Modifying Makita reciprocating saw to use diff battery. Bad idea?

mikegp

Just bought a Makita BJR182Z reciprocating saw which is supposed to use a BL1830 battery. I have BL1815 batteries. I noticed the tool just had a little plastic nub stopping the battery from working. Ground it off and now it works. Any danger of damage or injury if I run it like this? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks -Mike

princelake

i know exactly what your talking about! i know for sure that it wont work with the circular saws either which is annoyyying! i dont understand way they did this other then so ppl dont complain that the little batteries die to quickly. i dont see any issues, i was going to do that with my batteries cause some of my fellow employees had the smaller batteries and working on the same job ppl borrow tools including batteries. i didnt have enough guts to cut the nub.

sdsester

Bad idea. Pay the piper.

mikegp

Can you expand on that? I'm trying to make sure they have a real safety reason for doing it, not just so people have to pay for more batteries. I figure they would make it so the battery wouldn't work at all if was that big of a deal. Or maybe I'm in for trouble.

Hardway

Makita BJR182Z 18-Volt LXT Lithium-Ion
Makita BL1815 18-Volt Lithium-Ion Battery

mikegp

So you're saying it's ok?

Hardway

I am saying that the batteries are the same voltage, so the voltage is not an issue.


Writer’s information is for discussion purpose only and should be confirmed by an independent source.
I am not an expert and don’t claim to be, these are just my views and opinions.

mikegp

One is 1.5Ah and the other is 3.0Ah. I know nothing about electricity, does it matter?

More amps means more power or longer lasting?

woodworkbykirk

the thick batteries are just the same as having a bigger gas tank on y our car.

as for reason not to use the compact batteries on a cordless recip or circ saw.. they use up the charge much quicker with a compact battery as opposed to the 3.0 amp ones.. personally i hate using cordless saws. you dont get anywhere near the power you get out of a corded one

Hardway

A 3.0 Ampere-Hour will last twice as long as an 1.5 Ampere-Hour which is the amount of electrical charge capacity which gives you a relative measure of how long the battery will last, therefore the higher the Amp- Hours the longer a battery will last before it well need to be charged.

So the amp hour is not an issue.

Writer’s information is for discussion purpose only and should be confirmed by an independent source.
I am not an expert and don’t claim to be, these are just my views and opinions.

mikegp

Ok, thanks. So beside amps and volts, any other reason not to do this? I know they make some tools that can use either battery and I believe both are charged by the same charger. Thanks again.

Hardway

The volts and the amp hours are not an issue that I can see, any other issues I don’t know.

Writer’s information is for discussion purpose only and should be confirmed by an independent source.
I am not an expert and don’t claim to be, these are just my views and opinions.

woodworkbykirk

one thing i can guarentee though.. if you have issues with it and try to take it in for service.. warrenty wont cover it

mikegp

Yea, I already altered it. Wouldn't expect them to warranty it. It was only $70, so it's worth it if it's not going to hurt me.

mikegp

Just used it to cut down 12 small trees. So far so good. Recharged the battery and it's still good. Going to cut some more now.