Stranded,
Don't get carried away with "18V". What decides how long your drill will last and how much you get from your batteries is the capacity in Watt-hours. (Multiply amp-hour by voltage).
Any quality brand (read expensive, because with tooling you NEVER get something for nothing sadly) drill with Lithium batteries should contain necessary circuits to prevent you from knackering your cells by over discharging. The drill will quickly loose power because the controller won't let the battery fall below about 3V/cell. (Lithiums die totally if flattened, Nicd/Ni-mh can put up with that treatment a little better).
So if you buy a cheapo brand, look at the battery capacity as well as the voltage. In the consumer market "Voltage" is used the same way by Marketeers as "Megapixels" is in the camera world. - More must be better and sod the consequences (which are often bad, unless everything else improves alongside). A well designed 12V tool could have much more torque and battery life than a cheapo 18V tool.
Lithiums are good though, you won't go wrong with Makita, expensive yes, but you soon forget the cost when it just works..
FYI "Memory Effect" is vernacular for nickel crystal growth which happens between the plates in Ni-mh and Ni-cd cells when they are over charged or over discharged too much. They partially or fully short out the cell. Ultimately the crystals can puncture through the separator layers and short out the cell totally. - Henceforth it becomes useless cell which will have 0V across it and won't accept any charge. Any oldies about might be familiar with "zapping" such cells with a high current kick to blow away the filament. (This is emergency treatment and at best will get a little more life from the old Nicd/Nimh battery before it fails again).
Don't get carried away with "18V". What decides how long your drill will last and how much you get from your batteries is the capacity in Watt-hours. (Multiply amp-hour by voltage).
Any quality brand (read expensive, because with tooling you NEVER get something for nothing sadly) drill with Lithium batteries should contain necessary circuits to prevent you from knackering your cells by over discharging. The drill will quickly loose power because the controller won't let the battery fall below about 3V/cell. (Lithiums die totally if flattened, Nicd/Ni-mh can put up with that treatment a little better).
So if you buy a cheapo brand, look at the battery capacity as well as the voltage. In the consumer market "Voltage" is used the same way by Marketeers as "Megapixels" is in the camera world. - More must be better and sod the consequences (which are often bad, unless everything else improves alongside). A well designed 12V tool could have much more torque and battery life than a cheapo 18V tool.
Lithiums are good though, you won't go wrong with Makita, expensive yes, but you soon forget the cost when it just works..
FYI "Memory Effect" is vernacular for nickel crystal growth which happens between the plates in Ni-mh and Ni-cd cells when they are over charged or over discharged too much. They partially or fully short out the cell. Ultimately the crystals can puncture through the separator layers and short out the cell totally. - Henceforth it becomes useless cell which will have 0V across it and won't accept any charge. Any oldies about might be familiar with "zapping" such cells with a high current kick to blow away the filament. (This is emergency treatment and at best will get a little more life from the old Nicd/Nimh battery before it fails again).
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