Buy A New One...

Wouldn't you know it, I have my kitchen in pieces, a new dishwasher sitting here and boom my drill battery fries the charger.  While the drill itself works, I can't charge the battery.

FIGURES.

This is not the first time this has happened either.  Sigh.  Six or seven years ago, it happened.  When the batteres get to the point where they can't charge anymore, they short out the charger.  Its a sucky design.  At the time, we debated getting a new drill.  We figured we'd buy two new batteries and a new charger.  As it turned out, we ended up buying a really crappy compatible drill just for that batteries and charger.  I figured I would do the same thing this time.  WRONG.

I called the manufacturer only to be told they hadn't made that style of battery in five years.  So much for that plan.  I now have TWO perfectly fine drills that I can't charge.  Sigh.  The problem is, we both REALLY like THIS drill.  Its seen us through THREE major house renos and it works great.

I spent the day looking at drills.  Nothing really jumped out at me as really good.

I'm really not sure what to do.  When I called B&D the very perky person that answered the phone said "its time for a new one".  The environmentalist in me just feels wronged by that attitude of planned obsolescence.

I'm not even sure what brand to buy.  Black and Decker used to a be pretty decent product for the money.  The new ones look and feel cheap.  I had no idea that Ryobi was Home Depots house brand until I started reading about drills.  I have a Makita that isn't powerful enough but was a lot of money that has made me gun shy of tools.