Dewalt is my cordless tool of choice. 20volt lithium , Far too many of them. There are a few others I use also. Ryobi for inflator, rotary tool., work light and fan. EGO for outdoor work. Chainsaw, hedge clippers. lawn mower. snow blower.
Naw, Nicad lasts longer than anything if you treat it right. Longer than NiMH. I think they have the longest rating of anything, like 20 years/2000 cycles. The battery packs just used to be like 1200mah so by the time they got to like 80% SOH they felt empty.
1 Thank
What about the memory effect. This is/was a huge issue.
You just had to cycle them a few times and the capacity comes back. I just did this with the NiCad AAâs in the solar lights in my yard. Theyâve been out there for idk how many years, partial cycles every day and night. They had literally like 3mAh capacity lol. I charged and disarged them a dozen times and, i didnât check how much capacity they still had, but itâs enough that they stay on all night again.
Not so much memory, its more like they needed to âexcercisedâ now and then. If you never fully discharged them they didnât get exercised. But when you do most of the capacity can come back.
I have a working Craftsman cordless drill that I bought back in the 1980âs. Canât tell if the batteries die sooner than they used to but itâs still meeting my needs.
1 Thank
M18 here, with a small selection of m12⌠And a ryobi battery converter. Mechanic by nature, home repair-dude since i bought this house. Go ryobi.
Actually feel like i grabbed the wrong brand at first. Dont get me wrong i love my milwaukee stuff, the ratchets and impacts are #1. But ive had 4 m18 12.0 batts fail and 5 9.0s fail⌠Not a single tool went in for warranty yet. My oldest battery isten years old next week but big batts SUCK at balancing.
Im At the point where i just dont care what brand, i want my tools to work. i dont wanna have multiple batteries/chargers, im Already commited to milwaukees expensive ass battery line (fyi can buils your own packs wayyyyyyyy cheaper). I own a ryobi converter to power my neighbors odds and ends. Pruner, show shovel, and even his mower impressed me!! Same parent company, tti. But wayyyyy more tool selection through ryobi.
Wheres my milwaukee glue gun? Mileai makes one for the m18. Also can find an aftermarket pressure washer for the m18, but no milwaukee version. But youll find both of them and more through ryobi.
1 Thank
Ryobi 18v. I have drills, several impacts, jig saw, reciprocating saw, area light, vacuum, buffer, sander, portable power station, grinder, etc⌠and they all have served me well. I have probably a dozen batteries and not one has went bad yet. the only thing i donât like about ryobi is the stuff is not compact because of the large battery. So I own (3) Milwaukee tools that i need compact⌠the 1/4" impact gun, small drill and the 3/8 ratchet. Royobi has the largest tool selection out of everyone.
For my yard equipment, 40v ryobi. Brushless chainsaw, brushless weed eater m(with pole saw and edger attachments), brushless blower and i have a 4 cycle head for backup.
1 Thank
These 3:
Dewalt (son bought me a drill/driver set after trying to drive a 4" screw with my older Hitachi.) This âgiftâ has morphed into a large monster with a Dewalt cordless circular saw, oscillating tool and others. Once you have the batteriesâŚ
Ryobi One plus (Dewalt didnât make a cordless hot melt glue gun and Ryobi does). Ryobi batteries are cheaper than Dewalts, so now I have a few other Ryobi tools, jigsaw, etc. Ryobi has a huge lineup, and eventually you buy one and then have the batteries for more bare tools. Tools are good, plentifully available, and relatively/comparatively inexpensive.
Ego - best cordless yard tools made IMO. Have the lawnmower, string trimmer, hedge trimmer, 16" chainsaw and 2 blowersâŚall of which all use the same battery.
1 Thank
I got into the Ryobi 40V lineup the year before Ego came out and have had buyerâs remorse ever since. While the batteries have improved from their original warranty terms plus a partial season useful lifespan theyâre still disappointing in terms of how many Wheaties⢠theyâve got to give when the going gets tough.
Black and Decker here. Old NiCad converted to Lion with balance taps. Charge on a hobby charger. Works fine.
(Tried to do a 6s pack on what should have been a 4s pack. Weed whacker REALLY whacked, until it started smoking.)
Anyone know if the BnD connection to the tool is the same for NiCad and Lion? Could I use my old converted packs in modern tools?
1 Thank
A few M12 Milwaukee tools, but mostly DeWalt 20v stuff.
If you decide to send in those defective 12A packs, hopefully youâll find Milwaukeeâs warranty repair/replacement process as painlessly streamlined as I did. Other than it taking longer to get the M12 Tire Inflater back than I would have expected, it was otherwise the best warranty replacement experience Iâve ever had.
Of the 20+ M12/M18 battery packs I currently have, I only have one 12A M18 pack, but havenât had any issues yet, and hopefully never will. But in case something occurs, I would appreciate knowing what you experienced with those defective 12A packs of yours, if youâre willing. Thanks!
I dont know if it helps at all but black and deckers lion lineup has batteries that are compatable with porter cables 20v line up. I mightve had to file a tab on a battery, but nothing drastic. Got my dad from b&d to portercable this way.
1 Thank
Absolutely painless warranty, takes like 2.5 weeks to get the batts back, its just worrysome its only the 9s and 12s that have failed me, thankfully the 12s in warranty. 9s not so much⌠I wonder if the 9s disspeared for this reason. Still though I can keep myself working all day, sometimes days depending on the tasks. Def no 20, but 10 is adequate for me and what i do. 20 would be job territory to me lol.
Milwaukee uses the best cells of anyone. They used to use a lot of LG cells with Samsung and Molicel mixed in. Now I only ever see Samsung, 30Qs, 25S/R, 20S/R. Good stuff. DeWalt is pretty good too, lot of 25R and 20R. Makita is always Panasonic/Sanyo. Quality stuff too.
Ryobi/Rigid use the same cells, Eve, Lishen and a brand called HighStar, pretty much 1:1:1. Except the top of the line like >9ah stuff. Those often have Samsungâs. HighStar is the worst of the 3. They claim to be high drain but they donât have any characteristics that would suggest that. Low drain and low capacity. Not good stuff. Hate those. Unless your pack is more than like 5 years old, then itâs samsung.
Everyone used Samsung 20R/25R until like 5 years ago, even the cheap brands. Now thereâs a lot of HighStar around.
Black and Decker is the worst though, just no-name china brand cells almost all of the time
Makita 18V drill/driver (15+ years old). Dewalt 12V drill and impact driver set (small and handy). Recently picked up some EGO yard tools (18" chainsaw, 670 CFM blower, and 21" SP mower for my ditch frontage). The EGO saw is a beast. Eats battery though.
Before, was a witchesâ brew of whatever HFS had for sale in cheepie drills, etc.
Then it varied, but I got into Ryobo and their 1+ stuff, plus assorted stuff that Iâd get on their own.
Frankly, aside from some drills, almost all my actual power tools are all wired. Just comparing my neighborâs battery-powered oscillating-tool vs my wired one⌠no comparison. I never took mine off minimum power, and even that was like a jackhammer.
Same thing with a hedge-trimmer. His is convenient, absolutely, and I âborrowedâ his when he was doing the bushes up front, but my wired one just slicesânâdices like nuttinâ.
Wired vs battery is no comparison. Moped vs Hellcat.
Those corded Hedge Trimmers are tough to not cut the cord
I have a few battery tools â Ryobi 18v and Ryobi 12v that Iâve rebuilt the packs with VTC5A cells ( big upgrade)
You are absolutely right about corded tools though â I framed houses and thereâs no way battery tools could endure that torture â Thousands of cuts in a day or screwing down a complete sub floor
But for convience uses they work great
1 Thank
I agree
I have always said, all those fancy cordless tools are for homeowners to show off, myself included.
All or most of the contracrors I have seen use corded.
Yeah, I nailed one of those cords myself, too. Nice big honkinâ 50ft red/black extension that was like 14ga⌠cut right in half when it got hung up on a branch and I wasnât looking.