There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?
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Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?
#2I'm surprised the EU hasn't legislated something for this—seems like their cup of tea.
Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?
#3Mentioned in the comments, I looked into CAS a couple years back. Sounds great in theory, but it seems the vast majority of partners using it are for one off, specialty tools...
Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?
#4I want backpack battery packs for the bigger power users. Chainsaws and weed whackers and stuff in the gas engine range anyway.
For smaller tools there could sensibly be a couple to 4? perhaps sizes of battery pack, "handheld" for screwdriver to toothbrush to "personal manipulation tools", a bit bigger for handheld drills; double that again for small saws and stuff... any bigger and it begins to become an an unwieldy burden just for the battery, and the tool becomes more sensible to power in other ways.
Look at the standard AA, C, D cell sizes and what they did for the electronics market. Come up with a set of some standards and then go sell manufacturers on your package because of the profit opportunities it will offer them. Get some big battery cell manufacturer to back you, perhaps.
Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?
#5Vendor 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.
Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?
#6I'm surprised the EU hasn't legislated something for this—seems like their cup of tea.
The Brussels EU big-wigs very likely don't use cordless power tools personally (unlike mobile phone chargers), so it will probably take a few more years until it reaches their radars. And then it's 50/50 if they'll do something smart or stupid about it. They will do something, though.
Edit: There's also the financial interests of german companies like Festool, Bosch, Metabo, Stihl, Einhell. Imagine if they were forced to use a common battery format so that anyone could build a battery for their tools?
Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?
#7Vendor 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.
Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?
#8I want backpack battery packs for the bigger power users. Chainsaws and weed whackers and stuff in the gas engine range anyway. For smaller tools there could sensibly be a couple to 4? perhaps sizes of battery pack, "handheld" for screwdriver to toothbrush to "personal manipulation tools", a bit bigger for handheld drills; double that again for small saws and stuff... any bigger and it begins to become an an unwieldy…
It'd be crazy expensive
Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?
#9While not universal if you stay within Ryobi there's good compatibility among products.
Re: There’s no universal cordless power tool battery – why?
#10Vendor 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.
When I was younger and money was tighter, I needed a sawzall for a project and bought a DeWalt because they had a good price on a bundle. Many years later, my entire set is DeWalt because it was the convenient choice after I had two of their batteries. If I bought from scratch today I'd probably buy into Milwaukee, although the difference is small enough that I don't mind too much.