golden valley const.

I've been waiting for this forever, I hate dealing with gas cartridges, misfires, another battery system, etc. The speed isn't even that important, but if it's a flywheel type, that would be pretty cool. Ability to bump out a few at a time. Personally I'd prefer non-flywheel type though, just a spring recharge of some sort between shots. I only used my cordless nailer for odds and ends, can never replace pneumatic when you're shooting 5,000 a day per gun.

Is that labeled as one of the new 4.0 packs or are they using better cells than advertised?

In most cases the 3.0 will drive a little more than twice what the 1.5 drives. Why? Half the current draw per cell means slightly more efficient power delivery.

It's about time! One voltage, different batteries for the job works best for me.

I almost only use dewalt bits and they break all the time and get dull. Still seem to be better than most.

These are fantastic. I love 'em. Compact AND sturdy and stable. screw a sacrificial 2x4 on top for ripping plywood, etc.

The problem with a lot of LED replacement lamps is heat dissipation. LEDs like to run coo, and despite their low wattage, generally need a good heat sink to dissipate heat from a powerful single LED source.

They are backwards compatible but I believe they have the same cells in them. Also no red lithium label on the new batteries. I think they just have added protection circuitry since the V28 packs were a little too easy to fry.

Seems to me like 20 cells of just about any type will make a pretty powerful tool. I don't own the 36v line but every year when I get a job that requires more power than I wish I needed (I prefer lighter work), I contemplate jumping into 36-volt again. I've never been concerned with cycle life, I know plumbers who use 10 full cycles a week, but I average about 100 per year so I'm more concerned with calendar life.

So have you actually used these to build something? How do you know they are so much worse?

It will not be an upgrade unless you want to drill 1/8" holes for a day. Cant supply high current.

I always found it odd that their 18v batteries had 6 or 12 3.3v cells and 36v had 10. Just like milwaukee v28 is only 7 3.6v cells. So many complaints about 20v max, 12v max, but never with the higher voltage line.

They are 3.3v nominal.

Keep in mind these are 33v packs, so if it's really 79 watt hours then it's more than the previous packs.

No one's using a high capacity cell any time soon, even red lithium uses a 1.5 amp hour cell. There are 3.0+ amp hour cells out there, great for laptops and other things that don't require high current.

Teckno, even though watt hours seems like the most true and accurate measure of a batteries capacity, it's not the whole story. This is because w/h are usually measured at a very low discharge rate. The measurement will not be the same at a high discharge rate. So while a Sony se us18650v cell may be rated at 5.55 w/h, it might be just half of that when drained at a 15 amp rate. This can be illustrated by comparing two tools. One might drill more holes with any bit under 1", but the other drills more with any larger bit. If we wanted a really meaningful measure of tools for comparison, we'd have "watt hours out" at low, medium, and high loads.

Thank you for being the first to do such a test. I've been intrigued by these redlithium batteries. Next summer I may be able to contribute a comparison between M12 and 12V Max in a more controlled environment: Metal roofing screws. Drilling technique can't really be varied, so it's a really fair test. Always the same thing, #14 screws through 29 gauge metal into OSB, all fairly consistent density, and always just drilled until it fully sets. No stalling, over-working, etc. like can happen with spade bits in varied wood. For the roofing, 12V tools are barely sufficient, but the light weight is awesome and the added power of the 12V max might be just the ticket.