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Adapting Milwaukee Batteries to Ryobi Tools |
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JeepFever 
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 Topic: Adapting Milwaukee Batteries to Ryobi ToolsPosted: 24 Jan. 2013 at 5:37am |
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Hopefully not too off-topic for this forum, but there are a lot of knowledgeable members here.
 I have 6 Milwaukee lithium batteries, from 6 years old to 1 month old. They all seem to hold a very good charge. I also have 5 Ryobi batteries, approx 1-2 years old, 3 nicads, and 2 lithium. ALL of them are junk.  My tools are Milwaukee, (drills, impacts, saws, etc.), but Ryobi has some interesting things like paint sprayers, string trimmers, etc. and they are cheap. Recently, I had my oldest (refurb) Milwaukee charger go bad, and got the crazy brainstorm of cutting out the battery holding section, and mounting it to the tool-side section of one of the Ryobi batteries. If this works, I could use the Milwaukee batteries on the the Ryobi tools. It would look ugly, but I don't care about that. My question is --> any reason I should not hook the two leads measuring 18v of Milwaukee battery to a 18V Ryobi tool? Mechanically, I think I can make this work, but looking for some advice from the electrical savvy. Progress so far:  |
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Frans
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Joined: 26 July 2005 Location: South Africa Status: Offline Points: 179 |
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Posted: 24 Jan. 2013 at 6:31am |
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Is it not possible to open the battery box and build up a new battery from rechargeable batteries? Years ago we had an electronic survey instrument (total station) with a bad battery. The manufacturer charged us a ridiculous price for a new battery. I took the battery to a radio shop and they opened the battery box and made up a new battery in the same box and charged us a fraction of the first quotation. It lasted for years.
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Frans
Smithfield, South Africa Tel 0794317256 |
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JeepFever
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Posted: 24 Jan. 2013 at 10:43am |
That was my original intention when I disassembled the Ryobi battery, but the cells are attached by a "welded" side grid. It might be possible to disassemble that somehow, but it does not look easy to me. . . . good suggestion though, I probably should look into it more.
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48willys
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Posted: 24 Jan. 2013 at 12:34pm |
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Interstate Batterys can rebuild them at their stores. Still isn't cheep though, but I think they can work on the sealed ones.
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bretto
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Posted: 24 Jan. 2013 at 1:31pm |
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You might me able to find batteriy cells of the same physical size and make your own packs. Or you can reassemble what you have to fit the the working tools pack case. Companies sometimes makes things hard by making everything custom and you have to buy their new packs. If not though, you can solder packs together, I did it all the time back in my RC airplane days. Just go easy and quick on the heat and quench the joint with a moist rag to suck the heat out before it gets too deep in the battery.
To your question though, yes you can take one companie's 18 volts and put it to another's 18V tool
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rocnroll
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Posted: 24 Jan. 2013 at 3:30pm |
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Batteries Plus also rebuilds them.....about the same price as new ones but they hold a charge longer.
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'47 CJ2A PU
'48 CJ2A Lefty "Common sense is not that common" |
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JeepFever
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Posted: 24 Jan. 2013 at 5:51pm |
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Thanks everyone! I had considered, as a few suggested, to find an alternate source/rebuilder. One that would probably use a better cell. In a little research - -> that may not be necessary, because it appears that Ryobi may have come out with a better battery pack at some point. Early P104 (which mine are) were plagued with problems, later P104s seem to rate better. Now there is a new P108 that might be better yet. (except it is possibly in a recall, haha). I might invest in one of those once they get the bugs worked out.
This is good website on Ryobi stuff, particularly battery info, if anyone is interested: http://toolboyworld.com/eBay/Ryobi_Tools.htm Meanwhile, I think I am going to continue with the adapter. My biggest concern is that there are four contacts on the Milwaukee batteries and tools. I think two are the 18V power , and the other two may be some kind of monitoring for heat and/or voltage (to shutdown the tool under certain conditions) . . If I run these batteries on just 2 wires, then I will probably have to be careful not to overwork them. I also think I am going to try to disassemble some cells from one Lithium pack, and replace bad ones in the other. If this works, it would be free, and I would at least have one decent battery. |
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Lee MN
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Posted: 25 Jan. 2013 at 12:38am |
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Interesting that you have bad luck with ryobi and good with Milwaukee, I had the opposit problem, LOL, After several replacement bats from the Milwaukee rep I traded it in on a Dewalt, I do have several Ryobi tools here at the house and have had good battery life, all are several years old.
FWIW, Lee |
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LEE
44 GPW-The Perfected Willys 49 2A “If you wait, you only get older” 67 M715 American Made Rolling History |
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JeepFever
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Posted: 25 Jan. 2013 at 4:24am |
That is interesting (our opposite experience). Just so that I do not appear to be brand bashing - -> the early Ryobi NiCad batteries are actually kinda impressive old NiCads. The two old ones I have are currently the best of all of my Ryobi's. The 2 yellow-top 1+ NiCads are barely usable, and the Lithium P104's are totally dead. My first Milwaukees are "refurbs", and still kicking strong! I am going to bide time with the old Ryobi NiCads, and my adapter, until I am convinced the P108 Ryobi has the bugs worked out, then I will get one of those.
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Lee MN
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Posted: 26 Jan. 2013 at 5:42pm |
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I have many Milwaukee tools, The drill set I had had the litium-ion batterys and thay do not like cold weather, that was most likely my problem and riding around in my sevice truck in the cold I could not drill one hole on a charge, Dewalt had a trade in deal so I took advantage of that and have had good luck with it. The other problem with the Milwaukee was I also wanted a impact driver but the drill used a different battery, bolth 18V but different, just did not make any sense. The ryobi's have there issues as well but have been great at home and you do not have to buy a set to get what you want.
Nice adapter by the way, Lee |
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LEE
44 GPW-The Perfected Willys 49 2A “If you wait, you only get older” 67 M715 American Made Rolling History |
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Zuma58
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Posted: 26 Jan. 2013 at 5:55pm |
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My experience with Ryobi stuff over the last 7 years has been faily good. The tools themselves seem to be well made but the batteries I have found to last about 2 years (I have 12 of these). There is a couple of guys that rework any battery and claim they will last way longer than stock batteries. I think they were in Ohio and if I remember correctly the cost on the Ryobi batteries was about $45.00 + shipping.
I am going to check out Batteries +, for about $40 - $45 it seems like a good deal as opposed to buying new batteries for $35.00. Especially if they last as long as they claim, thanks for that Roc
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Steve
Long May You Run!!! |
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rocnroll
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Posted: 27 Jan. 2013 at 12:46am |
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No problem....I had two done at the same time at Batteries Plus. As a disclaimer, one of them holds a charge MUCH better than the other for some reason. I never took it back just used it as it was. I don't use them like a contractor would, just hobbist but I would do it again versus a new one.
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'47 CJ2A PU
'48 CJ2A Lefty "Common sense is not that common" |
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Zuma58
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Posted: 27 Jan. 2013 at 1:34am |
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Nice, thanks Chad
I am going to look into this
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Steve
Long May You Run!!! |
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Frans wrote: