Cordless Tool Battery Platform

[Magicman]

I suppose over the years, I have had about all of the different manufacturers including Makita, B&D, Craftsman, but presently thankfully only have these three:


That 40 volt Ryobi on the left is a workhorse with lawn care tools.  I have Craftsman at the farm so whichever dies first; it or the Ridgid, I will be down to two.  I only have two Milwaukee tools which I bought this month.  I look for that platform to become my standard, but that will be several $$$ in my future.

[Ed_K]

 I have the center one, I've decided to buy only Milwaukee tools. I have tried a lot of different ones and they just don't last.

[Old saw fixer]

Milwaukee is my brand, all shop tools, drills, drivers, impact tools.

[SawyerTed]

The expense of switching batteries is what gets you locked into a line.   Mine happens to be yellow for that very reason.  I'll concede the red ones are probably better tools.   Dewalt tools generally get the job done.

A friend of my son was working as a welder 10 or 12 years ago.    He got an opportunity to go to New Zealand to work.  Of course it didn't make sense to take his tools with him.  He sold everything here to buy new when he arrived.  So I bought several things including an almost new set of Dewalt battery tools.  That's how I got on the Dewalt platform.

[hedgerow]

I ran 18V Dewalt for close to twenty years. Two rounds of tools and batteries with them. I liked them well enough. Couple years ago I was using the Dewalt sawsall cutting small cedars in the pasture and it died. Had to go to town anyway and went by the tool place and the Milwaukee factory trailer was setting there. So I stopped ended up with a new fuel brushless 18V sawsall and two 12 amp batteries and charger. That's all it took to get me hooked on Milwaukee. I gave away most of my Dewalt tools, batteries and changers to a friend of mine that still had my first set. I kept a couple Dewalt tools back and bought the battery adapter's and run Milwaukee batteries on them. I am all in on the red and really am liking them. I even have four chain saws now. One just came the other day. Have the two battery weed whipper and lots of power tools. 
'

[sprucebunny]

20-25 years ago I had only deWalt and Makita. I was faithful but they changed battery types (Makita) and my tools didn't fit or the batteries went bad too fast (DeWalt).

I didn't need much beyond my chainsaw for a couple of years. Then Home Depot came to town and I started on Ryobi. They are good for their cost. I started getting 40 volt lawn and garden last year.

About 7 years ago I got a Milwaulkee drill for Christmas from my ex husband. Loved it. When he died 6 years ago I inherited all his ( almost new) Milwaulkee; sawzall, holehog, multi tool etc. So now I buy both.

Recently got the  8" Milwaulkee chainsaw ( Ryobi 16" leaks oil) and Ryobi 6" circ saw .

Love cordless tools !!!!

[Wlmedley]

My BIL is a contractor and always had to have the latest and most powerful battery powered tools. He upgraded every time Dewalt came out with more powerful equipment and I got his old stuff either by buying it fairly cheap or sometimes he gave me stuff. Now Dewalt doesn't make tools that my 18V batteries will work with. I've had good luck with Dewalt but they keep changing the voltage. Like to have Milwaukee but I hate to start all over. I do have a Ryobi pole saw which takes a 40V battery and would like to have some sort of good battery powered weed eater but don't know what kind to get.

[rusticretreater]

I struggled along with craftsman and black & decker in my early years.  Tried a Makita drill and didn't like it at all.  Then the companies started turning to sucking the money out of us with the batteries.

I waited until Home Depot had a big special where they sold you a bag of tools and you got to pick two additional tools or extra batteries.  They also have smaller deals where you can get the batteries for less. 

One day, I was strolling through videos about fixing tool batteries.  As this is the present and the future, I opted to buy a small workbench size spot welder and make my own battery packs.  It is easy to do.  You just spot weld little metal strips to the batteries to join them together.

I don't know how much I really cut the cost of a replacement because I usually buy the highest rated batteries I can find that match the ones in the tool's battery.  BUT, you can bring back to life batteries that are no longer available so the older tools are no longer thrown away.  Now that is cost cutting. Just another thing in my never ending quest to not be held hostage to proprietary technology.

I have a bunch of different brands, mostly because the specialty tool they made is not available in other product lines.  I am mostly dewalt, but also have milwaukee, ryobi, black&decker, hitachi.

[doc henderson]

I have a box of over a dozen old yellow batteries that I saved for some reason.  maybe this is it.  i would like to turn them red, but have so many yellow.

[barbender]

I started out with Dewalt 18 volt, then went to the 20 volt max when I was having a hard time getting replacement 18 volt batteries. I bought a string trimmer, impact driver, and a 7 ¼" circular saw. I'm happy with the first two, but that circular saw was a disappointment. It really wanted to bind and stall (advertised as having the power of corded) eventually something fried when it stalled.

Dewalt replaced it under warranty with no issue, but the new one had the same stalling issue. When I got looking into the issue more, the saw is not aligned with the base plate. So when you are pushing the base plate straight across the work, the sawblade is turned a couple degrees. This is what caused the binding on this saw and the prior one I'm sure. I had to get a dremel out and widen the holes in the base plate, to be able to align it with the blade. 

Because of that issue, neither of the saws are lined up with the sight marks either. Not very impressive for a tool that was around $250 then.

Since then, I started buying some of the Milwaukee 12 volt tools and have been very impressed buy the power and build quality. They have such a huge line up of trade focused tools, you can tell there is a lot going into their product development.

Dewalt's 12 volt line is kind of a joke. Really, Milwaukee is the only game in the 12 volt category.

Well, I'd been eyeing a cordless framing nailer. Dewalt's got some poor reviews, where the Milwaukee was pretty positive. Lighter and more power. So I bought one, which kind of broke the ice for getting into the Milwaukee 18 volt line. So now there is a hammer drill, grease gun and top handle chain saw. I'm probably going to be focused on these red too now. 

One other brand I've been pretty impressed with is Metabo HPT (used to be Hitachi). I bought one of their 36 volt rear handle circular saws. It got really good reviews for having good power and being really light weight. I've been very happy with that saw. I bought it to use for trimming boards and slabs coming off the sawmill, and it works great. Well, I ended up also getting a tower LED light, a grinder, an oscillating multi tool and a cordless heat gun that has been very handy. 

I have a couple of Ridgid tools. Tools are fine, but the batteries (at least my 2 battery experience) are junk🤷

[Big_eddy]

I'm all Ridgid. Started many many years ago with a hammer drill when my corded Makita smoked..  Ridgid includes a Lifetime Service agreement which covers just about any damage and batteries too.  My hammer drill was rebuilt, my 3/8 drill was replaced, my 7" grinder has been rebuilt twice (I put a diamond blade on it and spent a summer cutting paving stones. Hard on bearings) and I've lost track of how many batteries they have replaced.  The 7 1/4" cordless saws I have outperforms my Pro corded Skilsaw. No lack of power.  All 4 boys are Ridgid too, probably because I bought half their tools for them.

Their most recent batteries area lot better than the old ones. Guess what they send me when an older one gives up.

[Magicman]

I will stay with the Ridgid here at home and the Craftsman at the farm until I have enough battery failures to sideline one of them.  I kinda hate to loose the Craftsman because they offered a charger that plugged into the truck cigarette outlet which was handy in the field.  I have a complete line of tools for both the Ridgid and the Craftsman.

I have two 5 gallon buckets full of Makita, B&D, Skil, and whatever else tools for obsolete batteries. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Hey just saying for all you 18V DeWalt guys (I are one of us) there is an adaptor for the 18v tools to take the 20V battery. We had a lot of 18v tools at the place I retired from ad they bought a handful of those adaptors so they could just use the newer batteries. I need to get one for my 18v drill. I have some 20v tools and have pretty much burned out all the 18v batteries I had but one.
 Also, Rustic, you can buy those batteries with the solder tabs already on then, I have a battery powered soldering iron. It's not great for benchwork and I go for my lab grade Wen every time. But when I need to re-solder an antenna connection at 3am on my roof or tower in February (You really don't want to know, do you?) I would go for that battery job every time. When the battery finally quit, I found those tabbed batteries and it made for a pretty quick fix. They don't make those anymore and I wanted to keep it in service.

[rusticretreater]

@Old Greenhorn  I don't think I came across the prepped battery type last time I looked to buy.  Thanks for the heads up.

While learning how to rebuild the battery packs I was informed that soldering the connections would not result in a strong bond due to the battery acting as a heat sink.  Also, the battery could suffer damage due to prolonged exposure to heat.  The spot welder uses a pulse at a pin point which is very fast, limits heat buildup and keeps it localized.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, you're right, those premade batteries are spot welded. I mis-spoke. I have not searched for them in over a decade, but they were out 'there' somewhere and probably through an electronics house because in those days I was buying a bunch of stuff for ham radio builds. Admittedly, it's been 'a while'.  But when I found them it made life easier for sure. I even fixed an electric battery razor the same way and got another 5 years out of it.

[SwampDonkey]

I put up the plywood on the walls and ceiling of my shop on one Dewalt 20V battery. Seems to work great for me. I'm not a building contractor and I'm not putting up a lot of out buildings around the property, so I suspect the thing will eventually die, but not from over use. I do notice one glitch once in awhile, when reversing the drill, sometimes it does not engage right away, it still wants to go forward. Something to make note of.  ;)  I have a small limbing saw by Worx on a 20V battery, great for cutting firewood in two if the sticks are little long. Will it last hours cutting that large diameter stuff, nope, just a few minutes. But I only cut enough for two days firewood in the shop anyway, and swap the battery out with a fresh charged one for next time. 2 hrs and a battery is charged and ready. One tool I was impressed with was the Ryobi pole saw, I have the big ash 40V 8 Ahr battery on there and it's got lots of charge after 4 hrs of pruning. And that's about all the pruning I care to do in a day. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   I got started with HF Braun 20V system and am well pleased with it so far. I have leaf blower, 10" chainsaw, 2 half inch drills, 3/8" impact wrench, stapler, 4" grinder/cut-off, vac,  and maybe another one or two I can't remember right now.

[jb616]

Nothing but Milwaukee here. I can cut over 100 6 in. Holes in the ice on 1 5.0 battery...Sawzall, drill, driver, circular saw, impacts...all red.

[Machinebuilder]

I am firmly in the Milwaukee camp.

I started out with a Hitachi set and except for the circlular saw they worked well. Then th nicad batterys started failing.

I went to the M18 and never looked back, I have got a couple M12 tools in the last year and they are great for tools you don't need the big M18 battery's

The M18 hachet pruning saw is the handiest for clearing out things the clippers are too small for but the gas saw is mot than I want.

I do need to get a new impact gun, the one I have struggles with the lug nuts on my truck.

[teakwood]

I started with Makita and stayed with it, haven't looked back. have the old 12V system and the newer 18V system, batteries are still going strong after 4-10 years!!

I don't have the newest 36-40V system

[GRANITEstateMP]

barbender brought up a good point on the Milwaukee trades tools.  I borrowed a buddys 12 rivet gun to do a fender repair on the boys atv.  I was just gonna hand pop, but 3/16 rivets can be a pain after a bit. Man, that little 12v rivet gun worked great, no misfires, no stuck rivet shanks, just worked!  I had a favorite air riveter, that thing can just go back to hanging out in the toolbox!

[SawyerTed]

My experience with the 60 voltmax Dewalt circular saw has been much different than @barbender.  

I don't doubt his problem with the circular saw.  I'm sure he knows what was happening with his. 

Mine has been quite different.  I framed 2 rooms inside a shop building, 12x14 and 12 x 16 including ceiling/loft joists.  I used the Dewalt 60 voltmax circular saw.  It required 2 full batteries to do the entire project.  

[barbender]

That 60 volt Dewalt has gotten all rave reviews on the tool pages I follow. I think it wins about every one in the power department. 

My issue with my 20v saw is really a manufacturing defect, and one that could've happened on any brands tools. I cant really explain what made me switch to Milwaukee, other than a few tools I used where the red one had more power or was better designed than the Dewalt.

Milwaukee seems like they are really hungry to be on top. If there is a market for a tool, they build it. Where Dewalt seems like they've been successful for a long time, are comfortable and don't want to change much. 

That's just my observation and opinion😊

Maybe a story could illustrate the point I'm trying to make- when I was 19, I got a chance to work on a union paving crew. The money was great and jobs were hard to come by. Well, they didn't really need me but we're giving me a chance because my dad worked there. So when the foreman or whoever told me to do something, I ran! Shoveling, I'd have a scoop or two in the air. I was working at a fairly frantic pace. One of my coworkers was also new that year. He was a full time hire, so he didn't work like he might not get called in tomorrow. He did his job- no more, no less. 

Well, after a couple of months of this the company decided to let the other guy go. Now, I was in no way trying to get him fired, but just trying to earn a place for myself. But I heard one of the guys saying later, "Burt shoveled that other guy right out of a job"😂 

If you can't see where I'm going with this, Milwaukee is hitting it like they are desperate for the job😊

[Magicman]

Here is a LINK to a graph showing the "mother" companies that own which companies. 

[gspren]

I am now firmly in the Milwaukee group after a couple of generations of Makita tools. My last Makitas were 14.4 volts and I had the batteries rebuilt twice then the impact driver developed issues plus I wanted to try some outdoor tools like string trimmer and hedge clippers so I decided Milwaukee wasn't changing volts every few years and they made everything I wanted, I'm now glad I changed brands.