40v Thoughts

I wander if DeWalt will build any construction tools to utilize the 40v battery platform.

I have an ego blower now. I have been eyeing the DeWalt 20v and 40v blowers and trimmers.

Having the 40v yard tools myself, I would hate any power tools that use the 40v platform. Those batteries are ridiculous in size and weight.

They might add some cordless concrete tools on the new 40v platform. With the new battery tech and motors there less of a need for 40v tools compared to a few years ago.

I was thinking maybe a 10″ miter saw or a portable table saw.

RickyMcGrath wrote:

Having the 40v yard tools myself, I would hate any power tools that use the 40v platform. Those batteries are ridiculous in size and weight.

what about if they allowed a 9″ grinder, large circ saw, plunge router etc?

Man that would be awesome dwain! That would definitely make me jump abaord.

dwain wrote:

what about if they allowed a 9″ grinder, large circ saw, plunge router etc?

I’m kind of in the mindset that not ALL tools need to be cordless. Granted, there is A LOT of wow factor and that’s cool factor along with I want it because it’s new, but I just don’t see a huge need for them.

dwain wrote:

what about if they allowed a 9″ grinder, large circ saw, plunge router etc?

This sounds amazing. They absolutely should put heavy duty tools out with 40V. Cordless is the present and the future. Speaking as someone who spends most days on commercial construction sites, the less extension cords, the better.

RickyMcGrath wrote:

Having the 40v yard tools myself, I would hate any power tools that use the 40v platform. Those batteries are ridiculous in size and weight.

I purchased the 40V blower and trimmer today. Those batteries are no joke. Maybe a table saw or 12″ compound miter would work, but nothing handheld like a plunge router. I’ve heard people wish for a lawn mower but I just don’t see the run time being available. A pruning chainsaw would be nice and complement the hedge trimmer, however.

Congrats Sarbatche! Post some pics for us to drool over 😉

Sarbatche wrote:

I purchased the 40V blower and trimmer today. Those batteries are no joke. Maybe a table saw or 12″ compound miter would work, but nothing handheld like a plunge router. I’ve heard people wish for a lawn mower but I just don’t see the run time being available. A pruning chainsaw would be nice and complement the hedge trimmer, however.

Let us know what you think of them.

I’m a lot less inclined to buy the trimmer now. Just picked up a nice stihl fs80r for $100 this afternoon. It’s one of the last 2 strokes stihl made without emissions.

Initial impressions were that the string trimmer does the job well. I was only trimming the fence lines so I didn’t really have enough work to test out the run time. I also wasn’t mowing down an overgrown lawn with it, which makes me wonder if the 20V application would be more suitable for me. I tried edging with it briefly and it did okay but an edging attachment or guide rail would have been nice.

The blower… I have several things to say about this one. First off, I’ve never owned a blower before and now can’t understand why that was so! I do far prefer the style of the 20V blower to the centrifugal design of the 40V both for the aesthetics and the engineering. The 40V blower is just heavy enough that it’s desirable to switch hands after a moderate amount of time, which places the air intake against your thigh. That being said, run time is an issue even with the 40V (4ah) that I can’t see the 20V blower good for more than clearing off the driveway and shop floor. BTW, the property that I’m clearing is only about 10,000 sqft (~1/3 acre). I haven’t quantified the actual run time that I’m getting from my 4ah batteries but I am a little dissappointed; I needed several batteries to finish blowing the back yard. I will probably return the 4ah model and order the 6ah. If only I had seen that extra battery rebate last month…!

The blower really is a great tool – I’m just nitpicking here. The balance is great and the volume of air is huge. Hopefully multiple 6ah batteries do the job.

Bummer about the 4.0’s not having enough runtime for U Sarbatche that is a lot of property man compared to mine I think mines is about 5,000 sqft so they would probibly be good for my yard. I’m just waiting for my gas blower to take a dump b4 I go out and buy

Sarbatche wrote:

Initial impressions were that the string trimmer does the job well. I was only trimming the fence lines so I didn’t really have enough work to test out the run time. I also wasn’t mowing down an overgrown lawn with it, which makes me wonder if the 20V application would be more suitable for me. I tried edging with it briefly and it did okay but an edging attachment or guide rail would have been nice.

The blower… I have several things to say about this one. First off, I’ve never owned a blower before and now can’t understand why that was so! I do far prefer the style of the 20V blower to the centrifugal design of the 40V both for the aesthetics and the engineering. The 40V blower is just heavy enough that it’s desirable to switch hands after a moderate amount of time, which places the air intake against your thigh. That being said, run time is an issue even with the 40V (4ah) that I can’t see the 20V blower good for more than clearing off the driveway and shop floor. BTW, the property that I’m clearing is only about 10,000 sqft (~1/3 acre). I haven’t quantified the actual run time that I’m getting from my 4ah batteries but I am a little dissappointed; I needed several batteries to finish blowing the back yard. I will probably return the 4ah model and order the 6ah. If only I had seen that extra battery rebate last month…!

The blower really is a great tool – I’m just nitpicking here. The balance is great and the volume of air is huge. Hopefully multiple 6ah batteries do the job.

I have the ego blower now. My house sits on two lots. I have several huge white oak, hickory, sweetgum trees. The ego does a good job for smaller stuff but just doesn’t seem to have enough power/runtime to blow the leaves. It does great for blowing the driveway off. I was hoping the DeWalt would be better, but I would probably be better off upgrading my gas blower to a backpack version and keeping the ego for smaller touch up jobs.

I’d love to see 40v on tools that are either self supported or can  be aided in their use by the extra weight/ run time.

Maybe a back pack power pack. Put the backpack on and plug into your 20v tools for all day run time.

Update on the blower. I should have mentioned the condition of the lawn in my first post; It hasn’t been raked or blown in at least a year and is surrounded by large white oak and sweet gum trees. The detritus on the ground was heavy, wet, rotting and choking out the grass. So this initial effort was definitely not just maintaining the lawn, hence the multiple batteries and multiple days required. I was also blowing the entire lawn from one end to another because there’s a tree line at one end where I piled all of the leaves. It would have been much quicker if I had sectioned up the yard and created small piles to be bagged.

I had (2) 4ah batteries that I tested for run time over several days. The temperature was approximately 85 degrees F every day. The batteries were only used after the charger indicated a full charge. The blower was left running on max output from start to finish. Each battery on each day ran for 15:20-15:28 (mm:ss), which I consider to be a consistent result. This is the only blower that I’ve ever used so I don’t know how 15 and a half minutes of run time suits people.

I’ve had the trimmer for a little over a month and have used the piss out of it. I got it at Lowes, so it’s the 4ah. The rain we’ve been getting here in Tx has kept me busy, due to laziness and work getting in the way the back yard has been getting out of hand and the trimmer cuts through some serious weeds even with the .80 line. I’m still waiting on my extra battery. I’m confident that I can get through my back yard on one charge under normal use and usually even the front, but with all the rain I need a charge for the front and another on the back.  I seriously love it and will be getting the blower soon. 

Only tools I could imagine are maybe a bigger miter saw or SDS. 

I heard that the trimmer is not attachment capable? If so, that is a deal breaker for me as I have many tall and/or wide hedges that would require a pole hedge trimmer.

RickyMcGrath wrote:

I’m kind of in the mindset that not ALL tools need to be cordless. Granted, there is A LOT of wow factor and that’s cool factor along with I want it because it’s new, but I just don’t see a huge need for them.

What about a hybrid tool? I would love to have a 40v 12″ dual bevel sliding compund miter saw that could also be corded. That way you have the option of using battery power, if you are in an area where electricity is unavailible but also have the option of using mains power.

Cliu wrote:

What about a hybrid tool? I would love to have a 40v 12″ dual bevel sliding compund miter saw that could also be corded. That way you have the option of using battery power, if you are in an area where electricity is unavailible but also have the option of using mains power.

That’s not a bad idea, or a table saw

Jimbo

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Sarbatche wrote:

I purchased the 40V blower and trimmer today. Those batteries are no joke. Maybe a table saw or 12″ compound miter would work, but nothing handheld like a plunge router. I’ve heard people wish for a lawn mower but I just don’t see the run time being available. A pruning chainsaw would be nice and complement the hedge trimmer, however.

From what I’ve been told 40v lawn mowers have more than adiquate power for small suburban lawns maybe 1/4 acre or so. Much more than that, you would need to go gas.

Not that I’ve tried it, but some whitepapers tests showed pretty close to petrol performance and high endurance with powerfull electric lawn movers like this: http://m.bosch-professional.com/gb/en/tools/cordless-tools/lawnmowers/gra-53.html?sPath=%2FdispatchToProductInCategory.html&defaultWebtrends=true&webtrends=Länderauswahl&webtrends=optional+Sprachauswahl

2x 36V,6Ah.

Would probably buy this compared to petrol. With an extra set of batteries, you could use it all day.

I wanna see a 40V demolition hammer. The 70 pounder!

Conductor562 wrote:

I wanna see a 40V demolition hammer. The 70 pounder!

After using the lawn equipment for sometime, I don’t see the power to use the 40V in any construction tools. Just the blower alone, which the only resistance is AIR, doesn’t run that long considering it’s not cutting or breaking material.

Weeeeel, that might be true, but if you look at real numbers and not intuition, blowers usually need more power.

Thats becouse large demolition hammers/breakers only need to deliver single hard blows, and will take its time charging the mechanism. Still, 15 amp is still a strech with todays batteries. (Unless you use two bulky 6ah 36V batteries)

An blower need to turn a fan/turbine at very high speed to push large amounts of air at 200 Mph. The air resistance at thoose speed is not to be taken lightly. 😉

Cliu wrote:

What about a hybrid tool? I would love to have a 40v 12″ dual bevel sliding compund miter saw that could also be corded. That way you have the option of using battery power, if you are in an area where electricity is unavailible but also have the option of using mains power.

That would be interesting. Maybe a dummy battery that’s really just a transformer with a cable out the back?

The backpack blower was interesting mostly because it showed Dewalt’s willingness to put two 40V batteries in a single tool. And increase the capacity of each pack. 7.5ah is almost double the original, standard 4ah batteries…. So I’m considering a mower to be a real possibility in the future.

Still got my fingers crossed for a cordless table saw though!

A dummy power-supply battery exist, but I doubt you get a lot of power out of it. A Power supply at that size usually is at a couple hundred watts.

You would probably use SMPS (switching mode power supply) tech, becouse 50-60HZ would demand very large trsnsformer.

A pure transformer battery with 700-800W output would weigh around 6,5kg and be 3 times the size of a normal battery. 😛

Actually, the simplest thing i just using an stationary power supply at around 20V, and connect it to the tool with an battery-adapter (or make your own adapter). A DIY’er would do it in no time. 🙂

I live in an average suburbian house. Small lawn in front, small lawn in back. House is about 1500 Sq ft. I can string trim and blow off my front and backyard both with only one 4ah battery. Last weekend I blew out my gutters, trimmed the front and back, blew the super mess from the gutters front and back- all on 2 batteries (both mostly drained, but they didn’t yet shut down yet)

I love these tools! I want the hedge trimmer and chainsaw!

Sarbatche wrote:

That would be interesting. Maybe a dummy battery that’s really just a transformer with a cable out the back?

The backpack blower was interesting mostly because it showed Dewalt’s willingness to put two 40V batteries in a single tool. And increase the capacity of each pack. 7.5ah is almost double the original, standard 4ah batteries…. So I’m considering a mower to be a real possibility in the future.

Still got my fingers crossed for a cordless table saw though!

What Ryobi does with their hybrid tools is to have two ports. One where the battery goes and another one with a plug head for you to stick the female end of an extension cord into. The two ports or located closly enough that with the battery inserted, the other port is convered and inaccessable so you can’t have the battery and cord plugged in at the same time (not sure why you would want to anyway).