battery tools are crap

[Bill Wright]

It sounds so attractive! No power cord! Use it where there's no mains! But battery tools are rubbish compared to 110V or mains ones. Now I don't do site work any more I can buy mains powered tools, and what a revelation they are!

Firstly there's the fact that a mains powered tool can cost less than a replacement battery. For instance a battery for my reciprocating saw would have been £120. A new mains powered saw was £110.

Then there's the fact that battery tools run out of power just when you don't want them to. So have two or three batteries and run mains for the charger out to where your working ? Give over!

Then there's the fact that battery tools are always underpowered. You pay more than twice the price for less than half the power. Even the bigger battery tools tend to be rated at 300 to 450W, whereas the mains equivalents are usually 1kW+.

And what a difference having adequate power makes! The job is so much easier. Mains powered tools just glide through the work. The battery equivalent would be slowing chugging along, then stopping due to a flat battery.

Why people buy battery tools to use at home I really don't know. Ignorance of the customer plus the vendor's sales hype I guess. Thinking about it, I bet a lot of people who buy a battery drill have never used an electric drill before, so they won't realise how limited their new toy is.

Bill

[Chris Green]

Well, sursprising as it may seem I'm in agreement to some extent. However *some* cordless tools are good and useful. The ones I use almost daily are my 10.8 volt Li cordless drill and driver. Handy, light, much faster than a manual screwdriver and work all around our 9 acres, on the boat, etc. etc.

[David]

Horses for courses.

I use a battery drill for winding the legs on my caravan, for example.

I also found a battery drill far easier than a mains drill for fixing the very large tin roof on the very large shed. No trailing cables to drag around.

A battery impact driver is also a tool of choice because you aren't tied down to a cable.

Anything requiring serious grunt, such as sawing, SDS drilling and the like is much better using mains. Angle grinders!

Anyway, the local builders use a mix of mains and battery tools depending on use case.

I think you are trying too hard in your last paragraph; a lot of DIYers here use battery tools and quite a few have power tools as well, and have used mains power tools for yeah these many years.

Cheers

Dave R

[charles]

I have a tool battery charger that runs off 12v - from the car.

I started with amisn ones - there was no other choice, but the convenience of batterry tools is supreme.

[David]

Just reminded me that our electrician used battery tools.

Apart from the ease of screwing in sockets etc. with a small driver, there is the little issue of what you do when the power is off :-)

Cheers

Dave R

[T i m]

Daughter bought a Lidl 18V Li-Ion drill, jigsaw and circular saw and I'd have to say they are all pretty good.

The one that surprised me was the circular saw and I've borrowed it quite a few times now and for cutting some fairly serious wood (like decking).

We were using the jigsaw yesterday and it's as 'capable as any mains powered saw I've used.

Because she got the 3 devices at the same time and so also got 3 chargers and batteries, it's rare that you would run out of battery on the grounds you wouldn't typically (in many d-i-y roles) be using all

3 tools at the same time.

I used the circular saw to slice up an old shed into manageable lumps (retaining most of the long lengths of good batten) and whilst it was only (mostly) going though matchwood, I think we did it all on just one battery.

We were working in a back ally so mains wasn't an easy option.

But then I've got a couple and seen a good few more new looking battery tools that weren't worth a light.

Horses for courses etc. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

p.s. I have an old cheap / market 12V Nicad powered drill that was 'big'. It only had a smallish motor that span fast though a reasonable gearbox but it felt pretty unstoppable in use (and abuse). When the batteries died I stripped one and ran a 3m HD 12V cable out the back and with a pair of crocodile clips and so can run it from any 12V source / battery.

So, whilst not *as* portable as it once was, it can still be used away from mains and for a pretty long time. ;-)

[Broadback]

now does not run for l;long and it needs recharging.

[GB]

I'm still using a mains drill I bought 40 years ago. In the meantime, I've had to throw away loads of battery powered ones (mostly NiCd it has to be said), where the tool still works but the battery is knackered.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Still got the Black and Decker mains drill I got with petrol coupons 38 years ago. It works fine. The Bosh cordless one that cost ?160 nine years is almost useless now and has not been used much.

[John Rumm]

While there is plenty of truth in some aspects of this, as a general statement is not really supportable IMHO.

A more nuanced answer might be that many battery tools are crap, however some are excellent, but d> It sounds so attractive! No power cord! Use it where there's no mains!

Yup, price you can't argue with - mains wins every time.

I have never really found that a problem with decent batteries, and having enough of them.

That does not need to be true. Many have more than adequate power, but you need be a bit selective as to what you are doing and where you are doing it.

Many tools don't require more than a few hundred W - even in mains form.

Again it depends on the tool. I have used battery tools that perform as well or better than mains, as well as some that are vastly inferior.

In my case, convenience, and the ability to do things that you can't do with mains tools.

An electric drill is perhaps a poor example - I doubt I have used my conventional mains drills more than a couple of times in the last decade. They offer no more useful power than my various cordless tools while being significant more cumbersome, have vastly inferior speed controls and in some cases lack reverse. I keep them however since there may be times where one wants to do that would be a task well suited to the mains tool. When the cordless drill won't hack it, its usually time to reach for the SDS (corded in my case).

[TMH]

You need to buy some decent kit like Makita.

[whisky-dave]

Is it the drill or the batteries that are useless, they are two differnt th ings ?

[charles]

In article ,

[Snip]

Drilling holes in galvanised steel trunking is easier with a mains drill

[John Rumm]

Indeed. The first really good cordless drill I bought in 2003 (18V Makita Combi with three NiMh 2.6Ah batts) worked flawlessly until about

2011, where the batts started to die.

I bought it a set of three replacement batteries in 2012, and those have recently got to their end of life. Not quite as good a life span as the original set, although the usage pattern is different, and I also now use the same set on an impact driver - so they get more use than the first set.

This time I pondered for while whether to replace them again, or whether to switch to Li-Ion. In the end I decided that a twin pack of combi drill and ID plus a pair of 5Ah Li-ion batts and charger could be had for not much more than the price of the old style batts alone, it made sense to switch to the new ones.

I also decided to standardise on that format for 18V stuff going forward, and so sold the 14.4V DeWalt kit I had (angle drill and circular saw), and bought body only Makita replacements.

[Brian Gaff]

Well I only have a mains drill of quite a vintage. I guess battery screwdrivers can save a lot of blisters, but for those awkward screws, never seem to fit in the gap you need them to. I personally think battery tools have their place. How about a battery angle grinder for that wheel clamp, or a battery powered chainsaw to annoy the neighbours with?

I suppose if you were in a remote place they can be OK. Its horses for courses. I think we are in the infancy of battery power still. lithium may be better than the previous tech, but not quite good enough yet. Brian

[Bill Wright]

Oh yeas, sorry, I forgot about screwdrivers. I agree totally. I was really focussed on big-ass tools.

Bill

[GB]

Just as an example, we have a holiday home and I wanted a few cheap tools there for occasional use. I went for an £11 mains drill. :)

It will just work, without having to be charged up first. And you can't get anything battery powered for that price.

It's amazingly good, considering the price.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

We are for once in total agreement. I'm fortunate enough to have most of my power tools in both mains and cordless. Cordless being very convenient for the odd small job. Or for something where a cord can get in the way - like say a Dremel sized drill.

[Bill Wright]

You sometimes have to be controversial to get the readers' interest and make them respond. It was a bit tongue in cheek. I model myself on Rod Liddle!

Bill

[Bill Wright]

Anyone want a perfectly good Bosch battery recip saw? Works fine but no battery....

Bill