Team no battery. Won’t get sucked into that mild convenience crack. The batteries cost a boatload and die after one or two years. You know it is a scam if the batteries are all proprietary.
Having to deal with an extension cord run up 35ft of scaffolding, not having power without a generator, having to run an extension cord through an attic or crawlspace, worrying about blowing a fuse because you are running a hammer drill and a vacuum, or dragging a cord around while doing anything sucks.
Being tied to a proprietary battery system only sucks if you need a tool that your chosen brand doesn’t offer. The price of having to buy enough batteries to get through the day does suck, but the convenience and time-saving makes it easier to tolerate.
Like most people buying and using them, yes. I do not make money on my tools. Doesn’t mean that I don’t use them daily. Most people do not need it and it is absolutely not worth it for most.
My Ryobi battery is fine after many years. I actually have a drill + battery from before they started the ONE+ thing. Works fine. And that’s why I stuck with them when buying an impact driver, circular saw and band saw (which do require a ONE+ but I make do with 1).
That’s interesting, the only cordless I’ve owned are Ryobi drill and impact driver and did not have the same experience. The batteries died after 18 months or so and I wasn’t going to pay for replacement batteries that would just do the same.
Every generation, the batteries get better and better. My first cordless were old NiCad batteries that slowly died to nothing. Second were a Lithium Ion, but the BMS in the battery made it so they slowly drained some of the cells until they were dead, and the battery stopped charging because of the huge imbalance in the cells.
Newer ones are much better, especially if you get the “pouch” cells. They’ll basically last forever. Even the newer Lithium Ion ones are fine, because they fixed the wonky BMS stuff.
Battery powered stuff is probably better than corded at this point, unless you really can’t manage a battery charger and swapping batteries. Heck, my battery powered chainsaw is better than my old gas powered chainsaw (again, unless you consider battery charging/gas filling), but I don’t ever have to leave my house to go fill up a gas can either, so it’s probably a wash.
It’s such a bullshit though. It’s all 18650’s on the inside, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to just swap them out. It’s just they are dangerous if shorted (but not as dangerous as powertools), and the actual cell manufacturers just want to shift liability on the end-user device manufacturers, so they won’t officially sell them to you. And the latter of course love this because it makes it easy to vendor-lock you in.
Solution - buy batteries off aliexpress and the likes. I’m pretty sure the Chinese folk have it all figured out a long time ago, probably even have the adapters for every brand. Alternative, take dead batteries to your local electronics repair shop, they are likely to be able to perform the swap. Disclaimer: I’m not a handyman, this is not a legal advice or whatever, just chiming in from a field with similar issues.
Okay so weird battery story. Long story short tools were stolen and replaced all my shit with the cheapest garbage I could get away with until I could reinvest peicemeal…
Got a shitty Black and Decker drill. Drill of course was not great but was mostly for drywall and wood at the time so it was enough… That thing’s battery was god tier. Like I know it wasn’t under super heavy load but I used the shit out of that thing and maybe charged it once every 2 months when most batteries in a drill might last me a week if it’s not a heavy use situation. Never seen anything like it.
Eventually the actual drill died like 5 years on the job but right up til the end that battery never quit. I almost miss the thing now even though I caught flack for having such a shit brand. But knowing what is possible made me wonder what the hell was in that thing. Magic? Uranium? Was it the shit drill just ran on damn near nothing? All of the above?
Maybe planned obsolescence is a truth in power tool batteries…
I used to be that way, then there was a holiday sale for my brand (one drill, one screwdriver with ratcheting). The big trick to batteries is storing them indoors. Yes, it’s a bigger PITA, but I’ve been thoroughly converted. 3 years running and my batteries and tools are still going strong.
Don’t get me wrong, I still buy corded for saws-all and stuff like that, but on drill/screw driver, battery works for 98% of all applications (hammer drilling cement being the rare exception).
Team no battery. Won’t get sucked into that mild convenience crack. The batteries cost a boatload and die after one or two years. You know it is a scam if the batteries are all proprietary.
You must not make money with your tools.
Having to deal with an extension cord run up 35ft of scaffolding, not having power without a generator, having to run an extension cord through an attic or crawlspace, worrying about blowing a fuse because you are running a hammer drill and a vacuum, or dragging a cord around while doing anything sucks.
Being tied to a proprietary battery system only sucks if you need a tool that your chosen brand doesn’t offer. The price of having to buy enough batteries to get through the day does suck, but the convenience and time-saving makes it easier to tolerate.
Like most people buying and using them, yes. I do not make money on my tools. Doesn’t mean that I don’t use them daily. Most people do not need it and it is absolutely not worth it for most.
My Ryobi battery is fine after many years. I actually have a drill + battery from before they started the ONE+ thing. Works fine. And that’s why I stuck with them when buying an impact driver, circular saw and band saw (which do require a ONE+ but I make do with 1).
That’s interesting, the only cordless I’ve owned are Ryobi drill and impact driver and did not have the same experience. The batteries died after 18 months or so and I wasn’t going to pay for replacement batteries that would just do the same.
Every generation, the batteries get better and better. My first cordless were old NiCad batteries that slowly died to nothing. Second were a Lithium Ion, but the BMS in the battery made it so they slowly drained some of the cells until they were dead, and the battery stopped charging because of the huge imbalance in the cells.
Newer ones are much better, especially if you get the “pouch” cells. They’ll basically last forever. Even the newer Lithium Ion ones are fine, because they fixed the wonky BMS stuff.
Battery powered stuff is probably better than corded at this point, unless you really can’t manage a battery charger and swapping batteries. Heck, my battery powered chainsaw is better than my old gas powered chainsaw (again, unless you consider battery charging/gas filling), but I don’t ever have to leave my house to go fill up a gas can either, so it’s probably a wash.
I got them in 2019.
It’s such a bullshit though. It’s all 18650’s on the inside, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to just swap them out. It’s just they are dangerous if shorted (but not as dangerous as powertools), and the actual cell manufacturers just want to shift liability on the end-user device manufacturers, so they won’t officially sell them to you. And the latter of course love this because it makes it easy to vendor-lock you in.
Solution - buy batteries off aliexpress and the likes. I’m pretty sure the Chinese folk have it all figured out a long time ago, probably even have the adapters for every brand. Alternative, take dead batteries to your local electronics repair shop, they are likely to be able to perform the swap. Disclaimer: I’m not a handyman, this is not a legal advice or whatever, just chiming in from a field with similar issues.
Okay so weird battery story. Long story short tools were stolen and replaced all my shit with the cheapest garbage I could get away with until I could reinvest peicemeal…
Got a shitty Black and Decker drill. Drill of course was not great but was mostly for drywall and wood at the time so it was enough… That thing’s battery was god tier. Like I know it wasn’t under super heavy load but I used the shit out of that thing and maybe charged it once every 2 months when most batteries in a drill might last me a week if it’s not a heavy use situation. Never seen anything like it.
Eventually the actual drill died like 5 years on the job but right up til the end that battery never quit. I almost miss the thing now even though I caught flack for having such a shit brand. But knowing what is possible made me wonder what the hell was in that thing. Magic? Uranium? Was it the shit drill just ran on damn near nothing? All of the above?
Maybe planned obsolescence is a truth in power tool batteries…
With venture capitalists on driving the main brands, it absolutely is.
I used to be that way, then there was a holiday sale for my brand (one drill, one screwdriver with ratcheting). The big trick to batteries is storing them indoors. Yes, it’s a bigger PITA, but I’ve been thoroughly converted. 3 years running and my batteries and tools are still going strong.
Don’t get me wrong, I still buy corded for saws-all and stuff like that, but on drill/screw driver, battery works for 98% of all applications (hammer drilling cement being the rare exception).
Yeah I stored them indoors. Not for me.