from Hacker News

The Golden Age of Cordless Power Tools

by bobchadwick on 2/14/24, 2:14 PM with 149 comments

• by xyzelement on 2/14/24, 3:20 PM

  I was very skeptical about battery powered power tools but I am coming around.

  When we bought the house, I bought some corded yard tools (weed whacker and leaf blower) because I was assuming battery ones are weak and unreliable but the reality is that operating these things while wired in is just a huge pain in the ass. Meanwhile my neighbors who have battery powered equivalents are doing just fine. My mower (which came with the house) is battery powered and works great.

  The Ryobi drill I bought when I moved in here almost 3 years ago has been working great and I literally had to charge it only once in this time (I guess I don't use it often but the fact that a power tool maintained charge for 1.5 years is impressive in itself.)

  I guess I also took a bet on the battery world when I bought a hybrid. Likewise going strong going into the 3rd year.

  Maybe it's time to stop thinking of batteries as weak and unreliable. But they are definitively an additional point of failure and complexity.

• by namdnay on 2/14/24, 3:08 PM

  > Similar is happening in the cordless power tool industry. There’s Dewalt and Milwaukee – in no particular order – and then everyone else.

  this seems to be a very US-centric analysis? if I were to look at Europe I'd say that on the pro market there's Hilti and then everyone else. and the consumer market is very open (Bosch, Ryobi, Makita, Dewalt etc)

  EDIT: and of course, Parkside, aka the greatest value for money of all time

• by Freak_NL on 2/14/24, 3:11 PM

  Is it? Every corded power tool I buy comes with a standard power plug (region dependent of course). Plug it in, and it works. Buy another tool from a different brand (perhaps they are better at that type of tool), and now you have two tools which just work.

  If you go all in on cordless, now battery management becomes an issue. There is no universal battery solution, so you either have to commit to a single brand, or deal with several charging stations and battery types. If one of these tools manages to survive for a decade or two, you now have to deal with old batteries with may or may not hold a charge for a decent while, and get into the hell that is after-market batteries. The corded tool meanwhile, will just work.

  I have a cordless handheld drill, and a cordless impact driver. Those are two of the tools you really want to have cordless. I got them from the same brand with four batteries and two charging stations. The rest is all corded. Extension cords are cheap.

• by jakedata on 2/14/24, 3:27 PM

  It is important to choose your battery system and stick with it. I selected Makita because that's what my contractor uses to make a living. I recently took advantage of my state's green lawn care rebate to purchase a heavily discounted Makita lawn mower which -crucially- came with 4 big batteries that fit all my other tools.

  It is also important to realize that a pair of 18v Lithium Ion batteries can deliver more wattage than a regular (USA) household electrical outlet, especially while using an extension cord. The Makita chop saw is a great example of a battery product that is actually superior (IMHO) to the corded version.

  Makita's fast chargers have a built-in fan that cools down a hot battery and maintains optimal temp during the charge cycle. Even my oldest batteries still work great.

• by amluto on 2/14/24, 3:03 PM

  I wonder if everyone but the top two is starting to regret the proprietary batteries. It would be a break from tradition, and potentially incompatible, but the other manufacturers could adopt a joint battery standard to try to attract users who aren’t willing to go all in on a single system.

• by starkparker on 2/14/24, 4:09 PM

  One of the nicest trends for me has been pairing them with 3D printed adapters and accessories, which has really started to dent manufacturers' attempts at proprietary accessory platforms. I've bought or commissioned 3D-printed track rail adapters to use a DeWalt router on a Kreg track, a DeWalt 20V battery adapter to power 18V Ryobi tools, and dust nozzle adapters to connect my shopvac hose just about every tool, and they all just seem to work without much fuss.

• by _fat_santa on 2/14/24, 3:09 PM

  One thing that excites me as a gear-head is the availability of affordable electric impact tools. When I was a kid, the only folks that had impact drivers were mechanics as they required an air compressor to operate. Now I can walk into Home Depot or even Walmart and walk out with a cordless impact driver that's just as good as the old air powered tools for <$100.

• by bombcar on 2/14/24, 3:09 PM

  Toolguyd (guide, get it) is good writing, and he's obviously annoyed that few manufacturers talk to "old media" anymore (he is more like a newspaper writer than a social media influencer).

  I sometimes wonder what percentage of "tool sales" are "prosumer" - it's pretty obvious with cameras, for example, that some are designed to be sold to prosumers and some are designed to be sold into professional industries.

• by jakogut on 2/14/24, 3:07 PM

  I cut down and removed some forty trees of heaven, ranging forty to sixty feet tall and up to ten inches in diameter, using an M12 8" pruning saw. I went through a lot of batteries, a couple chains, and almost a full bottle of bar oil, but I didn't need to hassle with a small engine.

  They make an M18 version now that would've been nice to have at the time.

• by binarymax on 2/14/24, 3:19 PM

  Totally agree. The only problem is that batteries are so expensive you need to align yourself with a brand so that you can swap batteries between tools. I wish there was a standard battery spec, so that they were interoperable between brands - but that's unlikely to happen.

  Also shoutout to ProjectFarm (https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectFarm/playlists) who has amazing videos that help decide which tool to buy. He has so many videos on all kinds of things, here is is playlist on power tools specifically: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjT3B9r2z3fVnLuTMmLfn...

• by josefresco on 2/14/24, 3:08 PM

  We bought into the DeWALT system and have been pretty pleased.

  Air compressor (stays in truck)

  16" Chainsaw (I've cut up several large trees no sweat)

  Handheld leaf blower (way quieter than gas)

  Torque wrench (stays in truck for wheel emergencies, I tow)

  Drill (for around the house)

  We recently had our first battery die which I feel is good luck considering we've had some of the tools for years. The next tools will probably be a pressure washer, and a reciprocating saw.

• by btbuildem on 2/14/24, 3:26 PM

  It does depend on what you're doing. I have a small driver that fits in my belt pouch easily -- the battery doesn't last long so it's always on shuffle at the charger (I have two) but it's light and small and convenient when crawling around or climbing ladders.

  I have a 300 rpm corded beast of a drill for mixing concrete, and I wish you luck doing that with a battery-powered one. This thing sounds like a land rover climbing a hill in low gear, and puts out about as much torque.

  I've got a cordless framing nailer that sinks 3 1/2" nails with ease, and isn't that much heavier than an air one, without the hassle of hoses and compressors.

  I've got a corded chop saw with its own fold-out stand, usually that thing is planted in one place for the duration of the job.

  Oh yeah, and I have five different chargers for the whole menagerie of tools, because why would there ever be a standard?

  There isn't a one-size-fits all solution -- some tools are better corded, some more practical with battery power. It depends on your use and situation.

• by bemusedthrow75 on 2/14/24, 3:23 PM

  Does one really want a cordless table saw?

  Isn't the additional ability to kill the power from the mains useful?

• by tocs3 on 2/14/24, 3:49 PM

  I have an old Porta Cable 505 finish pad sander (maybe abound 50yo) that I would not want to give up. It will run all day every day. One nice thing about it is its flat top. I can turn it over and use it as a sanding table for small parts. I think some of the attraction to new tools are the flashy tennis shoe colors and shapes.

  In a shop setting cords are not bad.

  Old tools were often just made to run forever and are serviceable. Parts are getting harder to find but maybe 3D printers will help and McMaster Carr (a great web site) has lot of stuff.

  Old pro tools are often an order of magnitude cheaper than anything new and will work just as well they always have.

  I love my cordless Ridgid drill and driver. I will buy some new stuff but will stick with used (and even vintage) when I can.

• by blindstitch on 2/14/24, 3:19 PM

  15 words is not a paragraph! Why are so many people writing this way? Is it leakage from Twitter?

• by snshn on 2/14/24, 3:20 PM

  Those are garbage. Stick with HILTI, Metabo, Fein, Festool. Or Japanese-made Makita, as the last resort.