The new Bosch drill/driver, right, compared to the old Porter Cable, left
My old Porter Cable 12V cordless drill has been in my tool cabinet for about 15 years. For various reasons it was time to replace it so I bought a new Bosch drill/driver.
While the old PC still works fine, the 12V NiCad battery technology is outdated and the batteries have gone south. Out of the three batteries I have for it two won’t hold a charge and the third won’t hold a charge for long. A battery rebuild costs about $50 each and two batteries are needed so your tool is always ready even while charging a battery. So any way you look at this situation I was in for a $100 expense.
Now you know I am a Yankee and I hate to spend money, especially since I don’t have any. So me and my old PC have been limping along like this for quite some time. The other day I looked in my mailbox and found a flyer from Lowes. On the front page was a Bosch 18V Lithium Ion cordless drill/driver complete with charger and two batteries for $99. Before you could say Stanley Tools I was online buying it.
Though the new drill has not been used much I can tell you that it is much lighter than the PC and much more powerful, but that is expected. There have been a lot of advancements in portable tool technology in the past 15 years. You can find out more about this tool here.
For the cost of rebuilding two 12V NiCad batteries I got an 18V Lithium Ion cordless drill/driver with two batteries. Now that really satifies the Yankee in me. I’ll let you know how this tool performs in the long haul. Now that I have a dependable cordless drill I’m sure I will use it more.
As always thanks for stopping by and please feel free to leave a comment.
Plane Shavings Blog 
Keep in mind that the Lythium bateries wont charge in the colder temps. i use a Dewalt 18 volt lythium for work. and I have to bring it in the house every night in the winter months. The Dewalt has a questionable keyless chuck. It has a habit of backing out in reverse and the bit falls out. The other problem with the chuck is it sticks. making bit changes less than wonderful. And finally the Dewalt has the single worst waranty. So far Rigid seems to have the best waranty… i would be open to hearing yours and others experience with these tools.
Kelly in Des Moines Iowa…
The cold charging problem won’t be a problem to me because I only use my drill in my shop. The other problems you mentioned have not shown up yet, but I will be sure to comment on them when and if they do.
I think you can save money in rebuilding batteries than buying it new. However, it is important that you should know the batteries of any gadgets or things you have so that you will know how to handle and what precautions you should take in preserving the life your batteries.
My original Porter Cable drill is 15 years old with the original batteries. They are tired. No matter where I looked it was going to cost $50 per battery to rebuild them. I bought the Bosch drill, 2 batteries and the charger for $100.02, including the local sales tax. The new tool gave me a lot more for my money than rebuilding the batteries for a 15 year old tool.
Thank you for your comment.
You can’t beat lithium-ion technology, in my opinion.
I have a pair of 10.8v Metabo drills that I hadn’t used for a few months. I picked one up yesterday and there was still plenty of charge in the fitted battery. As soon as I put the spare in to the charger though, I had to remove it again as the indicator showed it was already 100%! 😉
I don’t know what the situation is in the US but, I’ve found sellers on eBay who offer ‘unbranded’ replacement NiCad batteries for older drills (namely DeWalt and Makita). I’ve bought a few over the years and they work fine. Some even come with a warranty and, as you say, replacing the cells in a dead battery just isn’t cheap.
A dead battery is not good keep a pair battery with you at all time
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Thank you for the kind words.