Tapage
Club 4X4 Panamá
I've been tempted with those 20V Dewalts .. but ! damn what I'm gonna do with all my 18V dewalt tools and all my batts !
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My father in law has a makita 18v set, that lasted just over a year. Batteries are both dead and its so expensive to replace them it's not worth it. The problem apparently is that cold temps will kill the batteries at least for those drills. Only takes one -20 or -30 degree night and they're toast. Not sure why that is the case.
I've been tempted with those 20V Dewalts .. but ! damn what I'm gonna do with all my 18V dewalt tools and all my batts !
Tell your Dad I'll take those Makita tools off his hands. You won't get mine from me, and I've used pretty much them all. I never leave my batteries out in the cold. I got 5 good years out the original batteries, and that was after a LOT of use.
The Dewalts we have in the Habitat tool shed all have crappy plastic chucks.
My Makita drill has a hammer function, I have used it many times. The only complaint I have with having one drill that "does it all" is the thing is too darned big and heavy for most uses. Besides, if you're putting in 100 TapCons, you're gonna want to go with a corded hammer-drill rather than risk overheating the batteries.
Makita LXT drills in tool only(no batteries or charger) are starting at 89.99 currently in the hammer drill and drill driver flavor
Not sure if you're aware, but the "new" 20v tools are the same actual voltage as the old Dewalt 18v tools. Just a marketing deal to distinguish the two sets so people don't complain about compatibility.
Ultimately DW decided that the compact slide in style battery was the better choice and at some point they would have to make a clean switchover. So the 20v was born.
I believe the solution is simple. Buy a 20v kit of some sort with a cheap light. Cut apart light base plus 18v batter pack and some wiring and gluing = adapter from old 18v DW to new 20v DW. That's what I'll probably go with if/when I end up needing to replace tools or batteries and move to the new system.
After a closer look, this is an absolute no-go to build an adapter. Dewalt put the low voltage safety cut off in the trigger rather than in the battery. You would kill the battery pack the first time you used it in an older 18v drill. If you want to get creative, you certainly could build a small circuit into the adapter to perform the low voltage cut off function. Probably could be mass produced for a few cents. Don't know enough about them at this point to tell whether it would be easily made with cheap off the shelf parts.
After all looks like they nailed .. even with the same V you would be tempted to buy the new model .. ( that's all about uh ..! ) I'm cool about that now and even better knowing that are the same V ( or at least close ) maybe the 18V tools come down in price ..
If the pack looks like this it's the better one, good for 2000+ charges and have the capacity to provide 60 amps, If not, it's more like 5-600 and only around 20 amps IIRC. I believe the product number is the same.