Customer Reviews

DEWALT DC9096-2 18-Volt XRP 2.4 Amp Hour NiCad Pod-Style Battery, 2 Pack

5 star:		(117)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I own/run a low voltage company in St. Louis. We pre-wire houses for phone/TV/networking, install intercoms, security, and central vacuum systems, and home theatres as well. We currently have 20+ DeWalt 18volt cordless tools and at least that many batteries. We are constantly asked by carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and competitiors how the tools hold up.

We can drill 100+ 3/4 holes on one battery every day with no problem. We can drill 10+ 2 1/4" holes with a DeWalt self feed bit on one battery. The recip saw, the circular saw, the angle grinder, and the flashlights all work flawlessly. We even have the vacuums so we can clean up after ourselves.

Now the old batteries (all black) last about 1 year for regular use. We have a few new batteries (yellow top) that are a little over a year old that show no sign of slowing down.

We have found that when it is cold they do not last as long. Also the charge needs to be in a semi warm area (not in a garage). Also, the battery needs to be drained most of the way before charging. Repeated recharging of a half dead battery dramatically reduces the life. But any battery manufacturer will tell you that.

I'm hearing a lot of complaints about the batteries. Face it, the batteries are based on NiCad technology. NiCad are not known for infinite shelf-life, has a memory, and absolutely hates to be placed on a charger for extended periods of time.

Now knowing all the good and bad things about NiCads, these batteries are absolutely no different than you will find in any other system using NiCads. If you don't understand the why your batteries are dying off so quickly, it most likely can be explained by researching the things to do and not do to NiCads.

I've beat the hell out of the tools and the batteries and still manage to get an excess of 2yrs of service out of these batteries. If you open one of these up, all you find is a series of sub-C NiCad batteries in them. Count them up and just go price sub-C NiCad batteries with the same Amp-Hr rating. You will soon fine that even if you tried to replace the batteries into the existing battery case, it is still cheaper and easier to buy replacements.

Rechargable batteries of any technology do NOT have infinite life. With absolutely following standard practice care of the battery type, you can extend this life to the theoritical max. That is hard to do on the job site when you need to get the job done quick. I use the 15min. charger, which is great but at a significant cost in service life of the batteries. You are never supposed to charge the batteries while they are hot. This means if you run it down at the job site, you shouldn't be placing them into a rapid charger. You should have enough spare batteries to get you busy while letting a natural battery rotation occur that insures they are cool when you charge. Slow charging extends the life of the batteries as well by getting internal temperatures lower. You should never leave a NiCad on a charger. You should run down the NiCad battery before charging to help avoid memory.

You can mention any battery technology and there are do's and don'ts. I've had Lithium Ion batteries in a cell phone last less than 1yr.

It all depends on your battery usage habits. Once you understand what you are supposed to do to extend the batteries life, you can usually figure out pretty quickly why you are not getting the life you expected.

Good solid product. I'd buy them again without hesitation. And I have yet to see any group of cordless tool manufacture's use a standard battery interface so that you can use the same battery in different brands of cordless tools. So being locked-in to a particular cordless tool manufacturer is a given.

This is all the price you pay for being cordless. The only way around all this is to pull out the ole 50' extension cord.

IMHO

If you expect to buy these new in the package, you will be disappointed. ToolKing offers cheap prices by reselling you returned merchandise (I suspect)from their retail stores. I received my batteries used, you can tell by the brass connection points being ruffed up, and not in their original packages. One of the batteries takes forever to charge and this may be why it was returned. I also ordered a charger (not in the orig Package) where they were nice enough to place a crappy ToolKing inventory sticker over the vent holes. You know, the kind that peels off flake by flake. They dont return emails or phone calls. I was ripped off, so beware!

I wasn't going to bother to write a review for a couple of replacement power cells, until I saw some of the other opinions, here. I am very pleased with all the DeWalt equipment I use. The batteries do a fine job of powering everything except the circular saw - that one lacks guts.
I used my original power cells for a couple of years before they died of old-age and recharging. I am confident that they lasted for the number of rechargings that DeWalt promises. I followed the guidelines, and only occasionally hit the reconditioner button on the charging cycle. The people who get such short lives out of these power cells may not be bothering to use that feature of their DeWalt charger.
Yes, I am pleased with these replacements. They work well, and are the genuine DeWalt parts. Yes, I've had a really good experience with these power cells. Yes, I'd recommend them.

I have used Dewalt 18 volt tools for several years and a 24 volt saw for the last 3 years. Out of 5 18 volt batteries only one died after 2 years of use and it was used when I got it. The 24 volt saw has only one battery and it works as good as the day I bought it. These tools are used almost daily and I dont do a good job of taking care of them.

My experience with these 18 volt DeWalt 18 volt batteries has been poor to say the least.Spent close to $300.00 for the original drill and battery set and the original batteries stroked out in a very short period of time. just long enough for the battery warranty to have expired.The battery charger worked just fine and was not the fault of the charger. I have had a Skill battery power drill with the original batteries that lasted close to 6 years and cost a fraction of the Dewalt setup. The cost of replacement batteries is outrageous in my opinion. So here is the choice you get faced with either spend another $100 bucks on new batteries or chunk the drill and go to another brand.DeWalt is a big name brand but the quality of the product i bought was very poor.I am sure there are thousands of very satisfied customers out there at a heavy price tag but I am sure there are those of who feel they have gotten their shorts burned off.

These batteries have a very short life. I have several that have not lasted even one year. I don't even use them most weeks. They also are bad about going dead over night or in a couple of days when just sitting in their case.

I don't know what it is with DeWalt but their batteries are very lackluster. I have a charger with tuneup mode and even so, come about a year later they don't hold a charge. I don't feel good about these things being so "disposable" so to speak so I changed cordless brands and ditched all my dewalt 18v cordless for mostly hitachi. Some things, after years of use I decided were just never going to be that great in a cordless version so I am back to using corded saws for many apps. This battery was very disappointing and for the cost of it, i couldn't in good conscience recommend this battery to anyone.

The batteries work just fine, just old technology. Would be much better if they would sell a lithium battery, especially considering the $90 list price.

Well, after being initially sticker shocked from thinking that I would run up to one of the big box home improvement stores and pick up a couple of new batteries for my drill, I had to rethink my strategy! A single battery was ~$90 each.

After searching Amazon, I was pleasantly surprised to find two batteries for not much more. The batteries arrived in perfect condition and work great.

Also a side note. I thought my 6 year old batteries were trashed because I couldn't get more than about 5 mins of use out of them. I also ordered the DW9116 charger (~$16) through Amazon with my order. This is a standard one hour charger, but it also has a tune up mode that kicks in after the battery has charged. Man, this thing WORKS! My old DeWalt batteries are as good as new. Strong and seem to run forever. If I would have had one of these, I wouldn't have needed to order new batteries yet. I also plugged in a couple of Black and Decker Firestorm 9.6 batteries that have been dead for a few years. It even revived those batteries.

If you have a DeWalt charger, make sure it has the tune-up mode/conditioner feature! If not, order the one listed above and you won't be disappointed!