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61
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: General Discussions
Last post by kruddler -
Quote from: Thryleon – on
bosch.

Depends on the use case too.  Go through any decent materials and it gets a bit hard.

Green or blue?

Blue is the tradie stuff.
Green is the DIY stuff....and even then there is a difference between some blue atuff sold at bunnings and some blue stuff you buy at a tool store. My mate found that out the hard way.

Bosch blue is decent. You want to have 18V stuff as a minimum for power tools, and higher Ah gives higher runtime, but also better peak power over its charge cycle.
 
There is also some different versions of their batteries....i believe the procore is the newest and best one. They had a a 36 or 40v one for the power tgirsty stuff too.

Essentially if its bogging down youve got the wrong battery.
62
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: General Discussions
Last post by LP -
There is a significant point of difference between battery life in power tools and vehicles, and if you examine figure 2 in the link northernblue offered you see why.

Range is already a hurdle, and the article tries to spin nearly a 2% drop off per annum as a positive. But the harsh reality is many EV engineering solutions will fail as dysfunctional at levels below about 80% capacity due to battery protection measures. It's the same for high end UPS and that application has no battery technology restrictions at all, vehicles aren't at the cutting edge.

Energy isn't a magic pudding, a degraded battery isn't like a half full tank, in fact a degraded battery is the exact opposite of a half fill. A half full tank gives me more performance and greater efficiency due to reduced weight, a degraded battery is a boat anchor because at empty it is still the same weight.

In electrical engineering power is the product of two parameters, voltage and current, when batteries degrade are you lose both and you are always starting that much closer to the functional minimums at which the vehicle will just switch off. That is the difference between usable capacity and total capacity.

I'm not arguing 100% failure rates, but the EV marketing and green evaluation you read largely ignore reality, and all that is on top of the dodgy corporate practises. What some of the EV makers are doing is as bad as what Volkswagen did when it defrauded the public about emissions.

I'm not even going to start with the manufacturing side, that's Nimby.
63
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: General Discussions
Last post by Thryleon -
Quote from: kruddler – on
At Thry....what brand of battery tools do you use? That could be part of the problem.

I've got an embarrassingly large collection of battery tools formerly required as a tradie, now for garden maintenance and hobbies, with the occassional bit of 'hard work' thrown in.

My brand is choice is Milwaukee which are far from cheap.
I have everything from 4ah to 12ah.
Standard.
High Output
Forge

Different types for different tools, but all fit in all.

Standard are good for drills, radios, nail guns, multi-tools, lights etc
High output are good for grinders, smaller saws etc
Forge are best for really high drawing tools that might bog down under load of normal batteries, drop saws, 9" grinder, demo-saws etc

I no longer own any petrol based tools, including lawnmower, whipper snipper, chainsaw etc.....all batteries.
I've got some batteries that are still going strong for well over a decade now, but yes, a few have died along the journey too.
bosch.

Depends on the use case too.  Go through any decent materials and it gets a bit hard.
64
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: General Discussions
Last post by DJC -
Quote from: ElwoodBlues1 – on
Got no interest in EV's as the economics doesnt add up unless you are doing plenty of kms or are prepared to take a money hit for the environment(sorry Greta T). Had no trouble with Lithium batteries for power/garden tools either the expensive brand names or the cheap knock offs and we used Renogy lithium batteries/solar panels in our little Campervan and they were fine for years.

A friend bought a new car recently.  She was intending to get an EV or hybrid but the salesman demonstrated that she didn’t do enough Ks and an ICE vehicle was her best option economically and environmentally.

My V8 diesel simply doesn’t have an EV equivalent, unless I’m willing to shell out much more than I can afford. Ms DJC’s coupe now comes in hybrid and EV versions but the ICE model runs on the smell of an oily rag and replacing it doesn’t make sense.
65
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: General Discussions
Last post by DJC -
Quote from: kruddler – on
At Thry....what brand of battery tools do you use? That could be part of the problem.

I've got an embarrassingly large collection of battery tools formerly required as a tradie, now for garden maintenance and hobbies, with the occassional bit of 'hard work' thrown in.

My brand is choice is Milwaukee which are far from cheap.
I have everything from 4ah to 12ah.
Standard.
High Output
Forge

Different types for different tools, but all fit in all.

Standard are good for drills, radios, nail guns, multi-tools, lights etc
High output are good for grinders, smaller saws etc
Forge are best for really high drawing tools that might bog down under load of normal batteries, drop saws, 9" grinder, demo-saws etc

I no longer own any petrol based tools, including lawnmower, whipper snipper, chainsaw etc.....all batteries.
I've got some batteries that are still going strong for well over a decade now, but yes, a few have died along the journey too.

Milwaukee seems to be very popular with tradies Kruddler.

Our new neighbour is a glazier and a Milwaukee man.  He and his wife are from Western District farming families but they’re new to rural living.  He was impressed with my Honda brushcutter but I suggested that he explore Milwaukee battery powered gear rather than ICE tools.
66
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: General Discussions
Last post by ElwoodBlues1 -
Quote from: Thryleon – on
I'm neither here nor there on EV's.

I see them as a way forward, but not necessarily the way forward if you get my drift.  I am not an early adopter of any technology so have kept my distance (we have bought 2 vehicles since 2008, and both are Petrol cars, one of which was bought 2017, the other in 2024 to replace a 2008 car that probably had another 5 to 10 years in it, but became cost benefit to ditch in favour of something else, because that car was in need of more maintenance than I liked.

The main reason not to go EV, was more cost vs benefit at the time.  The car I bought was cheaper than the average good EV, and we didnt need to put a charging station in for it which made petrol win.  I also liked the shape of the car I bought, over what was on offer equivalent.  We gravitate to what we like the look of generally, be it food, scenery, choice of partner, etc. 

I have no feedback for the validity of EV.  I can only talk about rechargeable batteries in power tools, and solar panels for xmas lights and I have mixed fervour for them.  I find the battery powered tools to either be under powered, or unable to last the duration required to get the job done but thats not really a true comparison.  Xmas lights get stored for 10 months of the year, are made from NiMH and usually sit there and degrade in the process which limits their longevity.

Ive switched to plug in lights purely because they are brighter and more reliable, but the solar ones have their use cases such as range and isolation. 

Anyway, thats my two cents.  I had the Tesla's as a rule, but its more bout Musk, and his business model than anything else.  Subscriptions in general annoy me.


Got no interest in EV's as the economics doesnt add up unless you are doing plenty of kms or are prepared to take a money hit for the environment(sorry Greta T). Had no trouble with Lithium batteries for power/garden tools either the expensive brand names or the cheap knock offs and we used Renogy lithium batteries/solar panels in our little Campervan and they were fine for years.
67
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: General Discussions
Last post by kruddler -
At Thry....what brand of battery tools do you use? That could be part of the problem.

I've got an embarrassingly large collection of battery tools formerly required as a tradie, now for garden maintenance and hobbies, with the occassional bit of 'hard work' thrown in.

My brand is choice is Milwaukee which are far from cheap.
I have everything from 4ah to 12ah.
Standard.
High Output
Forge

Different types for different tools, but all fit in all.

Standard are good for drills, radios, nail guns, multi-tools, lights etc
High output are good for grinders, smaller saws etc
Forge are best for really high drawing tools that might bog down under load of normal batteries, drop saws, 9" grinder, demo-saws etc

I no longer own any petrol based tools, including lawnmower, whipper snipper, chainsaw etc.....all batteries.
I've got some batteries that are still going strong for well over a decade now, but yes, a few have died along the journey too.
68
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: General Discussions
Last post by DJC -
I have battery-operated circular saw, reciprocating saw, angle grinder, drills, impact driver, jigsaw, compressor, router, chainsaw, polesaw, sander and blower.  Mostly DeWalt but a couple of AEGs.  They are in use most of the time and, with a couple of spare batteries, I rarely have downtime.

My table saw, mitre saw, drill press, bandsaw, thicknesser, etc are 240v and I have ICE mowers, brushcutter, etc.

The AEG batteries are rubbish and I have adapters to run the AEG tools on DeWalt batteries.  The DeWalt 18-54v batteries are brilliant, but even the 14v batteries do well on my small drill/driver.

Of course, I wouldn’t be using my power tools as much as a tradie, but they all seem to be using battery powered tools now.

The chainsaw and polesaw, and my neighbour’s Stihls still need bar oil.

As I understand it lithium battery fires are caused by thermal runaway rather than a circuit or spark.
69
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: General Discussions
Last post by Thryleon -
Quote from: DJC – on
Most of my smaller power tools are battery-powered now and I can't fault them ... as long as I remember to charge the spare batteries.

I have a top of the range Husqvarna chainsaw but rarely use it now because my relatively cheap DeWalt does a pretty good job, is safer, quieter and I don't have to mix smelly two-stroke.  My arborist neighbour, who I employ for bigger, riskier jobs, now uses battery-powered Stihl chainsaws for most of his work.

The only reservation I have is the fire risk with lithium batteries - we're have a spate of landfill fires caused by inappropriately dumped batteries.  Using genuine batteries and chargers rather than knock-offs and disposing of dead lithium batteries through collection points is the way to go.
Apparently that is a relatively mundane issue too.  Who would guess that throwing a bunch of batteries together would simply create a circuit at times, causing sparks, generating heat and eventually combustion?  I certainly didnt realise that limitation till it popped up on the news. 

Re the tools.  Lithium Ion batteries are fine for drills.  They are fine for a hedge trimmer.  They are terrible for a blower which has a run time of about 15mins on each full charge of a 2.5 amp 18 volt battery.  Circular saws are mixed.   Basically anything that is more stop start is ok, but anything that requires continuous use is a bit miss than hit.  Cant beat the portability of them though. 

You still need bar oil for a chainsaw dont you?

Id happily use electric saws and appliances for most application, just the batteries can be a bit crap.  I had one die because of the actual interior of it, coming loose off one cell.  Tried to fix it, but its only a 1.5 amp drill battery so after my first fix failed, realised it was more cost effetive to replace it than spend time and money fixing.
70
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: General Discussions
Last post by DJC -
Most of my smaller power tools are battery-powered now and I can't fault them ... as long as I remember to charge the spare batteries.

I have a top of the range Husqvarna chainsaw but rarely use it now because my relatively cheap DeWalt does a pretty good job, is safer, quieter and I don't have to mix smelly two-stroke.  My arborist neighbour, who I employ for bigger, riskier jobs, now uses battery-powered Stihl chainsaws for most of his work.

The only reservation I have is the fire risk with lithium batteries - we're have a spate of landfill fires caused by inappropriately dumped batteries.  Using genuine batteries and chargers rather than knock-offs and disposing of dead lithium batteries through collection points is the way to go.