cordless drill battery already dead

I bought this craftsman cordless about a year ago and the battery will no longer hold a charge. Can you buy replacement batteries for these?

as long as you can remove the battery.. replacements should be availible.

I've found that most of the time, its cheaper to buy a new drill on sale than it is to buy a battery. Still worth checking, but they are usually quite rudely priced.

Bought a replacement Craftsman battery last weekend, and the kid behind the counter showed me that the year of manufacture is printed on the bottom of the battery. The sticker on the bottom should have a series of black numbers on a white background. The first two digits are the year of manufacture. I had a NiCd battery from 03 and 05 fail in 10 and 11, respectively. Bring your tool to the local Sears and/or/maybe K-Mart and they should have something for you. There may be something in the warranty if you have the coverage plan - the kid at first thought I was making a claim under that before he saw the age of my batteries.

There's also a way to "zap" them back to life. Google it.

Kj

Don't have the warranty papers and didn't get any extended warranty. I've been burned before be sears on their appliances. I just may buy a different drill altogether.

Depending on the size and type of battery will a battery from a different brand fit and work in a craftsman?

I've used these guys with good results but it's a Canadian company. www.batterybuyer.com

Perhaps they have a US equivalent.

Shawn

dankspeed wrote: Don't have the warranty papers and didn't get any extended warranty. I've been burned before be sears on their appliances. I just may buy a different drill altogether. Depending on the size and type of battery will a battery from a different brand fit and work in a craftsman?

No idea, but some of their power tools are made by Ryobi.

In reply to dankspeed:

i've had my spent batteries rebuilt at batteriesplus+. it was the same price as replacements, and you can have them use denser cells to increase capacity.

why replace when you can rebuild?

In reply to gherndon: It looks like I can get a replacement from Sears/Kmarts for about $30 , BatteriesPlus can rebuild it for $55 . BP did say their rebuild will increase the charge life by a third. So the question becomes do I buy new and save some $$ till the new one dies or rebuild and save a battery from being tossed in the garbage but pay extra ?

What usually happens with me is when the batteries die and you go looking for replacements you find that the manufacturer have changed the battery size on their stuff and no longer selling the previous type which then forces you to buy the new model. Frustrating but the new model is usually better and more powerful with the bigger battery.

I had the same thing happen, and it is the reason I stopped buying cordless drills from Sears. I've had much better luck with the significantly less expensive Harbor Freight drills.

-chris r.