On Sat, 06 May 2017 02:00:13 -0700, mike wrote:

18V or 20V for lithium powered tools?
I'm still debating over whether to pitch all my
old crap into the dumpster and buy a new set
of lithium battery powered tools.

I'm confused about the battery configuration.
The Kobalt tools are 24V. I bought one of the $10 packs
to repurpose the high-current 18650 cells.
I verified that there
are six cells x 4V = 24V. OK.

Except the voltage is 3.7, not 4 for all the currently available
lithium technologies.
That is 6X3.7= 22.2 volts

There are 18V tools.
There are 20Vmax tools.

4V increments include 16V and 20V.
Where does the 18V come from?

5x3.7= 18.5 volts. The advertizing / marketing departments of most of
these companies are "fudging" the numbers.

Some of the 20Vmax tools have fine print
about being 20V after charge, but 18V in use???
Many of the batteries make no mention of the
capacity. I had to go home and google to figger it
out.

Are 20Vmax tools any better than the 18 volt ones?
Or did some marketing type get his way
and exaggerate at the advertising meeting???

It's like your 6 HP vacuum cleaner.

Does it make sense to pay more for 20Vmax tools
than the 18V counterpart? Or how about waiting
a little longer for the prices to come down
on the brushless tools.

If you can wait for the brushless it is likely worth it.
I have one Porter Cable 18V battery that I got at
a garage sale. Seems to be good, so there's some
advantage to going that way. I expect that the
18V battery won't fit the 20V tool.

Noit unless it's the same configuration as the Porter Cable.

Another thing I discovered is that the vendors
market various combinations of tools. But if you
go to Home Depot and look at the Ryobi line,
the tools you get in the sets with more tools
you don't need appear to be significantly different (better?)
than the tools available in the sets with fewer tools.
What makes them "appear" to be "better"? And how does the pricing
work out. You don't get something for nothing.

I had an interesting conversation with the Lowes sales person.
He claimed that the demo tool batteries failed quickly.
I suggested the tool should shut off when the voltage
reached the safe discharge limit. He claimed the factory told him
that discharging to the limit drastically reduces battery life.
WTF?
Discharging to the limit will decrease battery life on virtually all
battery chemistries and constructions - some worse than others.
If the cutoff is low, battery life is drastically reduced..
Keeping them fully charged, reduces battery life, unless you
store them in the fridge...and warm them up before use.
What's a poor tool user to do? Stay with NiCd?

NiCad us the worst. NiMH is MUCH better. Lithium has the potential to
be a LOT better than either. The normal Lithium chrging regime charges
to 4.2 volts per cell and holds at that voltage untill the current
drops to something like C10. MUCH better battery life if only charged
to 4.0 volts, although that does give less capacity per charge.

If I don't replace everything, I still have to maintain
all the tools, batteries, chargers that I have now.
The whole purpose is to downsize the tool collection.

Give them all to me and buy just the tools you need in the Ryobi One+
18 volt line - share the batteries as they are all the same.


Too much choice, too little info.