charge power tool batteries in car brands

I am always trying to reduce the number of tools I carry into a house. I am thinking about leaving my battery chargers in my van hooked up to a power inverter. Will this drain my battery in my van? If not, what size inverter would it take to run 3 or 4 battery chargers?

That will suck your batteries dry faster than you can say Linda Lovelace. You would have to keep the van running, and at $3.35 a gallon, I"m not idling to charge cordless; if you want a motor running, add a gas powered generator. Just run an extension cord to a power strip in the van. I wouldn"t mess with an inverter.

If you have the right setup you won�t suck your battery dry. However, most inverters put out a modified square wave instead of a true sine wave. This will damage most batteries because of the way the chargers work. Most modern chargers are transformer-less and they rely on the sine-wave being true. If you hook up a charger to an inverter that has a modified square-wave output, your tools� battery life will be shortened considerably. I have a Vector 3000 watt inverter that I use to power most if not all of my tools. I have a separate deep cycle battery to operate it from. I have a boat battery switch to keep it isolated, or in parallel with my car battery or to operate the inverter from just the car battery/alternator. This way I have a choice from which source my battery drain will come from. With the one deep cycle battery and normal tool usage I can average about an 8 hour day before the battery starts to show itself weakened. This does not include my tablesaw or my 1HP compressor, which draw a lot of current. If I run low on battery power at the end of the day I can run the car battery and the inverter battery in parallel to extend the use. I can also run the engine and operate off of the alternator. But this uses expensive fuel and I try to avoid it.

Car chargers have plugs that go into your vehicle’s power socket (i.e. the cigarette lighter socket). Unfortunately, that means you can only plug them into your car and not into a regular socket.

The keyword here is ‘directly’. For example, some people use adapters that split their car’s only electrical socket into two or three additional ones to power multiple devices simultaneously.

Sure, that might seem convenient, but it’s going to prevent you from charging your drill battery effectively. That’s because your charger would be struggling with the other devices to get the power supply it needs.

So, when charging drill batteries in your car, make sure the charger is plugged in directly (i.e. not through an adapter) so that it gets all the power it needs.

The power socket still functions in most cars even when the engine is turned off. That means the socket will draw power directly from the car’s battery that’s under the hood.

Still, it’s never a good idea to drain power from your car battery while the engine is off. When you do that, you run the risk of the battery going dead when you need it to start your car engine again.

So, if you’re going to charge your drill battery using a car charger, you should at least start the engine. However, you don’t necessarily have to drive the car because the running engine is enough to power the alternator, which keeps your car battery charged.

Drains your car battery: When you plug a car charger into your car’s power socket, you’re draining energy from the car battery. Ideally, you should keep your engine running to avoid the risk of killing your battery. Plus, your charger places an extra burden on your car’s electrical system, even if only a small one.

Charges one at a time: Some power users are likely to have more than one battery they need to use for their day-to-day tasks. When you rely on a car charger, you can only charge one battery at a time. That can be a challenge for anyone needing to charge several drill batteries at once.

Cordless power tools make life much easier for the DIY-ers and professional tradespeople alike. They carry the same power as their corded counterparts without the hassles of extension cords and generators. Who doesn’t love grabbing their cordless drill and heading to the backyard to finish installing deck boards without having to stretch a long extension cord across the yard?

Cordless power tools come with batteries that are the powerhouse behind getting your jobs done. They may seem a little tricky and bring their own questions. With the right answers, you can not only keep that to-do list short, you will have a piece of equipment ready for any task for years to come. Here are twelve common questions about power tool batteries.

Brand new batteries should be charged overnight to ensure you have a full charge on each individual cell, so that the life of the cell is not compromised. From that point on, future charges on a the proper/adequate charger can take between 30min to 2 hours to achieve a full charge. Never use under-powered chargers for high capacity batteries. Newer chargers are designed so that you cannot overcharge your battery (though don’t store it here, plugged in), and lithium-ion batteries have little to no memory, so you don’t have to worry about emptying it before charging.

When in doubt, check out Ottawa Faster Supply. We have a wide selection of tool batteries and cordless drills, saws, and tools to meet your DIY needs.

Solar-powered charging stations for building sites are long overdue. One reason they"re not dotting the shelves of your local box store is that tools have different batteries and are typically set up with their own power adaptors to go from A/C to the onboard DC battery in the tool. And as you"re about to learn, from engineer Jeff Yago, " powering 120-volt AC power tools requires a 1,500 to 3,000-watt inverter and very heavy battery bank." In other words, it"s just not practical. What is practical? You"re about to find out, in this great article, reprintede with permisssion from Backwoods Home Magazine.—Editor

If you are planning to live off grid, or are building something in a remote area without grid power, I am sure you are planning to use a generator. While I have also owned generators, I find them temperamental, noisy, and I hate to drag fuel up some mountain trail when I need to power construction tools. To wean myself off the traditional construction site generator, I found an amazing selection of high-quality power tools that operate on battery packs. In addition, if you standardize on the same brand and voltage, the same battery packs will be interchangeable with a wide array of power saws, drills, portable lights, and even radios. Keeping a spare battery pack on charge also allows a quick battery change and continued tool operation without having to wait.

When I first started buying battery-powered tools, I decided to standardize on DeWALT, but there are several other good brands of battery tools that offer the same interchangeability of battery packs in multiple tools. It is amazing what you can build with just a few battery-powered tools, and a complete set is indispensable if you live off-grid or are building a remote retreat.

Most manufacturers of commercial-grade battery-powered tools with Nickel-Cadmium (NiCad) battery packs have increased their voltage from 12 volts up to 18 volts to increase tool power and extend operating time. Some battery-powered tool manufactures are switching to Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries which allow making smaller and lighter portable tools due to the higher energy density of this new battery technology. Although the DeWALT charger I used for this article can charge both NiCad, NiMH, and the newer Li-ion battery technology, you still should standardize on one type to make sure all of your battery packs can use the same charger.

For large solar power projects, I am a firm believer in using high-quality DC to AC inverters which allow using standard 120-volt AC appliances and power tools. Inverters are becoming much more reliable and less expensive, which allows using your existing house wiring instead of having to rewire everything for DC. However, powering 120-volt AC power tools requires a 1,500 to 3,000-watt inverter and very heavy battery bank. Some small inverters costing less than $50 are now available to power your laptop computers and video devices while in your car or truck.

Unfortunately, many of these lower cost inverters do not generate the same waveform as the utility grid, which can cause problems with the more sensitive electronic devices you want to power. It is also true that many battery chargers for recharging power tools will have very poor charging performance when connected to a low-cost modified-wave 120-volt AC inverter. Most of these low-cost inverters also have a low power conversion efficiency, and can quickly drain your car or truck battery if the engine is off while powering any 120-volt AC device.

I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find that most manufacturers of battery-powered construction tools now offer a version of their power tool battery chargers in a 12-volt DC portable model, typically called a “vehicle charger.” Although harder to find and a little pricey at $65 to $95, these DC-to-DC chargers provide the ability to recharge your 12 to 24-volt battery-powered tools from a 12-volt battery without inverter or generator. Here are some examples from Bosch and DeWalt.

There are many advantages to using portable 12-volt power without the need for an AC inverter. Not only will this make all wiring easier and safer than dealing with 120 volts AC, but powering 12-volt DC devices directly from a 12-volt battery is much more efficient.

This can be a real advantage if your construction project or weekend retreat is located in an area where hauling generator fuel and equipment up a mountain trail is a major effort. Although this project was intended primarily for powering tools at a remote job site, you can also use this portable solar-power system during a power outage or when camping to recharge your cell phone or power a laptop computer, since most of these devices include charging adapters to fit a 12-volt DC vehicle auxiliary outlet.

I designed this project to require a minimum number of parts and very few wiring connections. I selected a standard Group 31 RV/Marine battery which is designed for multiple deep charge/discharge cycles while still being reasonably priced. I also found an inexpensive plastic battery box, 10 ampin-line DC fuse, and female cigarette lighter receptacle(Here"s one with battery terminal attachments and fuse built in). I decided to use this type of power receptacle for this project since so many portable tools and electronic devices have charging adapters that fit this type of 12-volt DC receptacle. As shown in the photo, I mounted the cigarette lighter receptacle in the box cover and wired it through the fuse to the battery using #10 standard copper wire and crimp on ring terminals. The center post of the cigarette lighter receptacle is always connected the battery positive (+) and the outer shell is always connected to the battery negative (-).

A typical 85-watt solar module designed to charge 12-volt batteries will typically have a peak output of 5.1 amps, so I selected an 85-watt module. This smaller wattage module is also fairly easy for one person to carry, while still large enough to provide a reasonable amount of solar power. Your solar module can be larger or smaller than my 85-watt module selection, which will reduce or increase the number of days it takes to fully recharge the RV/Marine battery.

It feels really rewarding to build something off-grid in a remote area with the convenience of labor-saving power tools without having to deal with a noisy generator. It’s also nice to have a portable solar-charging system instead of having to keep your truck running while using a DC to AC inverter to power your tools and tool chargers. When not needed to recharge power tools at a job site, this portable solar-charging system can be used for camping or during emergency power outages. This solar module with built-in solar charge controller can even be used to recharge your RV camper batteries when dry camping.

While most major manufacturers of battery-powered hand tools offer an “in-vehicle” charger, these are not easy to find in your local retail store. If you cannot find them locally, there are several Internet sites that sell in-vehicle chargers. Order the charger that matches your brand of battery-powered tools, and be sure the charger matches the voltage and chemistry of your battery packs.

We do a lot with both tools and batteries. A case in point is our articles on the DeWalt FlexVolt technology and the Milwaukee 9.0 Ah batteries. But what about the battery chargers that resupply energy to these batteries? As it turns out, there are possibly even more differences among battery chargers than the packs themselves. While we don’t think anyone will “jump ship” from one platform to another just because of charger technology, it’s good to know who stands out. For this article, we requested the best battery charger from every major tool manufacturer. Most responded and participated. We then took a close look at each to see how they were made. Following is our evaluation of the best battery chargers for power tools.

Notice we said WHAT makes the best battery charger, not WHO. Answering the first question really depends on your needs and how you use your power tools. As you go through this article, realize that we don’t expect anyone will shift their tool platform of choice based on a charger. What we do want to communicate are any standout features for each platform. Some manufacturers have really done something special with their tool battery charger technology. That deserves some recognition. By the end, you should know which charger offers the best benefits for your tool platform.

Also, there are chargers that exceed the capabilities of the basic models included with tool kits. Knowing that can decrease your charging time should you choose to purchase a more advanced model. For any Pros and power users wanting to increase productivity, this could rock your world.

Since we do literally hundreds of hands-on power tool reviews each year, having access to every charger was critical. When we started collecting them all, we decided the best way to serve our particular needs was mounting them to a piece of 3/4-inch plywood. On the back of the plywood, we mounted two industrial power strips which we connected to two separate 20-amp circuits. This gave us plenty of current for simultaneously recharging multiple packs from different manufacturers. We can’t run them all at once—but we’ve never needed to.

Big Picture: You can buy the DeWalt Portable Power Station with (DCB1800M3T1) or without batteries. This system not only recharges 4 batteries simultaneously, it can use those charged batteries to power your corded tools when you’re done. With its 3600W/30A of peak power output, we actually used it to operate a 120V MIG welder! It can put out 15A of continuous output, making it perfect for miter saws, circular saws, rotary hammers, and similar tools.

Highs: Parallel charging of 20V Max or FlexVolt 60V battery packs. Obvious benefits of being a power station. Pass-through power. Excellent form factor with well-placed handles and protection for battery packs. Integrates with the DeWalt ToughSystem.

Highs: Since this is a 5A charger, charging speed is actually very respectable. Hilti claims you can get one of their 5.2Ah battery packs up to 75% charge in just 20 minutes. We also love that you can use one multi-port charger to handle all of your Hilti lithium-ion batteries. Our 12V, 18V, and 36V Hilti tools are all taken care of on a single platform.

Big Picture: Fein is well-known for its high performance grinders and oscillating multi-tools. The ALG 50 charger works for all Fein Lithium-ion batteries. While this is billed as a rapid charger, we found the charging speeds to be average. Fein has yet to develop or release a multi-port charger.

Big Picture: Kobalt 24V XTR tools have impressed us with their power and features. They seem committed, and the line has seen regular updates since its debut. The 110W charger is an upgrade from the standard charger sold with most of their kits. It will recharge a 2.0Ah battery pack in less than 30 minutes. Like many manufacturers, Kobalt has yet to release a multi-battery charger.

We don’t expect you to jump ship at any point just because we identified the best battery charger. Hopefully, this article helps you know which charger is the best on your platform. Kits often come with only the most basic battery charger. Knowing how to increase your productivity with the best battery charger for your power tools could be the key to saving you time and money.

We’re most excited to see a shift towards air-cooled systems. With the integration of newer battery cells (20700 cells in particular), cooling is going to be key. It will allow for greater use of the cells, higher torque and speed in power tools, and faster charging. You can also tell a charger will be faster by the current load. If it has less than a 4A draw, it’s not a rapid charger regardless of what it may say on the box. What charger(s) have you been most impressed with? Let us know in the comments below.

When asked which power tool brand someone should go with, most pros and experienced DIYers will drive home the importance of battery power, battery life, and availability before they mention special features, speeds, or durability. That’s because, without reliable batteries, the tool extras don’t matter. But beyond not being able to use a cordless tool without a dependable battery, many batteries are expensive and can cost as much as the tool in many cases.

With the battery being so crucial, did you know that you might be prematurely killing your power tool batteries? This guide will show you how it may happen, and point out some ways to help make your batteries last as long as possible.

If they’re not paying attention, it’s very easy for a DIYer to run a battery down until it’s completely dead, but deep drains aren’t good for modern battery chemistry. Also, with older nickel-cadmium batteries, it was recommended to drain them completely before storage. That’s not the case anymore. The best way to avoid deep draining is by keeping an eye on a battery’s power indicator, or cycling to a new battery whenever you think of it.

Moisture can quickly degrade the lifespan of a power tool’s battery because it can wreak havoc on the electronics and circuitry inside. What’s more, moisture can also cause contacts and terminals to corrode, which in turn causes resistance and throttles back battery output. While some jobs do require working with power tools in the elements, keeping batteries in their storage case when they’re not in use can help protect them from rain, snow, puddles, and mud.

It’s already established that heat is bad for batteries, but being warm is also a fact of life for power tools and their batteries. During use and charging, heat builds up inside the battery pack and damages the pack cells. One way to avoid this heat buildup is to allow the battery to cool during use. Allow it to cool after charging before using it, or vice versa.

If your original battery charger kicked the bucket and you replaced it with a universal charger, you might be damaging your power tool batteries. The charger that your battery came with has the circuitry and sensors to know when the battery is too hot or overcharged. An off-brand universal charger might save you some money initially, but it could kill your batteries sooner. Instead, contact your tool brand’s manufacturer, explain which batteries you own, and allow them to point you in the right direction.

All rechargeable tool batteries have between 300 and 500 recharges before they’re pretty much useless, so you have to be smart about how you use them. For instance, using a 2.0- or 3.0-amp-hour battery in a power-hungry tool like a circular saw or angle grinder will drain it quickly, requiring more frequent recharges. Instead, save the smaller amp-hour batteries for drills and impact drivers, and use the larger batteries in heavy-duty tools.

I would say that there are as many different brands of cordless power tools as there are colors in the rainbow, but there are many more than that. At the heart of each brand’s cordless systems are proprietary battery packs that are, with few exceptions, completely incompatible with other brands’ cordless tools and accessories.

The graphic above depicts 7 of the most popular cordless power tool brands on the market today – Milwaukee, Ridgid, Dewalt, Ryobi, Metabo HPT, Makita, and Bosch.

Over the years, a lot of readers have expressed their desire for a standardized tool and battery connection that is adopted by all cordless power tool makers. I don’t think this is at all realistically possible, but it’s always an interesting idea to explore.

If a user owns tools from two or more brands, it would be great to use just one brand’s battery and charger for everything. This would save the end user money, and they could skip the hassle of having to deal with multiple chargers.

I shared my thoughts about the matter 6 years ago, in a post much like this one. There has been a lot of advancement in the cordless power tool industry since then, but my opinion has not changed. If you ask me, we are extremely unlikely to see a universally-compatible cordless power tool battery pack.

Let’s say that every cordless power tool brand magically updated all of their tools, batteries, and chargers to be cross-compatible with other brands’ offerings. This would be a disaster.

If Brand A’s tools can only work with Brand A’s batteries, they can design new tools around the maximum power output of their highest capacity batteries, while also ensuring that the tool will still function, although usually not optimally, with their lowest capacity batteries.

Although I don’t know if it’s still true, Milwaukee’s M18 drills were said to receive a roughly 10% power boost when powered with an XC (10-cell) battery. Their drills would operate just fine with a compact battery, such as 1.5Ah, but an XC battery, such as 3.0Ah to 5.0Ah, would deliver greater power and torque. Would similar be possible if a tool couldn’t be designed around known battery characteristics and performance thresholds?

Talking just about 18V/20V Max power tool batteries, here’s a list of battery sizes users can choose from today. Not every brand offers all options, but most tool brands have very broad selections.

If cordless power tools and batteries were suddenly cross-compatible, what else would you need to know aside from its charge capacity? Maximum continuous power output at room temperature? And how would you know how much power you needed?

I suppose that brands could provide power requirement specs for their cordless tools. But how would that be determined? Different applications, work materials, accessories, and grades of accessories can greatly affect a tool’s power consumption. Users can also influence a tool’s power requirements, such as if they apply more or less pressure, or if they wait longer to replace dull bits or blades.

Makita’s XGT tools and chargers treat 3rd party batteries differently than genuine ones. I could envision brands doing the same in the context of hypothetical universally compatible batteries.

Universal compatibility would not mean universal suitability, and so tools might have to be designed to deliver lower performance for lowest-performing batteries users might have sourced from other brands.

While users might save money on less expensive batteries, they wouldn’t get the full performance of the tools they buy unless they stick with that brand’s batteries.

Is it wrong to wish for a universal-style cordless power tool battery? No. It’s a good thing to ask for, and I know I would surely benefit from it. But it’s not going to happen.

Cordless power tool brands do play well together when they want to. The Power Tool Institute (PTI) is a trade organization that includes the following tool brands – Black & Decker, Bosch, Dewalt, Dremel, Festool, Hilti, Metabo, Makita, Milwaukee, Rotozip, Ryobi, Stihl, and others.

A long time ago, someone told me that power tool batteries are pricey because that’s their true cost. The implication was that cordless kits are heavily discounted, and so battery prices are representative of their true retail costs. I don’t know if this is true or not, but it makes sense.

If users are free to shop around for different brands’ batteries, how would that affect the price of tools? If brands start to aggressively discount their batteries to keep users in-system, would that in turn drive up the pricing of kits or bare tools?

The only guarantee, I think, is that some users will seek out less expensive battery packs. If a less expensive battery fits, it might be assumed to be on-par or equivalent to that brand’s batteries, without this necessarily being true, and that could lead to mismatched power-performance issues.

I always try to look at this objectively, and always arrive at the same conclusion, that universal-fit cordless power tools simply aren’t a good idea. It might benefit some users, but not without the potential and even high likelihood to confuse or negatively impact many others.

For heavier duty tools, Dewalt has FlexVolt, Milwaukee has M18 High Output, Makita has 18V X2 and XGT, Bosch has Profactor, and Metabo HPT has MultiVolt. Where’s the common denominator?

How would you satisfy users’ wishes while also ensuring that tools deliver consistent performance and user experiences regardless of battery? Would might you do – if anything – to prevent a user from choosing an underpowered or lower-spec battery with a tool with high power demands?

We’ve all come to rely on the convenience of cordless power tools. However, a cordless tool is only as reliable as its rechargeable battery. Once the battery can no longer hold a charge, it’s dead and useless. Or is it? What you may not realize is that a “dead” battery is often only partially dead, which means you might be able to resuscitate it.

For this first method you’ll need one fully charged battery, which you’ll use to jumpstart the dead battery. Set the two batteries side by side. Then, take two short insulated wires and connect them in matching polarity between the two batteries: positive to positive, and negative to negative. What you’re essentially doing is transferring power from the live battery to the dead one. Wait about five minutes or so, then disconnect the wires and place the dead battery into the tool’s battery charger. If the battery starts receiving a charge, then the jumpstart worked. Leave the battery in the charger for an hour or until it’s fully charged. This YouTube video gives a good play-by-play on how to attempt this method.

With the promise of more power, extended run times and longer overall battery life, the advances in power tool batteries have increased significantly in the last few years. Just as the technology changes so have the rules regarding battery usage and maintenance. To ensure you’re continually getting the best from your battery this guide aims to provide greater clarity on choosing and maintaining batteries for optimum performance.

Battery terminology can make things confusing and advances in Lithium-Ion technology mean that what was once applicable to older power tool batteries is now not the case. Memory Effect or battery memory is a term that applies with older NiCd and NiMh batteries. Here the battery remembers the last capacity point. In essence if a battery is continually recharged after a short discharge, the maximum capacity is lost. What happens is the battery memorises the level of the last charge and starts from that point.

As soon as the performance of the battery decreases and you feel a loss of power, get the battery on charge. It doesn’t matter if the battery isn’t at 100% before using it again. As long as some extra charge is put in, it’s ok to part charge these. Bosch’s wireless batteries work on this principle so you can simply top up as you work without straining the battery.

Makita’s unique position with its 18V battery is that it has the world’s largest range of compatible cordless tools. Over 100 of Makita’s tools can be powered by their 18V Lithium-Ion battery. This gives you a huge selection to work with. They also have some of the fastest charging times. Charging a 3Ah battery takes 22 minutes, 4Ah ready in 36 minutes and the 5Ah complete in just 45 minutes.

Axminster’s battery for the Makita 18V Li-Ion cordless tools, however, uses Samsung SDI cells. Analysing the battery cell market, Samsung SDI is the market leader in small size rechargeable batteries producing 315 million cells a year. As a result they know what they’re talking about when it comes to batteries. There are many cheaper replica batteries out there using inferior quality cells and that’s when you have problems with the batteries failing after a few cycles.

One of the most recent developments to the market is DeWALT’s new FLEXVOLT battery. The batteries are fully compatible with existing DeWALT 18V XR tools and when fitted to the new DeWALT XR FLEXVOLT tools the voltage then surges to an unparalleled 54V. FLEXVOLT is a world first with this new 18/54V battery platform and the aim as DeWALT state is to give you: “the power of corded, freedom of cordless.”

With all these advances to battery power, there is now some interesting technology that can utilise this power, not only for your tools but also your mobile device.

Over time the power of batteries is surely set to increase with higher ampere-hour (Ah) and longer run times. If you look after your power tool batteries, this will help to prolong their life to give you even greater value for money. Here are the optimum conditions for maintaining batteries and some further specifications to help you differentiate between manufacturers.

Make sure batteries aren’t subjected to extremes of heat. Ideally you should keep them at room temperature as heat is one of the main reasons Li-Ion battery life depletes. So avoid leaving power tools in the car or van if they’re going to be out in the sun for a long time. Equally freezing conditions can reduce the lifespan of the battery – something to remember on those long winter nights.

Discharge rates have also improved with Lithium-Ion technology. This means that when batteries are not in use, the charge is held within the battery for longer. If you’re not using your power tool for an extended period however, ensure there is some charge left in the battery. Leaving a battery to fully discharge for a long time is one of the quickest ways to cause it to fail.

As power tool batteries evolve, using the wrong type of battery can cause problems if placed in the wrong tool. You want to make sure you’re using the right battery and each manufacturer has its own way of identifying the correct compatibility.

One exception is Bosch’s 4Ah wireless battery. These are compatible with all Bosch 18V Professional Li-ion tools except the GKS 18V-LI Circular Saw. You can however recharge the batteries on any Bosch 18V Li-ion charger. So you get the time saving benefits of wireless and the compatibility of connecting them straight to a standard charger.

Festool’s new AIRSTREAM batteries are compatible with each of the following tools: C 18, T 18+3, DRC 18/4, PDC 18/4, BHC 18, DWC 18 and PS(B)C 420, HKC 55, TSC 55, SYSLITE KAL II, SYSLITE UNI and the SYSROCK

Power tool batteries are some of the densest lithium-ion packs lying around your house (or construction site), but they rarely play nice with the kind of chargers and batteries that top up your laptop, phone and PC. That might be about to change — Ryobi and DeWalt are testing the waters with USB-C powered battery options, and one of them looks seriously neat.

It’s easy to argue that Ryobi has taken the idea the furthest; as Gizmodo reports today, it’s the first major manufacturer to stick a USB-C charging port on the battery itself, letting you use the same charger to top up your power tool as you’d use on a laptop.

But these 4V 2Ah batteries look a little bit weaksauce to me — they’re not compatible with existing tools, nor are they remotely powerful enough for the 18-20V power tools that dominate the market today. Instead, you’ll have to buy into a new “Ryobi USB Lithium” lineup of tools with roughly the power of a cordless Dremel.

So let’s talk about something a little bit more exciting: both Ryobi and DeWalt are also releasing snap-on USB-C adapters this spring that not only let you charge their 18V (Ryobi) and 20/60V (DeWalt) batteries with a USB-C cable, but also turn those batteries into a portable power source for your laptop and tablet.

“I think we’ve got a sleeper hit here because we designed right up to the threshold of what’s defined in that USB standard itself,” says Fitzgibbons, saying he expects them to be popular on job sites with USB-C powered laptops and tablets, and perhaps with people who drive cars with USB-C ports. “It gives you a solution for an in-vehicle charger, now you’ve got your batteries charged on the way.”

While USB-C PD might not be the absolute fastest way to charge your DeWalt batteries, it might actually be faster than the chargers that come bundled with DeWalt’s lighter power tools — only a handful of DeWalt’s chargers put 5 or more amps into a battery at once. “It can charge most batteries we have in about an hour,” he says.

As I mentioned, Ryobi’s working on a gadget like this too, also slated for the spring, and the 18V One+ 150 Watt Power Source even has some fancy features like a three-prong AC outlet, a built-in light and a pair of USB-A ports. But it skimps on the most important part: the USB-C charging port is limited to just 30W, less than a third of DeWalt’s. (And while Milwaukee also has a gadget with a 45W USB-C port, it only outputs energy; it can’t charge your power tool batteries to start.)

While these might be handy for people who already own a bunch of power tools and batteries, the bigger question is when we might see USB charge ports built into batteries to begin with — and DeWalt’s Fitzgibbons isn’t ready to promise anything there. “For construction sites, I think it’s only really recently that people are using these USB-powered electronics,” he says. “We don’t want to create a situation where... obviously there would be some cost to integrate that type of technology directly into a battery, and what we don’t want to do is force everyone to pay whatever extra it would cost when it’s a feature they don’t need.”