I'm a Makita guy. You? LifePo cartridge?

[ampsarus]

I choose Makita batteries and tools a long time ago, since 9.6V nickel sticks.
The best 18V LXT Makita battery cartridge is the 1.5AH because the cells are wired in series.
All of the 3AH and up batteries have parallel cells without proper BMS.
I have (2) 6AH (4) 5AH (1) 4AH
Countless 3AH in varying states of decay.
Who in the (dewalt milwaukee makita hitachi) will offer LiFePo?

 

[Crowz]

All of my power tools that I actively use are Milwaukee. I have M12 and M18 stuff. Once I bought my first few Milwaukee tools I retired all of my Makita stuff.

That reminds me I need to put the Makita stuff on ebay. I had decided to do that when I was organizing my workshop last week and forgot about it.

 

[MurphyGuy]

My tools are split.. Drill, impact drill, circular saw and reciprocating saw are all Dewalt.

But my yard tools are all Makita. 36 volt chainsaw (which is awesome!), 36 volt leaf blower, and 36 volt pole saw with 13ft reach. I love all of them and they have easily replaced my Stihl gas units. The only one I have not replaced with electric is my Husqvarna XP66 chainsaw, and that's only because no electric chainsaw is going to swing a 36 inch bar.

I do have a Milwaukee miter saw as well as a Milwaukee 120 volt plug-in hammer drill that will break your wrist if you're not careful.

Parallel cells without Proper BMS ??? What are you talking about?

 

[houseofancients]

DeWalt guy here

 

[ampsarus]

My tools are split.. Drill, impact drill, circular saw and reciprocating saw are all Dewalt.

But my yard tools are all Makita. 36 volt chainsaw (which is awesome!), 36 volt leaf blower, and 36 volt pole saw with 13ft reach. I love all of them and they have easily replaced my Stihl gas units. The only one I have not replaced with electric is my Husqvarna XP66 chainsaw, and that's only because no electric chainsaw is going to swing a 36 inch bar.

I do have a Milwaukee miter saw as well as a Milwaukee 120 volt plug-in hammer drill that will break your wrist if you're not careful.

Parallel cells without Proper BMS ??? What are you talking about?

The 18V LXT Makita batteries that are "double thick", i.e. every battery except the "single thick" 1.5AH batteries are 6S2P. The 1.5AH is 6S.
All of the 6S2P batteries ignore the parallel cells and treat as 6S. Are the cells closely matched at the factory to make it irrelevant? I don't know, but I am certain there is better battery management with the competing dewalt and milwaukee alternatives.

I have a 2.1Gal AC/DC vac, x2 36v chainsaw, x2 36v trimmer and back pack, lots of shop tools.
I just wonder who if anyone will be first to denounce Lithium Ion and offer backward compatible LiFePo cartridges. Cheers ?

 

[LydMekk]

DeWalt and blue Bosch here (EU).
My last few years blue Bosch buys feel higher in quality than my DeWalts...IMO.

 

[Crowz]

One thing I forgot to mention as to why I'm 100% Milwaukee on power tools and 100% black and decker on other cordless stuff like weedeaters, portable air compressor, leaf blower, etc has as much to do with the tools as the batteries.

The batteries are the problematic part of the cordless equation. If you run different brands you will have a unique battery for each tool.

By concentrating on a single brand as much as possible you can interchange the batteries as needed so that each job has a ton of charged up batteries ready to go since each tool usually comes with a battery. The exception to this is my Milwaukee stuff. While they share the batteries most of the tools I bought I chose to buy without a battery and charger since they are a BUNCH cheaper that way.

Plus the Milwaukee batteries are VERY strong so I don't need that many of them to get the job done. Especially the M18 batteries. I own 3 M18 batteries and I have about 7 M18 tools. I just never got around to getting more yet. The runtime is awesome on the M18 batteries.

Last thing I'd recommend no matter which brand you go with plan ahead and make sure ALL of the tools you might want to buy one day are available from that manufacturer or your going to get into that multiple battery issue I mentioned above. Milwaukee makes a tool for about anything you can dream of needing. Its ungodly the amount of different tools they have available all using that common battery.

This last bit I know not everyone will believe or agree with but if you get a chance to use someones Milwaukee cordless tools your going to be surprised how much higher quality they really are in use. I know I was and I owned a bunch of different stuff at the time.

 

[SilverbackMP]

Mostly Dewalt cause that was the first color I bought. I have everything from their grease gun to routers, to their 60volt weed eater. I even have a bunch of stuff that’s trade specific even though I’m not in the trades (last purchase was a Pex A expander).

I have a couple of Porter Cable pieces (one drill, and a brad nailer bought because it was a ton cheaper at the time - works like a peach).

Been tip toeing into Milwaukee for things they may do better based on reviews (2nd to last purchase was a M18 finish nailer).

Edit: My absolute favorites to use though are my Festool. Currently have the TS55(?) track saw with a bunch of track and accessories (TSO parallel guides, etc), 150mm 3 stroke sander with an extra firm pad, and their medium router. And a larger dust extractor and chip separator.

I wouldn’t be afraid of the better Harbor Freight lines but they weren’t around when I started buying and battery management is a pain.

 

[MurphyGuy]

The 18V LXT Makita batteries that are "double thick", i.e. every battery except the "single thick" 1.5AH batteries are 6S2P. The 1.5AH is 6S.
All of the 6S2P batteries ignore the parallel cells and treat as 6S. Are the cells closely matched at the factory to make it irrelevant? I don't know, but I am certain there is better battery management with the competing dewalt and milwaukee alternatives.

I have a 2.1Gal AC/DC vac, x2 36v chainsaw, x2 36v trimmer and back pack, lots of shop tools.
I just wonder who if anyone will be first to denounce Lithium Ion and offer backward compatible LiFePo cartridges. Cheers ?

Two cells connected together are always treated as a single cell. Doesn't matter if its a 4ah battery or a 1000 ah battery made of 100ah paralleled cells..

When the pos and neg of each cell is connected, they will always be at the same voltage.

Even in electric vehicles, multiple cells are paralleled and treated as a single cell.

If one of the paralleled cells becomes weak, it will drag down the other paralleled cells some, but the unit will continue to function. The only time its a problem is if one of the cells goes totally rogue and shorts out or has some chronic leak..

No way around this.

When it comes to power tool batteries specifically, there are a few things you can do to make them last as long as possible.
1) Never store them fully charged.
2) Put them in the refrigerator if they're not going to be used for a while.
3) Never leave them in a hot car our out in direct sunlight.
4) Use the slowest charger you can. Fast chargers are horribly bad for batteries.. sure, they get you back to work faster, but they also cut the life expectancy of the battery by significant amounts.

Heat and high voltage are the enemy of all lithium batteries with heat being the #1 killer.

My Makita packs are black.. which seems stupid to me.. They should be made of a white plastic so they don't heat up in the sun.

 

[justinm001]

Milwaukee seems to make the best tolls and man their packout containers are amazing!!

I only get Dewalt tools though because they have so many tools and everywhere sells them. I have airbnbs and travel a lot and always forget something so it's nice to run to any hardware store and get more. Also I found a resource to get super cheap tools especially Dewalt, I have like a couple dozen drills now

 

[SparkyJJO]

My decade old plus Makita LXT 18V 3Ah batteries are still working pretty well. Not as much runtime as 10 years ago obviously but still quite usable. Just used one today actually.

 

[Mike 134]

Had always been a Milwaukee guy buying them because they are the best hands down and were made in USA. Now everyone makes their stuff in China, I guess if I could pay a kid 50 cents a day I'd make my stuff there too.

 

[wdwtx2.0]

Dewalt tools, and Kobalt 80v lawn tools.

 

[Skypower]

Just thought I mention. Probably the most impressive tool I own is the Milwaukee 5-3/8” metal cutting circular saw. With a Diablo metal blade, It cuts through unistrut like butter. In one fifth the time of a good sawzall and blade. Straighter and nicer too. Hours of cutting, four battery swaps and the blade actually seems better. Amazing tool!

 

[Skypower]

Almost forgot, use a face shield, and put down visqueen on the floor and as a backstop to catch the millions of little needles it makes.

 

[houseofancients]

One thing I forgot to mention as to why I'm 100% Milwaukee on power tools and 100% black and decker on other cordless stuff like weedeaters, portable air compressor, leaf blower, etc has as much to do with the tools as the batteries.

The batteries are the problematic part of the cordless equation. If you run different brands you will have a unique battery for each tool.

By concentrating on a single brand as much as possible you can interchange the batteries as needed so that each job has a ton of charged up batteries ready to go since each tool usually comes with a battery. The exception to this is my Milwaukee stuff. While they share the batteries most of the tools I bought I chose to buy without a battery and charger since they are a BUNCH cheaper that way.

Plus the Milwaukee batteries are VERY strong so I don't need that many of them to get the job done. Especially the M18 batteries. I own 3 M18 batteries and I have about 7 M18 tools. I just never got around to getting more yet. The runtime is awesome on the M18 batteries.

Last thing I'd recommend no matter which brand you go with plan ahead and make sure ALL of the tools you might want to buy one day are available from that manufacturer or your going to get into that multiple battery issue I mentioned above. Milwaukee makes a tool for about anything you can dream of needing. Its ungodly the amount of different tools they have available all using that common battery.

This last bit I know not everyone will believe or agree with but if you get a chance to use someones Milwaukee cordless tools your going to be surprised how much higher quality they really are in use. I know I was and I owned a bunch of different stuff at the time.

Yep, that is why I have DeWalt for everything.. same batteries, same chargers

 

[Bob in Tucson]

Mostly Makita; a few batteries still work okay after many years of occasional use, like @SparkyJJO.

Of course, I wanted to stick with the same brand for convenience, but couldn't pass up silly deals on a few Bosch 18-volt tools that offered a charger and batteries for almost nothing. Also a few Milwaukee 12-volt tools.

Now I am awash in chargers!

 

[Batvette]

All makita for almost 30 years here. Never broken a tool out of about 3 dozen+, Have a 14v pod nimh battery from the late 90s? That still holds a bit of a charge.
Lately they have been underwhelming. Overpriced and marginal performing.
In last 2 years bought an 8 pc combo kit, a heat gun, an inflator, variable speed grinder, mid torque impact gun, and 36v leaf blower which i returned.
I was disappointed their only cordless rivet tool was $1400. Milwsukee has one for $220 very similar.
As I had 2 air hydraulic ones i just bought a quiet compressor from harbor freight. Tiny thing you cant hear it run..
Some experts are criticizing their lack of battery progress. Some loyal customers say theyre resting on past reputation while the red guys constantly innovate, but the same discussion saw a lot of people dissing milwaukee reliability. For instance their most popular 1/2" impact was quietly redesigned with cost cutting changes and saw huge failure rates. This was all over youtube. Makita has had no such issues.
My 2 cents. Ill see if I can find the blog with that discussion.

 

[Crowz]

All makita for almost 30 years here. Never broken a tool out of about 3 dozen+, Have a 14v pod nimh battery from the late 90s? That still holds a bit of a charge.
Lately they have been underwhelming. Overpriced and marginal performing.
In last 2 years bought an 8 pc combo kit, a heat gun, an inflator, variable speed grinder, mid torque impact gun, and 36v leaf blower which i returned.
I was disappointed their only cordless rivet tool was $1400. Milwsukee has one for $220 very similar.
As I had 2 air hydraulic ones i just bought a quiet compressor from harbor freight. Tiny thing you cant hear it run..
Some experts are criticizing their lack of battery progress. Some loyal customers say theyre resting on past reputation while the red guys constantly innovate, but the same discussion saw a lot of people dissing milwaukee reliability. For instance their most popular 1/2" impact was quietly redesigned with cost cutting changes and saw huge failure rates. This was all over youtube. Makita has had no such issues.
My 2 cents. Ill see if I can find the blog with that discussion.

I'm familiar with the impact gun debacle. I had run across that one on youtube. Luckily I have the M18 one that set the guineas book record for torque for a cordless.

I'm betting they go back to the other design for the problem one after the backlash.

 

[Crowz]

Its really handy to be able to program lug bolt settings into it so I can have the bmw's lug bolt torque settings at a touch of a button and then switch over to my trucks settings and still have two left over which is a safe setting for general stuff and the last one I have set to "break something"