They've used the same battery plug forever, and now the batteries are lithium so they hold their charge, and last for years. Those NiCd packs go bad in 2-3 years.įor affordable battery powered tools that are decent, I recommend Ryobi from Home Depot. I'm surprised you have any viable batteries.

Even the 19.2V ones are obsolete, replaced by something else. That's probably close to 20 years ago as well. Replacement batteries for the 18V cost more than the whole starter set for the 19.2V, so we got suckered for a second time! They discontinued the 18V tools and started selling the 19.2V tools with completely different batteries. There were several brands of good chargers and cell matches, could find bad cells in a battery and replace them. You could buy them at hobby shops for a Buck or two for decent replacement cells. If you take a battery for a cordless tool apart, it has normal 'Sub-C' batteries in it like radio controlled cars ran on 20 years ago. Son bought me the impact and matching drill for X-mas 4-5 years ago. The first Craftsman 19.2V drill I bought still works great after about 18 years. Just so you all know, the Porter-Cable and Craftsman cordless tools all use the same batteries.

So I have lots and lots of Craftsman 19.2V tools, still have a couple good Ni-Cad batteries but the Li-Ion are the ones I use. A cordless drill, battery & charger cost more than a Craftsman 4 tool kit with charger and 2 batteries on Black Friday. Great prices on air tools or corded tools, cordless tools were stupidly expensive. We got BIG employee discount sales 3-4 times a year. I worked for a company that was a division of the company that owned Porter-Cable and Delta power tools before they got sold to Black & Decker.

Craftsman 19 volt battery