Cordless drill not charging

I think I might need a new cordless drill. I began charging it on Friday and although the li-ON Battery seems to be charging, when I put it into the drill, the mechanism is weak and stops powering after a few seconds.

I am not sure whether the battery charger or the drill is broken or some connection in-between. It is 18 volts.

Does anyone know if there are any good drills under £50, or are these not very durable? I might need to drill into outdoor masonry, but mostly it will be for wood and plastic pots.

I think my broken charger is from B&Q, probably 15 plus years old.

Thankyou for suggestions.

 

Its probably the battery if its 15 yrs old.
I dont think you will get a drill that works well on masonry for £50, even if it states it has a hammer option it might do soft brick or soft mortar joints.

The newer approach is what John states, buy a particular make and the battery will fit other tools you might buy in the future, so what seems like a bit of an outlay at first can be a money saver later on.

 

Thankyou, @JWK, that is a good idea about the interchangeability of the chargers etc with one manufacturer.
The Bosch one you mention looks similar to my old one, except the drill bits are extra to buy. I suppose if drill bits are interchangeable among different manufacturers, that would be good.

Thankyou for the tips about 2.5 amp battery and working up from small drill bits, if having to do a bit of masonry work. Maybe I should buy a corded drill at some point.

 

Thankyou, @pete, I was not sure if a 15 year old battery should still be working or not. I don't think I had used it for about a year, because the charge was still holding in the drill.
I read on another thread about SDS drill bits/capable drills. I am not really a wizard at DIY, but do you think SDS would be a good bet (though probably over £50).

 

SDS is good for masonry but yes it will cost a lot more and they tend not to be useable for drilling wood etc due to the chuck difference.

I use cordless for wood or plastic and metal, but I have a corded SDS. it has more punch, you would need a fairly high volt age cordless SDS for concrete.

I think if you stick to a well known make you probably wont go wrong, if you just want it for a very occasional drilling job, which it sounds like you do, then one of the cheaper DIY types from the stores will probably be OK, just dont expect too much from it regarding masonry drilling.

 

Thankyou, @pete, that is good advice. I will avoid SDS for now, as I don't have any planned major projects lined up re any masonry work.

 

Once you have got into a "battery ecosystem" it's a lot cheaper buying "bare tools". I have Ryobi (including a chainsaw!) but my partner who is a builder uses Bosch professional.
I admit to buying cheaper Chinese batteries as the Ryobi ones are quite expensive

 

This offer for the Ryobi drill kit seems good value, only a little above your £50 budget but think its still better than anything cheaper.
Its 2 speed and has a Hammer position we have used to drill into mortar, soft bricks and some concrete blocks, though using a new and good quality masonry bit its vital.
You also get the 2 or 3 year Royobi guarantee etc.

As a diy tool we like ours, the only downside is that the charger/batteries take about 4 hours to recharge and though you can use them on other Ryobi tools these smaller 1.5A batteries may be a bit lightweight, though on this drill for generall diy work we find they last well enough.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07YT5HGH3/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_plhdr=t&aaxitk=f65481b05a287e77177015852925477d&hsa_cr_id=9946156740902&qid=1733074690&sr=1-1-e0fa1fdd-d857-4087-adda-5bd576b25987&ref_=sbx_be_s_sparkle_lsi4d_asin_0_img&pd_rd_w=QP9OV&content-id=amzn1.sym.25f7c301-a223-4ff8-91c9-accfeab9fda8:amzn1.sym.25f7c301-a223-4ff8-91c9-accfeab9fda8&pf_rd_p=25f7c301-a223-4ff8-91c9-accfeab9fda8&pf_rd_r=MYGF5AM9TSBP93ERD4FT&pd_rd_wg=AnwNg&pd_rd_r=1142b4f0-7218-4812-9451-9e9b320feae9&th=1

 

Thankyou,that is helpful, @CarolineL and @ricky101. I will have a look.

I particularly would like a battery that indicates whether it is charging or not. Do either of you know from your personal experience, if the RYOBI chargers do this, please?

 

Most chargers I have used have always had a green light for power on and a red light when charging, the red changes back to green when the battery is charged.
The more expensive ones even tell you if your battery is past it by blinking or similar.

Batteries often have a feature that tells you how much charge the battery contains.

 

The Ryobi one we have /shown above does not have anything on the battery to show its state of charge.

The Charger has some intellegence, in that when you plug it in and attach the battery it does a test to check the batterys condition and shows a red light while its doing this, ( a few seconds) and if ok, then it starts charging and flashes a green light until its fully charged, then stops flashing.

For the around that price point not seen anything that shows you and realist battery charge state.
Thats really the point about having two batteries in the kit, so you always have a charged spare to hand.

 

Thankyou @ricky101, that is helpful to know. These things aren't always clear from the description of goods!

 

@ClematisDbee
Where have you been storing your cordless powertool?
A characteristic of lithium cells is that they will not charge at low temperatures,and can be fatality flawed below freezing point 0Deg C More modern Lithium Iron (LiFe) types are safe down to -20 deg C
Optimum is 5-20 deg C
Perhaps you should/could try again now that ambient temperatures have risen.