Has anyone tried this new battery from craftsman
Yes
or is it just more hype, to sell more product,
And yes
I got 5 of these "starter kits" along with 5 of $50 coupons (had) they came with.
They haven't been out long enough for people likely to have put them through extensive use. From what I have seen not very many people are into the CM V20 stuff & those who are mostly for home/DYI use. That and when the first Advanced battery came out (6ah) with the high price I can't imagine that many people bought em.
The Advanced packs have "tabless" 18650s in them. AFAIK, they are the first of the common known tool brands to use em. Everyone else is using 21700 cells for tabless packs.
I have used a few of mine. But not heavily & not long enough to tell how much better they are (if at all) than my other standard non tabless packs. And I may never know, I've been a MW user for the past 10+ yrs. I use MW at work and at home.
Before I got these Advanced batteries, the only CM V20 tools I had was the V20 screwdriver & handheld vac. With all those $50 coupons I now have much more V20 tools than I ever would have expected or wanted but they still will all be for home use & not used heavily.
May seem like a waste to others but they were free & with the coupons I got unbeatable deals on stuff I never would have purchased otherwise. In the end their batt swap promo did do what they intended.