18v battery in 14,4v drill | MIG Welding Forum

Most of the newer stuff does not fit the older stuff.
Hitachi for example has 14.4/18v push in batteries, but also have 14.4/18v slide on batteries
They offer 14.4 in NiCD or Li-ion fashion, which are NOT interchangable.
The 18v Hitachi batteries (either slide on or push in) are always Li-ion, so there is no way you could use your current charger for charging them (even if you modified the battereies or the charger to fit them together, the whole chemistry of a Li-ion cell, and the workings of a Li-ion charger is way different the a NiCd charger/cell.
You could easily wreck a li-ion cell with a NiCD/NiMh charger, even if the voltage of the charger is the same.


You could also rebuild the packs with new cells.
NicD/NiMH technology has come a long way with regards to infrequent dis-/recharging and the newer cells cope a lot better.
I've rebuilt some Bosch 12v packs, and some Metabo ones, and they can be fixed cheaply, without the need for li-ion chargers/boards etcetera.Most of the times the capacity also goes up, so more runtime for the same weight.
If you look at Bosch for example, their standard 12v packs are 1.2Ah or 1.5 Ah rated,with the more expensive HD being 2.0Ah
Even with buying quality mid range cells (which have 70/80 percent the capacity of the same brands top range cells, for half the money) 2.2 or 2.5 AH capacity is very easily attainable.

Goto Godson Tech to know more.

I've been using mine that way for about 6 months now. It doesn't get used very often (just outside the garage) as I usually run air tools but no odd issues so far.

If it does burn out, I will send it in and get it fixed on the flat rate cost. I look at these things like I do the the batteries, they need to be re-built every now and then. In fact I have 2 SO 18V batteries at Batteries Plus right now getting rebuilt.

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