I have a 24V Dewalt drill that is about 5 years old. In the last month the Dewalt charger has decided that my two batteries are no good and refuses to charge them. This morning the charger decided to charge one of the batteries and I got around half hour use out of it. It now refuses to charge it again.
I have now put the worst of the batteries on my lab supply and have had to turn it up to 29V in order to get a 400mA charge going into it. I'm guessing this is due to a cell or two getting charged in reverse.
Anyway, my question is, can these batteries be rejuvenated by cyclic charging? Has anyone had any luck doing this? I would buy two new ones but they are not available in Australia - Dewalt didn't release the 24V series. Is it worth unpacking them and doing the "high current whisker blasting" on each cell using a car battery?
Any advice, stories, anecdotes appreciated.
Mike.