Power Drill Woes Spinning in My Head - January 15, 2021

Boston winter already means more time indoors and with COVID-19 still in our lives, I decided to work on a project and charged my cordless drill. I knew the battery was not keeping the charge for too long but it would have been enough for my project. Nonetheless, the battery had died completely, that is, didn’t charge at all. Luckily, I still had my old dependable corded drill and finished the project.

Looking for a replacement battery for my cordless drill, I saw that I could buy a new cordless drill with two rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for the same price of an OEM replacement nickel-cadmium battery for my old cordless drill. No, that is not living sustainably, as much as it is enticing and makers do know that so well. Further, although lithium-ion batteries last noticeably much longer, both in holding a charge and in overall life, as compared to nickel-related batteries, no matter how often I will use a cordless drill, rechargeable batteries will always have an end-of-life. Since I use a power drill only sporadically, I decided to just stick to my old but always reliable corded drill.