since they were reconditioned tools, but it's def. worth a try!

 

[HuntinNut]

Hitachi does have a awesome warranty. I dropped my drill off the back deck and broke it in half at the handle a few months back. I was building the deck and ran into Lowes and just bought another one to replace it so I could keep going. A few weeks later I bought a drill and impact Hitachi set at Lowes for 20.00 that had been returned because of bad batteries. I boxed up the broken drill, batteries, battery charger and sent them into Hitachi with my contact info to get replacement cost. Within two weeks I received a box from Hitachi with a refurbished drill and new charger/packs. All my saws/drills are Hitachi and besides being great tools they do stand behind them to boot.

 

[StevePgh]

I also have the Hitachi 18 volt system and love it. If I'm really torquing on something, yeah, the battery life is not all that great on the 1.5 Ah batteries, but that is pretty much universal. If you go brushless you get much better life. I picked up a hammer drill with the 3.0 batteries for the same price as a set of the 3.0 batteries - so you may want to look into that as well.

The batteries (I think) only have a 2 year warranty, which you are still good for. I've had mine for close to 5 years, and I still have damn near the same battery life as when it was new. The tool is what has lifetime.

I just took a Hitachi cordless screwdriver to a service center for a flaky switch, so I'll see how good that warranty is. I bought a second refurb one from big sky tool to have as a second one anyway. The service center warned that sometimes parts take a long time to get in (months), so you may be better off shipping it back.

 

[wotan]

Big Sky wrote me back and said it's only 1-year on the battery and the tool since it is reconditioned. New tools have a 3-year warranty on the batteries and the Lithium Ion tools have a lifetime warranty (but only on the tool itself.)