Black and Decker has at least 7 versions of the Slide 18v battery pack. You have no guidance which is better than the other as B&D absolutely refuses to publish the ampere rating or number of contacts of any of them.
Battery identification is poor: Every battery I have seen is marked "244760-00." What good is that in identifying the battery? There are some molded-in numbers but B&D absolutely refuses to tell you what they mean.
On the blister pack for the HPB18-OPE you read "25% more power than the standard battery*" Finding the "*", it says "Compared to the HPB18." Both are the same price on Lowes shelves. B&D absolutely refuses to divulge how these two compare to each other or the FireStorm series.
A Factory Store manager has said two Firestorm versions were once better but have been downgraded this past 12-18 months and are usually worse than the HP18 units. B&D absolutely refuses to divulge any history of the FireStorm 18V batteries.
These batteries will connect to three types of chargers. One will charge the battery in 9 hours, another in 3 hours, and the last in 1 hour. Between the battery and charger combination, severely reduced battery life will result if the battery is left on the charger longer than 2 days. On another the degrade occurs only after 30 days. The third does not damage the battery in any length of time. You are left to guess which combination is optimum and which is a disaster. B&D absolutely refuses to divulge which is which.
I have many hours into trying to make heads or tails out of this, including several contacts on the phone, and e-mails with B&D, ditto plus in person at a factory store and factory repair station. The B&D Factory Stores and Repair Stations concur with my view that B&D is extremely arrogant, totally wrong in their attitude, and show no willingness to change. Black & Decker HPB18-OPE 18-Volt Slide Pack Battery For 18-Volt Outdoor Cordless Power Tools
B&D doesn't really tell you the whole story about their batteries...
In my experience, this battery has 1.5 Ah cells, and unless HPB18 to which it is compared to has 1 Ah cells (which I doubt) it cannot have 50% more capacity. 25% is more likely and it was marketed as such for a while.
Adding to other review, I think I figured out number near the battery lock. First, you have manufacturing year and week along with some letters. And then there is three digit number, which tells you cell manufacturer (first digit) and capacity (two last digits). This is what I encountered:
412 - 1.2 Ah cells marked BD (most likely specifically manufactured for B&D) - usually FS18B and HPB18 batteries, but also some 244760. These cells are actually short Sub C (or 4/5 SC) and B&D puts plastic pad inside the battery, so housing has the same exterior size.
115 - 1.5 Ah cells without manufacturer identification
415 - 1.5 Ah cells marked BD
515 - 1.5 Ah cells manufactured by HANYU
All these are marketed as FSXtreme, HPB18-OPE, FS18BX and 244760
421 - 2.1 Ah cells manufactured by BYD - high capacity "Silver Series" FS18SBX. BYD is actually well known Chinese battery manufacturer, nice chunk of whose shares was recently purchased by Warren Buffett.
Bought a string trimmer with 2 HPB18 batteries two years ago. The batteries never did last more than about 10 minutes on the job (BIG disappointment) but at least with the two of them I could do MOST of my very small yard. This year the batteries are both dead (won't hold a charge). I broke down last night and went to HD to buy a replacement battery. Then I read the review here that talks about the code underneath the battery clip, so I decided to check it out. My two old batteries have the code "415" (Black & Decker, 1.5 AH) while the new battery I just bought has the code "410" (Black & Decker, 1.0 AH)!! GREAT - if two of their 1.5AH batteries wouldn't hold up to do my yard, I'm sure that one of their 1.0AH batteries will handle about 5 blades of grass before dying! I guess I'll be returning this battery today!
Does anyone know where you can get HPB18 batteries with 1.5 AH (or greater) capacity? I'm leary about ordering over the internet, for fear that I won't know for sure what their capacity is until they arrive (since they ALL are designated "HPB18"). I'm thinking I may just go to a local shop that rebuilds rechargeables and see what they can do for me.
Black and Decker, are you hearing us?? WE ARE NOT HAPPY WITH YOUR BATTERIES!!
I note most reviewers have found that the B&D 18volt batteries have short lives and cost $35-$40 to replace. Save yourself a bundle and just replace the NiCad batteries inside your worn out B&D 18volt battery. It just so happens that you can buy an almost identical 18 volt NiCad battery at Harbour Freight that is currently on sale for $[...] each! [...]
All you have to do is open each battery by removing the screws and swap out the battery packs....no re-soldering required!. Just note the + and - on each battery as they are reversed so you must also remove the black plastic part on each battery that retains the two power tabs and pops into the top of the batteries. Look at the layout and you can easily figure it out....took me about 5 min to make the swap and now I have a new B&D 18v battery that cost me only $[...] and 5 min of time. I plan to buy several while they are on sale for future swaps.
The tools are fair tools. To bad the batterys suck. Everyone should get together and have a class action law suit.Takes 10 minutes to run the battery down and 3 hours to charge it. Pure junk. I have a whole set of the tool to is the bad thing.
My first appliance was a dustbuster with the standard 18v battery pack. The charger was a disappointment due to lack of indication and long charge times. However, the battery seemed to last a reasonable period, holding a charge for several weeks while I used the dustbuster occasionally.
I bought a quick charger with LED indicators and have been pleased with the charging performance. I later bought a cordless drill that was sold without a battery. I used the dustbuster battery initially, but found that it didn't support drilling more than 12 - 4 inch screws into pine 2 X 4's.
I then bought an expensive Silver version of the battery, which is supposed to have better capacity. I have been very disappointed with the performance. The duty cycle actually seems to be less than the standard battery and it won't hold a charge for more than a day or two.
I charge the battery completely and leave it on the shelf, not even installed in the drill and when I need to use the drill the battery is often drained to the degree that I can't even mix paint with it.
There is obviously something wrong with the design of these batteries. Too bad, because the tools themselves are decent. I was about to buy another silver battery, assuming that I just happened to get a bad one, but after reading the comments from others with similar experience, I have decided to cut my losses and buy a better product from either Dewalt or Makita. Black and Decker should issue a recall on these batteries and replace them with ones that perform as expected. If they do this, I might consider buying B&D products again in the future.'
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