The Complete Handbook of Power Tool Batteries
A Field Guide for Professionals, Businesses, and Serious Hobbyists
by Alumigogo Books
non-fiction
Understand, choose, and maintain power tool batteries with practical, vendor-neutral knowledge. Extend their life and save money.
🔒30-day money-back guarantee — not right for you? Full refund, no questions asked.
About this book
Every contractor and serious hobbyist knows the sinking feeling of a dead battery on a job site. But most people treat their batteries as a black box, replacing them at full retail price without understanding why they failed or how to prevent it. This handbook opens the box. It explains the internal chemistry and electronics in plain language, empowering you to choose the right tools, maintain them properly, and diagnose issues before they shut down your work.
Covering everything from standard Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd) cells to modern Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) packs, the book includes a deep dive into specifications like voltage, amp-hours, and discharge rates. It provides a systematic approach to selecting a battery platform based on your trade, a practical maintenance schedule to maximize lifespan, and a field guide to troubleshooting common failures like the 'dead pack' or a charger refusing to recognize a battery.
For the entrepreneurial reader, there is a dedicated section on the business side of batteries: repair, rebuilding, and RMA management. Whether you are a one-person crew or a master electrician running a business, this handbook is designed to be a permanent reference on your shelf, taking you from first-time buyer to knowledgeable owner.
Reader Reviews
Jason Garcia
★★★★★Finally, a book that doesn't treat me like an idiot or a sales prospect. I've been a remodeling contractor for 20 years and honestly didn't know the difference between a 20V and 18V pack's actual cell configuration until I read the first chapter. The section on internal resistance is worth the price alone; it explained why my older drills bog down under load even when fully charged. This is going straight into my truck's glovebox.
Angela Smith
★★★★★I bought this for the maintenance and troubleshooting chapters, and it did not disappoint. The specific advice on storing Li-ion packs at partial charge for the winter is something I've never seen written down so clearly. I also appreciate the vendor-neutral approach; they don't fawn over any particular brand, which makes me trust the specs and comparisons much more. My only slight gripe is that I wish the business chapter was longer, but as a general engineer, I found it very informative and well-written.
Kenneth King
★★★★★As a facilities manager, I look after a fleet of over 50 cordless tools across three buildings. This handbook has been worth its weight in gold. It explains WHY a battery costs $150 and what you're actually paying for inside. The chapter on choosing is a brilliant framework for standardizing our inventory going forward, and we've already reduced our spare battery purchases since implementing the storage guidelines from Chapter 5. It's the new go-to gift for my apprentices.
Joseph Carter
★★★★★Good information overall, and much more factual than the manufacturer's literature you get in the box. I especially liked the explanation of 'charge cycles' regarding Li-ion batteries, as it legitimized a lot of what I'd read on forums but from a credible source. I knocked off one star because the early chemistry chapters felt a bit dense and academic for a general hobbyist like me; I just want to know which battery to buy for a drill, not the atomic structure of the anode. That said, the later chapters are full of practical gems.