I bought a replacement battery pack for my 18V Skil drill, but can't bring myself to recycle the old one. I pulled it apart and found that it runs on 5 18650-type batteries. Specifically, they are labeled "INR18650-13P Samsung SDI 076." I can't find much info on that specific battery, but I do find some 13Q batteries available. I'm looking for guidance on what battery to replace the originals with.

 

It doesn't really matter what battery you use but I would try using 2500mah or more 18650 cells and you should be fine . Also you could use bus wire to link the cells and sand the cell to help with soldering and use a large iron.@

 

If you want to rebuild the old pack just find a set of 18650 cells with a fairly high Ah and C rating and call it good.

I recomend shopping here. Its where I get all my cordless tool cells from now.
http://www.all-battery.com/index.aspx

Pretty good chance if you use decent cells for the rebuild you will have a superior pack to the stock factory one and for far less cost too.

It's what I have been doing with my Craftsman 19.2 packs as they die. The crappy stock 1400 mAh cells get replaced with Tenergy 3000 mAh ones and do they ever change a tools attitude and run time in a good way!

 

Thanks for the advice, everyone.I love my drill, always hated buying replacement packs, should be fun to rebuild them instead. I wasn't sure if there was a difference that mattered in the battery specs. What is a C rating?

 

Also, should I use protected or unprotected batteries? I think there is room in the pack for the raised positive terminals, and protected batteries seem to come in higher mAh capacities.

 

What is a C rating?

Capable discharge current compared to the Ah rating. A 2000mAh cell with a 10C rating is designed to handle discharge currents of 20,000 mA without damage.