Older Dewalt Battery

I do a lot of business with my local Batteries Plus store. Look to see if you have one (or similar store) near you.

They have all kinds of batteries, and those they don't have, they can make for you!

E.g. A lot of the older cordless tools' batteries are no longer available. Batteries Plus can disassemble your old battery, solder new batteries inside and voila your drill is good again!

General Tsao

Thank you I'll check that out.

Odds are the battery case contains standard rechargeable nickle-cadmium, or "NiCad", "C" cells ... you can obtain fresh ones from just about any electronics parts supplier, unsolder the tabs from the old ones, and rebuild your stack with the new batteries ... being careful, of course, to exactly match the configuration of the original stack and to make certain your new solder joints are done properly (thoroughly clean everything, use specific electronic solder, and use acid-free flux). For an older battery pack, I'd stick with regular NiCads (High Capacity NiCads would be OK, too), as the original charger likely won't be suitable for charging the newer lithium ion or nickle-metal-hydride types.

Yikes! If I make a mistake will it blow up in the charger?

Doubt it'd do that ... might overheat and mess up the case and/or the charger, but other than that, I wouldn't anticipate much damage. If you just make sure to assemble the new stack with its cells in the same orientation as the original stack, and maintain the same polarity at the pack's external contacts, you'll have no problem. Other than a bit of simple solderin', its no more complicated than putting new batteries into a TV remote. To cut down on some of the solderin' required, you could spend a few cents more per replacement cell for batteries with solder tabs already attached - all you gotta do then is solder the tabs together appropriately. I rebuild battery packs frequently, and mostly just reuse the tabs from the old stack, as I just don't mind solderin' enough to make the extra few cents for pre-tabbed cells worth my while.

older dewalt battery DW9050
I found a "bunch" of vendors selling these when I searched today. About $55 or so. But since I have two that are dead (very dead) I like the suggeation to rebuild them and I am pretty handy with soldering iron, etc. The main questioin I have now is HOW do I open these packs up to get to the batteries. Anyone know? Thanks (I am looking for hidden screws under labels but have not found any yet!

Well here in Colombia they would use a machete. Seriously I too found an online source and am drilling away.

Re: older dewalt battery DW9050


I asked my Batteries Plus guy about this and he said that a lot of the cases are welded--no screws. He has to force them open, then re-weld after he's replaced the batteries.

Oh, and by "weld" I mean plastic weld. Like when you put together a plastic model--the glue welds the plastic together.

General Tsao

opening the older screwless dewalt battery packs is almost impossible,,but her is what i have done,,,,at the top near the pins therre is a friction bolt,,,,i cut that out with two cuts with a hack saw,,, at the bottom i use a dremmel to make a substaatial screwdriver hole to spread the case,,,, same at the shoulder ,,after i repair the batteries i drill out the friction bolt holes reassemble the battery and use some good tape,,not very neat but functional...indianabob grower of fine weeds and a few hosta

I run a little side business called www.rebuildmybattery.com I rebuild all types of cordless tool batteries. check it out.