Dewalt Flexvolt Batteries

[RobertMcNjr]

How do they hold up over time for daily use or even weekly? I'm a general contractor and thought about investing in some of these products. Wanted to hear from the community about them before making a decision.

 

Read some mixed reviews, mostly positive but according to the negative reviews these batteries don't last long, a year at most. Is this true?

 

Only other competitor I thought about investing in was Milwaukee although most of my tools are from Dewalt's 20v lineup. I mainly wanted the Flexvolt tools for a miter saw, circular saw and reciprocating saw. I would get the table saw but since it doesn't have an a/c adapter I thought about waiting.

 

Thanks for your time and input.

[rcarnes911]

I have a few flexvolt batteries with 2017-18 date codes and they still work fine,  The flexvolt miter is awesome,  but the shadow line can be a pain to see if you are working in the sun and you need to use flexvolt blades.  i have the flexvolt table saw also it is nice but it can suck a battery down fairly quick  

[Mordekyle]

I use FV daily, since they were introduced.

 

A small FV battery makes the 20v circular saw a different tool. It’s definitely worth the trade off in weight, since the saw is way underpowered with any 20v battery.

 

The FV circular saw is a beast, but I rarely need it- very little framing.

 

An FV battery helps the 20v miter saw. I use the 9AH battery on it and it lasts a long time. I don’t do crown, so I don’t need the FV mitersaw.

 

The dust collector works great when doing MDF trim on the MS. I strap the remote on the saw and hitting the button before a cut soon became unconscious. It also works well as a vacuum and the airlock connection works great with either of the 20v sanders.

 

FV blower is great.ii run it while grinding out a coping cut on the MDF trim. Heavy, but it blows well enough to blow Wet leaves out of gutters.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jronman]

I have had 2 flexvolt batteries refuse to charge but otherwise the rest are still going strong. I have 7 of the 2/6 amp hr flexvolt batteries. I have the grinder, table saw, sliding miter saw, worm style saw, recip saw, and track saw. Lots of power on everything and everything still works.

[DustyBear]

That is the question and an important one, batteries are a big investment.

 

My personal opinion is it's not so much the cells in the battery but the electronics controlling, regulating and communicating both the battery and tool. When the electronics faultier kiss the battery goodbye, the lithium won't charge or discharge correctly. I've only had 1 battery do this, a Milwaukee 9.0 at 2 yrs 10 months of a 3 yr warranty and Milwaukee replaced it at no cost.

 

I owned batteries from Bosch, Dewalt, Milwaukee and Craftsman. If you read all these sites that talk about actual Lithium, they all seem to say that the lithium degrades even if sitting on a shelf and the longevity is no more then 2-3 yrs. Well the first platform I bought into was Craftsman C3, buying only a driver drill and 1/4" impact, then a sawzall, 4" grinder, impact wrench, vacuum and radio, with a bunch of 2.0&4.0 batteries. I beat the crap out of those tools and not 1 gave up, then I gave them all to a friend. It's now 6 years later and those batteries are still going strong. 

These "experts" also say that heat is the worst thing for these batts, however I have a friend who lives and works in Florida, working exclusively on sea docks, walls and boat houses, mostly PT material. He runs Dewalt 20v tools and has alot of those newer XR 6.0ah-20v batts (21700 cells) and doesn't seem to be having issues. Anyone who's been to FL, knows there's no shade and gets quite hot.

2 points; (#1) The company also uses Milwaukee 18v as well, so their building all of these board walks and structures out of PT and only using the 18v platforms. (#2) The flexvolt 6, 9 & 12ah and the newer XR 6 & 8ah batteries all use the same larger 21700 cells (food for thought). 

 

Now both Dewalt & Bosch are recognizing (perhaps witnessing Milwaukee) that the 18v platform has not reached it's limits yet and are designing and/or upgrading their existing 18v tools to work with these larger 21700 cells which hold and deliver alot more energy, which is a good thing for their loyal customers.