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Battery-powered tools & equipment

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HardcoreClone

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Jul 28, 2006
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I would like to start assembling a set of home tools and equipment that can all be powered by the same battery. Weed trimmers, blowers, drill, impact, saws, etc. Anyone have experience with these? Ryobi, Stihl, any other brands?

Right now I have a variety of cord, cordless, gas powered stuff. As I move forward with replacing some things or buying new tools, I think it would be nice to have everything using the same power source. Thanks for any suggestions!
 
Ryobi, for its price point is great. It's typical home ownership type of tools. Sure Milwaukee and DeWalt are great products too but its anywhere from 50 to 100% more price.
 
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If you aren't looking to get heavily invested Ryobi is probably the way to go for everything. I'd recommend going the route of having two sets of tools/batteries (low voltage and high) - I doubt the outdoor tools at 18v/20v work very well.

If you're looking to shell out some cash I'd probably do DeWalt (20v) for tools and Ego (56v) for outdoor
 
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I would recommend going with Dewalt or Milwaukee, but that is coming from a person who uses his power tools most days. I do have a 20v Dewalt Leaf blower that works surprisingly well. But I still go back to my gas powered stihl leaf blower for big jobs because of how much better gas is than battery power.
 
I would recommend Makita. They have a one of largest tool offerings for their cordless products. Also, they carry 18V and 36V battery powered tools, but their 36V tools use the same batteries as their 18V tools (2 x 18V battery = 36V). This allows you to get some higher powered tools while keeping with the same battery platform.
 
For the home enthusiast, t's all about battery life and how often you use the tools. When I was shopping for my latest set of cordless tools, Milwaukee and Makita came up in my research as the best batteries. I have owned the cheaper versions in the past and use them quite often. The cheaper brands might seem like a good deal at first, but when you need to start buying new batteries after a year because they won't hold a charge, that deal doesn't look so great anymore.

So, it really is a matter of how often are you using the batteries. If this is a once a week thing, then you are probably fine going on the lower end. If you don't use it that much, you won't notice the difference in quality of the actual tools either. If you are burning through 4 or 5 battery charges a week though, look for the best batteries as your decision maker.
 
I'm a huge fan of Dewalt FlexVolt, using 60V for "big" tools like their string trimmer and circular saw and 20V for "small" tools like a drill, big/small being how much "battery power" they consume. Charger works for both 60V and 20V batteries, and you can use the batteries interchangeably if want, although a trimmer would use up the 20V battery very quickly. A 60V circular saw is pretty close in performance to a corded tool, while an 18V circular saw is so underpowered as to be dangerous. 60V string trimmer performs as well as corded/gas, although may need 2 batteries for a typical suburban lot, and no cords or gas/oil mix to hassle with. Batteries recharge quickly. Batteries are expensive if purchased alone, but Dewalt runs frequent tool deals that include batteries.

Oregon makes a 40V chain saw, and also a 40V pole pruner, that are great. Battery power=no struggles to start every time you need to pause to remove trimmings etc, no gas/oil to mix, vastly quieter, and cut equally well to gas powered for typical homeowner use, considering bar length as to how large is safe to cut. The batteries power the tools for quite a while, enough for typical homeowner use, AND the chainsaw has a chain sharpener incorporated that is fantastic. If you go out to play Paul Bunyan ever weekend, maybe better to stick to gas power.

Spend a little more, once.
 
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JP4CY said:
Ryobi, for its price point is great. It's typical home ownership type of tools. Sure Milwaukee and DeWalt are great products too but its anywhere from 50 to 100% more price.
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JY07 said:
If you aren't looking to get heavily invested Ryobi is probably the way to go for everything. I'd recommend going the route of having two sets of tools/batteries (low voltage and high) - I doubt the outdoor tools at 18v/20v work very well.

If you're looking to shell out some cash I'd probably do DeWalt (20v) for tools and Ego (56v) for outdoor
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I will also make a case for Ryobi. Ryobi isn't "elite" like Milwaukee is, but you can find their products in any chain-store (Lowe's & Home Depot). You can find all the products you mentioned (weed eater, drill, saw, blower, etc) already on the shelf in those stores. You could load up your cart with tools and sign up for one of their in-store credit cards and save a ton with the discount, then pay off the card and cut it up.

Milwaukee and Dewalt you can have those items shipped directly to the store, I suppose but that's another trip.

This is coming from a guy that owns a ton of Rigid tools (Home Depots product line). They aren't bad, but I'd ditch them in a heartbeat for Milwaukee.
 
I absolutely LOVE my DeWalt tools. The drill and impact set is amazing. I've also added the leaf blower and hedge trimmer. Both tools have plenty of power and last forever.

I should mention I have only used the 20V ones, not the 40 or 60.

I've only had them 2 or 3 years now, so I don't know how long the batteries will hold out.
 
I'm a big fan of our Kobalt 80V blower and trimmer. Replaced Stihl gas blower and trimmer and didn't see a difference in power. I've used 20V and 40V systems before, but they definitely we're a step down from gas powered.
 
I just recently bought a pair of Milwaukee drills. One was an impact the other was just your normal drill. So far I'm loving them. Even though I spent $279, I expect them to last well over 5 years with moderate to heavy use.
 
I appreciate all the info. I don't do a lot of carpentry or odd jobs, but plenty of yardwork. To say I'll use these tools daily would be a stretch (probably light to moderate use), but I want to buy something quality and will last me a while.

I assume all of these are lithium ion batteries? Anyone know if that technology is here to stay or is there something new on the horizon?
 
Can't say that I've been very happy with my Dewalt battery powered tools. They are about 7 or so years old, I may have used them a couple times per month, and now both batteries won't hold a charge.

Maybe it wasn't wise to always leave them plugged in.
 
I have the Black and Decker 40v hedge trimmers and weedeater. Love them both. The batteries are interchangeable. I want to get the leaf blower but it doesn't get very good reviews so I will probably get the Kobalt 40v leaf blower...my Dad has one and he loves it. Even uses it to blow snow.
 
I have Stihl outdoor stuff with DeWalt power tools. Absolutely love both. Beat the ever living hell out of the drills/impact wrench/jigsaw/circular saw from DeWalt and give the leaf blower/weed wacker hell.

I can definitely tell the difference between my Kombi unit and battery powered Stihl outdoor stuff if you need something with a bit more juice. The Kombi unit absolutely crushes any battery powered equipment I've tried out.
 
dmclone said:
Can't say that I've been very happy with my Dewalt battery powered tools. They are about 7 or so years old, I may have used them a couple times per month, and now both batteries won't hold a charge.

Maybe it wasn't wise to always leave them plugged in.
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Are they Nickel Cadmium or Lithium Ion? NiCad aren't good to be left in all the time. You always hear horror stories about "battery memory" and most of that comes from non Li-On batteries.
 
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NickTheGreat said:
Are they Nickel Cadmium or Lithium Ion? NiCad aren't good to be left in all the time. You always hear horror stories about "battery memory" and most of that comes from non Li-On batteries.
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My bad, I just got home and they are Ryobi not Dewalt. Looks like 12v NI-CD.
 
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