Carlton Supporters Club

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.

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.

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.

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.

Quote from: Thryleon – on January 19, 2026, 09:54:25 pm

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.