burlguy

Thank you telling me they will be supported for the years to come. There is deffinetly a cell issue, just head over to Amazon reviews and check the 36v battery reviews. The new replacement battery I recieved is much lighter than the rest. It will probably have even less run time. Oh well, maybe they will get so bad Dewalt will start a xrp 36v battery? I would be willing to pay for more run time.

The rep gave me some crap but in the end they replaced it. They are a new cell with 72 wh on the back of the battery, so even less run time than the last one. First we had the amazing a123 cells (100 wh) which are still going strong 5 years later. Then we got the sanyo a sized batteries(79 wh)doubled up. Now I have not opened the pack but it is much lighter than all of the others. I am sure the run time and life will be even less. :'(

I dont know if you have used the 36v tools but they are unmatched in torque and run time. The circular saw uses the full sized 7 1/4" blade and I need this because I often work in full dimension lumber. It would cost me $3500 or so to ditch the tools that still work like new minus their battery issue, I guess I will have to consider it. Such a shame... :-\

Its official my batteries didnt make it 50 charges(probably less than 20) and the new cells are giving me the 3 blinking lights after 16 months. I dont know what to do now. I have the full 36v volt line and this is a serious problem to me as I depended on them. I built one house with them and have 7 batteries so I alternated charging and usage. I checked Amazon review and it looks like they are all dying..... :'( I hate to have to turn to another company. I took pride in having all black and yellow. :-\

Dewalt was kind enough to send me a replacement 36v battery for my 36v a123 cell battery that cooked itself. Well after 14 months and a dozen charges the new replacement battery has died. Is this battery under guarantee still or am I down $130? I was getting depleted runtime and it was shutting down on me so I threw it on the charger and it showed 2 lights after 5 minutes and I knew something was wrong. I left it on the charger overnight to balance the cells and now I came back to it and it has 3 flashing lights of death :'( Am I out of luck?

I had the same problem on my saw. I had to loosen all the torque screws under the saw table and adjust the whole yellow plastic over, I then ran out of adjustment and had to slot some holes. I then had to loosen the saw blade carriage and tweak it over using the 10mm bolts under the table. I set my blade parallel to the miter gauge and have to adjust it every 30 hours or so. The first time took me around 4hrs to dial it all in. It shouldnt take that long but I kept trying to get it perfect only to find one tweak caused another. It now cuts much better than my delta contractor saw which I havent used in years now. My dw744 originally was a display and possibly a return that I bought off an auction site. The fence really is nice but not a true cabinet shop fence. I have my blade out .02-.03 and that keeps it running smooth with all my irregular edged rough lumber. As long as I dont drop it it stays there. Dewalt could really wrap up the market if they used a good motor carrier under the saw. The pressed and punched steel with rivets just doesnt make for a longtime accurate saw.

Where did you buy the batteries? There has been allot of counterfeiting lately.

I love my track saw It started differently though. My motor burned up in the first 10 seconds of running. The armature came apart and ate up the brushes. I got a replacement the same day shipped 60 miles to me. The dust collection seems sufficient for me. Such a pleasure to use when edging cants or trimming wide slabs. It could use a 10" blade though

I love my 36v...... I dont know why the 36v line is not the only rechargeable set Dewalt makes. Once you have gone to 36v you only need 18v for the impact and maybe a drill when I am perched up high on a roof. The 36v jigsaw is like plugging into the wall except without the cord dragging you down.

I will be more than happy to test it and put it through its paces. I certainly hope it becomes a reality and is more reliable than the first couple years of the 36v set. I got the money in hand.

Do I see a 36v brushless line out there?...... A guy can dream, cant he.

I figured I better follow up on this.... The new batteries absolutely suck. I have enough of them that it doesnt matter I just pop another one in place. I find that I am charging them twice as much as my old batteries that have nearly 5 years of use. I will just warranty them out every year, as I dont think that they will make it. What a shame leaving behind the a123 cells. I am sure it just wasnt cost effective to have batteries that last forever. If I had only bought a dozen of them back in the day.

Buy the 36v and never complain about torque again. It will spin itself out of your hands if you arent paying attention. I also have the SDS drill, put that one is hammer setting and you can drill through any thing.

Yep.....absolutely.

I am not going to try and answer for him....but.... I have the whole 36v line and many of each different battery type and they are still twice the tool that the 18v or 20v max line is. I havent yet done any remodels yet to really push the new batteries but something will come up. Charging cycles will surely be affected and it is a shame that a123 had so many faulty batteries and bms circuits. There was a confidentiality agreement between Dewalt and A123 and one of the Dewalt techs leaked the info that it was the faulty batteries and mass amounts of bms failures produced by a123 or sub contracted through a123 that caused all the grief for Dewalt and made them look elsewhere for the batteries........ :-\ A123 produced some amazing cells but when you have that many in a pack, coupled with a bms design that could be improved upon, it was a recipe for failure. The have ironed out the bms and now have found a cell that has a lower failure rate. But at the cost of less charges and lower mah. :'(

Yes the batteries perform near identical, with the slow down occurring more pronounced with the Sanyo cells but they continue to operate. It is obvious that they provide less current at around 90% of their duty cycle, around 5% from me estimates. Not really an issue, but life cycle will certainly be interesting as the newer batteries appear to have a tougher time keeping up as voltage decreases. Bottom line is I will not be abandoning my 36v and in fact I just bought the grinder and jigsaw after seeing the results of this test first hand......

Well so far so good I was able to get almost identical results with a 2011 production battery and a 2006 a123 celled battery that had been used a around a dozen times its whole life. I got 87 cuts with the a123 and I got 85 with the 2011 run which I assume is Sanyo. And to be fair I bound the sanyo battery cuts 3 times to the point that the blade was slipping, this amounts to tremendous current draw and I did not do this once with the a123 pack run. I cut full depth passes through a full dimension 4x6 redwood. It had a little surface dirt and I used the 2011 battery last, this means it had a duller blade and required more effort to cut. I noticed halfway through cutting that the 2011 battery seemed to actually be picking up more grunt and then around the 80th cut I could notice slowdown, much like the a123 but more noticeable. Upon throwing them on the charger the a123 being the first battery was cooler and the second light on the charger came on quicker followed by the still warm 2011, which followed 2 1/2 minutes behind. This test absolutely sucked as I tried to keep the saw running the whole time and close to 180 full dimension cuts with one hand take there toll.... :-\ I did not have a self feeding drill bit to do this test, I cant believe it. I guess I have just muscled all my bore holes. Some Dewalt .orn, safe for work.

I got batteries on the way. One newer a123 and 2 brand new straight off the line with whatever cells they have now. The last bunch tested no good and Dewalt took care of me. I should hopefully get them this next week.

Excellent Idea....

What we need is much exposure of this to the public. I have already started notifying all my fellow contractors as to what they are up to. I halted my purchase of the 36v jigsaw and cutoff tool until I can check the 4 batteries I ordered. If they are a123 than I know they can last me the life of the tool, if they are samsung or sanyo I will be shopping around. This is already hurting sales. Is Dewalt listening yet? Probably not, but as soon as people catch wind that competitors are pulling away it will be over. Maybe I should go with Craftsman, I cant believe it... :'(

Yeah I understand everyone else has been doing it.... Lots of Idealists use this as an excuse. However Dewalt was already using the best batteries available. It was not as if they where looking for something to improve upon like the other companies mentioned. I took pride in knowing that I was using Dewalt tools as I was under the impression that they as a company continued to do the same, that is took pride in manufacturing to the highest standards. I had no problem paying extra to a get a tool that was a step above the rest. To see the compromising of standards to make $20-30 a battery means they are now in it for the short term. Obviously the 36v batterys where lasting to long with the original a123 cells....... I guess I can blame it on the economy

As soon as my ordered tools get here I will check the date codes and if they are newer I will pop them open. This is truly dishonest.

Thank you for the thread..... I am looking at alternative 36v tools. They may cost more but with 3.8mah batteries I can see why. I am truly upset at Black and Decker.... I mean Dewalt. This may however mean they will produce xrp 36v in the future. $200 a battery then... And I just bought a 36v impact and the sds drill with a total of 4 batteries. I cant believe this crap. I used to brag about the runtime and power of this line.