Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Makita). This thread is read-only.
Hi all.
I have just recently been taking an interest in the inside workings of my tools, and one of my mates at work was wondering if you could use higher Ah batteries in his sabre saw (only 3 and below seem to fit) (model BJR181) if you replaced the battery port with one from a newer drill. I wasn’t sure if the wiring, motor, etc could handle a higher current battery, so figured i’d ask you all.
Cheers from New Zealand.
Quinn
It’s been noted for a lot of tools that using batteries that have more banks, such as a standard 5Ah battery (2 banks of 5 cells) vs a compact 2Ah battery (1 bank of 5 cells), will help the tool perform better.
Speculatively, if a tool was designed using batteries of lower current output, the higher current of batteries that have more banks could also cause the tool to get hotter and over time that could lead to shorter tool life. It probably wouldn’t be to a degree that would be obviously noticeable to most people and most tools.
With all that said, you’re saying Makita’s 3Ah batteries fit and those are already 2-bank batteries. As of right now Makita doesn’t make batteries that run anything more than 2-banks, and the current difference with their larger Ah batteries would not be terribly significant. Mostly the tool would just run longer.
There is a little cube of plastic where the battery slides onto the tool that needs to be filed off for the higher amp hour batteries to fit. I have done it to all my older tools that I still use.
Mike
As Hammer7896 said there’s a little tab on the tool itself that can be filed off for higher capacity batteries to fit but you run the risk of over discharging the batteries. The older tools didn’t have chips in them that would communicate with the battery to where it would discharge to a certain point and would stop.
My boss had an older 6-1/2″ circular saw that could only take 3.0ah batteries and it would keep over discharging them to where they couldn’t be charged again. Luckily for him some were under warranty and were exchanged for free but others he was out of pocket for
Cheers guys, I’ll have a look at shaving the plastic bit off, see how it runs.