My bride takes care of our lovely garden and lawn. One of her favorite trimming tools is the American Gardener CS18. We’ve gone through a couple rechargeable batteries now (*hint* bring the battery inside your house during cold winter months) and it continues to operate fine. For others trying to replace or upgrade to a more potent battery pack, I’ve used the make/model below and there are likely other packs that work just as well.
The Venom Power 3000 mAH NiMH flat battery pack has more capacity than the inferior 1800 mAH Ni-Cd (p/n 700228) battery pack the CS18 came with. Yes, the new battery will take longer to charge, but does this really matter to most yard warriors? Plug it in and charge it overnight. For those who find the Venom Power 3000 later fails, initiate an online claim for Venom Power’s lifetime warranty; the first year Venom Power offers complete replacement and years two and greater they will give you 30% off a new battery. I’ve exercised the latter option once – the first Venom Power battery pack lasted 3 years before it suddenly failed on us and as I said above, the failure could have been due to cold temperature when it sat out in the garage for a winter season (or two).
To install a new battery pack, you’ll need to take the CS18 apart. There are 4 Phillips screws to get into the tool, all located on the side. Once inside, take a picture in case the spring flies out later, which it will. The wiring connectors the Venom Power comes with are different than your existing battery. If you’re handy with a soldering gun, I recommend breaking apart the existing wiring harness inside the CS18 to reuse its metal slip on jacks with the new battery pack (or don’t be a cheap bastard like me and pick up new jacks at the hardware store). Here’s a pic inside the tool, in case it helps anyone:
View of CS18 innards when replacing battery back.
** Update 6-24-2021 **
For those who need to replace the power adapter, we used the make/model pictured below and it continues to charge the Venom Power battery pack just fine at 7.5 volts, center pin positive, and at around 600 mA (probably less at 7.5 volts, which is fine).
CS18 replacement power adapter, back side
CS18 replacement power adapter, center pin polarity setting
Looks like you can still pick this power adapter up on eBay.
If Walmart gets stock back, you might try this link.
Hello Fellow Gardener!
I have a CS18, a thing of beauty which I think has never been used! I’ve had it for some time and would like to use it. But I am looking all around the very full garage/tool area for the CHARGER.
So, could you tell me what the charger looks like? Apparently you can attach it to the wall and store the CS18 on it when it’s not being used. If you could email me a photo of your charger, I would be very grateful! I could just try to start the CS18 but I doubt that the batteries will work without an overnight charge. Like I said, I don’t think it’s ever been used. (My husband bought it some years ago and he has passed away so I must carry on the gardening without him.)
Warm regards,
Terry Ellen Ferl
Saint Louis, MO
Will snap a picture of this when I’m back home.
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For Terry and others looking for a replacement charger, I am updating the post above with pictures of the replacement charger we bought – the original one seemed to stop working a couple years ago and the replacement charger that is pictured has been working well.