Brushless motors and LiPo batteries ... new tools for me

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  1. Voltage
Yep, I'm and old geezer when it comes to tools. Happily chugging along with my on DeWalt 18V NiCd XRP tools and oblivious to the changing world around me. When the NiCd batteries gave out, I bought adapters on eBay to use their new 20V packs on my old tools. But finally decided to upgrade my impact driver and drill and pick up an impact wrench for working on my vehicles (lug nuts).

Yes, I'm behind the times, but I was pleasantly surprised to see tools with brushless motors and it looks like DeWalt is now using LiPo batteries in addition to their 18650/21700 cells. The funny thing is that nobody in the tool world seems to be as "obsessed" with batteries as in the RC world. Cell internal resistance, balance charging, storage charge, etc. Nobody cares (or so it seems). Just charge 'em up and run 'em and when you're done, throw them in your tool box instead of some LiPo storage bag. Just an interesting observation from me on a slow Thursday morning.

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PSBatt.jpg
 
This may be down to my lack of expertise in the topic, but aren't most consumer grade Lithium batteries actually Li-ion, vice polymer? I was always under the impression that Li-ion was inherently more stable or safe than lipo, but as a matter of consequence, also less powerful.

But for real, here I am charging my Ridgid drill batteries to "two dots" out of four, to make sure they are "storage charged"... :ROFLMAO:
 
This may be down to my lack of expertise in the topic, but aren't most consumer grade Lithium batteries actually Li-ion, vice polymer? I was always under the impression that Li-ion was inherently more stable or safe than lipo, but as a matter of consequence, also less powerful.

But for real, here I am charging my Ridgid drill batteries to "two dots" out of four, to make sure they are "storage charged"... :ROFLMAO:
🤣
 
Interesting, thanks! I thought everyone was still using cylindrical cells, like 18650, which I think are lithium ion. I know Ryobi uses larger 21700, I think, in some of their batteries.

Yeah, about a year ago I went to lithium tools (Ryobi), I'm impressed so far. But, yes, I'm guilty of RC battery mentality :) My nicer tool batteries stay in the fridge, at storage voltage. I made an adapter that lets me use my hobby charger to bring them down to a certain voltage. Or, to skip that step, yes, I try to charge to 3 out of 5 lights. And I do my best to avoid running the batteries down too far during use.

It's only my small/cheap tool battery that sits out, usually fully-charged, in the little handheld vacuum. For convenience.

https://www.dewalt.com/powerstack
 
Correct they are lithium ion for safety/stability reasons.
The prices they charge are just outrageous too....
The prices are indeed steep, best to watch for sales (black Friday, Father's day, 4th of July etc). But, if you use them EVERY DAY professionally as I do, I'll swear on Dewalt every day ending in "y"!🙂 Well worth the price of admission 👍👍
 
I guess those are a hybrid between Ion and polymer?

"The big deal behind DeWalt PowerStack batteries is the use of stacked lithium-ion polymer pouches instead of cylindrical cells. While current 20V Max batteries use either 18650 or 21700 cells, PowerStack uses a literal “stack” of 5 lithium-polymer pouches"

I would have to assume they are made to be kept at a full charge and not be volatile. Interesting stuff!

https://www.protoolreviews.com/dewalt-powerstack-batteries-technology/
 
I guess those are a hybrid between Ion and polymer?

"The big deal behind DeWalt PowerStack batteries is the use of stacked lithium-ion polymer pouches instead of cylindrical cells. While current 20V Max batteries use either 18650 or 21700 cells, PowerStack uses a literal “stack” of 5 lithium-polymer pouches"

I would have to assume they are made to be kept at a full charge and not be volatile. Interesting stuff!

https://www.protoolreviews.com/dewalt-powerstack-batteries-technology/

I honestly couldn’t tell. I watched a few YouTube videos and searched around but nobody has yet decrypted the marketing speak responses from DeWalt. It’s interesting stuff though. I guess I’ll have to disassemble mine and stick a screwdriver through it to see what happens. 🤪
 
It looks like they are just switching to the same sleeve design that has been with li polymer batteries for a while. maybe throwing new marketing terms of "pouches" at it to make it seem brand new? Which makes sense, the round cell design is only so effective at utilizing space.

Hmm, i'm learning i don't know as much about li-ion batteries as I thought I did.
 
I honestly couldn’t tell. I watched a few YouTube videos and searched around but nobody has yet decrypted the marketing speak responses from DeWalt. It’s interesting stuff though. I guess I’ll have to disassemble mine and stick a screwdriver through it to see what happens. 🤪
This summer when it gets hot if there are several news stories about construction vehicles catching fire we will know why :LOL:
 
The funny thing is that nobody in the tool world seems to be as "obsessed" with batteries as in the RC world. Cell internal resistance, balance charging, storage charge, etc. Nobody cares (or so it seems). Just charge 'em up and run 'em and when you're done, throw them in your tool box instead of some LiPo storage bag. Just an interesting observation from me on a slow Thursday morning.

The batteries themselves actually have electronics in them to perform the balance charging across cells. The tools have the electronics required to perform low-voltage cutoff.

I've converted my kids powerwheels to run off dewalt batteries and I have a volt meter on the dash of the cars. As the kids pass by while driving, I check the display to see what the current voltage is to make sure they aren't going to ruin my expensive tool batteries by draining them too far. We take the powerwheels with us when we go camping pretty often. I wire up 3 flexvolt 6AH batteries in parallel and they can drive their powerwheels around the campground nearly the entire day before they need to be recharged.

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There are some exceptions. Ryobi does their low voltage cutoff in their batteries, not the tools. Because their One+ tools are all still compatible with their 18V NiCad batteries, or 18V lithium batteries. And old NiCad tools did not need low voltage protection, so they had to integrate that into the batteries instead.

So, for people using the tool batteries for something else, that can be helpful. For instance, I modified an old Ryobi charger shell to mount a 2-port QC 3.0 USB charger (with a voltage display). The battery will shut down its output when it gets too low. The modified tool charger also has a set of output leads, so I can connect it to my hobby charger, for bringing batteries down to storage.

Or you can run PowerWheels (this seems popular, and fun).
 
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