Upgrading From the Dewalt 18V Platform

[Hay Dude]

Love my DeWalt 60v tools. Blower and weed wacker not quite what I expected, but carpentry power tools and nail guns have been nice.

 

[IndyJay]

Recently bought the DeWalt DCK661D1M1 6 tool 20v Lithium set to replace basically the same 18v NiCad set that I have had for ~20 years. I had picked up the adapter with a couple of 3Ah batteries last year. I also bought the DCK206P1 20v Grease Gun and 1/2" Impact Wrench kit with 5Ah battery. If you shop around you can find some pretty good deals.

 

[lostcause]

The 18 and 20 volt batteries are really the same voltage but if somehow you did end up burning up an obsolete tool nothing was lost. And I don’t see how the 18 volt tool was intentionally designed to not work with the adapter since the flat top batteries and the adapter was designed after the 18 volt tools were built.

probably will end up doing that if it gets to it. i still have 7 working 18v batteries, but they won't last forever. for now i'll probably just use the remaining 18v batteries when i need the band saw. i got enough of my tools to prove they function on these to make it worthwhile to stick with dewalt in my mind. looks like i came to the party just a day too late though... home depot had a battery pack deal - 2@4ah & 2@2ah for $159 - that's like $50 each for the 4ah & $30 each for the 2ah. problem is it went unavailable as of today. best deal on the 2.4ah 18v xrp batteries was always $99 for two, so the $159 deal was pretty fair. too bad it's gone. i probably have enough old batteries to last the year out, and there will probably be a battery deal on black friday if i am lucky

 

[Hay Dude]

Recently bought the DeWalt DCK661D1M1 6 tool 20v Lithium set to replace basically the same 18v NiCad set that I have had for ~20 years. I had picked up the adapter with a couple of 3Ah batteries last year. I also bought the DCK206P1 20v Grease Gun and 1/2" Impact Wrench kit with 5Ah battery. If you shop around you can find some pretty good deals.

EBAY has great opportunities on DeWalt Tools.
Their cordless impact has enough muscle to remove the nuts on my JD 15’ mower blades. They are on TIGHT.

 

[texas42]

FYI. The Connecticut-based Stanley Black & Decker owns many brands beyond its name, including Lenox, Craftsman, Irwin Tools, DeWALT and CribMaster.

 

[EddieWalker]

I started out with DeWalt, but didn't feel that they held up very well to daily use. I have a few other brands too, but my favorite by far is Makita. One of the things that I really like about them is their commitment to their 18volt batteries. Instead of creating a different tool to deal with a better battery, they made their better batteries work on all of their existing tools. The 5.0Ahm battery lasts a very long time. I have 6 of them, but also a bunch of 3.0 batteries that still get the job done. I even have a weed eater that uses two 5.0 batteries that I have never run out of power while weed eating my yard. I consider Makita to be the top of the line tool for contractors, and as long as they keep their commitment to making everything work off of their 18 volt batteries, then I'll never have to think about changing brands.

 

[ovrszd]

All my mechanic friends swear by M18 Milwaukee tools.

I'm nearing the end of my 18V Dewalt tool's lifespans. most are 11-12 years old.

 

[5030]

I've pretty much given up on DeWalt or Milwaukee cordless tools. Just too expensive and the replacement packs are absurd too.

As mine puke, I've been replacing them with HF-Bauer 20 volt cordless stuff for 1/4 th the price of the others. I figure I can replace 4 of them to equal the cost of the DeWalt or Milwaukee stuff and if I need mega power like super strong impact tools. I just switch to air powered. My Astro Pneumatic Thor 1/2" impact makes almost 1000 foot pounds in LH and 965 in RH torque which handles 99% of my stuff. The other 1% I do with an IR 3/4 drive that makes 2500 in LH and 2000 in RH. There ain't a fastener that can hold up to that. Either snaps them off or breaks them loose. Sockets can and are a big issue with either one. I use the HF black oxide impacts on the 1/2" drive and Williams impact sockets on the 3/4" drive. I've busted (slit the walls) on Snap-On, MAC and domestic Craftsman sockets in the past. Never split an HF socket yet and I beat the hell out of them too. Replace a lot of wear steels on plow blades and the dome head plow bolts are usually rusted in and the nuts frozen. The Thor usually breaks them or the IR snaps them off.

Takes some serious air compressor however. Those puny ones cannot keep up. I have a Sullaire screw compressor with a Quincy QP twin back up. I can get 35 CFM at 135 pounds with no drop in pressure at all. Rarely does the QP kick in, the Sullair can usually keep up.

 

[Birdhunter1]

I started buying 20V DeWalt tools when the 18V bare tools started being in short supply. I've yet to buy an adapter to put the 20V batteries on my 18V tools as I still have good 18V batteries, but once those batteries give up I'll get the adapter. I was in the boat to either start with a new platform completely and start replacing bare tools or go the route I went.
I'm happy with my 20V DeWalt stuff but if I hadn't gone this route I would have either gone with Rigid or Milwaukee.

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

I've got a bunch of DeWalt 18v tools that work just fine, it's the batteries that are crapping out. I'm to old to start buying new tools that will get only some use, so I plan on just changing to adaptors and 20v batteries. The only 20v DeWalt I have is the grease gun, and only because there were no 18v left when I bought it.

 

[walnutman]

Been running Makita 18v. Went through probably 4 batteries in prob 10 or 12 years. My current pair are marked 2016 and are holding up. Makita came up with new 18v batteries. Same as the old except they go higher AH and have charge indicator and protection against overdischarging. The slide in part has a tab that won't allow them to be used on older tools but you can use the older batteries on the newer tools. My drill has been working for me for prob 10 years. Not all day contractor work but there are times where I'm running it all day. I bought the Makita 18v weedwacker.... it's weak. No longer use it. Just picked up the sawzall from them. It was relatively cheap as I bought the one that is tool only. Was like $129. It's a workhorse.
Where I used to work (retired) we had Milwaukee and Dewalt. I didn't really like either much... maybe the milwaukee better but didn't seem to have long run times and weak chucks.

 

[EddieWalker]

... I bought the Makita 18v weedwacker.... it's weak. No longer use it. ...

Does your weedwacker use two batteries? Mine has 2 batteries and I'm amazed at how good it is. I'll never buy a gas powered weed eater again. Now I want the leaf blower that uses two batteries!!!

 

[Chaingang]

Here's the test platform:

Dewalt DCA1820 adapter and DCB207 1.3ah battery

and the tools:

DC011 radio/charger - untested so far

DC970 drill - seems to work fine with the test platform listed above. Dewalt states not to use premium batteries with this tool. assume that's the higher output batteries only?

DW908 light - seems to work fine

DCS370 band saw - adapter will not fit tool. I saw this note on the link below and assumed it was a battery / adapter clearance issue, but it is a design issue. the adapter has some lugs on the post that will not allow the tool electrical contacts to make contact with the battery contacts.

DC390 circular saw - seems to work fine, but will not quite cut full depth with the 1.3ah battery, however it appears that you can cut 1-1/2" framing lumber with batteries up to 5ah or maybe even larger? I have nothing that large to do a definitive test with at current time.

DC385 reciprocating saw (have 2) - seems to work fine

DCD970 hammer drill - seems to work fine

DW919 light - seems to work fine

DC825 1/4" impact driver - seems to work fine

DC410 cut-off tool - untested so far. tool stopped working previously - need to determine whether it is armature or brushes or other.

DW059H 1/2" impact - seems to work fine


I will post my results with each tool as I go.

here's the link to the Dewalt FAQ with more of what does and does not work:

https://support.dewalt.com/hc/en-us/articles/360014537137-Is-the-DEWALT-18V-to-20V-MAX-Adapter-DCA1820-compatible-with-all-18V-tools-

I switched to the adapter too but prior to that I had the the local Interstate Battery rebuild my old 18v's. It was cheaper than buying new Dewalt and I got the same life. Some may want to check into this option.

 

[RichNJKubota]

I had DeWalt Nicad battery powered tools. Still have a couple of them. But I used them until the tools wore out. So it was time to buy new. These tools were like a part of my family - so thinking about replacing them was tough to do
I decided on makita lithium powered. They have been fine.
But I found on the Dewalt batteries, that I could replace the nicad batteries in the pack with NiMh batteries. It takes time to assemble and solder together the batteries into a pack.
Of the Dewalt chargers I have all but one were compatible with both Nicad and NiMh battery packs. Some of the chargers I had to call Dewalt to confirm the compatibility with both battery chemistries.
Have not checked recently but I also bought NiMh Dewalt aftermarket battery packs on ebay. I found that NiMh batteries lasted longer on a charge vs NiCad and seem to last longer before going bad over time.

 

[Bob Rooks]

Maybe this is common, but do any of the companies offer a Lithium battery pack to directly replace the older Ni battery pack?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GFFW4GX/ref=syn_sd_onsite_desktop_229?psc=1&pd_rd_plhdr=t&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExMThTVlFaN0ZJSTJWJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwODMyMDYyU1pMRklMWFdQMzhLJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAzNzQ1NTYzNkJUU1ZaUjE1VjdMJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c2Rfb25zaXRlX2Rlc2t0b3AmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

 

[Randy Gann]

As someone else mentioned you can purchase no name batteries on Amazon to fit name brand existing tools. I have a 12 volt Dewalt drill and impact driver original batteries died. Replaced with much cheaper no name batteries and still going strong. I also use Ryobi One+ platform. If I need additional batteries I will certainly look for no name batteries on Amazon.

 

[kyryder]

I didn't want to bury this in the recent "cordless tools vs." post, so I'm creating this separately. I'm assuming I'm not the only person still limping along with this ni-cad dinosaur platform, so maybe any others out there can either help with my questions or learn a few details along the way as I make a move to upgrade.

I've got a reasonable amount of these tools: 10-12 total, with 9 batteries: 6 xrp & 3 regular. Some of this stuff I paid retail price for, and some I got at ridiculous deals over the years both new & used. for example, i paid $18 for a 2-pack of xrp batteries still sealed in the clamshell. but i digress... i recently had two of my xrp batteries fail - won't charge on any of the several chargers i have. they're all getting pretty well aged, and some of the others don't seem to hold charge well, so i know i'm on borrowed time. around here everyone is buying the milwaukee fuel 18v stuff like there is no other alternative. my question is, do i cut bait and jump too, or do i stay with the Dewalt brand and move the 20v max platform, hopefully gradually.

I've tried to do research online, but I can't find any large definitive lists of what works and what does not work when using the 20v max batteries in the 18v tools. the dewalt faq has one partial list (I will link it here in a bit) but it only has 2 of the tools i have and the information was unclear. Because of this, i'm going to post all of my tools with a list of what works and does not work for everyone's benefit, and also pose any questions I have about why something does or does not work, and hopefully someone can provide an answer.

I didn't want to bury this in the recent "cordless tools vs." post, so I'm creating this separately. I'm assuming I'm not the only person still limping along with this ni-cad dinosaur platform, so maybe any others out there can either help with my questions or learn a few details along the way as I make a move to upgrade.

I've got a reasonable amount of these tools: 10-12 total, with 9 batteries: 6 xrp & 3 regular. Some of this stuff I paid retail price for, and some I got at ridiculous deals over the years both new & used. for example, i paid $18 for a 2-pack of xrp batteries still sealed in the clamshell. but i digress... i recently had two of my xrp batteries fail - won't charge on any of the several chargers i have. they're all getting pretty well aged, and some of the others don't seem to hold charge well, so i know i'm on borrowed time. around here everyone is buying the milwaukee fuel 18v stuff like there is no other alternative. my question is, do i cut bait and jump too, or do i stay with the Dewalt brand and move the 20v max platform, hopefully gradually.

I've tried to do research online, but I can't find any large definitive lists of what works and what does not work when using the 20v max batteries in the 18v tools. the dewalt faq has one partial list (I will link it here in a bit) but it only has 2 of the tools i have and the information was unclear. Because of this, i'm going to post all of my tools with a list of what works and does not work for everyone's benefit, and also pose any questions I have about why something does or does not work, and hopefully someone can provide an answer.

You don't have to make the switch all at once. Watch the chain stores for a sale on multi tool pack with charger and batteries (20v). Pick up an inexpensive 20 to 18 adapter for the really expensive tools you own in 18 (ie large impact driver). Once you have gradually switched completely to 20 collect all 18s and sell as a lot, or better give to an upcoming apprentice.
Watch ebay, craigslist,and facebook marketplace for nib tools. A lot of people are pallet buying and selling.
Youtube shows how to revive old 18v batteries I've revived several batteries but some are just a loss.

 

[dragoneggs]

I started out a long time ago with Makita 7.2v/9.6v nicads. When those batteries started dying I moved to 20v Dewalt because I was gifted a nice drill/driver set. Could have just as easily gotten stuck on Milwaukee but I have no complaints. My SIL is loaded up with Milwaukee 18v line. I don't see any performance difference, just color.

 

[5030]

Milwaukee, like Honda is overpriced.

 

[dragoneggs]

Milwaukee, like Honda is overpriced.

I won't disagree.