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There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?

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Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?

#51

Post by tpmx »

bombcar wrote: post #37
tpmx wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wonder why? cough Germany

Festool can’t even use the same battery across their tools (and even at the same voltage!) so there’s no way they could handle a standardized battery heh

I wonder what kind of financial motive german manufacturers of cordless battery powered tools like Festool, Bosch, Metabo, Stihl, Einhell etc could have against a standardized battery format for cordless devices...

Oh, and you know that like just like with Apple their first cry will be "but safety!" when/if they are forced to standardize/open up.

Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?

#52

Post by rodgerd »

okasaki wrote: post #7
halestock wrote: post #5

Vendor lock-in. If I buy a Makita drill that comes with a universal battery, I'm just as likely (all other things being equal) to buy a DeWalt or Milwaukee circular saw as another Makita. But if my drill batteries only work with Makita products, I have a big incentive to stick with that brand.

Yeah, same reason there's no universal lens mount for cameras, and lots of other examples.

There have been open and de-facto open mounts though: the Pentax K-mount was such pre-autofocus, and micro 43, Sony's E-mount (albeit with many strings attached), and the L-mount all have varying degrees of openness about them.

At the end of the day, though, camera owners don't prioritise that enough in their purchasing decisions to change the market. People were happy to lock into highly proprietary mounts when Minolta developed autofocus (and migrated to the A-mount) and then Canon followed with their EF.

Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?

#54

Post by johnea »

version_five wrote: post #11

Vendor lock in is obviously a side effect, and there are consumer- hostile reasons why companies like proprietary batteries. But fundamentally the battery shape and power characteristics as well as the charging are still areas where companies can innovate and differentiate themselves. I'd rather have to choose a brand than get some out of date, un-ergonomic "approved" battery and connector that I have to use with my…

Almost all of those "innovative" shapes hold the same kinds of battery cells.

These could be user replaceable.

But really, you could 6 different shapes that would serve 99.99% of the use cases, and the other .1% could have replacable cells.

As long as working people deny the descructive forces of profit .vs technical excellence, this won't improve.

Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?

#56

Post by 1970-01-01 »

Ryobi tools have designed interchangeable "ONE+" batteries for over 20 years. Any of their 18V cordless tools from 2003 or so will have 110% compatibility (some "blue" tools show MORE power output from when they were new). Sure, this is not "universal" interchangeability. However, it's so close to what's being asked that I'm wondering why decades of interchangeability and backwards compatibility are ignored by this author. Video showing off Ryobi's backwards compatibility:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1aCxBdDcsU

Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?

#57

Post by bombcar »

StrangeATractor wrote: post #47
glasss wrote: post #26

First time seeing this blog and it seems like they're trying too hard to give the benefit of doubt here. The list of concerns / drawbacks, particularly the reliability of performance concern, may be valid, but consumers deal with these already with every other battery powered device. A cheap USB charger or cable can dramatically effect your charging speed, a cheap AA battery may reduce your runtime, etc. It feels lik…

This isn't a secret in construction, you buy one brand of cordless tools and stick with it. DeWalt sells tools so cheap you wonder if they're a loss leader. A single battery (one of the big 60V, 12Ah ones you use for circular saws and angle grinders) is $285 on Amazon. The biggest cordless circular is $178, the biggest grinder is $163. You'll want at least two of those batteries per day if you're doing any serious wo…

It's not quite as cut and dried as that, but it's getting closer as the brands expand. My contractor friend would refer to various tools as the "Brand" because he had one cordless tool from that brand because they had the one he needed. "Go grab the Makita", that kind of thing.

From my experience it's the prosumer market that gets really rabid about their tool color. Do NOT cross the Red Army!

Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?

#59

Post by Nullabillity »

rodgerd wrote: post #46
Lio wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What surprises me is that even within a single brand there are multiple standards. Right now I mostly have Bosch Professional 18v kit. If I want a small edging router I have to biy a while new Bosch Professional 12v kit… unless I go with the Bosch “amateur” system which is different again. I think there might also be another 10v Bosch Pro system as well. Why? It’s like an xkcd.

> What surprises me is that even within a single brand there are multiple standards. It's kind of annoying, but less so if there's at least some logic to it. I can get pretty much everything I need as a shit-tier home handyman from Ryobi's 18V range, but if I were a more committed gardener or DIY I could imagine I'd want their 36V range as well. And then be irritated that the higher-power range only covers some tools…

> Are there people who are that keen to mix and match their Bosch and Ryobi?

Why wouldn't that be a perfectly reasonable thing to do? The default, in fact, unless artificial lock-in was created with bullshit like this.

Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?

#60

Post by sgc »

NotYourLawyer wrote: post #44
sgc wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy adapters from one manufacturer's battery to another's on Amazon for like 20 bucks. It is 100% manufactured scarcity and lock in.

From TFA: > As many readers might be aware, you can find 3rd party battery adapters on Amazon, eBay, and other such marketplaces.

So, why is anybody arguing it is not just about lock in, when their specs are similar enough that they are interchangeable - more a rarity than the norm in the realm of electronics? It is a pertinent thing to point out, since if the tools work just fine using each other's batteries, any other answer rings hollow in light of it.

So, please don't TFA me, it is unsavory and adds absolutely nothing to the conversation.

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