Cordless Tools etc.

Private_Church

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I avoid this problem by buying all my cordless tools from the same manufacturer.

I tend to do the same but have had issues with Makita Li-ion batteries failing prematurely. Luckily if you send them back to Makita UK they test them and if they haven't gone through a certian number of charging cycles they replace them free of charge even if they are out of the 3yr warranty..... I may move over to bosch in the future as I think the quality of Makita has gone down a bit.

Gloomendoom

Private_Church wrote: »

I tend to do the same but have had issues with Makita Li-ion batteries failing prematurely. Luckily if you send them back to Makita UK they test them and if they haven't gone through a certian number of charging cycles they replace them free of charge even if they are out of the 3yr warranty..... I may move over to bosch in the future as I think the quality of Makita has gone down a bit.

Oddly enough, all my tools are Makita. I’ve not had a battery fail yet in five or six years. They get used pretty intensively too.

I have heard of this problem though and it seems to be caused by the batteries discharging completely. The battery management system built into every battery draws power from one of the cells even when the battery is sitting on a shelf unused. If that cell becomes completely discharged, the battery cannot be recharged or used.

I switched from Bosch to Makita as I thought Bosch quality had gone down.

Private_Church

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Oddly enough, all my tools are Makita. I’ve not had a battery fail yet in five or six years. They get used pretty intensively too.

I have heard of this problem though and it seems to be caused by the batteries discharging completely. The battery management system built into every battery draws power from one of the cells even when the battery is sitting on a shelf unused. If that cell becomes completely discharged, the battery cannot be recharged or used.

I switched from Bosch to Makita as I thought Bosch quality had gone down.

I originally bought the LXT 600 kit which included drill/driver,impact driver,grinder,skillsaw,torch and reciprocating saw and all 3 of the batteries that came with it failed early. Friend of mine bought similar type of kit and had no issues so maybe mine was a duff batch.. I love the recipro saw but the skillsaw is pants, impact driver and drill driver are good. Now have the 2x18v (36v) skillsaw which is very good. So I am relunctant in moving but like some of the Bosch kit and also Festool but much of that is overpriced.
One of my other Makita tools has issues too.Its the small handheld trimmer/router (240v) and have problems with the router cutters moving in the collet.....Makita LS1013 chop saw bought in 1994 and still going strong so I have had some good service from much of my Makita stuff.

As Each Penny said it would be a good idea to make companies accept recycling batteries and even pay a token payment back or discount vouchers etc would encourage people to recycle them but currently they dont like taking batteries through the post unless they are attached to a tools due to risk of explosion/fire.

custardy

chappers wrote: »

That's the issue in the DIY sector, trade tools by the same manufacturer have the same batteries.
Doesn't make commercial sense though, the tools themselves are worthless it's the batteries that cost the money, that's why it hasn't happened

I have noticed that just as everyone is just about on board with the micro USB some are changing away already, and not just apple

'we' are now moving to USB C. My last and present phone are C standard for charging.

Gloomendoom

I have the 18v circular saw and I love it. Great bit of kit. I also have the 240v mini router/trimmer and that does what it should. I haven’t any problems. I find the 2x18v tools can be a bit heavy although the chainsaw is on my Christmas list.

Maybe I have just been lucky.

EachPenny

Private_Church wrote: »

As Each Penny said it would be a good idea to make companies accept recycling batteries and even pay a token payment back or discount vouchers etc would encourage people to recycle them but currently they dont like taking batteries through the post unless they are attached to a tools due to risk of explosion/fire.

It should be possible for a scheme to work through the retailers - certainly Toolstation and Screwfix have the infrastructure in the UK to operate a 'swap' system.

I've used my brother's Makita trade tools and find them a lot better than Bosch. He got a trade Bosch drill at the same time as I got a DIY one. The battery appeared to be identical, the only difference seemed to be the colour of the case and the material used for the gearing. And the price. Both got approximately the same amount of use over the same period of time. The batteries both got to an unusable state at the same time. Since then he only buys Makita, but I stuck with DIY Bosch (as and when I can get them on offer ).

Nilrem

One of the lesser reasons that manufacturers use different battery packs is that it's one way to help try and make sure you get the performance you expect (at least with the higher end brands), whist cheap brands/models just use whatever the chinese factory that is making them has (most cheap cordless tools of the same type/voltage tend to only get made by a very small number of companies, with just colours and decals changing, so a Homebase 18v cordless drill is quite likely to use the same battery as one or more of the Aldi, Tesco, Argos or Wilko branded ones bought at the same time).
Even some "high end" brands use pretty much the same designs for their cheapy DIY models.


Professional power tools tend to use completely interchangable packs across the manufacturers range, for example all the current Makita tools use the same Ixo (I think it is) battery, and that same battery is backwards compatible with many of their older tools that were the same voltage (although you may have needed to buy a new charger), and older lower capacity batteries work with the newer tools (IIRC the IXO batteries come in 3, 4 and 5amp models).

I've got a couple of Makita NICAD/NIMH based drills, the charger that came with them would charge anything from 12v to 18v and both their nicad and nimh packs, and from memory they did do an upgrade where you could get a Li-ion battery pack and updated charger for them for a while.


I had some workmen in recently and it was was like walking into a Makita advert when I took them coffees, as there were half a dozen different tools all using the same batteries with a couple of chargers on the side

I personally like Makita a lot more than Bosch these days, we used to use Bosch a lot (my father used to buy the factory refurbed tools 20 odd years ago, and they lasted!), but the build quality of their DIY models has gone down a lot.

Slithery

No love for Milwaukee in this thread yet?

They've by far out-performed any other manufacturer that I've used and they all use the same battery, I think they even do 9Ah packs now that are compatible with all 100+ tools.

Private_Church

Slithery wrote: »

No love for Milwaukee in this thread yet?

They've by far out-performed any other manufacturer that I've used and they all use the same battery, I think they even do 9Ah packs now that are compatible with all 100+ tools.

I'm not sure they do "far out-perform" any other manufacturer, certainly not when I've seen them being used on sites. Amp hours is fine but the lifespan of a 9ah battery won't last any longer than a 4ah battery and you can buy 3 x 4ah for every one 9ah battery.

In my workshop I still have a couple of 18v Ni-Mh batteries that are 15yrs old and still hold a decent charge, flip side is Li-ion which have had problems with.

I'd rather have 3 batteries than one but thats just my opinion.

Nilrem

Slithery wrote: »

No love for Milwaukee in this thread yet?

They've by far out-performed any other manufacturer that I've used and they all use the same battery, I think they even do 9Ah packs now that are compatible with all 100+ tools.

I don't think they've got anything like the market penetration in the UK of the other big brands, and has has been said cost per battery etc comes into it.

Most tradespeople and DIY'ers will much rather 2 or 3 lower capacity batteries that can be swapped out (or replaced if damaged) over a single one that might have twice the capacity but cost three times as much.
Especially for jobs that might not require the tool to be in constant use, but does require swapping between multiple tools (so you have downtime to charge the batteries).