Customer Reviews

Black & Decker VP100 VersaPak 3.6-Volt 1.2 Amp Hour NiCad Stick Style Battery

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My advice to all of you who made negative comments about the standard VP-100 Versapak "Silver" battery is to replace it with the VP-110 Versapak "Gold" battery. It costs about 30% more than the Sliver but offers 60% more energy (watts x time) and little or no memory effect. Be sure to recycle your old Silver batteries. They contain very toxic chemicals, such as cadmium, which are best kept out of landfills. Black & Decker and Sears have even prepaid the recylcing costs. Just figure the cost of a separate Gold battery into the cost of the tool, at least until manufacturers stop shipping the Silver Versapaks altogether. Read on for the thinking behind this advice.

The Versapak Silver battery, which comes with nearly all Versapak-powered B&D as well as similar Sears Craftsman products, have "battery memory" despite what the creative folks who write the product listings at Amazon and other websites want you to believe. As talented as these folks are, they have not and cannot repeal the laws of battery chemistry. All batteries based on the nickel-cadmium (NiCd) design have memory which means they stop accepting a full charge if they are continually recharged before being fully discharged. Think of it as that "always full feeling" you get if you do a lot of snacking around the house.

The newer battery chemistry is nickel-metal hydride or NiMH. Although not as new as the lithium ion or the even newer lithium polymer batteries found in cell phones and laptop computers, the NiMH design delivers more energy and weighs significantly less than NiCd. The Versapak Gold version is said to offer 60% more battery life than the Versapak Silver version. Most importantly, NiMH batteries suffer little or no memory effect. That makes them useful and valuable even without the big improvement in tool running time.

NiCd batteries work perfectly well for those applications that drain the battery to its discharge voltage. For example, a construction worker will use a NiCd battery in a power drill until the drill motor won't turn. At that point the battery has been discharged to the point where the memory effect during recharge will be minimal or non-existent. He or she simply pops in a fully charged NiCd pack and drops fully discharged battery on the charger.

By the way, by "discharged" I do not mean zero battery voltage. Discharging a NiCd by taking it to zero volts, either by shorting out the terminals (a very dangerous idea) or by putting a high wattage resistor across it, will effectively destroy the battery. There are many NiCd conditioners around that properly discharge these batteries, but most consumers are too busy to use them on a regular basis. Now back to our story...

NiCd batteries are terrible in those applications where the particular cordless tool is used for a few minutes and then put back on its charger. For example, think of a Versapak-powered DustBuster or ScumBuster. Fortunately, the latter doesn't holster the tool on its charger, which means its battery is more likely to get discharged before being recharged. The ScumBuster also comes with a separate charger because of the shock danger of charging a typically wet tool in its holster.

The DustBuster, unfortunately, is charged in its holster. A quick pick up with the ol' `Buster and then back in the holster pretty much guarantees most owners will see the memory effect in as little as a few weeks. Performance will just get worse and worse until it will only run for a few minutes before it's dead again.

If you just can't bring yourself to recycle those old Silver Versapaks and go for the Gold, I suggest you don't plug in the DustBuster holder's wall wart. When its Versapaks are pretty much dead (as in discharged), put them in a separate charger. Leave them in there overnight. It takes about 15-18 hours to bring a Silver battery to full charge.

As I said at the outset, the better idea for the DustBuster or any other short use tool is to simply replace the Silver Versapaks with the Golds. Yes, it's a big hit for the DustBuster which probably didn't cost that much to begin with, but it will run for years just like it was brand new.

Do NOT buy the "VersaPak Silver". These are advertised as having no "memory effect" but that is blatantly false. These are nickel cadmium batteries, the old type of rechargeable. "No memory effect" is a term used specifically to differentiate newer batteries, such as nickel metal hydride [NiMH] and lithium ion from the older nickel cadmium (NiCd) types. In fact, these ARE the batteries with "memory effect". Because of this effect, "VersaPak Silver" batteries will quickly lose their ability to hold a charge after your Dustbuster or other tool is plugged in continuously. Instead, save yourself the trouble and spend the extra few dollars to buy "VersaPak Gold" batteries which are NiMH and DON'T have the bad memory effect. You can leave a Dustbuster with the gold batteries plugged in continuously without having a real impact on battery life. Remember to recycle your "VersaPak Silver" batteries because they contain toxic cadmium.

For the last 10 years I've used B&D's cordless driver with torque adjustment with much satisfaction with one caveat.
Their VP100 (Silver) battery sucks. I've now gone through at
least 11 of them with this driver. They all worked fine for the first several months then performance drops off rapidly. Most of them would take a charge but capacity was diminished. Under load their useful life was measured in minutes.
Maybe B&D's strategy was to get us hooked with the inexpensive VP100 (Silver) just to make it impossible to get along without upgrading to the more expensive VP110 (Gold) version.

I would suggest when you purchase one of these batteries through retail that you save the receipt and scratch a mark on the battery every time you recharge it so when it fails (& it will fail), you can place a warranty claim for it's failure to recharge 300 times. B&D really wouldn't like that. Ha!

Caveat Emptor! (Buyer beware!)
Jake

The silver version of these batteries just dont last. You will get 60% MORE life from the Gold batteries for a few dollars more. I have many B&D tools that run these batteries, including the "Snake Light"...the Silver will go dead with one days use, as compared to the Gold, which will last up to 5 full days of use. You can get these for the same price at Lowes and Home Cheapo. You'll pay tax of course, but it evens out after subtracting the cost of (not) shipping.

I would highly suggest using the "Gold" batteries. Since purchasing my tools, I have recycled all the Silver batteries and use the Gold batteries exclusively. NiCd batteries are simply too much of a hassle. They have to be drained regularly and simply don't have the capacity of NiMH ones. The NiMH batteries provide reasonably good power and performance. The only drawback is the higher rate of self discharge when sitting idle.

I have five versapak products. Out of 14 versapak batteries we are down to two weak ones and two that still power one vacuum. For the price of TWO new batteries we bought at Harbor Freight a new drill/flashlight/charger and assorted drills and screwdriver parts. Even the gold versapaks don't last forever so we are through with Black and Decker rechargeable products.

I'm not sure what I expect, but I think these batteries don't last long enough. Once charged they don't stay charged long enough, and they wear out and stop holding a charge before I think they should. Maybe it's because I'm a very light user, but I'll put a charged battery in a screwdriver, remove and install a few screws (no drilling), then leave the battery in. I'll come back some days later and the battery will be dead. So, I need a sceond backup battery to use when the first one dies. I'll switch batteries, put the first one on charge, and repeat the process a couple weeks later when I need it again. After repeating this process for couple years, it's time to dispose of the batteries and buy more. Is it unreasonable to be unhappy if I need to spend $40 every couple years to have a cordless electric screwdriver?

One of my VersaPak batteries gave out completely after about 20 charge cycles, and can't be charged any more. Perhaps it's just defective, or I ran it down too far, but B&D's claims of "no memory" and "300 charges" for these batteries is way out of line, in my experience.

I still like my VersaPak dustbuster, screwdriver and drill, so I'm going to order another battery. Or three. (Even though that will cost about as much as the original set of tools did, with batteries.)

The VersaPak system works great. It is not intended to replace larger cordless tools, but to be a versatile battery system for smaller, lighter DIY Tools. I find that they hold a charge well and last well. Some of my batteries are 4 years old and still charge and work like new. Don't try and build a house, but use them around the house and you will be pleased.

Unlike what B&D cliams, these batteries do have memory and don't last. Plan on replacing them about every 2 or 3 years (assuming you use and charge them to the letter). The standard battery chargers take 3 to 6 hours to charge these which is too long considering their typical life of only 5 or 10 minutes in use. On the good side, there is a lot of VersaPak stuff out there. The batteries are more suited to the flashlights than the power tools. The Gold versions work much better in the power tools.