Bosch Cordless Grinder Review

When it comes to cordless grinders, a consumer has plenty of options to pick from.  All most every major and no name power tool manufacturers have a grinder in their lineup.  Like anything else in this world, we have brands we love and brands we want to avoid.  For me, I have two major brands that I stick to when it comes to grinders, Metabo and Bosch.  I have owned both of them over the years and they are the two that always seem to stand up to the abuse.  So with that said, let’s jump into the Bosch Cordless Grinder review, model GWS18V-45CN and see if this grinder holds true.

Bosch Cordless Grinder Review Overview

Over the past couple of years, cordless grinders have made huge leaps forward.  A couple of years back, a grinder would stall out very easily when a user put any pressure on the tool.  With today’s grinders, they are much beefier and can perform a ton more work without cutting down or shutting off.

While you still have to be careful with your grinder purchases, the bigger brands have a better assortment of grinders that can be used in any application a corded grinder can be used.

Bosch Cordless Grinder Review Features

Bosch designed the grinder around a brushless motor.   The GWS18V-45CN is a 4-1/2″ grinder which is one of the most common size grinders on the market.

Some of the most important features are features you can’t see such as protection for the user.  The grinder has KickBack Control to reduce the hazard if the grinder binds.  There is also drop control which shuts off the grinder if you drop it on the floor.  The grinder also features restart protection and soft starts.

Here is what’s cool about this grinder.  This grinder is designed with the use of the new Bosch Core battery.  If you aren’t familiar with the Bosch Core battery, I would suggest checking out our article on the Bosch core.  The new battery isn’t a gimmick, this a true breakthrough for the power tool world and the cordless power tool market.  If you use the Core Battery, you will get a 110% increase in run time for the battery

The back of the handle has a nice design and is slim, which give this a good feel and makes it more ergonomic for longer periods of use.

The rubber overmold has some texture so even with gloves or dirt on the handle, you shouldn’t have a problem with control or the tool slipping.

The Bosch grinder uses a slide switch instead of a paddle switch.  The slide switch can be pushed forward to turn the grinder on.  If you want to lock the grinder on, you have to slide forward and then push down.  The design still allows the user to quickly turn off the grinder and makes it easy.

The head of the grinder is much smaller than I would expect for a grinder of this size and power.  This makes it great for tighter spots.

You can also see the arbor lock located on top of the tool.  The arbor lock is easy to access and isn’t too awkward when changing accessories on the grinder.

The side handle is fairly comfortable and can be used on either the left or right side.  I do like how Bosch designed this will a slight angle for the side handle.  Some companies have decided to go with a straight 90-degree side handle, but this feels much more comfortable.

Taking off or adjusting the angle of the guard is easy and doesn’t require a tool.  Just push a button and you can spin the guard to the correct location.

As you know when you grinding or cutting, you create small metal particles.  Bosch has a screen to protect the air intake for the motor.  These can be removed for easy cleaning.  I am glad to see the screens included as it helps protect the tool for a longer life.

One cool feature of this grinder is the ability to use it for Bluetooth.  Bosch sells a kit (GCY30-4) which is a Bluetooth tool module.  We will cover this in the future but for now, you can read more about it on the Bosch Website.  If you use this add-on with the Bosch Toolbox app, you will get more control over the grinder.

Bosch Cordless Grinder Review Performance

This grinder is specifically designed to get the most from the Bosch Core Batteries.  So since we were testing the batteries, e used this grinder for a wide variety of applications.  We tried to get it to bog down and for one thing, this doesn’t bog down like a lot of other grinders we have tested.  When we were grinding, you could extremely hard and still not get the tool to cut out.  So that’s a huge plus.

We cut through some rebar, metal pipe, and metal stakes.  Again, the tool performed as advertised.  As is quicker than other grinders we tested, no not necessarily.  But the more we used the tool, the more we could see that the runtime has increased.  We didn’t test it against other grinders for runtime as that is something we will do in the future.

Bosch Cordless Grinder Review Value

The Grinder will run about $179 as a bare tool on Amazon.  If you want the grinder with the Core Batteries, you will have to open up your pocketbook a little wider and fork out $250.  Now if your grinder is one of your main tools, then it’s worth it.

You can get some grinders for less, but when you couple this grinder with the Bosch battery, you do get a tool that tackles more jobs than a majority of other tools on the market.

Bosch Cordless Grinder Review Final Thoughts

Overall this is a great grinder. While I wish there were fewer vibrations, I love the fact that it doesn’t bog down like other grinders we have tested. Couple this grinder with the Bosch Core battery and you will see improvements in runtime over other 18V grinders on the market.