Black & Decker RD1440: Discontinued — What to Buy Instead
A 14.4V NiCd drill/driver kit from the DIY range. Discontinued, and its battery platform is gone.
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The RD1440 was a 14.4V nickel-cadmium drill/driver kit from Black & Decker’s home DIY range — the kind of tool sold in a blow-moulded case with a spare battery, a charger and a small bit set.
It is discontinued, and so is the platform. Black & Decker moved to 20V MAX lithium years ago, and 14.4V NiCd packs are no longer made by the manufacturer.
The battery problem
This is the whole story with tools of this generation. The drill itself rarely dies; the batteries do.
NiCd cells lose capacity sitting unused and develop internal resistance that makes them collapse under load. A twenty-year-old pack that shows a charge on the charger will often run a drill for thirty seconds and then quit. Third-party replacement packs exist and vary wildly in quality, and they usually cost more than a current entry-level drill.
If your pack still holds up, the drill is fine for light work. If it does not, the tool is not worth rebuilding.
What to buy instead
Almost anything current is a substantial improvement, because lithium-ion changed three things at once: packs hold charge on the shelf, they deliver full power until nearly flat rather than fading, and they are far lighter for the same capacity.
The Ryobi ONE+ HP brushless drill kit, linked below, is the natural replacement in the same market position — a DIY-focused platform with a huge tool range and cheap bare tools once you own batteries.
If you would rather stay with Black & Decker, the 20V MAX range is the direct descendant. Either way, buy into a platform that is currently sold, because the battery is what you are really committing to.