I have a number of suggestions to add to this process, which is not as easy as it looks in the clip. 1. number the batteries top and bottom as in the diagram with a Sharpie. When you've soldered the top side and flip it over, the battery order is flipped from the diagram and it can lead to confusion. 2. Orient the battery case and the diagram in the same direction while you're working and mark the round end of the battery on the diagram. 3. Use solder flux. The batteries are not solder friendly and resin core solder doesn't get it. 4. if you're going to glue the batteries in position, use as little glue as possible. Use too much and you won't be able to fit the assembly back in the case. 5. Before your start, take note of the orientation of the prongs in the connector. They only fit into the tool one way. 6. Be careful about connections and metal tools around the batteries. Arcing and Sparking is something to avoid.

Making use of the kzfaq.infoUgkxcJ22tnHH9l1vjdIdEIG27iOG55P7LXI8 reconditioning plan, I just saved 2 auto batteries from being completely junked. The guides were very simple to follow. I wish I would have found this years ago! You may use the guide to recondition any battery type

OMG what a wonderful video. You described in less than 4 minutes what it took others damn near an hour to do AND you included a schematic! FTW

Its also quite probable that only a few of the original sub Cs are bad. Test and replace the bad ones saving the others for later repairs.

Good stuff bud, even 7 yrs later. I find this useful.

Great vid. To the point, great diagram, great explanation.....I wish all diy's were like yours!

Just tried this and it worked. This was also the first time I ever soldered anything.

An excellent presentation! Very well done! Thanks much!

Plain and simple video. Thanks for sharing! I appreciate it.

Great video, Mike. Thanks.

Awesome channel Mike! Thanks for the tips

Just refreshed my batteries! Did it for 25 bucks! Thanks for the video!

Great job Mike thanks for the video

Super clear. Very well done tutorial Bro.

Good video, thanks. My time is valuable too so I will let everyone know my DeWalt battery pack had size T10 Torx screws.

Awesome job making this video!! ty!

Nicely done.

This is exactly what I needed. You’re the best, Mike! Thank you, sir!

Thanks Michael Thompson. Stick it to the man!

Well done good sir!

I was considering doing this but I have already fixed the brushed motor and the brushes were already worn a lot, and am thinking probably time for a new one anyway, but this was very helpful.

Great clip

Excellent video, Craig. The Ryobi 18V battery packs are put together a little differently, but the same concepts apply.

Nice one, Mike

Great vid! I done this myself and it works great, you can get batteries on line cheap, screw paying $80 to $100 for a whole new battery. Also if you have the old 18v dewalt tools you can buy an adapter for around $15 so you can use the newer 20v lithium battery packs.

Thanks Mike. Very informative video and like the way that you were clear precise and to the point. I give credit to everybody that creates a video to assist and try and help, but some are challenging to watch but one still has to give credit where credit is due for doing your best and attempting to assist. Keep up the good work

Thanks mike great video👍I’m wanting to try this I think I can do it ❤️

Great video!

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing .

Awesome!! Thanks Mike!!! I subbed.🙂👍

$200 now at home depot. I'll have to give this a try. Thx for sharing.

love it, tks. how about convert them to li-ion batteries?

Hi amigazo Mike! Good video

This is an awesome video, and it's fun to rebuild things. I don't mean to be a downer here, but you can buy replacement 18V, 4000 mAh batteries on eBay for less than $20 each. That is for the complete battery pack that pops right into your Dewalt tool, not just the sub-C cells. So no rebuilding would be necessary. The link above is for a set of 15 2200 mAh sub-C cells that would require a lot of time rebuilding, and a cost of $32.00. And the storage capacity (run time) would be much lower. Again ... no disrespect intended, but sometimes it's best to just buy the replacement battery and put the tool back to work.

Thanks Mike

Great video. I hate when poeple shoot videos unprepared or when they upload something they are doing for the first time. It is definitly not the case here. You speak well, have good ideas and capture our attention. good job

Great video, but you should invest in a spot welder. They are great for rebuilding batteries.

Is that a fume extractor hanging from the wall? if so its a cool set up !! did you buy it or built it as diy? i need to get something like that myself. do you have any reference?

I have a Ryobi set that i found you can buy a cheap 18V battery from harbor freight and you can stuff those cells in the Ryobi case by moving around 2 or 3 batteries. 80% of the work is done for you, and its only like 15 bucks. It appears that the HF battery will also work for this dewalt battery.

thanks Mike

This is definitely a money saver for just the cost of the sub C cell batteries... but its the time involved in soldering that is the kicker. Non-OEM (compatible) 18v battery packs sell online for about $16 which contain all new sub-C batteries in the Dewalt size battery case and with a 5 year warranty! Compare at $15 to $18 for batteries only and DIY time and unless you just want to get some soldering experience, I think I will go for the compatibles.

Quite the fume extractor, do you blaze?

Very interesting, speaking of which you just reminded me I need a 18 volt power supply for my rocket ignition system thanks!

I am trying to disassemble my lithium dewalt battery, having problems pushing out the contacts...are they glued in? I removed the bracket on the inside but the contacts will not push through. My battery has only been charged once and the second charge the charger light started flicking fast. Not sure what's going on, but once I get it apart I'm sure I can fix it.

Thanks dude for that diagram I took a crap in my lunch box rebuilding one today it's allot harder than you think it will be 😂😂 but it's working and charging now 👍👍

Hi Mike! I recommend you to buy a Spot Welding like 788H or made one to do this kind of job!

I have to ask was there anything special needed for aligning the number 15 battery on top of the stack?

Where you bought the new battery? What the size and kind name ?

I completed this conversion and it works as expected but you can definitely tell the HF batteries are much lighter than the originals.

Thanks for this. How's it running after 2 years? I did the same. The key is finding good quality Sub-C. I rebuilt my 14.4 NiCad with advertised '3000' mAh Sub-C batteries. They felt a lot lighter then the OEM. In the end they work. Strong driving, holds a charge but it charges in 1/2 the time which was telling... The run time is about ~50% compared to the factory battery. Now you can find Generic replacements for pretty cheap but their longevity and run time would likely be much lower then OEM.

I know you probably won't see this anytime soon but how is that pack working out now? Did you end up having to spotweld them? Curious how it's worked out. Thanks 11/27/22

Do you think it’s possible to do this to the Dewalt dc9180,9181, & 9182 series??? They’re the lithium ion batteries that came out after these,but are the series before their current 20 volt .

So, where does one get the pre-assembled cells? Do you have a link? What are they called?

Thanks bro! You saved me money. Are you using a spot welder for the tabs? I know the video is old but just asking if you are using one now? What model?

Question: You solder the number 15 battery, the thermal wire from the side to the bottom of this positive side, am I right?

Do the factory Dewalt batteries have any markings on them that would denote the Brand? I've already rebuilt some battery packs using HF battery packs but they just never really had the "chooch" that the original batteries had. now that its been a couple years i want to just buy SubC batteries in bulk packs and rebuild my battery packs as needed, but i don't want to buy a S brand again i want to buy the brand that Dewalt uses. Thank you

This convinced me it's not worth rebuilding my old 12V Dewalt XRP batteries. Sounds like the cells cost as as much as the off brand replacement battery packs. I bought 2 news batteries for $35.

HEY GUYS!!! I hate to tell you this but all you had to do is find the lowest voltage battery cell and charge it up to the voltage value of the rest of them. Its called "Balancing" I have revived many battery packs doing this. That includes NiMh, Nicd, and lithium 18650 battery cells. And if one cell is too high a voltage just use a 300 ohm power resistor to drain until it matches the rest of the cells voltage. Works perfect.

Thanks for sharing. Is there more detail in rebuilding a Skil 18V Li Ion Battery? What is the best cell to use to rebuild those? Appreciate any tips or tricks. That's the big project I have right now. Thank you!!

hi have you done a 18v ryobi battery?

Hi mike...on your drawing, its actually a thermistor, thermocouple is a bimetal device, like in a water heater...but very nice job, thanks

Would it work on the lithium 18volt dewalt batteries??

Can we use li ion mobile batteries for drill battery pack?????

F**** brilliant job! I will have a go soon! Thanks!

Good video.. thanks. Hey I like you fume extractor fan attached to the wall behind you. Is that something you have built yourself or purchased ? Cheers 👍

Hooked to this channel. Do you do challenges? If you do could you make a RC car out of a DVD player? I know they're cheap everywhere

Just wondering if you thought about converting them to Lithium , will it work? and will the charger work?

Hey Mike do you have a link to the type of cells you purchased? Thanks!

Do you use Re-chargeable C batteries?

I thought it’s will be really rebuilding, and wanted to see li-ion batteries and bms-board inside your drill. But actually it’s a old batteries replacement. Anyway thanks for this video! (Sorry for English, I’m a Russian)

I have one old-style and two new and after removing the screws I can’t separate any of them??? Nicad and lithium ion. I figured out the NiCad screw was hidden under sticker but the lithium ion I have two and I still can’t separate the case

Who doesn't like a little battery hack now and then?

I bought sub c batteries and they are to tall. Didn’t discover this until I had everything all soldered up and was closing up the case. I have DC9098

Harbor freight has two versions of their 18 volt battery one at 12.99 and the other at 16.99 the more expensive one has higher capacity sub c units. I have not tried it yet but have seen videos where people harvested them to rebuild their name brand batteries.

Greetings from Lima, Peru

But my question is? Where do buy thaht bateries? Because i am from Peru so i think i won't find those bateries. And what mark are good ? Maybe Duracell?!

It won't catch fire right?

Hello Mike Thompson what models are the batteries you use

So I have a 20 year old Harbor Freight cordless drill that uses the 18V Ni-Cad battery pack 44849. The drill is perfect...but the pack is toast. Is there a replacement pack I can get? Lithium perhaps? Link?

Hi Mike, thanks for your video! I got a great deal on some batteries without tabs on them. Can I just use wire instead of the tabs? If so, what gauge wire will work best? I've got 4 of these 18 volt batteries that are dead.

To balance nimh battery packs, a circuit with two 1n4007 diodes in series plus a resistance of 1 to 10 ohms is used.The voltage drop in each diode is 0.7 volt x 2 is 1.4 volts.The resistance limits the intensity of the balancing current. Being soldered to all Ni mh cells this increases the life and performance of the battery pack.

Do you think old batteries from my collection of old packs will still work , some look good but there are sum that leaked ?

Zdravim. V 1:54 čo to je čo tam davate tu tekutinu ?

What is that paper board made of? Anything special?

Hi, when you say sub c cell batteries are these 1.2v each, and what ma? I have a drill pack that i suspect has 3 cells that wont charge as i only get 15v from an 18v battery....

After rebuilding this pack, I only have 2of5 batteries working. I'm seriously considering upgrading to Li-Ion, but I don't want to lose use of these tools, so I'll have to buy the adapter... But, I think it's probably time to stop pouring money into old technology, bite the bullet, and upgrade my batteries and chargers.

How much were the 1.5 batteries compared to a purchase of a new unit?

My battery isn't just weak.. It shows a full charge when off the charger but has no amp output. Will it still rebuild the same way? I mean can I take the batteries out and test them and then replace just the bad batteries? or is there a likely short somewhere that has damaged all of the batteries?

Not sure if this is economic. 15 Sub-C sized Ni-Cd batteries runs about $27 while a brand new pack plus charger runs about $30 (on ebay).

hello my friend a question what types of batteries or model of batteries do you use

why or where is the link to where you purchased the batteries?

If you have a lot of packs to do, it is worth building a spot welder as the joints are made instantly and results perfect every time. You should have mentioned that as Ni Cd is very toxic to human health and a mistake could be fatal. Dispose of old cells via professional services only...Do Not Bin the cells!

How did you get the pasteboard off the battery cells? They seem to have used lots of epoxy... I can't pry it loose

you can covert to li-ion for ~ 40 bucks.

Mike, Why not use Li-ion batteries? I have a charger that will ..Dewalt DC9320 7.2V-18V NICD NIMH LI-ION 1 HOUR DUAL PORT CHARGER. Thanks for your video..

สุดยอดเลยครับ

hi Mike,what is mean AMH? my dead batteries cell is 12v, 1200amh, can I use 12v, 2200amh cell to rebuid it?

Lol, I tried and completely failed - I just couldn't get the current out of the battery - even though the voltage read right. I assume the soldering wasn't good enough to support the current. Or the cheap Chinese 4/5 C cells I bought on ebay were defective....... surely not!

Those batteries from Amazon.com are $31.99 but from Amazon.ca they are $111.37 awesome job on the video but if your in Canada, not worth trying, cheaper to buy new Dewalt?