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It's not that I wanted to give brands the benefit of the doubt, but that I believe there are other hurdles and significant obstacles independent of corporate pr

It's not that I wanted to give brands the benefit of the doubt, but that I believe there are other hurdles and significant obstacles independent of corporate profit considerations. Many consumers are familiar with the concept of Ah (amp-hours) as akin to a car's gas tank, where the more amp-hours a battery has, the longer it can power a device. If you buy a video camera, the brand's 4Ah battery should allow for double the recording time as their 2Ah battery. Right? Which would you rather buy, a 6Ah cordless power tool battery for $79, or a 5Ah battery for $89? The batteries are the same size and weight. Depending on the application, the 5Ah battery might outlast the 6Ah in use. You're at the home center and see three power tool batteries on the shelf - all are 18V and rated at 3Ah, but they're different physical sizes. Which is better? With a bit of research on your phone, you learn that the batteries are built with 5x 18650, 5x 21700, and 10x 18650 Li-ion battery cells, respectively. All three 3Ah batteries are the same price. Does this help you choose? Power tool battery selection is not as intuitive as looking at a 20W USB charger and simply knowing it will charge devices at a faster rate than a 5W charger. There are enough "what battery should I get?" questions in my inbox and messages folders, as well as all over online forums, for me to believe the confusion has gotten worse over the years as new overlapping technologies were introduced. Many users don't fully understand that there can be huge differences in power capabilities. A 1.3Ah battery and a 12Ah battery of the same voltage and cordless system are going to deliver very different levels of power. A lot of tool users learn this the hard way. It's not their fault, as a 12Ah battery might be simply advertised as delivering more than 9X the runtime. With many more options available, I'm sure many users will pair cheaper brand name batteries with pro-level tools and expect everything to work well together. Who will they blame for poor performance? Themselves and their choices? The tool brand? Or the battery brand? In my opinion, if user experience concerns can be addressed, and numerous technical obstacles flattened, companies "making profits until they get regulated" will be the easiest hurdle to overcome. If you want to better understand why replacement batteries cost so much, look at different brands' sales and promotions. The Makita XGT circular saw kit (GSR01M1) is $299 right now across authorized dealers, and you get a free extra battery. The same 4Ah battery (BL4040) is priced at $199 to $219, each. So that's $299 for the kit with a total of 2 batteries plus a saw, charger, and tool bag, or $398 for just 2 batteries. Based on this type of retail math, I'd say replacement battery prices are set to balance out the promos.

glasss 3y ago
I appreciate the response. I might just not be the target of your blog, in your given example: >You're at the home center and see three power tool batteries on the shelf - all are 18V and rated at 3Ah, but they're different physical sizes. Which is better? >With a bit of research on your phone, Personally, myself nor anyone I know who uses power tools more than just buying a 12v drill once, would do this research on our phone in the aisle of Home Depot. If I see three batteries all rated the same, it would be a price decision or a form factor one ("bigger must be better"). That could be where my disconnect is - I've never once thought about what kind of internal battery cells are being used. >With many more options available, I'm sure many users will pair cheaper brand name batteries with pro-level tools and expect everything to work well together. This happens now across the consumer and business space. I have clients at work who buy a cheaper usb-c dock for their laptops, because why is the Dell official one $250? Some users might run into issues with it while others in their company don't. Some blame the dock, some blame their old laptop, some curse that their company didn't buy them Apple devices. The truth is always somewhere in the middle, sometimes it is the dock but sometimes it isn't. Dell doesn't care - they made $100B last year and they'll just tell you to buy the official Dell dock even if it is your old computer causing the issues. But I, and everyone I know, would hate it if no one made those cheaper usb-c docks and just limited our choices to the $250 options. The math behind the market of the batteries also doesn't interest anyone I know. We don't care how / why Milwaukee or Makita runs deals, we're just mad that we're spending so much. More options, and cheaper options, have never been a bad thing in a market.
- StueyGuyd 3y ago
  >Personally, myself nor anyone I know who uses power tools more than just buying a 12v drill once, would do this research on our phone in the aisle of Home Depot. If I see three batteries all rated the same, it would be a price decision or a form factor one ("bigger must be better"). That could be where my disconnect is - I've never once thought about what kind of internal battery cells are being used. Even if conducting your research at home and online before buying into a cordless platform, you might encounter similar options and potential confusion. Here are two Dewalt 20V Max batteries: https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb230/20v-max-compact-3ah-battery https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb230/20v-max-compact-3ah-ba... https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb200/20v-max-3ah-battery https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb200/20v-max-3ah-battery Here are two Dewalt 6Ah batteries: https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb206/20v-max-xrr-6ah-battery https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb206/20v-max-xrr-6ah-batter... https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb606/flexvoltr-2060v-max-battery-pack-60ah-2-pk https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb606/flexvoltr-2060v-max-ba... Here are two Dewalt 5Ah batteries: https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcbp520/20v-max-dewalt-powerstacktm-50-ah-battery https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcbp520/20v-max-dewalt-powers... https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb205/20v-max-xrr-5ah-battery https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb205/20v-max-xrr-5ah-batter... More knowledgeable users have difficulty sorting out the differences. I used Dewalt as an example, but every brand has their own nuances to understand. Bigger is still usually better, but not always, as the scale is no longer linear. Most consumers expect a linear relationship. >But I, and everyone I know, would hate it if no one made those cheaper usb-c docks and just limited our choices to the $250 options. There are 3rd party batteries and adapters available on Amazon, ebay, and direct-import sellers. I would never touch them, but they're there for those who want to buy them. > I've never once thought about what kind of internal battery cells are being used. I wouldn't expect most people to. The main source of confusion is that each cordless power tool brand has battery options across several different technological generations. Different brands' like-capacity batteries can have different power capabilities as well. The end result might be that consumers will be presented with multiple batteries all labeled the same, such as 18V 4Ah, with all different capabilities. People would spend less, but get less and not understand why. Simply being able to swap batteries around wouldn't be a sufficient fix by itself. It's like using a micro USB cable with a USB-C plug adapter, and expecting it to charge a laptop at 100W.

glasss 3y ago

I appreciate the response. I might just not be the target of your blog, in your given example: >You're at the home center and see three power tool batteries on the shelf - all are 18V and rated at 3Ah, but they're different physical sizes. Which is better? >With a bit of research on your phone, Personally, myself nor anyone I know who uses power tools more than just buying a 12v drill once, would do this research on our phone in the aisle of Home Depot. If I see three batteries all rated the same, it would be a price decision or a form factor one ("bigger must be better"). That could be where my disconnect is - I've never once thought about what kind of internal battery cells are being used. >With many more options available, I'm sure many users will pair cheaper brand name batteries with pro-level tools and expect everything to work well together. This happens now across the consumer and business space. I have clients at work who buy a cheaper usb-c dock for their laptops, because why is the Dell official one $250? Some users might run into issues with it while others in their company don't. Some blame the dock, some blame their old laptop, some curse that their company didn't buy them Apple devices. The truth is always somewhere in the middle, sometimes it is the dock but sometimes it isn't. Dell doesn't care - they made $100B last year and they'll just tell you to buy the official Dell dock even if it is your old computer causing the issues. But I, and everyone I know, would hate it if no one made those cheaper usb-c docks and just limited our choices to the $250 options. The math behind the market of the batteries also doesn't interest anyone I know. We don't care how / why Milwaukee or Makita runs deals, we're just mad that we're spending so much. More options, and cheaper options, have never been a bad thing in a market.

StueyGuyd 3y ago
>Personally, myself nor anyone I know who uses power tools more than just buying a 12v drill once, would do this research on our phone in the aisle of Home Depot. If I see three batteries all rated the same, it would be a price decision or a form factor one ("bigger must be better"). That could be where my disconnect is - I've never once thought about what kind of internal battery cells are being used. Even if conducting your research at home and online before buying into a cordless platform, you might encounter similar options and potential confusion. Here are two Dewalt 20V Max batteries: https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb230/20v-max-compact-3ah-battery https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb230/20v-max-compact-3ah-ba... https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb200/20v-max-3ah-battery https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb200/20v-max-3ah-battery Here are two Dewalt 6Ah batteries: https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb206/20v-max-xrr-6ah-battery https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb206/20v-max-xrr-6ah-batter... https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb606/flexvoltr-2060v-max-battery-pack-60ah-2-pk https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb606/flexvoltr-2060v-max-ba... Here are two Dewalt 5Ah batteries: https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcbp520/20v-max-dewalt-powerstacktm-50-ah-battery https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcbp520/20v-max-dewalt-powers... https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb205/20v-max-xrr-5ah-battery https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb205/20v-max-xrr-5ah-batter... More knowledgeable users have difficulty sorting out the differences. I used Dewalt as an example, but every brand has their own nuances to understand. Bigger is still usually better, but not always, as the scale is no longer linear. Most consumers expect a linear relationship. >But I, and everyone I know, would hate it if no one made those cheaper usb-c docks and just limited our choices to the $250 options. There are 3rd party batteries and adapters available on Amazon, ebay, and direct-import sellers. I would never touch them, but they're there for those who want to buy them. > I've never once thought about what kind of internal battery cells are being used. I wouldn't expect most people to. The main source of confusion is that each cordless power tool brand has battery options across several different technological generations. Different brands' like-capacity batteries can have different power capabilities as well. The end result might be that consumers will be presented with multiple batteries all labeled the same, such as 18V 4Ah, with all different capabilities. People would spend less, but get less and not understand why. Simply being able to swap batteries around wouldn't be a sufficient fix by itself. It's like using a micro USB cable with a USB-C plug adapter, and expecting it to charge a laptop at 100W.