Lidl Parkside 12V Power Tool Battery Stripdown - Very Revealing

[@billconiston8091]

The new 12v batteries in Lidl UK stores this week have "cell balancing - longer battery life. Increased lifespan" written on both the 2ah and the 4ah packs

[@patricksweetman3285]

Looking forward to you testing the individual cells, Julian.

[@dodgydruid]

I bought Parkside's cordless drill a few years back and its been superb, am surprised the batteries haven't gone yet either as its had a fair few down to the red indicator then charged and over the years and it holds the charge for ages with little dribble of max potential. I have the 20v pack for my Parkside impact driver and that too can be left for months and still be fully charged. I don't know what they use in the Parkside dremel kit but had one of them for coming up two years and apart from a bit noisy at full steam again holds charge without loss in between uses but I haven't seen the dremel tool battery's come up in Lidl's as I would buy another. Parkside is quite unusual in that most of its stuff is still made in Germany rather than some oblique factory in Shenzuen which is becoming a rarity in electrical tools.

[@lumsdot]

Today Lidl are selling 20v 2ah drill batteries for 11.99 which is a good buy. Plus on thingyverse you can find 3d designs that allow you to convert them to other battery types. ive done one that converts it to work with an einhell drill, you just need to cut up a tin to make two contacts which are pushed into the 3d print at the end

[@marcellucassen8033]

I have a parkside cordless drill and a few years ago after little use one cell went out of balance to about 3.6 volt while the other cells (2) where both at about 4.2 volt When put on the charger it said it was full after a few seconds but then put in the drill it said it was empty! I took it apart and measured the voltages of each cell and charged one cell (the 3.6 volt one) with a li-ion single cell charger by connecting wires from the charger to that single cell and after putting it back together and using it for a few years now and many charge/discharge cycles I can say it seems to have worked, the drill works as it should and charging when it's empty is as normal a couple of hours till full

[@lint2023]

Marcel - I've done the same "manual balancing" on a Hitachi battery pack and also have been using them for years afterwards. It pays to think! Cheers.

[@TomsManShed]

Great vid with interesting info I can vouch for how good Lidl's customer service is....I had a small 12v 2 amp (the single stick pack) drill/driver that after 2 years 10 months of heavyish use started splitting at the back....the 2 halves were coming apart ...tightening the screws didnt help so must be stripped threads in the plastic...it worked but was stuck in 1 speed as switch wouldnt move. I rang them up (keep receipt) and they sent me a new one inc case and battery and said keep old one :) yep nearly 3 years old! (still using it)......great service Have done quite a few reviews of their tools on my channel.

[@samdeur]

only person i have heard talking about the balancing of the cells.. thanks for that..

[@unbekannternutzer8506]

Negative must be only in the draining devices. Some battery protections are made in a way that they charge through one pin and discharge through another.

[@kitecattestecke2303]

Thats why they are somewhat balanced charged at least

[@der-andyman]

It seems that there are 12 Volt Parkside tools, which won't work with the smaller 2 Ah batteries. So, the tools use this ID Pin.

[@caskwith]

Any idea which ones? I have a drill and a hedge trimmer, neither use the ID pin.

[@der-andyman]

@@caskwith sorry mate, I only one the Parkside 20v tools.

[@bobbobbins8913]

I bought a couple of the larger packs but without the riser - they only have five cells per pack. No matter...I just wanted some reasonable cells with spot welded tabs so that I could try rebuilding a couple of Hitachi 10.8V packs (only 1500mah). Worked a treat! The Hitachi packs are thoughtfully designed - unsolder a few wires and the three cells can be removed without having to hack into the frame (unlike the Parkside packs). Very pleased with the results - so thanks for the heads up!

[@foxabilo]

Julian, I believe the method that is used is to short all the +'s together and all the -'s together so any cell that tried to undervolt is pulled up by virtue of being connected to the other cells. I know when I first saw this method I was somewhat stumped and even wrote to some manufactures about it, but it seems to be an accepted industry standard now not to balance cells as used to be done, but as I said to crowbar clamp the cells to one another. But when the cells are in series I am still very concerned that an overvolt situation could arise and cause a fire by overcharging.

[@JulianIlett]

It's hugely complicated to switch (electronically) cells from a series string to a parallel array. I thought about this method of balancing but gave up trying to design the switching matrix. That's why I like the inverter balancing technique :)

[@foxabilo]

@@JulianIlett I guess there is a possibility that the newer cell chemistry has a form of negative feedback built in, so that as the cell approaches a fully charged state its internal resistance decreases allowing more of the current to flow into the other cells, be worth an experiment to see.

[@superdau]

@@foxabilo No that's not possible. There is no magic ingredient that makes other cells take more current when one of the cells is getting full. If cells are in series they always get (or deliver) the same current. That is just physics. If they are in parallel they will always be at the same voltage (physics again). That is the whole reason for having external battery protection boards (and balanced charging circuits in some cases) in the first place.

[@SidneyCritic]

Holy moly, I haven't heard Googlewhack since I saw Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure more than a decade ago.

[@twotone3070]

I must admit many years ago it was explained to me as a situation where you only got one search result, but that may have been wrong.

[@NOWThatsRichy]

Interesting vid, as I've just bought one of those Parkside drill/drivers, (I've just done a review of it on my channel), seems to be well made & ideal for smaller jobs, instead of getting out the mains powered drill. I've just dismantled an old summerhouse in the garden, using the screwdriver function , the battery is still showing full charge! I was tempted to have a look inside the battery pack, you've saved me the trouble of doing that! I'm surprised at the amount of charge control circuitry in the actual battery pack, I thought most of it would have been in the charger itself. I've bought several of Lidl's mains power tools over the last few years & not had any real problems with them, The 'florabest' lawnmower is on its fifth season & still going strong! Just subscribed btw!

[@iPelaaja1]

4 years ago I bought two 22400mAh powerbanks (8 cells) for £12.99 each on Amazon. I should have bought more since the price per cell was so low that its hard to find them at that price even these days.

[@MrOrangeman18]

Just bought one to open up and use for the cells. And it looks to me like they Are balanced. Each cell is monitored by the board and thus possibly balance as well? Also. Has anyone found a data sheet on these cells?

[@michal6690]

Balncing is not problem when You use device to heavy job's. Please notice that the much of expensive device like Makita also don't have balncing system. However when You check each cells after year using, You can see that each cells have the same voltage to 0.001 volt.is isvery interesting phenomen

[@TheJunkyardgenius]

These cells are really good and cheap. I stripped the 18volt batteries when they were reduced took the cell holders with cells out trimmed off any excess plastic and stacked them 5 layers high connected them in parallel and put that back in the case with threaded rods instead of the original screws to make to 2 18 volt 10 amp wrapped them in heat shrink. Connected these to batteries in series for my 36 volt electric bike conversion. They work fantastic.

[@mickeyfilmer5551]

They were still at full price in my local Lidl, but the manager said they may go down on Thursday.

[@MrOrangeman18]

so after doing a full charge then putting it on my dummy load @4amps and cut off at 8.4v (2.8v per cell) we got 3990mah. pretty dam good. just need a data sheet for the max charge/discharge rate

[@malachibraydon5360]

sorry to be off topic but does anybody know a tool to log back into an Instagram account? I somehow lost the password. I love any tricks you can offer me.

[@taylorcamdyn9947]

@Malachi Braydon instablaster =)

[@malachibraydon5360]

@Taylor Camdyn thanks for your reply. I found the site through google and im waiting for the hacking stuff atm. Seems to take quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.

[@malachibraydon5360]

@Taylor Camdyn It worked and I now got access to my account again. I am so happy! Thanks so much you saved my ass !

[@taylorcamdyn9947]

@Malachi Braydon glad I could help :D

[@pulesjet]

LOL, I despise those Plastic Blister Packs. Some how I end up sliced and dice bleeding getting into the dang things.

[@AJB2K3]

Ah the joys of blister packs. Been there, done that, got the blood stained T-Shirt

[@Thomas-rc9sc]

I end up cutting all the way around so I don't have to dig my hand into the mess of sharp plastic

[@glennoc8585]

pulesjet use a can opener

[@e1woqf]

@@Thomas-rc9sc That's what I do, too. I hate it when I've got to open such a shitty blister pack and haven't got Mr. Scissors with me 😡

[@lumsdot]

they should sell Plasters blister packed, that would make sense

[@anthonyciantar6015]

I've had mine just over a year. Charged it up and when I went to use it, it was dead. I opened the pack, the cells seem to show over 4 volts, but when I check the connector voltage it's 7ish and drops quickly to below 5 and keeps going down below 4.

[@foxabilo]

ohh also try a UV light on the cell cases for hidden lettering

[@YodaWhat]

And try infrared, which a CCD camera can see, if you take off the IR filter.

[@lezbriddon]

the cells stay balanced, or at least they do on the 20v packs. I think some of these cheaper ones go for midpoint balancing... stopping charge as soon as any battery hits 4.2 and stopping discharge as soon as any hits 2.8, this way capacity is slightly reduced but keeps evryone safe. would be interesting @julian if you knock a cell out of balance to see if the pack recovers on these ''simpler'' packs, that said, they look a lot better designed than the ferrex packs from aldi.

[@davey2k12]

Most likely no balance just a low cell cut off 😂😂😂😂😂

[@lezbriddon]

@@davey2k12 active balancing on 20v packs

[@davey2k12]

@@lezbriddon but when is it balancing tho... soon as cell drops out of balance with the others so that means it'll use energy to keep em balanced unless it's only active while charging

[@ChipGuy]

A lot of laptop battery packs are also not balanced. That is the most common design. There should be a law against that.

[@rich1051414]

They want the batteries to kill themselves after a while. Since they are in series, when a cell dies, it usually doesn't cause a fire, so they are ok with it.

[@californiakayaker]

I've bought about 20 or more brands of oem and replacement laptop batteries, have about 200 cells all new, , and a collection of various BMS arrangements which came in them. So far every one of them, all brands types of lithium 18650 laptop batteries had BMS circuit boards with balancing.

[@ChipGuy]

@@californiakayaker Interesting. Than that must have changed within the past few years. When I had loads of dead battery packs from various laptops (like 30 of them) I opened them all out of curiousity and found not one balancing circuit. Only voltage measurement and when the first battery hits max. voltage -> cutoff.

[@californiakayaker]

@@ChipGuyWell, I've got a box of BMS circuits from laptop batteries. Each one has a set of discharge resistors. One thing that is different about them is they require control from the laptop to work.

[@superdau]

@@ChipGuy Out of the 10-15 laptop battery packs I opened I have also yet to see a one with balancing. They sure weren't the newest (luckily they don't break THAT fast), but something between 5-15 years old (not at the time of opening, but relative to now; or let's say from 2005-2015). I've seen newer laptops using pouch cells now (because cramming in everything even tighter to keep the heat in is better, right?). Never took one of those laptops that far apart though that I checked for balancing circuits.

[@AJB2K3]

ID is used to identify between 12 and 20 volts, a function not required on the smaller A1 battery.

[@rich1051414]

It's serving as a pull down resistor(half a voltage divider) for analog identification. That would imply that 12 and 20v are not the only options. Having analog identification for only a couple options would be ridiculous.

[@Dust76tr]

It also doesn’t make sense as the high capacity battery has it but the low capacity battery doesn’t. Further, there’s no connection for the ID pin in the charger, so that could cause issues if you plug a 12v battery into a 20v charger or vice versa

[@AJB2K3]

@@Dust76tr Its not a low cap, its a low voltage. The smaller battery is ONLY 12v and so does NOT need an id pin. The bigger battery is DUEL voltage and so DOES need and ID pin.

[@AJB2K3]

@@rich1051414 These things are built to a price budget and so using a resistor is the cheapest way to do it. May be in future we could see a tri-voltage battery but would be silly.

[@Dust76tr]

Adam Bryant that’s not correct. Within the first 40 seconds he says “this is a 12v 2Ah pack, and this one is a 12v 4Ah pack, and this one (the 4Ah battery) has a little button on top that the other one (the 2Ah battery) doesn’t have” Later when he opens it up, the larger capacity battery has 2 paralleled banks of 3x 3.6v batteries in series, giving double the capacity but the same voltage as the smaller capacity battery which just has 3 cells in series. He also flips the battery package over at around the 1 minute mark and it clearly says on the back 12v 4Ah for the larger battery

[@Boz1211111]

T is charging port+ is common positive and - is drain negative. Drain negative gets cut off at 2.5v per cell, T gets cut off when cell reaches 4.2v. in my opinion very good design, battery is protected, basically controlls charging with its bms and just gives + and - to tools to use

[@LOTPOR0402]

With the appropriate lithium charge controller could you charge the 12 v pack from a 12v solar panel ? .Does the circuit board in the pack keep them balanced

[@wintersliam9558]

Over the last couple of years there have been various 12V tools on offer from Lidl. However while the general form factor of the battery has stayed the same, there have been minor subtle changes in the battery shape and in the tool battery receptacle areas. The outcome of this is that batteries which are the same approximate form factor and the same voltage are not interchangeable. Likely a deliberate ploy on Lidl’s part.

[@mattylad8035]

To make them interchangeable, simply remove the plastic splines on the side with a sharp knife - then they should fit.

[@Orxenhorf]

3 x 3.6V batteries equal a 12V tool eh? Love when the marketing teams get involved.

[@johndii2194]

Do you think batteries put out a steady voltage per cell as they are used?

[@zaprodk]

It equals a 12,6V tool (3x4,2V fully charged)

[@Orxenhorf]

3.6V is what is printed on the cell itself.

[@zaprodk]

@@Orxenhorf Yes. That is the nominal voltage. Fully charged they are 4,2V/cell and fully discharged they are 3,0V/cell.

[@Mark1024MAK]

So lead acid 6 cell systems are really 13.8V systems?

[@e1woqf]

Have you checked the capacities of those cells yet?

[@JulianIlett]

No, I'll leave that to the test equipment kiddies

[@MrOrangeman18]

e1woqf am doing it as we speak

[@lezbriddon]

as i used them for months with my saw i can tell you they do damn well.

[@e1woqf]

@@MrOrangeman18 Please let us know!

[@MrOrangeman18]

e1woqf I commented last night. But the 4ah I got 3990mah from a 4amp constant discharge. Good cells

[@pederb82]

Could be that they are relying on top balancing. My guess is that they set the over volt setting at an reasonable voltage. You said the chip could turn off the charging fet for each cell when the over volt trips. This should bring them reasonably close to each other, should it not?

[@lezbriddon]

I think some of these cheaper ones go for midpoint balancing... stopping chjarge as soon as any battery hits 4.2 and stopping discharge as soon as any hits 2.8, this way capacity is slightly reduced but keeps evryone safe.

[@aannoonniimmss]

If these cells were balanced there should be some kind of a device (like mosfet) to switch on and off each cell individually.

[@rhiantaylor3446]

Now that you have the 6 high-discharge cells and 4x 5.8milliohm fets, you could make a nice little inverter capable of 50 watts for and hour, 500 watts peak.

[@PredragMrvic]

Just noticed: on the battery it says PAPK 12V A1 Which means they are old type non-balancing. Although the package says PAPK 12V B1 which ARE balanced type! This is probably why they give them away on such action price. Manufacturing error.

[@konstantine381]

Does it really make much difference though? Doesn’t the charger do the balancing?

[@AThreeDogNight]

Would like to know if they turn out to be any good though.

[@lezbriddon]

they are. i just upgraded from the 12v to the 20v tools as was really happy with these from lidl, not as impressed by the stuff from aldi

[@AThreeDogNight]

@@lezbriddonThanks mate.

[@JamesSleeman]

I think end of the day that modern cells just don't get that far out of balance that it is worth worrying about, as long as they are well matched for capacity and charge state when they are series'd up. If a cell gets very out of balance with the others the pack is faulty or on it's last legs anyway so just using protection and reducing the capacity a bit seems quite reasonable. Balancing adds a lot of complexity.

[@Stuntmannetje]

Just came across this video and i thought let's ad this new info in the comments. In the probably newer charger are 3 connections(marked as +,C-, and iD wich is the button connection in the middle same on the 4 aH battery), and the cells are marked as Parkside INR18650E(i would guess rebranded Samsung cells).

[@caskwith]

I don't think any of these cheaper Li-ion batteries do any kind of balancing. I have some Draper batteries, identical to an Aldi tool system. I have had two packs die now (all draper, none of the aldi interestingly), when I took them apart it was clear that is a simple series circuit with some overvoltage/overheat protection but that's all. In both packs it was one cell that was faulty, then likely overcharged by the other cells and then failed.

[@fiskurtjorn]

Is that T an upside down ⊥ (ground symbol)?

[@zaprodk]

No, it is indeed T for Temperature.

[@grahamrdyer6322]

I thought they where balanced, if it checks the cells over voltage parameters (each pair of cells) and the under voltage bit, surely that is balancing ?

[@Pistoletjes]

It depends on the action: if one cell's charged or overcharged and it cuts the charge current, the other cells will not be fully charged, effectively reducing the capacity of the set. If it only cuts the charge to the full cell and remains charging the rest, there's no problem.

[@YodaWhat]

@@Pistoletjes There i also _top balancing, middle balancing, and bottom balancing,_ which each have their own advantages and disadvantages.

[@gamerpaddy]

the diode is in a SOT1289 package, might be a schottky like PMEG045V150EPD

[@JulianIlett]

Yeah, it's got a D next to it on the silkscreen - I missed that :)

[@stevejones8665]

@@JulianIlett I found a Schotty diode when I tried a pdf data sheet search fo that tpss device.

[@tom_do_things568]

Does the tools work without the ID chip ?

[@markthomasson5077]

Thanks, I hope you have answered my problem. I connect with a cable to my boat 12v lead acid battery, runs for ages. So far been using a very old 12v drill. Recently got. Parkside mini angle grinder, what a useful tool. It was marked + and - . Just got a multi tool annoyingly not marked, but I can see from you video which way round. The angle grinder I could just push a spade type connector over the contact. The multi tool connector is bent over at the end, probably needs soldering.

[@shakman877]

Good video Julian. Quick question, and perhaps you may not have the answer. But I have some older (2017/18) Parkside tools which use the 12V batteries however, when compared to the latest batteries, the terminals are swapped around. i.e. my battery has + on the left, whereas the new batteries have + on the right. Do you know, if I were to strip down a new battery and swap the + and - spade terminals with each other, so the terminals would then match my current, older battery configuration, would that enable them to work in my tools? Thanks

[@midotechtips7449]

Hi i live in the Same city really funny to see the first time something from my city in your hand 😁

[@90msg90]

Bosch doesn't balance their powertool batteries' cells either.

[@kitecattestecke2303]

Be careful some are charged individually per cell so no balacing needed

[@everythingquads]

It could be a 1m ohm resistor used as a current shunt.

[@KennethTanFotografie]

Did anyone discomnect the batteries from the BMS and reconnwct them? Does the battery pack still work then or does it have a kill switch so it stops working?

[@kmvideos7]

Hello! My question is how long do they keep their charge, that is, how long will it stay charged?

[@james10739]

I have never seen a clearance tag that said cheaper

[@AdamWelchUK]

My understanding was a googlewhack is a search which only returns a single result. Enjoyed Dave Gormans book and power point presentation on the subject some years ago.

[@SidneyCritic]

I think it was more than a couple of years, it was over a decade since he toured that show. Brilliant show.

[@cassiya100]

Hi Julien. I'm trying to convert my parkside performance power tools to run on my Hikoki/Hitachi 18v batteries. I have loads of the hitachi batteries but no parkside just the bare tools. The parkside has plus/minus and and a 3rd connector. the Hitachi batteries has plus/minus and the following.C+, T, LS, T. V, LD How do I go about it? Thanks

[@ranvedsticon2304]

What would be a way to make this charge in a charger from another brand that has 3 pins(t,+,-)

[@djjaskolmechanik3509]

The battery has B + and B contacts - what is the 3rd TP contact for? Thermistor or reference voltage?

[@zaprodk]

Most power tool packs and laptop packs are not balanced. The cells are paired for capacity and internal resistance at the factory. Perfectly normal, and not missing anything :)

[@AJB2K3]

A thought that struck me with the duel voltage cell, would it loose balance on the cells if its used for ages on a 12v unit then used on a 20v tool?

[@santaclase3410]

the art of war quotes Santa Clase is that high

[@melkiorwiseman5234]

Edit: Removed most of my previous junk 'cos I noticed... the charger has access to the batteries individually through those metal tabs. It's almost certain that the charger has the balancing circuit. I guess the idea is that you are forced to charge the battery packs using "their" charger, for safety. Which seems very unsafe to me, since it's far safer to have the balancing circuit in the battery pack than in the charger. Still, it's possibly cheaper, and it will work so long as you always use the correct charger, or at least a charger which includes a balance charge circuit.

[@SantyPkZf]

Hello!! Do you think it's doable to get 18650 batteries with bigger capacity and put them on the drill?? Thank you!

[@jakp8777]

Quite odd that the printing on the cells is over the tape.

[@josslevy4240]

Transparent tape?

[@zaprodk]

It's not. The tape is very translucent when there is only one layer of it.

[@jakp8777]

joss levy sure doesn’t look transparent with the yellow color typical of transformer tape. If the tape was transparent or opaque it would be blue or blue under the tape.

[@zaprodk]

@@jakp8777 Look at the video at 03:56. It's clear on the bottom cell that it gets blurry where there is two layers of tape. I've taken a lot of battery packs apart and replaced cells. The cells are printed in the factory with an inkjet head and it would not be practically feasible to put the assembled pack in some sorts of weird shaped jig, move it a lot of times and put it trough the machine to do the printing, so clearly the printing came before the text. My experience is also that if the tape has been sitting there for a long time, some of the ink leaches into it, and will come off if you take off the tape.

[@jrufus11]

I dropped my 12v 4amp parkside battery the bigger one and it won't charge now any ideas how to fix it?

[@jamest.5001]

I got a couple dozen LG cells, 6 for $10 or less that way, only 1.5ah, but can do 40amps, about 24 cells. Not so bad for new cells, I guess I'm going to replace nickel cells in my dewalt drill, I wonder if it will handle 6s cells? 24v being 18v components??

[@Andy-df5fj]

Let me guess..Kobalt battery? Most likely the motor can handle the extra 33% voltage fine, the main concern is the speed control.

[@thelonelybushcrafter8013]

You sound like Julian Clary!! Thanks for your great videos

[@springwoodcottage4248]

Fascinating the economics of 18650 cells. You are buying assembled units for less per cell than I can usually find the individual batteries. How can prices move in such strange ways? The cheapest I have found are the low capacity £1 units from Poundland, but otherwise they are usually over £2 each even if bought at 6 cells at the same time with the every concerning knowledge that what one is being sold might be a low capacity counterfeit. Has buying batteries ever been so Weird? Thanks for sharing!

[@fersunk]

It's the magic of bulk ordering the cells. The manufacturer can buy a no name cell and put their own sleeve for almost nothing, and the simplier and jellybean the components they use on the pack the cheaper it gets. And of course the more you produce the cheaper it gets because the tooling costs and manufacturing optimizations. The brand name cells they sell on specialized websites is grossly overpriced because just 1 cell price, shipping costs, and the biggest increment in price is the "fee" specialized website

[@gerardt314]

Great teardown.. I bought tool without battery and the store doesn't have batteries in yet 😂 .. Looking at this, mech modding tool is def out of question., or hooking it up to power adapter (matching amps and voltage).. Still really want to try adapter ..

[@glennoc8585]

18650 batteries are pretty cheap now. Do lithium ion batteries require balancing i though that was a nicad thing.

[@JulianIlett]

You can balance Nickel Cadmium cells by simply leaving them on a trickle charge.

[@glennoc8585]

Julian Ilett i had a zapper that helped with the memory problem.

[@marcellucassen8033]

They need to be balanced or matched, If one cell goes under voltage it can destroy that cell or in worse case reverse polarity and the cell is dead/short

[@mahlapropyzm9180]

Does anybody know if the "T" contact is used by the drill or just the charger. I have it in mind to use a 2Ah battery to revive an old NiCd drill whose battery pack has failed. The drill uses only two contacts, so I eed to know if transplanting the Li-Ion batteries and controller will continue to work if the T contact is not connected. I will need to adapt the charger to make it charge through "T" of course.

[@dodgydruid]

I hit Lidl's yesterday for some cans of cellulose thinners and several of their precision screwdriver sets grabbing one set good enough for watch level work and another couple for electronic level of work, all ratchet bit handles and very pleased at the quality. They had their cheap soldering iron sets in again with the little "station" that holds spare tips and has the spring thing to park the iron, for £8 its not a bad starter kit imho :)

[@pollywollydo]

Have you looked at MR Dyson's offering ? Built like a tank

[@Dirt-Diggler]

I use the larger 24V Lidl packs on many older NiCad power tools, cost nowt and it's ni on allways the NiCads that go way before the tool :)

[@Dirt-Diggler]

@Schwalbe262 still sold in Lidl UK stores, they are on Amazon BUT they are £21 !! In store normally £14.99, on sale £7.50 for the 2Ah battery 👍

[@Dirt-Diggler]

@Schwalbe262 just checked on eBay, they are £16.99 ish, PAP20A1 for the 2Ah 👍

[@PowerScissor]

Why does it look like the Grizzly stamp was added after the tape? lettering looks just as dark and legible where the tape is.

[@HDXFH]

Roughly Milwaukee M12 clones

[@AJB2K3]

Lets hope they don't brake like milfuckie

[@fredjoyce4914]

Are these company with Milwaukee they look identical

[@paddygti1]

the cells are samsung cells

[@CTCTraining1]

A ‘googlewhack’ as popularised by Dave Gorman usually means a term which gives a unique (and correct) result when given to google search ... rather than nil results.

[@JulianIlett]

I should've said 'Google lack' :)

[@tinplategeek1058]

Alta Vista Whacks were easier to find. (One for us oldies)

[@whitehoose]

Question is - ARE YOU ACTUALLY GETTING the capacity written on the cells? The chenglish translation for 5mAh can be anything up to 3.6Ah. I remember well the sand filled cells from a few years ago. You could do with running a couple up and down a couple of times to see what reality says - ink is cheap at Aldi! That scottish poundshop warrior (BC) shows time and again the worth of battery ratings. If they are genuine they are a good deal.

[@YodaWhat]

"That scottish poundshop warrior" ... Big Clive?

[@whitehoose]

@@YodaWhat Yup - that's Big Clive who's 6'5" and tests batteries to destruction. To be fair to Julian, I like his reviews, but when it comes to batteries and especially LiLon/Lipo the only reason for using them is higher capacity - so its pretty fundamental knowing the real numbers. The point of a review is someone you trust making the investment of time and money on test equipment, then to get the kit and do the legwork and testing for you. It's not that hard - but not everyone has it all to hand. Given their tendency to meltdown - protection is quite important too. Branding (esp of chinesium) is mostly only a printer's whim and doesn't matter. It's the numbers that speak for themselves. BC's reliable numbers are one of the reasons for going back, he occasionally discovers quite splendid deals.

[@ConorNoakes]

Yeah… don’t force these into the older parkside 12v dremel-style tool having paid no attention that they’re a different battery series… They fit… and then the tool lets the smoke out from being fed reverse voltage! Time to build a new PWM circuit for the speed controller 😂

[@jarikinnunen1718]

5 year in light use, no problem with battery pack.

[@alekpop1625]

Does this bms board can use for juts 3 cell

[@goncal0mb]

Can that button be an identification chip using the 1-Wire protocol? It looks like those id tags with a small metal can that use 1-Wire. EDIT: 1-Wire iButton.

[@JulianIlett]

Very unlikely - these packs are built for the lowest possible price :)

[@MrCanidi]

Currently the function of this pin is not clear (to me). The charger does not recognize it nor do the devices I know. Maybe future devices will use it to distinguish between the 2Ah and 4Ah battery.

[@goncal0mb]

@@MrCanidi I think you are right, some devices could check the resistor value to determine the type of battery pack.

[@JoseSilveira-newhandleforYT]

@@goncal0mb Agree 100% !!

[@Mandrag0ras]

Julian, if you want cheap cells, you can just buy cheap cells. No need to look for special offers, discounts, surprise boxes, waste time and effort to disassemble, get cells with spikes after removing spot welded tabs, cut yourself, void warranty and gets stuck with overdischarged cells or cells of unknown characteristics. It's too much trouble for nothing unless you do it out of surprise addiction. 1.75 pounds is 1.95 euro. As an example, look for Sanyo UR1865ZL2 2310mAh - 10A at eu dot nkon dot nl. It's 1.99 euro.

[@WATCHINGTHEWATCHERS]

Most Parkside stuff is rebranded popular named equipment often from the same producers who have agreed to produce there equipment for Lidle. They often cost 1/3 or 1/4 less. A good example is the Parkside petrol 1200 watt generator which is a rebranded Hyundai generator. It's also branded with Sceppach and zipper. Parksides one is £80 cheaper then the zipper one.

[@MrSegmentfault]

I've seen rebadged Einhell and Ferm (Dutch brand) power tools in Lidl as well.

[@fredjoyce4914]

Does anyone know if they work with Milwaukee m12

[@YTANDY100]

i have an almost identical (pcb is different) battery (small) but is 10.8 volt 3 cell , it does charge to over 12 volt but the charger , battery and tool all day 10.8 volt :-) interesting to know it has no balancing , mine is in bits atm because it runs out quick so something new to check :-)

[@zaprodk]

Sounds like yours is LiFePo4 chemistry, which is pretty well charged at 3,6V per cell.

[@YTANDY100]

@@zaprodk ok , thank you :-)

[@superdau]

They are the same thing. 10.8V is the honest nominal voltage used by many manufacturers (honest, because most of the energy in a cell is around the nominal voltage and not the peak voltage). A cheap manufacturer will mark it as a "12V" battery, because that looks better on the label. Essentially the cells will be charged to 4.2V (so 12.6V for a 3S pack) in almost all types of li-ion batteries. Except for LiFePo4, which are li-ion batteries as well, but have a lower voltage. I doubt you have LiFePo4. They are more durable than other types, but their power and energy density is lower. So you see them mostly in things like e-bike, but almost never in anything like tools, powerbanks and other electronic devices.

[@ewenwilby6495]

Hey Julian, Great video, very informative. If you decide to use the cells for a different project, would you consider donating the plastics from the 4Ah battery to me as i dropped my drill with one of those in and the casing has cracked on the top part and the triangular part.

[@AJB2K3]

Are these compatible with the previous gen batteries?

[@MrCanidi]

Most likely yes but you may need to modify the housing because they use codings. Look at the charger and you can see two small slots (07:31). You need to remove the counterparts at the battery housing and they will fit the older (less power) charger and work fine. When I remember correctly the older charges support 1,4A and the newer ones 2,4A. The older batteries were 1,5Ah, the new ones are 2Ah and 4Ah.

[@AJB2K3]

@@MrCanidi My jigsaw uses the 12VA1 whereas my Multitool uses the 12VB2-1

[@AJB2K3]

Ah the small one is a A1

[@shakeyaims]

They are identical except for the slot positions. Having bought some I just cut the raised strips from the battery and they fit both the old charger and tools. You could insert them the wrong way around but they will not go fully in or power the tool. Care is needed with the charger however.

[@FourDollaRacing]

Balancing takes time ... the average consumer isn't patient enough to wait.

[@superdau]

Balancing and cheap charger doesn't go together. For simple charging you just use full current until one cell reaches it's maximum. If you want to balance you would then have to switch the charger into a lower current mode, unless you are fine with each of the balancing resistors to have a heatsink to dissipate 5-10 Watts. To switch to a lower current you would need some kind communication between the charger and the battery pack. And that will make things complicated and expensive, even if it were just a single on/off pin telling the charger to switch to another mode.

[@lezbriddon]

balancing is done in the battery pack on most tools now, this way the charger only needs 3 wires, ground, chargng voltage and a temp sense line.(T) (T) is often a bimetal switch to battery ground, which is why some chargers use it as the ground as when battery gets hot, charging cant continue

[@borayurt66]

Cell balancing is overrated. Yes, it works but I don't think is worth the time and energy wasted for it, especially in power tool battery packs that see a lot of quick charge/discharge cycles.

[@melkiorwiseman5234]

It's definitely needed for lithium techology, because the chemistry in the batteries won't be identical and one will always discharge a bit before the others and conversely not take as much charge as the others. You'll always end up having to either overcharge the other two cells in order to get the lowest cell back to capacity, which risks the overcharged cells bursting into flame, or over-discharging the bad cell and damaging its chemistry which will exacerbate the problem, unless you periodically perform a manual charge of each individual cell (or cell block) to get them into a balanced state. It's safer and less trouble to just use a cheap balancing circuit.

[@ivonoorhoff3503]

Won't the cells be balanced after a discharge / charge cycle ? What's the point of dissipating in the battery pack ?

[@martincounsell8061]

Thanks julian I have just contributed to global warming, all due to a wasted trip to Lidl at no reduction prices in Cheltenham and no larger packs in stock. Lidl say the price marked is what you pay, they say they don't have any other store tel numbers so I could check elsewhere. USELESS not you but Lidl. Keep up the cell hunting as they need to be about 75p- £1.00 range for 2000ma then things would change big time everyone wants them . Years ago I stupidly thought you could by a 7000mAh 18650 HA HA and now some are selling 9000mAh that's a bomb. Thanks for the hard work!

[@james10739]

Do yall have sales tax and if so how much is it

[@Mark1024MAK]

Called VAT (value added tax). Currently for most items in the U.K. it is 20%. Books and certain other items are 0% rated. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-added_tax_in_the_United_Kingdom

[@james10739]

Dang that sucks I am in Texas and if you buy something in a I dont know non city it is 6.75% but most everywhere it is 8.25%

[@Mark1024MAK]

James Holbrook - yeah, you get taxed on the money you get from your employer, then get taxed when you spend it ☹️. A more detailed list of what items are rated at, is here www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-of-vat-on-different-goods-and-services

[@james10739]

Oh so there is no income tax

[@Mark1024MAK]

James Holbrook - Alas, yes we have income tax. There are three rates, basic @ 20%, higher rate @ 40%, and additional rate at 45% depending on how much you earn. See www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates Income tax is payable on both your wages/salary and from income from your savings and investments (rates on savings and investments are different to the percentages shown above). There is also national insurance to pay if you are employed. Council tax is charged by local government on top of this to pay for services provided by local government. It is an annual charge that can be paid over ten months or 12 months depending on the local government in your area. There are also various other taxes. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_United_Kingdom Basically, if some politician has thought of it, they have tried to tax you on it... Anything to peddle the propaganda “we are the party of low taxation” while putting up one tax type/rate at the same time they are shouting about reducing another tax type/rate. And despite all the tax revenue and despite the last ten years plus of the government trying to reduce spending by cutting services, we still have a huge debt, and most of the year, are in deficit.

[@Jimmie16]

They're junk I have several and they keep changing the fitting so they can't be used on different items.

[@jamest.5001]

They probably do that so most will need to buy new battery packs, when one cell gets low and shuts the pack down!

[@gaborhalmos6136]

Does anyone know if the ID terminal is only connected to the "T" by a resistor, or it has some other connection also to the PCB or to the battery cell? I wanna use such a battery pack for somethig else, and I don't know if I need to bother about this terminal or not when charging (for sure not during discharging, as the power tool doesn't use this terminal). BTW, my charger has a counter terminal, a kind of telescopic pin that is contacting the ID terminal of the battery. This pin is on +8V to the "T" terminal in the charger. Thanks for any feedback!

[@CooperJames-b4x]

Parkside battery pack are rubbish I have a few none of them have been re-charged more than 6 times and 2x2ah and 1x 4ah have stopped charging.

[@keithhooper6123]

Have a range of 20v tools,and batteries,and one not charging , out of four, that I must have recharged at least ten times ,each.

[@siperhallo]

W wkrętarce parkside performance jest zabezpieczenie które powoduje że ona nie pracuje poniżej 5 stopni celsjusza,może potrafił byś je znaleźć i pokazać jak je usunąć,był by to bardzo dobry filmy , !!

[@JAKOB1977]

You have extreme low prices in UK. we also had these packs in our LIDL stores (Denmark) the 2Ah with also Grizzly cells cost 99 DKK (12 GBP) and the 4Ah also with Grizzly cells was 179 DKK (22GBP) i.imgur.com/z95v8Wz.png so shockingly fare from the MSRP before sale price. and batteries will never come on sale here... just as many of these LIDL tools are not carried here. The only two was the 12vdrill and the 12v multitool for these batteries a few weeks back there both costed 349DKK (42 GBP.) These tools cost 29Euro in Germany and 25GBP in the UK as I recall. Not sure what the reason is why the LIDL Germany (aka Schwarz group) set the prices here so much higher than all our neighboring countries..as they are the only one..even though they are not little here with a triple-digit number of stores. Aldi has the same prices in Denmark as our neighboring countries, so seem weird that LIDL inflate them as much, but the biggest problem is the very little selection of these tools, so if you buy a product with battery and charger, you are often not gonna get the chance for the other power tools that battery lineup also would work in. LIDL Denmark got a very low score amongst the public... bad leadership.

[@JAKOB1977]

Also recall LIDL got a lot of critics here amongst the media after young immigrant gangs terrorized one of their stores and often walk in and almost tried to empty the store for valued products and LIDL didn't dare to stand up for common sense but again and again let it happens and then trying to pay these young immigrant gangs by hiring them on make-believe jobs, like we where some kind of Wild West' where you pay your way out and doing that in such a situation will just unfold even more and make that criminal-offense even more lucrative for others. (lol maybe that is why the prices are higher, the Danes are simply paying for LIDL Denmark's lack of backbone.) Look int he 12v unit i got for these batteries and there is no centerpin for that 4A pack mid-center round pin. so definately not for the 12v angle grinder (B1 version) i.imgur.com/p934bKz.mp4 (brushless??)

[@duncanx99]

"Googlewhack" another Julianism destined for the Oxford English Dictionary. We live in exciting times...

[@webchimp]

Googlewhack is an old term from 2002, Dave Gorman did a stand up tour in 2003 based on Googlewhacks.

[@duncanx99]

@@webchimp Oh... Never heard of Dave Gorean (in my defence, I'm old and in Spain).

[@webchimp]

Sorry, Gorman, I had a typo and edited out the 'm' instead of the 'e'. The term started on an online game where you posted your googlewhacks, the site only lasted a few years though.

[@duncanx99]

@@webchimp Nope, still not heard of him... Sorry

[@SidneyCritic]

@@duncanx99 He came to Australia more than a decade ago to do the show, and it was brilliant.

[@georgescg7342]

those boards are two sided

[@russelltaylor1500]

Not exactly an of arrangement of cells, they copied it of Milwaukee!

[@tonylock7657]

HI Julian. Nice try, but the company is German not French, so the pronunciation for GmbH is more "Gay Emm Bay Hah" (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung - it's the old 'company with limited liability' thing). :-)

[@JulianIlett]

Ah, a hard G. It's been a while since my O levels