Craftsman 11343 9.6V Ni-MH Replacement Battery 1500mAh

Craftsman 11343 / 315.22189 — 9.6V Ni-MH Replacement Battery (11074)

This is a 9.6V 1500mAh Ni-MH replacement battery for the Craftsman 11343 and 315.22189 cordless drill/driver. It replaces OEM part numbers 11074, 11100, and 974852-002. Fits directly into the original battery housing without modification.

• 11343 and 315.22189 platform fit: Both models share the same 9.6V battery rail, connector pinout, and pack housing dimensions — one battery covers both. No wiring or adapter needed.
• Bench tested on actual hardware: We ran this pack through charge and discharge cycles on a 9.6V Ni-MH charger. The BMS held stable charge acceptance across all cells, and the pack hit full rated capacity without cell imbalance.
• Ni-MH conditioning on first use: Run the drill through two full charge and discharge cycles at moderate load before any heavy fastening work. Ni-MH cells reach stable capacity after cycling — skipping this can leave you with less usable charge than the pack is capable of delivering.

BMS cutoff on motor-start inrush in the Craftsman 11343

When you squeeze the trigger on a cordless drill, the motor draws a spike of current — often three to five times the running load — before the armature reaches speed. On a fresh or recently stored Ni-MH pack, the BMS may read that spike as an overcurrent event and cut power instantly. This is not a faulty battery. The protection circuit is doing its job, but it needs the cells to be fully charged before the thresholds calibrate correctly. Charge the pack fully before the first heavy-torque application and the cutoff behaviour will settle.

Charger not recognising the new pack after storage

Ni-MH packs self-discharge during storage — if a pack sits long enough, cell voltage can drop below the charger's acceptance threshold and the charger will refuse to begin a charge cycle. You'll see a blinking or absent indicator light with no progress. To recover the pack, some Craftsman chargers have a trickle or reconditioning mode — engage that first. If yours does not, connect the pack and check for a voltage reading above 7.0V across the terminals; anything above that and a short manual trickle at 100mA for 15 minutes will typically bring cells back into range for normal charging to begin.