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Dewalt power station


dilloncorr

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So I have 3 of these for my company. We do hospital renovations and I swear it is the most valuable tool we have ever purchased from a risk/shutdown management perspective. I’ve got a project starting soon that I was going to buy 3-5 more... and I’m finding it is discontinued everywhere!? Is this because the long rumored V2 is coming, or did they find a problem that means I shouldn’t use these for life safety backup, or did they just decide it doesn’t sell enough and I need to buy as many as I can as fast as I can no matter the cost?

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Oh so glad you point that out!!! 

 

I saw the prices had (more than) doubled and went to the dewalt website (https://www.dewalt.com/products/gear-and-equipment/generators-and-portable-power/1800-watt-portable-power-station-and-simultaneous-battery-charger-kit/dcb1800m3t1) and saw it was discontinued. Hopefully they just realized the 3x4.0 + 1x6.0 was a very strange battery combination kit in the first place. Whew! Straight up panic there!!! Bare tool + aftermarket 12ahs it is!

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Ha! Sometimes. Old hospitals. Life safety circuits such as exit devices, fire alarm control panels, BAS systems, partially powered security systems, nurse call control panels. Never know 100% what’s been put on what circuit/panel during countless renovations since the ‘50s. These things are a.... “life saver” (sorry couldn’t help it...). Real “life support” (not life safety) medical equipment typically has an included battery backup/UPS that will maintain life support for minutes or hours depending on the equipment and age. I would have had to rethink using these if they were discontinuing with cause. In all honestly, 75% of the time it’s powering some doctors fridge or a computer/printer/copier that just “can’t” go down... I will say it has prevented abandoning several outages due to someone’s “unacceptable unforeseen outage” and has saved its own cost several times over in temporary power provisions. 

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That fire panel should be on a 20amp dedicated breaker, with a backup battery power supply (usually on board) that can remain powered for 24 hours on standby, then maintain at least 10 minutes of full alarm output. Nfpa72 is pretty specific, along with IBC (international building code), and nfpa70 or NEC (national electrical code). These are covered in depth under NICET I-IV Fire alarm and low voltage signaling systems.

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  • 2 months later...

Really hate having multiple platforms I have Milwaukee everything I can't believe Milwaukee doesn't have something like this Dewalt power station seems so logical. So if I want a battery generator I have to either get Dewalt or Ego (Ego's looks very good) and have yet ANOTHER battery platform. Frustrating!

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  • 3 months later...
17 hours ago, DTote said:

I almost purchased one, till I found out they arent Pure Sine Wave.  Till a V2 with pure sine comes out, I wont buy one.

What is the advantage of a pure sine wave? Also if I'm not mistaken the new MX Fuel power supply is pure sine.

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What is the advantage of a pure sine wave? Also if I'm not mistaken the new MX Fuel power supply is pure sine.
Sensitive electronics can be damaged by an artificial sine wave. A pure sine wave is going to be identical to an ac outlet in your home or business.

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  • 2 months later...

What's the deal with pricing on these power stations?  I bought one two years ago now and it was a good deal but it was $199 for the bare tool.  If I remember right they were supposed to be $400 but were pretty easy to find for $300-350 at that time.  The other day one showed up in an ad for acme and it's now $500 for the bare tool.  I know dewalt tools took a small price increase when the tariff stuff happened but to go from $400 to $500 seems like a pretty big jump.

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Seems to be the normal deal early buyers get deals longer its around price goes back near msrp. I bought all the new flexvolt stuff full kit 120v miter 499 now its 699 most places flexvolt battery table saw 249 way up now. Guess it just pays to buy the larger tools near launch.  I got the $199 Power stations price myself and its damn handy to have around.

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On 1/11/2020 at 5:04 PM, JRS5565 said:

Seems to be the normal deal early buyers get deals longer its around price goes back near msrp. I bought all the new flexvolt stuff full kit 120v miter 499 now its 699 most places flexvolt battery table saw 249 way up now. Guess it just pays to buy the larger tools near launch.  I got the $199 Power stations price myself and its damn handy to have around.

 

Big box stores (especially Home Depot) exemplify this.  New FlexVolt and the power station came out at decent prices.  A year or two later certain FV tools and the power station were on clearance.  I paid $280 for my FV miter saw, $200 for the table saw, and $180 for the power station.  Shortly afterward, some stores started stocking the FV tools again for full retail.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I got lucky a few days ago and picked one up at Goodwill for $100

 

Tested it last night, installed a 9ah flex volt, (2) 6ah and (1) 4 ah.

 

Just ran a 60'watt lamp for 5 hours, the 4 ah was drained and it quit.....

 

The other 3 batteries had plenty of bars left on them.

 

For light loads, why the heck didn't they design this to keep working off of or down to one

Battery?   The 9ah battery should have been the last to go...

 

Any answers to this?  Bad design?  Just seems odd

 

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Since I am new to the power station, I have some questions..

 I would assume the 6ah 20/60 flexvolt batteries would run longer than the XR 6ah batteries?

But

Is this the case?

With the 10 larger individual batteries of the XR equal to the 15 batteries in the 6ah FlexVolt wouldn't the run time be the same?

The powerstation will not allow a 60v feed, it only allows a 20v feed so wouldn't they be equal and actually wouldn't the 6ah XR be more efficient since it is a bigger cell?

 

I would think, and let me know if I am wrong there would NO reason to buy the 6ah Flexvolt at a higher cost than the 6ah XR batteries??

 

FYI - cells used in the batteries

6ah Flexvolt =  (15) 2000mh 18650 = 30000mh

6ah XR          =  (10) 3000mh 21700 = 30000mh

PS the 9ah Flexvolt uses the 21700 as well, which is good news

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I don't know what is actually better. Upgrading to 21700 cells can be better but so can adding more cells. Having more cells to work with reduces the load applied to each cell, but upgrading to 21700 cells allows higher loads to be applied to each cell allowing for greater power output and has higher energy storage per cell allowing for the similar watt hours with less cells as batteries with more cells.

 

The thermal performance can affect runtimes. I don't know which setup is better. The 6ah 18650 flexvolt won't heat up as quickly with the same load draw as a 10 cell 18650 battery. 21700 cells are able to have higher loads applied to them, and they should see better thermal performance when compared to 18650 cells. You will also see better thermal performance when you increase voltage, but the voltage isn't as important in this situation.


Speaking of the 9 ah flexvolt battery you want to be careful which one you get. Older 9 ah batteries used 20700 cells. The newer ones have the 21700 cells. I'm not sure how to differentiate from the 2. I am guessing you could look at the date of manufacture to tell for sure.

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  • 4 months later...

First I will say I am disappointed in myself for not doing the research I should have done, it was all right there in front of me but my hopes got the best of me for sure...

 

My previous post above shows what times I had running a regular light.

 

This time I ran the Dewalt hybrid fan from the power station with a 25 foit 12/3 cord to the fan.

 With (4) 9ah Flexvolt batteries installed.

 

The hybrid fan, which in my opinion is the best tool Dewalt makes, has very good airflow even at low speeds, and pushing great air at high.

 

This test was performed by setting the fan on Medium for all involved...(in 75 to 77 degree Ambient temp controlled environment)

 

- powerstation w/4 9ah Flexvolts installed. = test #1 = 38 hours ---  -test#2 = 36 hours

 

- using the fan on one 9ah battery it ran for 31hours at same medium setting.

 

- the power station stated warning beep at those hours above, all batteries indicated 1 bar, I assume that this is low end the power station starts to want to shut down....

 * I then placed a used 9ah battery from the power station into the fan and it ran another 2 hours no problem.... So add 8 more hours of run Tim to the fan test = potential 46 hours.

 

BUT - if I inserted a  single 9ah battery four times after depletingI would get 124 hours of operation at that medium setting.

 

Big difference in times!

 

I understand it's made to run tools, not refrigerators or other home appliances etc... And it may work well Running tools, and I wouldn't be running a fan constantly like that as well, but the testing shows it is not an alternative to using a single battery and doing a swap out..31hours single battery install vs 38hours power station is not that great of a difference.

 

I was fortunate to find one at goodwill for $100, and I will keep it as a charger, and have the ability if needed to use as a power source.  I intend to build a pure sine wave self contained inverter apparatus for running everything else, using the power caps available on eBay.  I have so many batteries from different platforms, so this may be the way to go for my needs.

 

Now that Big Red has a inverter on the market, I am sure Dewalt will have their own here shortly if there is one thing I have learned, they do not sit around and let anyone pass them up.

And yes it will be $$$$ , But when the need is there, it will be worth it.

 

My next test will be running the Ryobi band saw, and the 7491 Dewalt table saw. And a shop vac (Ridgid)  these are the only corded things I own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 11 months later...
On 1/11/2020 at 10:56 AM, Biggie said:

I grabbed mine for 199 bucks plus tax few years ago looking to grab another one and there now 499 most places bare and 549 in some other places this is nuts almost 350 to 400 dollar price jump its insane for a bare tool should of grabbed 2 of them at the 199 dollar price range when I got the one at my local lowes store wow......

 

What's the deal with pricing on these power stations?  I bought one two years ago now and it was a good deal but it was $199 for the bare tool.  If I remember right they were supposed to be $400 but were pretty easy to find for $300-350 at that time.  The other day one showed up in an ad for acme and it's now $500 for the bare tool.  I know dewalt tools took a small price increase when the tariff stuff happened but to go from $400 to $500 seems like a pretty big jump.

 

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On 6/28/2020 at 8:31 AM, Mdsd77 said:

Your testing bellow would be interesting to see on 4. 15ah flexvolt batteries that just came out 🤔

 

First I will say I am disappointed in myself for not doing the research I should have done, it was all right there in front of me but my hopes got the best of me for sure...

 

My previous post above shows what times I had running a regular light.

 

This time I ran the Dewalt hybrid fan from the power station with a 25 foit 12/3 cord to the fan.

 With (4) 9ah Flexvolt batteries installed.

 

The hybrid fan, which in my opinion is the best tool Dewalt makes, has very good airflow even at low speeds, and pushing great air at high.

 

This test was performed by setting the fan on Medium for all involved...(in 75 to 77 degree Ambient temp controlled environment)

 

- powerstation w/4 9ah Flexvolts installed. = test #1 = 38 hours ---  -test#2 = 36 hours

 

- using the fan on one 9ah battery it ran for 31hours at same medium setting.

 

- the power station stated warning beep at those hours above, all batteries indicated 1 bar, I assume that this is low end the power station starts to want to shut down....

 * I then placed a used 9ah battery from the power station into the fan and it ran another 2 hours no problem.... So add 8 more hours of run Tim to the fan test = potential 46 hours.

 

BUT - if I inserted a  single 9ah battery four times after depletingI would get 124 hours of operation at that medium setting.

 

Big difference in times!

 

I understand it's made to run tools, not refrigerators or other home appliances etc... And it may work well Running tools, and I wouldn't be running a fan constantly like that as well, but the testing shows it is not an alternative to using a single battery and doing a swap out..31hours single battery install vs 38hours power station is not that great of a difference.

 

I was fortunate to find one at goodwill for $100, and I will keep it as a charger, and have the ability if needed to use as a power source.  I intend to build a pure sine wave self contained inverter apparatus for running everything else, using the power caps available on eBay.  I have so many batteries from different platforms, so this may be the way to go for my needs.

 

Now that Big Red has a inverter on the market, I am sure Dewalt will have their own here shortly if there is one thing I have learned, they do not sit around and let anyone pass them up.

And yes it will be $$$$ , But when the need is there, it will be worth it.

 

My next test will be running the Ryobi band saw, and the 7491 Dewalt table saw. And a shop vac (Ridgid)  these are the only corded things I own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 6/28/2020 at 10:31 AM, Mdsd77 said:

Now that Big Red has a inverter on the market, I am sure Dewalt will have their own here shortly if there is one thing I have learned, they do not sit around and let anyone pass them up.

And yes it will be $$$$ , But when the need is there, it will be worth it.

The DeWALT power station doesn't count?

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  • 2 years later...
On 5/19/2019 at 9:17 AM, dilloncorr said:

Ha! Sometimes. Old hospitals. Life safety circuits such as exit devices, fire alarm control panels, BAS systems, partially powered security systems, nurse call control panels. Never know 100% what’s been put on what circuit/panel during countless renovations since the ‘50s. These things are a.... “life saver” (sorry couldn’t help it...). Real “life support” (not life safety) medical equipment typically has an included battery backup/UPS that will maintain life support for minutes or hours depending on the equipment and age. I would have had to rethink using these if they were discontinuing with cause. In all honestly, 75% of the time it’s powering some doctors fridge or a computer/printer/copier that just “can’t” go down... I will say it has prevented abandoning several outages due to someone’s “unacceptable unforeseen outage” and has saved its own cost several times over in temporary power provisions. 

also here is a suggestion for you check out this portable power station. thanks me later

Every time I look further into the various options, the same brands (Goal Zero, EcoFlow, Suaoki, Rockpals, MaxOak) are mentioned. Today I was in Home Depot and saw a Dewalt 1000W (2800 peak amps) for under $300 - less than half of what I'd pay for a name brand with the same capacity. I get that you don't want to buy something from "Joe's Budget Power Stations". But Dewalt, Ryobi etc are decent brands. Is there something I'm missing (other than the Dewalt likely being lead acid and the more expensive name brands are lithium-ion)? I mean, watts are watts, amps are amps. Its not like Goal Zero makes a "better" watt...

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