Keep the battery charged on your ATV, motorcycle, or personal watercraft, and it’ll be healthy and ready to go when you need it. Deltran makes Battery Tender trickle chargers in various sizes and capacities for different applications. Their waterproof unit will keep batteries full even when the charger’s fully submerged in water — never again will a sudden downpour make you run outside to make sure the battery charger’s covered.

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Think of the PSS100B as the Run DMC of Black & Decker’s “Power To Go” line, wrapping a big-ass SLA battery, a 120V inverter, LED lights, and an AM/FM digital radio all up in a package that Funkmaster Flex would’ve happily carried ’round. And don’t forget the MP3 player compartment — complete with an audio tap and a USB power source for charging.

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If you’ve ever frantically searched your tool bag for a set of batteries when you really needed them, you might dig the Personal Battery Caddy. Designed for pilots, the molded plastic case securely holds several fresh batteries in a compact package. And it glows in the dark to boot.

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After losing power during a snow storm this winter, I’ve been taking a second look at these portable powerpacks. Amazon is selling this one from Duracell for $130. The Duracell Powerpack 600HD features three three-prong AC outlets, one DC outlet, a built-in 600W inverter, a built-in AM/FM radio, emergency lights, and jumper cables. This unit comes in handy when you’re camping, working on the job, jumpstarting your car, or coping with an emergency.

Via Amazon (B000TKHMWK) [What’s This?]
Duracell [Corporate Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Though we’re generally not fans of most Craftsman power tools, the C3 line has been a perennial best-bargain buy since its release, often selling for under $100 — with a free light. If you’re one of the many who invested in the 19.2V series to get started, you’ll be as pleased as I was to hear that Sears plans to offer a C3-compatible 19.2V lithium-ion pack for $70 starting in 2008.

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Rechargable batteries help the environment, but they can be a beating on your wallet.  Fortunately Circuit City is listing this 8 Pack of AA Sanyo Eneloop NiMH rechargeable batteries for $15.  And - extra bonus - if you take advantage of the mail-in offer, they’ll send you four Eneloop battery spacers, the spacers that turn your AA batteries into C and D cell batteries.

8-Pack Batteries [Eneloop]
8-Pack Eneloop [Circuit City]
Mail-in Offer [Eneloop]
Street Pricing [Google Product]

This article on Slashdot decries the “ultracapacitor” as the next big thing in terms of mobile computing and electricity-powered vehicles, and as we all know, what powers your laptop today will eventually trickle down to power the power tools of tomorrow. And the battery requirements of electric cars are very similar to that of power tools.

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Batteries.com is currently offering a 500 pack (!) of batteries which contains 400 AA’s and 100 AAA’s for just $49.99. That’s 10 cents a battery! But if you add the coupon code “GGL15″ the price drops to $42.49. Shipping is around $11 to most areas.

500 Alkaline Batteries [Batteries.com]

How many 9V gadgets do you have around the shop – or the house? Let’s count: there’s the studfinder, the moisture meter, the fox-and-hound wire tracer, a handful of multimeters, a flashlight, a transistor radio. Wow. The list goes on and on! I’m a big advocate of rechargeable batteries, but the nickel-based chemistries aren’t ideal for most nine-volt applications. Now there’s an alternative: Lithium!

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TM reader Ken writes: “I don’t understand the recycle bins for cordless tools.  The stores seem to be indifferent about sending them to the proper disposal companies.  I’ve heard many horror stories about various stores just throwing the batteries out in the garbage.”

I’ve had a little experience with cell phone companies’ attempts to recycle batteries, and I understand that many of them do a good job of it — but I’m sad to say I know very little about tool companies’ recycling programs.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of the bins.

Have any of you had experiences with these bins and the businesses’ practices regarding them?  If so, let us know in comments.

Some MIT students converted a formerly-old-and-uninteresting Porsche 914 into a full electric, garnering them some press from everything-blog BoingBoing and eco-friendly Treehugger – and the envy of Prius owners everywhere.  It turns out that the simple Volkswagen-like transaxle makes for a conversion so easy that numerous kits are available.

The most interesting note in this symphony of green is the fact that they used “lithium phosphate rechargable batteries.”  From what we hear, this is the technology that — once it gets cheap enough for Joe Everyman to afford — will let the big three deliver practical plug-in hybrids.

In the meantime, they claim the electrified German will top out at around 100 mph and travel 100 miles on a charge.  We’ll see.

(Thanks for the tip, nrChris!)

MIT Students Convert Porsche 914 To Electric [Treehugger]

Toolmonger reader Ohiohead tipped us off to this possible DeWalt Janet Jackson moment: the photo above is a screen capture of a “battery technology” video off the Dewalt.com site.  Note the battery on the left, identified by silhouette as a “Li ion 18V, 2.4 Ah.”   Could this be a very early shot of their much-anticipated 18V li-ion line?

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Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation recently announced a safety recall of all 14.4V 2.4 Ah and 18V 2.4 Ah NiCd Battery Packs manufactured between 1999 and February 2004.  These batteries were originally sold under the Milwaukee Power Plus, Chicago Pneumatic, and Extractor brand names.  According to the recall document, the battery packs could explode if an over-pressure vent inside the battery pack becomes damaged during use.

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Sizod writes: “Here’s a quickcharger with four 2500 mAh NiMH batteries featuring a convenient flip-out power plug so you can plug the charger directly into the wall.  It charges AAA batteries, too.  But the best part: It’s FREE with rebate.”

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