Comment by tomcam
3 days ago
FWIW I find these batteries and the charger to be exceptional. You can just leave batteries in and it knows when to stop charging. If you get the big charger and put a bunch of batteries in it charges them round-robin style. And the batteries themselves seem to be sturdy, robust, and high capacity. They're also expensive af so you want to wait for a sale if possible. I even spent a ridiculous amount of money on the battery-powered wet/dry vac and haven't regretted it for a moment.
> You can just leave batteries in and it knows when to stop charging.
This is true of all modern lithium ion consumer hardware, because if you don't get this part right, the battery explodes and burns down your house the first time.
One of my co workers decided to charge his drone at the office and found this out . Or more accurately the whole office did
The DJI batteries and charger are very clever too. The batteries auto discharge to a safe level after 2 weeks on the shelf
Is there now a section of the employee policies that forbids charging drones in the office?
3 replies →
I just switched over the last 6 months over to Milwaukee tools for my home DIY stuff and they are really exceptional. I got one of the 7 1/4" circular saws with a FORGE battery and it just cuts everything I've thrown at it effortlessly. I'd put it as more powerful than my Dewalt 10" corded tablesaw, at least it seems much happier to rip a 2x4 than the table saw. I even designed a 3D printed sled for it to run on my track saw tracks and it does a great job there.
Some of the battery powered tools really are more powerful these days, since a home 110v circuit is limited to a total draw of 1800w or so. The latest gen 18v/24v batteries can actually deliver more than that, at least for short bursts. Especially the big 4AH+ packs.
I recently purchased a M18 trimmer after not using one for years, it still surprises me that when not on the throttle - "off" is truly off, and not the persistent hum of a 2 stroke that is too loud in your left ear. No fumes and no fuel/oil mix to worry about.
I've tried to minimize the number of battery families I have, but I did buy into the Ego set of tools ~10 years ago for the yard tools, starting with the mower but I've since added the trimmer and chainsaw. Not having to do small motor repair and maintenance has been so nice!
I was a little annoyed that some of the Milwaukee tools require you to go with the M12 battery (the "bandfile" is what sucked me in) so now I've got 2 battery ecosystems for the tools, but I guess that's not the end of the world.
Even TTI’s lesser Ryobi stuff (my usual go to as a DIYer who bought two tools 15 years ago and the batteries are still compatible) has benefited immensely from tabless and 21700 cells. My 21700 8aH batteries is usually the difference between “can’t cut” and “huh is slowed a little <shrug>”
I think the Ryobi are a good choice. ~12 years ago I got Porter Cable tools, and they worked very well for me over that time. But there was a pretty limited set of tools available, it did cover the core ones though. I had previously had DeWalt tools and felt I didn't use them up to their potential, so I went "down" to the Porter Cable.
I almost went with Ryobi when I did my recent refresh. But I've changed to doing way, way more with the tools, I'm basically using them every weekend now. And the Milwaukees are just a joy to use, though you do pay for that. One benefit I didn't realize when I bought the hammer drill: It will detect if it grabs and the tool starts spinning. I was using a mini auger to break up some soil and the Porter Cable I nearly broke my wrist when it grabbed. I got the Milwaukee partly because it had a second handle you could add, but the accelerometer worked even better than that.
I never buy the batteries - I always look for a tool with the battery, as you can almost always score a free tool (or free battery depending on how you look at it).
The 4x 18V/5Ah batteries that came with my lawnmower (which uses them in pairs) are retailing for for $560.
And then not as any sort of special deal, just the standard retail bundle, the lawnmower with four batteries included costs $700. So that's $560 of batteries and $140 of lawnmower.
It's funny how lithium ion cell prices have absolutely cratered everywhere else, but the price of tool batteries just keeps going up.
I wish there was somebody making reputable quality compatible tool batteries instead of mystery brand counterfeit trash.
You get what you pay for.
Tool batteries as a general rule don't do anything fancy internally, so they are easily substituted. I suspect it's mostly a matter of the main buyers being tradies/workers who use them to make money and thus don't care that much about the expense of the batteries - they probably aren't replaced that often.
Would be nice if there was a 3rd-party seller known to use quality cells though, rather than unknown off brands.
Curiously, the mystery brand Bosch-compatible batteries on I bought on eBay -- literally cheapest seller -- seem to work very well even after years.
With brandless batteries, it's luck-of-the-draw, but overall, as much as I do wish there were some way to know what you're getting, I've had good luck more often than not.
What's also been nice is the rise of adapters. My Bosch blue batteries now fit many places they didn't used to.
1 reply →
At this point I suspect the only way we're getting compatible tool batteries is if the E.U. comes out with regulation.
No company actually wants to make it easier for people to buy other tool brands.
2 replies →
> It's funny how lithium ion cell prices have absolutely cratered everywhere else, but the price of tool batteries just keeps going up.
Seems like the tool batteries might be the new ink cartridges.
Behold
https://ceenr.com/ !
ceenr.com batteries appear to be ok.
Seems like this is the kind of thing that could be the basis of a community?
It feels like there is a segment the tool co's are selling toward, that leaves another segment underserved.
Eip if this is something you want to hobby-horse on.
Drug dealers give out feelers to get customers started.
Indeed, I've been really pleased. They continue to hold a solid charge for years as well, even when left in harsh environments (like fluctuations between extreme hot and cold, etc). When I first started using battery power tools they were terrible. They had almost no power and batteries would die rapidly, usually at the worst possible time (like when you're using arms, shoulders, and knees to hold a piece in place and you just need to get a couple of screws in to hold it in position and the damn thing dies). A few years ago my wife got me a Milwaukee power driver/drill set and it almost instantly became my favorite tool. I haven't switched to the saws yet because I have great saws that stay in my shop, but I'm impressed enough that if I need to go to a work site again I'll consider it very seriously, whereas in the past I never would have.
They're not the only battery tools I have (also have some Makita), but I am a big fan of virtually all my M12/M18 stuff. From the track saw, to the portable bandsaws, to the band files, oscillating multitools, reciprocating saws, jigsaws, drills, drivers, blowers, string trimmers, etc... their lineup is just incredibly diverse, servicing many trades/tasks, and they hardly ever make a 'dud'.
Their batteries, at least in my experience, have also been similarly long-lived and reliable over years. And yeah - like some others have said - I also get all my batteries from 'battery included' tools/deals. I don't think I've ever bought one by itself.
I have three M18 batteries that are from 2011, and have outlasted 4 Ryobi batteries that get much less abuse.
Define abuse — because what Lithium Ion hates more than anything is long periods stored at over 80 percent, and especially heat stress while fully charged.
Batteries which are used regularly and spend more time between 20–80 percent full might be less "abused" than batteries which are used infrequently, and stored in a room which sometimes gets hot.
I’d say the thing any lithium seems hate worse, for me, are long periods at 0%.
As a homeowner I’ve had Ryobi lithium batteries for over a decade. Other than having added a couple battery packs from deals and a couple batteries from tools, I’ve not had a single one of my batteries fail. All are being stored at the maximum charge. Some don’t last quite as long these days, to be expected with age, but not one has actually failed even from being dropped off ladders onto concrete. I did, however, have a Dewalt at work that died from falling 4 feet to the carpet floor. I’ve only had one Ryobi tool fail in that time, and those circumstances were questionable since someone had borrowed it.
Experiences are localized and subjective.
1 reply →
Same with my blue Bosch batteries from 2010. They use quality cells
Where do you usually look for a sale on Milwaukee? I got lucky finding a great bundle sale at a Home Depot once, I'd love any tips on where/when to look more specifically.
Home Depot is usually pretty good. Bundles are available fairly commonly as starter packs if you need to start from nothing. The drill/impact kit is likely where I'd begin since both of those (gen3) are exceptional in my opinion.
Where it gets fun are the "buy a battery pack and get a tool free" deals. I had a bunch of text typing this out, but the stickied Reddit post covers it better[1]. You can typically get the tool you want for 40-60% off when/if it goes on sale using the "Home Depot Hack". Most common tools do at least once a year - the esoteric items are more hit or miss.
I rarely pick up a tool now at full price. Once I know I want one, I simply add it to a list and note when it goes on sale in one of those combo deals. I've also picked up way more batteries than I ever will need due to other sales as well.
The Milwaukee "buy more save more" event also works well if you need what is going on sale at the time.
Reddit /r/milwaukeetool is a good place to check in from time to time for sales. Slickdeals is great for setting up an alert, but the exceptional deals get sold out quickly once it hits that site. There are also Discord groups out there as well if you go deep down the rabbit hole.
Warning: Once you learn about Packout this becomes somewhat of an addiction for certain personalities.
[0] https://old.reddit.com/r/MilwaukeeTool/comments/1gwhvi9/the_...
HomeDepot is one of the few warranty retailers. The “Special Buy of the Day” is updated a few minutes after midnight and usually has power tools about 10% of the days or the year. Right now HD is running their “Black Friday of Spring”. Some of the best deals for hand tools are in-store clearance, so you just have to be in the store and find it (SlickDeals will try to announce those, but inventory for those are store-specific).
Sadly one of the best ways to get cheap Milwaukee M18 tools is the “hackable” sales from Home Depot: when 2 SKUs bought together makes them both cheaper, but if you buy them online and have the 2 SKUs sent to different HomeDepo stores, you can cancel one of the SKUs later and the non-cancelled one is deeply discounted. It’s probably a violation of ToS, but customer service reps allow it and support it, so maybe it’s not actually a violation… ? It feels like corporate may eventually ban users who abuse that and cost more money than they are worth.
Milwaukee doesn’t sell via Amazon or eBay and there are notoriously good Chinese clones on those sites.
I did get 3 decent Milwaukee (mostly M18) deals on Woot.com, but you have to jump on those quickly.
There is a great website that does good price history + price comparison between HomeDepo, Lowe’s, and WalMart but I can’t find the link. If anyone has it, please share.
1 reply →
Slick deals: https://slickdeals.net/f/18256009-milwaukee-m18-redlithium-x...
https://toolguyd.com is good for tool sale notifications.
Acme Tools, sometimes Grainger will have a sale too
Home Depot website