California schools $120M solar project

I have one; that is exactly true and is clearly mentioned in the manual! Forget and leave the battery in the charger for a couple days and you can kiss that battery goodbye. I bought 2 of those drill kits so I could have 2 batteries plus spare parts. Already, one of the chargers has died. Also the chuck tends to come unscrewed when you run the drill backwards, making it 50% usless as a screwdriver. Further, the batteries self-discharge after sitting about two weeks, so it will always be dead if you only use it occasionally. Other than all that stuff, it honestly is a strong, useful drill.

Same here. I bought him a new lithium Ryobi kit just yesterday. He will get if for his 92nd birthday next month!

Vaughn

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Yep it's way strong. 18V. Battery is flat every time I want to use it though. 15 mins of charging gets it juiced up enough for most of my tasks. I'm sure I've hosed the battery with such short charges though.

Thanks for the advisory re: drilling backwards.

I was freaked out once when I unplugged the power brick (with the battery still attached) and the brick got warmer and warmer... that was strange. Tried to remember never to do that again...

will get if

That's a good idea for a Father's Day gift... thanks for the idea!

Michael

I picked a module that I know several of my neighbors have purchased. Occasionally the same site I mentioned has modules for even less. The downward trend for PV is likely to continue, same as the upward trend for grid energy. Which makes long-term estimates silly if they don't include some allowances.

A better argument is that PV generally requires other hardware that increases the basic cost.

Some might be selling for $100 per W. If you were buying, which would you seek out? Here's the thing - the people who are buying find the low prices, and the people who seek to discourage others from buying find higher prices.

Nonsense. I've lived off-grid for ~15 years. My costs for the solar portion (including batteries, inverters, trackers, etc, but not counting sweat equity), were ~ $13 per watt. PV was ~$5 back then. Inverters were similar to current prices, but batteries were less.

Again, no kidding?

Sure. Most people use Wh and specify location, application, and everything that's required to make it all work. Dollar per W is a strange measure.

Yes, several posters here (AEH), including me, have used that outfit, and many have purchased at ~$2 per watt. Choices at the low end of the price scale are sometimes limited though. A friend had to pay a little over $3 a few months ago to get modules with a voltage that fit his application. And some of the best deals are on stuff that isn't UL rated, which can be an issue.

Wayne

Details details.. :)

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Next time that chuck comes unscrewed, put RED thread lock in there before screwing it back in.. You'll have no more issues after that..

P.S. That problem happens to well known brands also along with chargers going dead.

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Its normal for those kind of batteries to go dead after that much time.. And leaving them off the charger between uses is the best thing you can do. You'll get a lot more service time from the cells that way..

I have a 7 year old fire storm (cheap) 3/8 B&D drill that I Use at least every other day for mostly driving machine screws, drilling and driving a Tap to thread holds up to 1/4 inch, the Reverse/Forward switch is very sloppy now from the TAP driving and the slip clutch has seen better das but the batteries still take a good charge and last a reasonable time period... And these are NiCads

Smart money (government need not apply) waits on the sidelines to see where the crossing is, if any.

Yes, but at a rate that is much lower than having a single item shipped to your home. They get tractor trailer loads of product delievered on a regular basis. You should see their back room, right after they unload a trailer.

BTW, that 45 watt panel went on sale today for 169.99 Item number

Yes. You have no details, just a burnt saw. I've seen a lot of brands burn up over the last 40+ years. Have you ever walked into a tool repair business? Not one burnt up harbor freight tool, but just about any other brand you can imagine are waiting for parts. Burnt out motors, bad switches, missing power cords, broken shafts and cracked cases.

Quite often, it's because the bozo on the other side of the handle doesn't know what the hell they are doing. Dull blades, trying to cut wet wood, the idiot has a bad hangover after a weekend binge, or they are rushing to finish a job and try to make a tool do what it wasn't made to do.

I see a lot of people buying tools for their business at Harbor Freight, and at Northern Tools. They don't complain about the quality, they complain that people steal their tools.

Forget

I have one that I used for five years before the battery died. Another pair that lasted three years. I recently bought a pair of this

That only happens if the retaining screw is missing.

I've never seen that in any of their tools. I've picked up one that hasn't been used in months and used it without needed to charge the battery.

What model number is it?

if

Right. No one would steal a HF tool.

BTW, I have an order with them now for a portable dust collector ($70) and a wide-crown pneumatic stapler ($20). They didn't have them on sale in the store in Dothan Saturday.

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Good point!

Inventing a different technology is not an economy of scale, and there's no guarantee that it will materialise.

So why do car bateries still cost so much?

Sylvia.

That's because _nobody_ *repairs* HF tools, you just toss them!

I'm going to have a $9.99 angle grinder repaired? The guy can't take the screws out for that.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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Not according to some people. Their 'Pittsburgh' brand of hand tools are stolen fairly often.

Dothan? EWWWWWWWW!!! I had to drive there from Ft Rucker too many times to pick up parts from a small wholesale electronics place.

If I had taken that civil service job that I was offered in '73, I would probably still be in the area.

Woosh!!!

Mine is 2-piece, but only has a charging indicator. The manual clearly states that the charger is not automatic and is capable of overcharging the battery.

No! If the design of the battery is such that the batery discharges through the charger when it loses power...what do you think will happen after the timer turns off the charger?

What I actually do is lay my car keys next to the charger.

Vaughn

"vaughn" wrote in news:hu6nac$ar1$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

Good choice. I got a lithium Ryobi drill kit w/2 batteries as a gift six months ago or so. So far so good. Yes the charger has a little charge light and a done light!

The best thing is that all the older 18v ryobi tools work with the new batteries, so all my other old 18v ryobi tools have a new life. So if your pops sees a good deal on an older 18v ryobi tool not in the kit (like a jig saw or whatnot) it'll work with the new bats.

They really rip now man. Those batteries make things like the circular saw actually usable. It's crazy how long you can use the reciprocating saw too. I've been highly impressed

best

-zachary