Just crossed 1000 hours on my main drill battery tracker

I started keeping a log on my phone last January when I was rebuilding a deck at my place near Portland. Hit 1000 hours of run time last Thursday on a single 5Ah pack from 2019. I always figured those battery meters on the chargers were just guessing but seeing the actual numbers pile up was wild. The pack still holds a charge for about 90 minutes of heavy use before it starts slowing down. Has anyone else tracked battery life like this or am I just weird about logging stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

jackson.matthew20d ago

Wait, did you really hit 1000 hours on a single 5Ah pack from 2019? That seems way too high for a regular drill battery, most of them top out around 500-600 charge cycles before they start really fading. I'd double check your log book because those 90 minute runtime numbers sound more like a newer battery than a six year old pack that's been through heavy deck work.

the_oscar20d ago

Hold up, are we really getting this deep into battery hours? I get your point about cycle counts but 500-600 cycles is the rated number, not a hard cutoff. I've got a 4Ah Ryobi from 2017 that still runs my circular saw for a good 40 minutes of real cutting. No log book though, who keeps a log book for drill batteries? That's like writing down every time you take a sip of coffee. Some packs just luck out on the cell quality, that's all. I'd say just use it till it dies instead of doing all this math.

harper69314d ago

You mentioned "some packs just luck out on the cell quality" and that's exactly what happened to a buddy of mine. He had this old Makita 3Ah battery from 2015 that just refused to die, even after he left it in his truck through a whole winter. He used it for everything from driving deck screws to running a radio on job sites for years. That battery finally gave up last spring when it wouldn't take a charge anymore, but it had way more cycles than you'd expect from the label. Sometimes you just get a good one and no amount of math or logging is gonna explain it.