We need battery adapters for cordless tools.

[Mike007]

I think the different tool manufacturers should be making adapters to allow newer batteries to run older tools. I recently upgraded. I went from Milwaukee to Bosch. I just liked the Bosch better. If Milwaukee had an adapter that allowed me to run my older less used tools such as my sawzall and circular saw on the new battery's, I would have went with a Milwaukee impact and drill. It strikes me as really wasteful to discard good tools because the batteries are obsolete.

I know I could fabricate my own, but I would rather have a professional looking OEM adapter. Maybe a third party company will start doing this. Maybe even adapting different brands. FWIW, I sent an email to Milwaukee suggesting they start making adapters.

 

[Marc Benjamin]

Dewalt has one coming out to allow 20v to be used on the 18v old line.

 

[Mike007]

Dewalt has one coming out to allow 20v to be used on the 18v old line.

Yes, I saw that. Maybe others will follow?

 

[Sine Swept]

Pre-planned obsolescence

 

[Ray-CA]

John Pinette: [about his having to wear pantyhose during his role as a woman on Broadway] Guys! We have our underwear 10, 12 years! Ladies just throw pantyhose out! I'd go through a crate of 'em a week! And the pantyhose rip for no reason! You just... *rip*. We have material that stops bullets and the pantyhose are ripping? It's built-in obsolescence! It's ********!

 

[bonneyman]

Screw 'em! I just convert my old but still usable cordless tools to corded, and run them off a power supply. An old car battery charger will run 9.6 to 12 volt tools, and more than that you'd just have to rig up a hand portable transformer to the voltage you were running. Long extension cord - you're set!

I just love the old Makita stuff. Just recently converted a 9.6v flashlight to 9v radio batteries. Installed 3 batteries in parallel to extend the life - works great. Heck, got the light for $2, conversion was about $6 in parts. For a newer 18 volt light you'd hook the batteries in series. Easy peezy.

 

[Mike007]

Pre-planned obsolescence

Absolutely. Would the market be big enough for a third party to make it worthwhile to make adapters?????

If someone started making downloadable patterns for a 3D printer, that would be ideal. I would gladly pay for it and have it printed.

 

[driz]

I think the different tool manufacturers should be making adapters to allow newer batteries to run older tools. I recently upgraded. I went from Milwaukee to Bosch. I just liked the Bosch better. If Milwaukee had an adapter that allowed me to run my older less used tools such as my sawzall and circular saw on the new battery's, I would have went with a Milwaukee impact and drill. It strikes me as really wasteful to discard good tools because the batteries are obsolete.



I know I could fabricate my own, but I would rather have a professional looking OEM adapter. Maybe a third party company will start doing this. Maybe even adapting different brands. FWIW, I sent an email to Milwaukee suggesting they start making adapters.

You think of it as wasteful, they think of it as more sales. Which idea do you think the corporate bean counters follow? It's all about the [emoji389][emoji389][emoji849], always was, always will be.


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[jkwilson]

If they did, somebody would put one in the wrong charger and sue them when it blew up.

 

[kctyphoon]

You are better off just buying a new combo kit and then buying new bare tools. If you don't want to upgrade, then just take the hit and buy replacement batteries for your old tools.. In most peoples experience it just not worth doing what u want to. The technology has improved so much its worth upgrading.....

Just compare something like dewalts 18v circular saw to something like the new Milwaukee fuel models.. They are worlds apart. Many people upgraded tools for the same reason, myself included

 

[tsbrewers]

I can speak for this, I am a contractor and have no less than probably 20-25 different dewalt 18v tools. It would be pretty dumb and pretty expensive to replace all of them, so I have been hanging on by just buying new 18v batteries occasionally. And when I have needed new tools, I started going to makita. So the thousands of dollars I have spent on Makita tools in the last couple years, most likely would have gone to Dewalt had the batteries either been compatible, or if they would have come out with an adapter right away.

a few years ago, dewalt had like 70% of the cordless tool market, now they have something like 20%. They shot themselves in the foot when they got behind on the battery technology. They went from the 18v, to the A123 batteries, and then finally to the lithium like the other brands. But that 5 year? window of basically being in Limbo killed them. Had they just kept the same form factor for each new battery technology, and just made it that the newer chemistries would not fit in an old charger, they would have been fine.

 

[pauls_workshop]

What you have to do is just spend the couple hours and make your own, then you have it forever after. When you a done, post the writeup as a how to here for others:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=229042&highlight=orphan

- Paul

 

[kctyphoon]

I can speak for this, I am a contractor and have no less than probably 20-25 different dewalt 18v tools. It would be pretty dumb and pretty expensive to replace all of them, so I have been hanging on by just buying new 18v batteries occasionally. And when I have needed new tools, I started going to makita. So the thousands of dollars I have spent on Makita tools in the last couple years, most likely would have gone to Dewalt had the batteries either been compatible, or if they would have come out with an adapter right away.

a few years ago, dewalt had like 70% of the cordless tool market, now they have something like 20%. They shot themselves in the foot when they got behind on the battery technology. They went from the 18v, to the A123 batteries, and then finally to the lithium like the other brands. But that 5 year? window of basically being in Limbo killed them. Had they just kept the same form factor for each new battery technology, and just made it that the newer chemistries would not fit in an old charger, they would have been fine.

Most people are not in this 25 tool situation,, but it's either pay now or pay later.. There's no getting away from that.. Dewalts battery adapter is not the miracle cure.. It makes the tools larger than they need to be and as I said your not far off from a kit price if u just start buying new lithium batteries by themselves..

 

[Waterlooboy2hp]

What you have to do is just spend the couple hours and make your own, then you have it forever after.

==========================

I did just that, last year. As a follow-up to the link below, I went on to buy one of the drills, with the newer battery. It came with a charger, but its Not a quick charger. HF sells a quick charger, but not for the batteries used on the 2ed drill I bought.

I bought the quick charger anyway and started making an adaptor to fit between the newer style batteries for my 2ed drill and the quick charger. I can now use the newer style batteries on both the older drill and the newer one, as well as quick charge them for both. --- John

http://www.mytractorforum.com/43-tool-time/590226-battery-drill-adapter.html

 

[Off-Street Parking]

If you don't want to upgrade, then just take the hit and buy replacement batteries for your old tools.. In most peoples experience it just not worth doing what u want to.

How can you say "in most people's experience"... for a product category that doesn't even exist on the market?

People talk about it on the forums, people adapt batteries between makes on their own, and Dewalt is introducing an adapter. Clearly there IS a demand for this kind of product.

 

[Mike007]

You are better off just buying a new combo kit and then buying new bare tools. If you don't want to upgrade, then just take the hit and buy replacement batteries for your old tools.. In most peoples experience it just not worth doing what u want to. The technology has improved so much its worth upgrading.....

Just compare something like dewalts 18v circular saw to something like the new Milwaukee fuel models.. They are worlds apart. Many people upgraded tools for the same reason, myself included

Buying new old generation batteries is not the answer for me. I don't use the tools I'd like to adapt enough, the circular saw in particular. It's nice to have on the truck when I need it, maybe once or twice a year. The old NiCad batteries would drain between uses. And I really like the Hatchet sawzall which isn't made anymore. I'm seeking one with a cord now. I may just throw my corded circular on the truck too.

 

[kctyphoon]

How can you say "in most people's experience"... for a product category that doesn't even exist on the market?

People talk about it on the forums, people adapt batteries between makes on their own, and Dewalt is introducing an adapter. Clearly there IS a demand for this kind of product.

if you DONT belive me, then take it upon yourself to create a thread asking how many people upgraded to newer lithium tools instead of just buying lithium batteries for their older tool sets.. take a tour of the Milwaukee addiction thread. im willing to bet close to half the people in that thread are converts from either dewalt / ridgid / makita for the EXACT reasons i listed.. i did the math before i swapped over, and buying litium batteries for $90 each, and a lithium charger for $70 just didnt make sense when i could buy a refurb Milwuakee Fuel hammer drill and impact driver, with two 4.0 batteries and a dual charger for $209 shipped to my door... so it was either spend $180 for 2 batteries with like 3.0 amp hours combined, $250 with a charger included - or $209 for 2 batteries with EIGHT combined amp hours, dual charger, and 2 current, industry leading tools that still offered a warranty...


for MOST people that have a standard 4 or 5 tool kit - its a no brainer, and a waste of money to sink more into a tool kit thats outdated and out of warranty. the first combo kit you buy can break even for what YOU WOULD HAVE spent. selling off older tools can pay for at LEAST one brand new litium tool, or maybe 2 refurbs that still come with a warranty - so that leaves you with spending money on maybe one more tool to upgrade what most people had - and then you open the door to a new tool line that offers MUCH more than your old outdated set, in both torque and additional tools. id hate to bring reality into the convo - but thats the hard truth - ask around, its been discussed here MANY times already.

edit - i had all 18v dewalt stuff too, and i said the same thing about wanting an adapter when i didnt want to upgrade the stuff i had.. however, 2 years later (i think) i am absolutely happy i did. now i have much better tools, all lithium that dont drain in 2 months of storage, and MUCH larger collection of 18 and 12 volt tools, heated gear, and so many lights i dont even know what to do with them.. the fact its, tools have come such a long way - its hard not to buy them sometimes cause they can make everyday life so much easier without the aggravation of tools dying after 10 minutes of use, and batteries being dead every time you pick them up..

not to mention the opportunity right now with the HD $150 off promo - they have had "deal of the day" sales with $1000, 8 tools 18v Milwaukee sets for $599, and 8 tool Dewalt sets for $499.. i belive they even had a 5 tool deal for $299 one day.. you think its not worth upgrading NOW, your crazy..

 

[Strouty]

The biggest future issue we are going to have is lack of recycling, when people start tossing these batteries it will be a bad thing. It is ridiculous to think that they could not have specific sizes of cordless tool batteries just like they do for most batteries. All the cordless tools are the same shapes, so why not. I don't think it would stifle innovation, it would probably make things better, because the manufacturers would have to actually make something that is worthy of upgrading the tools.

 

[DieselSaves]

http://www.powerhawk.com/products_p-16-rescue-system_accessory-kits.html

Scroll down to see one style of adapter for powering Milwaukee cordless tools on what looks to be 12v.

 

[fourjeepin]

I'm in the idle of switching from the Dewalt 18s to Ridgid and thinking about making an adapter myself. I have the Ridgid drill and impact, will probably end up with the recip saw for Christmas, but am thinking of keeping (for now) my grinder and circular saw. I think it can be done without making it overly bulky. Hmm, not that I need a another project, but maybe I will surf over to eBay and look for some parts.

 

[Off-Street Parking]

if you DONT belive me,

You're missing the point.

This thread isn't about whether bundles are a better value than individual batteries/chargers, and it isn't about whether newer batteries and tools are better than older batteries and tools.

It's a thread about adapters. A thread about how you can't use your new batteries on your old tools, and you can't use batteries from Brand A on tools from Brand B, as nobody makes adapters to do either one.

If adapters were available, we could take advantage of those sweet bundles to get new tools and new batteries for great prices AND stretch the useful life of the tools we already have. No reason to sell and re-buy everything at a loss, and do a complete system change, for sets of low-use tools that are perfectly fine other than the batteries.

 

[Moose2367]

Do you mean like this? I will probably get one, as the cassette batteries are no longer made by Hitachi, they are all slide now and bigger Ah.

http://www.toolmarts.com/hitachi-327055-adapter-slide-2-stick-battery

Or do you mean from one brand to another?

 

[dogdog]

maybe some one here with a 3d printer can print you one off adapter?

 

[Cato]

It strikes me as really wasteful to discard good tools because the batteries are obsolete.

Before I got interested in tools I would always buy corded tools. I totally skipped the Ni-Cad years.

 

[kctyphoon]

I'm in the idle of switching from the Dewalt 18s to Ridgid and thinking about making an adapter myself. I have the Ridgid drill and impact, will probably end up with the recip saw for Christmas, but am thinking of keeping (for now) my grinder and circular saw. I think it can be done without making it overly bulky. Hmm, not that I need a another project, but maybe I will surf over to eBay and look for some parts.

youd be amazed what some "newer" non working tools sell for on ebay..

 

[Danglerb]

Battery cells of all types have VASTLY improved in the last few years. Thread on the flashlight forum found most users have zero or few failures after about five years using Sanyo Eneloop cells. Lithium once you weed out the odd bad cell ends up with very long life packs.

Rebuild old packs with new high quality cells.

Issue with adapters is that there are three places to put "the smarts"; in the tool, in the battery pack, or in the charger. Lithium cells need reliable protection for both charge and discharge.

On the plus side for adapters; you could use a universal pack that would charge your phone or jump start a car, control circuit could allow you to feed the tool with whatever voltage and current regulation you want.

BTW lots of 20v tools are a lie, just used peaked charged voltage vs typical running voltage. Lithium cells are usually considered 3.6v, but are briefly 4.2v fully charged, so 5x cells could be called 18v or 21v depending on the marketing dept.

 

[fourjeepin]

Re: Home Depot Clearance Thread 2015

youd be amazed what some "newer" non working tools sell for on ebay..

Yeah, I was last night. I think the lowest I saw for broken/parts was $40 something. So then I looked for lights thinking I could pick one of those up super cheap, but they were all $30 something. This was looking on eBay buy it now for Ridgid 18v.

 

[pauls_workshop]

What you have to do is just spend the couple hours and make your own, then you have it forever after.

==========================

I did just that, last year. As a follow-up to the link below, I went on to buy one of the drills, with the newer battery. It came with a charger, but its Not a quick charger. HF sells a quick charger, but not for the batteries used on the 2ed drill I bought.

I bought the quick charger anyway and started making an adaptor to fit between the newer style batteries for my 2ed drill and the quick charger. I can now use the newer style batteries on both the older drill and the newer one, as well as quick charge them for both. --- John

http://www.mytractorforum.com/43-tool-time/590226-battery-drill-adapter.html

Very nice adaptor Waterlooboy! That is super slick! Mine is a bit crude in comparison, but gets the job done. Next up for me, make one that lets me power Ridgid 18v with my Ryobi batteries too, which are better than the Ridgid ones being 4 amp hour! - Paul

 

[danski0224]

if you DONT belive me, then take it upon yourself to create a thread asking how many people upgraded to newer lithium tools instead of just buying lithium batteries for their older tool sets..

Warning: Milwaukee content ahead....

I tried the original V18 batteries soon after they came out. Those are lithium batteries designed to be compatible with the Milwaukee 18V NiCd tools.

I bought 2 of these V18 batteries at over $100 apiece.

They sucked. The promise was there, but the technology wasn't ready compared to NiCd at the time.

It took a long time to get over that experience, and now, I don't think that anyone is releasing new NiCd tools anymore.

I don't know if Milwaukee ever updated those V18 batteries- I never considered buying another one. Nor did I look into buying 3rd party LiIon batteries compatible with the 18V Milwaukee tools (those 3rd party LiIon batteries are certainly not without risk). I did OK with 3rd party NiCd batteries for Makita and Milwaukee.

One of those 3Ah NiCd batteries sure seems to weigh almost as much as a new tool and a 2Ah LiIon battery together. That is one immediately noticeable difference.

Having used a Milwaukee 18V set for over 10 years, the current M18 and M18 Fuel stuff is a major improvement, not to mention the myriad number of tools that never existed in the original 18V/V18 platforms... and Milwaukee has finally released a proper 2 speed transmission cordless 90* Hole Hawg.

It would have been nice if Milwaukee maintained battery slide compatibility, but I suspect that the change was driven by battery/tool protection circuitry. The V18 LiIon batteries were physically bigger than the 18V NiCd batteries, probably due to the protection circuitry.

I also miss the Hatchet Sawzall, but Hackzall is close.

 

[rslaback]

Re: Home Depot Clearance Thread 2015

I'm in the idle of switching from the Dewalt 18s to Ridgid and thinking about making an adapter myself. I have the Ridgid drill and impact, will probably end up with the recip saw for Christmas, but am thinking of keeping (for now) my grinder and circular saw. I think it can be done without making it overly bulky. Hmm, not that I need a another project, but maybe I will surf over to eBay and look for some parts.

Yeah, I was last night. I think the lowest I saw for broken/parts was $40 something. So then I looked for lights thinking I could pick one of those up super cheap, but they were all $30 something. This was looking on eBay buy it now for Ridgid 18v.

You might find some useful information here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4626036#post4626036

 

[rslaback]

Very nice adaptor Waterlooboy! That is super slick! Mine is a bit crude in comparison, but gets the job done. Next up for me, make one that lets me power Ridgid 18v with my Ryobi batteries too, which are better than the Ridgid ones being 4 amp hour! - Paul

Ridgid has 4ah lithiums as well as 5ah.

 

[pauls_workshop]

Ridgid has 4ah lithiums as well as 5ah.

Ah, those must be pretty new. Very good. BUT, I have a bunch of Ryobi batteries, so I still need my adaptor. I got some Rigid tools this year cheapo but only one battery. I'm not planning on switching to Ridgid, but want to use my Ryobi batteries in the Ridgid tools I have. I'm staying with Ryobi as my main brand. - Paul

 

[rslaback]

In that case I have a dead nicd ridgid battery that you can have the case to if you want to cover the shipping of it.

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[Danglerb]

Tis the season for dishonest people to buy broken tools cheap and return them.