Author Topic: Battery rebuild kit for Festool TDK 15.6 (Read 26472 times)

Texas357 · « **on:** April 14, 2013, 07:12 PM »

Hey guys I just bought a Festool TDK 15.6 for super cheap to keep in my truck as a "throw around" drill, and the batteries are about toast. does anyone know of a place that sells kits for rebuilding these batteries??

I find plenty of them online but am confused about which one to get

Alan m · « **Reply #1 on:** April 14, 2013, 07:23 PM »

iv seen several of those kits on ebay etc.
i would stear clear of them and go for proper festool ones.
i dont know if festool can redo them or will they only sell you new ones

Texas357 · « **Reply #2 on:** April 14, 2013, 07:31 PM »

Alan, thanks for the reply

the only problem is i'm really not concerned about having a top quality battery, this drill is just something that I wont flip out about if it ever gets stolen or ruined in some way.

Alan m · « **Reply #3 on:** April 14, 2013, 07:35 PM »

i know what you mean. iv read some bad storys about those kits on forums. some just junk, some not lasting and few fires(only a few thow) .
maybe get a second hand one on ebay.

Texas357 · « **Reply #4 on:** April 14, 2013, 07:41 PM »

Quote from: Alan m on April 14, 2013, 07:35 PM

i know what you mean. iv read some bad storys about those kits on forums. some just junk, some not lasting and few fires(only a few thow) .
maybe get a second hand one on ebay.

Yea I bet your right, I will probably have to go with that plan

JayStPeter · « **Reply #5 on:** April 15, 2013, 09:33 AM »

I've done my own rebuilds on several drills, but when I opened the Festool I decided to opt for buying new ones. Every mfr, even Festool, uses standard cells inside their battery packs. They are pretty easy to source. But, when you rebuild you have to be able to hook them up. Most mfrs. have some way to connect the cells together (and to their proprietary connector, that is fairly robust. Usually, a rebuilder will cut that off and hook them together with wires because they don't have the equipment to hook them up the same way. The quality of that can obviously vary. It seemed to me the way Festool was put together, it would've been tough to replicate. I kept the old cells with plans to figure it out, but haven't tried yet.
The original batteries on my TDK12 were disappointing. They never lasted a very long time, and died shortly after the warranty period The replacements have been excellent.

SRSemenza · « **Reply #6 on:** April 15, 2013, 11:01 AM »

Not sure about DIY rebuild kits , but I have had good results sending batteries out to be rebuilt. Never sent a Festool battery though.

Seth

Texas357 · « **Reply #7 on:** April 15, 2013, 01:52 PM »

If I did send the batteries out to have them rebuilt, would it be ok if I had the NiCd batteries upgraded to NiMh??

JayStPeter · « **Reply #8 on:** April 15, 2013, 02:44 PM »

Quote from: JD Sessler on April 15, 2013, 01:52 PM

If I did send the batteries out to have them rebuilt, would it be ok if I had the NiCd batteries upgraded to NiMh??

Possibly. I think on my 12V version the case appears to be the same with different markings. Could be different internally and/or have a controller board that the NiCd's don't have.

Texas357 · « **Reply #9 on:** April 15, 2013, 03:38 PM »

I also don't understand why the Festool LiOn batteries are cheaper than the old NiCd's, just doesn't make sense to me...

sakurama · « **Reply #10 on:** April 15, 2013, 04:23 PM »

Yes, you can have them rebuilt. It's a pretty simple process as, was already mentioned, Festool uses the same cells as everyone else does. In the older NiCd or NiMh they use standard Sub-C cells which are around $1.75 - 2.50 per cell. Each cell is 1.2 volts so the in my older CDD's there are 10 cells in the battery. They're wired in series (+ > -) so the voltage adds.

The difficulty of doing it yourself is that the best way of connecting the cells is to capitative weld them and that requires a special and expensive machine. Unless you're doing a lot of these sort of things it's not very cost effective to buy one as even the cheap ones are $200-500. You will read that you can scuff the cells and solder them but it's a very poor method as it's not very secure or sturdy and worst of all solder requires heat to be applied longer to the cell and that can damage the cell.

I was planning on buying one of these welders as I've had uses for this before but when I added up the cost of the cells and the cost of just dropping the battery off at Batteries Plus, a local company that offers to re-cell the battery, it worked out to about $10-15 more than just buying the batteries. So for $40 I am having the batteries rebuilt and as a bonus the cells will have a higher capacity than they did new due to the march of technology. Also, there's nothing wrong with NiCds, they're very well suited to use in power tools. Typically when a battery is failing it's not the whole thing but one out of the 10-15 cells that has shorted. This creates a real strain on the rest of the pack and the performance suffers. You can replace just that one cell and the pack will spring back to life.

LiOn is certainly a better technology but for $40 to get another 2-3 years I think it makes sense to re-cell the batteries of older drills.

Once I'm back home I'll pick the packs up, test them and open them up so you (and I) can see the quality of the work and how the batteries are connected and laid out.

Gregor

Texas357 · « **Reply #11 on:** April 15, 2013, 04:31 PM »

Quote from: sakurama on April 15, 2013, 04:23 PM

Yes, you can have them rebuilt. It's a pretty simple process as, was already mentioned, Festool uses the same cells as everyone else does. In the older NiCd or NiMh they use standard Sub-C cells which are around $1.75 - 2.50 per cell. Each cell is 1.2 volts so the in my older CDD's there are 10 cells in the battery. They're wired in series (+ > -) so the voltage adds.

The difficulty of doing it yourself is that the best way of connecting the cells is to capitative weld them and that requires a special and expensive machine. Unless you're doing a lot of these sort of things it's not very cost effective to buy one as even the cheap ones are $200-500. You will read that you can scuff the cells and solder them but it's a very poor method as it's not very secure or sturdy and worst of all solder requires heat to be applied longer to the cell and that can damage the cell.

I was planning on buying one of these welders as I've had uses for this before but when I added up the cost of the cells and the cost of just dropping the battery off at Batteries Plus, a local company that offers to re-cell the battery, it worked out to about $10-15 more than just buying the batteries. So for $40 I am having the batteries rebuilt and as a bonus the cells will have a higher capacity than they did new due to the march of technology. Also, there's nothing wrong with NiCds, they're very well suited to use in power tools. Typically when a battery is failing it's not the whole thing but one out of the 10-15 cells that has shorted. This creates a real strain on the rest of the pack and the performance suffers. You can replace just that one cell and the pack will spring back to life.

LiOn is certainly a better technology but for $40 to get another 2-3 years I think it makes sense to re-cell the batteries of older drills.

Once I'm back home I'll pick the packs up, test them and open them up so you (and I) can see the quality of the work and how the batteries are connected and laid out.

Gregor

It would be awesome if you could post some pictures!!!

SRSemenza · « **Reply #12 on:** April 15, 2013, 05:27 PM »

I had some batteries upgraded to NIMh there were compatibility problems. I do no think there should be any compatibility issues for the TDK, but not 100% certain.

Seth

Coen · « **Reply #13 on:** April 15, 2013, 07:11 PM »

Ha, I'm the market as well for rebuilding a TDK 15.6 pack.

I've taken it apart already and it contains (as expected) 13 unmarked Sub-C cells.

Welding those lips would be nice, but getting the equipment to do that...

I guess one can just as well solder them together with copper wires, with the use of a huge solder iron. The bigger and more powerfull it is, the shorter you have to put it on, the less heat will go into the cell.

Since the TDK was also sold in a Ni-Mh version and since both had the same charger, there shouldn't be a problem when you swap them out for Ni-Mh. Don't really know why you would want to do that though, except for the higher capacity. Isn't Ni-Cd more suitable to deliver high currents?

For €2.80 I can get Sanyo 1900 mAh Ni-Cd cells, for €3 I can get the 2500 mAh ones, while the 3000 mAh Ni-Mh ones would cost me € 4 a piece.

Times 13 that would be €36.40 / €39 / €52

A brand new Festool pack (3000 mAh Ni-Mh) would cost me € 142

So.... the latter isn't gonna happen

Coen · « **Reply #14 on:** April 21, 2013, 04:57 PM »

I received my 13 Sub C NiCd 2200 mAh cells a few days ago, the German seller really shipped them fast.

I'll let you know what the result is going to be. Might put them together end of the coming week.

mbs · « **Reply #15 on:** April 21, 2013, 09:46 PM »

I've had good luck at batteries plus to rebuild my old Porter cable batteries. I looked into doing them myself and by the time I bought the batteries and paid for shipping it was just about a wash.s

Texas357 · « **Reply #16 on:** April 23, 2013, 06:51 PM »

I decided to send the batteries into Fixmybatteries.com last week and should have them back by Friday, ill let everyone know what the outcome is...

Coen · « **Reply #17 on:** May 03, 2013, 01:03 AM »

My dad soldered the cells together (he has way more experience with soldering) using strips of Nickel silver. Pack is fully functional now

Comes off the charger at 18.5 Volts

Christopher Fitch · « **Reply #18 on:** May 03, 2013, 06:53 PM »

Just took my BPS 12 packs for my Old C12 in to a local Batteries Plus...$36 a piece for a rebuild. Back in about 2-3 days. One year warranty. I'll let everyone know how they are when I get them back.

Christopher Fitch · « **Reply #19 on:** May 11, 2013, 08:12 PM »

As promised, a followup.
I took 2 sets of batteriess to one of my local Batteries Plus stores:
- Two 12v NiMH from my Makita impact driver
- Two 12v NiCad from my old C12

They were rebuilt in about a week. They charge up fast and hold a charge well now. $36 per battery.

I'm very pleased with the results.

JerrySats · « **Reply #20 on:** May 12, 2013, 10:15 AM »

Quote from: Christopher Fitch on May 11, 2013, 08:12 PM

As promised, a followup.
I took 2 sets of batteriess to one of my local Batteries Plus stores:
- Two 12v NiMH from my Makita impact driver
- Two 12v NiCad from my old C12

They were rebuilt in about a week. They charge up fast and hold a charge well now. $36 per battery.

I'm very pleased with the results.

Thanks for the update , I need to get my C12 batteries redone .

ezdrive · « **Reply #21 on:** May 12, 2013, 02:49 PM »

I have had excellent experience with my local Batteries Plus retail store. I recently took two BPS12 NiCd packs in for a rebuild. They disassembled the pack in front of me and showed me the old cells. They did not have the same battery (1.5 amp/hour) replacements in stock, but I opted to install a slightly higher 1.6 amp/hour rated cells in my rebuild. Yes, the cells are spot wielded together with a special capacitance wielder that was mentioned earlier in this tread. This is the important step in the rebuild process. Standard soldering produces too much heat that will damage NiCd, NiMh and LiOn batteries. The great thing about using Batteries Plus is you can see the manufacture dates on the new cells. They cycle through their inventory fairly frequently, so stock is fresh. They do stand behind their warranty as well. At first, I believed that they were more expensive (store overhead, etc), but over the last two years I have saved a significant amount in replacement batteries for commercial lawn equipment, backup generators, computer power back-up units, computers, cell phones, small electronics, and portable power tools.

Coen · « **Reply #22 on:** May 12, 2013, 11:09 PM »

For computer power back-up units? Those generally take a giant lead–acid battery that can be purchased separately from the manufacturer. What's there to save?