batteries Battery compatability

[mrspudly]

Hi can anyone in the UK  tell me if DeWalt's 24 volt range of batteries are compatable with Black & Deckers 24 volt Firestorm range of powertools ? From speaking to my local Stanley Black & Decker service center they tell me that Black & Decker have discontinued production of the 24 volt line of batteries. I have 6 tools which are 24 volt rated so it would be expensive to move over to a different tool brand and replace them all.

 Any help over my problem would be much appreciated.

[jeffmcmillan]

If I had to guess they are factory incompatibpe but work with some modification to the battery or tool just like the current sbd lineups.

[mrspudly]

Cheers jeff years ago when both where using the post type batteries I know they where interchangable.

[Grumpy MSG]

4 hours ago, mrspudly said:

Hi can anyone in the UK  tell me if DeWalt's 24 volt range of batteries are compatable with Black & Deckers 24 volt Firestorm range of powertools ? From speaking to my local Stanley Black & Decker service center they tell me that Black & Decker have discontinued production of the 24 volt line of batteries. I have 6 tools which are 24 volt rated so it would be expensive to move over to a different tool brand and replace them all.

 Any help over my problem would be much appreciated.

My suggestion is to take a battery with you to compare it with the DeWALT. I know the older 18V batteries could charge on the DeWALT NiCad chargers.

 

[DR99]

It's going to be hard to see Dewalt 24v batteries in person that wasn't a long running platform from Dewalt. Ebay in the USA has some B&D packs for sale also look into seeing if you can have the packs rebuilt possibly.  http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=black+and+decker+24v+battery&_sacat=0

 

I know you don't want to spend the money, but you might want to bite the bullet and buy into the Ryobi line I don't know who sells Ryobi in the UK. The jump from Nicad to Lion is pretty big performance wise. I'm just throwing out the though that you might want to consider moving on from your FireStorm tools it looks like new batteries are going to be tough and not cheap possibly.

 

[BMack37]

9 hours ago, jeffmcmillan said:

If I had to guess they are factory incompatibpe but work with some modification to the battery or tool just like the current sbd lineups.

 

This would be my thinking because that's how the 20V works. I would look really close and compare and if you think it looks similar, buy it. Worse case, it doesn't fit and you have cells that you can rebuild the old pack.

 

I would also check shops that might specialize in batteries or electronics. In the US we have a store called Batteries Plus that does battery rebuilds and obviously sells various kinds of batteries.

[ChrisK]

You can also send your packs out to be rebuilt or do it yourself. There are several kits available for many lineups (I don't know if B&D is one of them but it should be easy to find out). There is a guy locally to me that has his entire store based on rebuilding all battery packs. Costs about $20-25 USD per pack. And ofcourse switching might be expensive but going to a decent brand like HD or even the newer B&D 20v (18v your way) ensures a stable battery lineup. Ryobi garuntees that they are staying with their style of packs. 

[mrspudly]

Thanks to everyone who has given advice and help on this subject.