Makita Li heartaches .......

[Cornerstone Tim]

It has been just over a year since I purchased the LXT600 kit.
So far the charger died........
The motor in the hammer/drill fried last week .......
And today one of my batteries took a crap........

After all the hoopla' I am starting to have my doubts.

[kddsunshine]

Amen Brother! My charger died, after making the annoying fan noise for about six months. Been through two batteries and third gear in drill doesn't work. The chuck slips on drill bits and often gets bits stuck in ipe or similar. I need to use my Milwaukee to get the bits out once stuck. A total pain in the ass! I talked to a well known supplier and tool repair place in Portland and was told that the Makita LXT set is the most often in need of repair, compared to other pro brands. He said Milwaukee makes good tools, but the battery technology in there lithium batteries is bad and that they fail more than any other battery. There suggestion: Bosch 36volt lithium with the slim packs for less weight. He said they rarely have any problems and few if any returns.

[Jarin Smoker]

i have been noticing a decline in my 28 volt Milwaukee batteries lately. my sawzall dont go near as long lately it seems. My makita litheum impact driver is still doing great after 2 years though. i still like the light weight of the 28 volt battery, but if it is gonna crap on me than i may have doubts about litheum ion batteries, time will tell i guess

[Shrek-man]

The milwaukee v28 batteries that we have absolutely suck in the cold. They can have a full charge, and you cannot drill a 1/2" hole in a 2x4. After getting them warmed up, they work like new. Same thing goes for my bosch pocket driver batteries.

Our 18v dewalt batteries (nicad) are going on 3 years old now, and still work perfectly. Hot, cold, they don't care.

The v28 milwaukee drill and sawzall have the edge on power and runtime, as long as you can keep them warm, but our dewalt tools win hands down on reliability. From the experiences I have had with lithium ion tools so far, I am hesitant on trying anything new. I'll wait and let someone else test out the newest and greatest.

Dwayne

[kreg McMahon]

yep those pocket driver batteries suck in the cold.. below 38 which is a rather warm day for some and others it sucks. including me 38 and below is too cold.

[m beezo]

Kreg, glad to hear the the pocket driver batteries cannot take the cold. I have the impact driver and was beginning to think I had a bad charger, battery or connection. In the morning after the driver being in my van at 14 degrees the thing would not work. Left it in the house I was working on and the next day it works just fine. Day or two later it is in my van overnight and won't work.

So it is the cold only it seems and not just me.

[Andrew R.]

Tim,
Sorry to hear this, I was considering buying Makita instead of replacing a bunch of Dewalt batteries that seemed to have all died inthe last couple weeks. I have all the dewalt cordless stuff and most in duplicate, amazingly nothing has broke except a charger that was rained on.

[Greg Di]

I've noticed after a little more than a year, that my Makita Lion batteries seem to have lost their longevity. This is not scientific, but the drills still seem to run the same, but the circ and recip don't have the same legs.

The tools are still great, but it something is "up". Of course, it could be that it's been ridiculously cold lately and that could be the attributing factor. My old bosch 14.4 impact and drill barely worked at all in the cold. I mean full battery on the impact and one 2" screw dead.

[davenorthup]

Originally Posted by Shrek-man

Our 18v dewalt batteries (nicad) are going on 3 years old now, and still work perfectly. Hot, cold, they don't care.

I have to say the same. I bought that Dewalt 4 tool kit (with the very small and tough circular saw) about 8 years ago and everything still works perfectly. I've replaced the batteries (approx 2 per year with heavy use); but that is it.

I can not kill those tools and same for my 3 year old impact driver.

They hold a decent charge in the cold as well, which is obviously important for me.

Andrew - why change if it has been working for you. I'm so invested in Dewalt cordless tools that I am glad I do not have to change; b/c they work fine - no matter how many times they jump off the roof.

A friend just gave me a 15 minute charger - how'd I ever live with out that?

[Joining_heads]

As for cold weather, my experience with Bosch litheon (no matter how much I love the PS20) as been bad. I would understand if it were 20 below but the Bosch's batteries would lose charge after spending the night in 45 degrees. My Panasonics keep on trucking past zero (although there is a performance degrade until the batteries warm up).

[Andrew R.]

Originally Posted by davenorthup

Andrew - why change if it has been working for you. I'm so invested in Dewalt cordless tools that I am glad I do not have to change; b/c they work fine - no matter how many times they jump off the roof.

I thought I was missing out on Li power, woud be nice if Dewalt would come out with cordless lawnmowere , weedeaters and edgers I coud use their batteries with. I'm skeptical about buying any cordless "never heard of" brand name cordless yard tool with batteries. My 79.00 Ryobi rechargeable weedeater battery died and the new battery was unavailable 2 years later.

[Lucky62]

Too bad , Tim .
Thanks for letting us know , maybe Makita can address these failings , and rectify them .

[Ben B.]

I have the lxt 6 tool kit and have had it for about 10 months or so. I have had the fan noise since day 1...I assumed it was normal. I am frustrated with the sawsall though. It seems to really eat batteries.

[David Meiland]

This thread is making me queasy. I just dropped $600 on the 7pc. combo, and while everything is working fine so far, having any battery or charger trouble would suck. I have mostly used the impact so far, and the drill a little bit. They are not better than my Dewalt 14.4v stuff (except the DW batteries are way too old). Having the cordless circ and recip is nice, as is the grinder, I have used each one a bit so far. The radio sounds good but it is STUPID that it doesn't charge batteries. Major demerit for that one...

Main thing I can say at this point is that having 6 tools and 2 batteries is ass-backwards, so I'll probably get another drill+impact kit to have 4 batteries.

[Joining_heads]

Originally Posted by David Meiland

The radio sounds good but it is STUPID that it doesn't charge batteries. Major demerit for that one....

Guy behind the counter at my local tool supply said that Dewalt has a patent on the battery charging radio tech. He said that Bosch pays Dewalt to license the tech. Not sure If i believe the guy but it does make sense to the fact that neither Milwaukee's or Makita's radio charges batteries. Save some production cost.