The Definitive Guide: Tool Adapters Good, Bad, How Bad?
Our lifetime of TOOL RANKINGS torquetestchannel.etsy.com
The Amazon adapter w/out issues: amzn.to/3EIkJSL Etsy guy: www.etsy.com/shop/3DPrintedAd...
Today we dive into the wild world of battery adapters, available almost everywhere these days but how good or bad are they are turning your current brand's batteries into workable performance on your new non-matching tool? Are they safe? Make less speed, more power? What?
We try to wrap it all up in this episode for you.
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As always, the creator of this channel works in product development for Astro Tools, who don't make cordless impacts but always consider multiple sources when looking at a tool!
0:00 Battery Adapters?
1:26 More Speed?
4:11 More Power?
8:15 How Much Loss?
9:17 Runtime?
10:55 Overvolting?
13:31 Thoughts
It seems DeWALT has yet again done a good job of confusing consumers and many people still believe yellow batteries with the same number of Samsung 21700 30T model number cells inside as the Milwaukee has 2 more volts for 20V. They are the same, they just dont advertise as 18V in the USA (but do everywhere else) to not get sued by Milwaukee. This is why they advertise 20V MAX* with an asterisk
They're not the only ones doing this, Milwaukee M12 uses the same principle. Same with Makita 40v and a whole bunch of other brands. I don't think it has anything to do with getting sued and more about regulations in different countries.
@@MrArcticPOWER You're right that many brands do it. In Makita's case it's because they already had 36V tools and they don't share batteries with their 40V line. But it does seem like no matter the brand, once they come into the US they get stickers with the HIGHEST voltage numbers they advertise anywhere. They figure the saps that get advertised doctor prescriptions during the superbowl wont know better and I'm increasingly running out of evidence to the contrary :D
@@TorqueTestChannelyeah, DeWalt has said it's not to have confusion with the old 18v stuff, but I can't imagine that actually being the case, especially with it being consistent to their 12v and 8v lines.
@@TorqueTestChannel Well it works. I've told my father a million times that 18v and 20v max are the same thing but he still doesn't understand.
Can you find and test plug to the wall adapters? do they even exist, I can hear the counter argument plugging cordless tools but this might work for some applications. please and thank you!
These adapters come in handy for older cordless tools. I was about to toss out an old Craftsman drill that has a bad battery. That's when I discovered that they made m18 and DeWalt adapters. It's a decent drill and the adapter brought it back to life.
I bought a M18 Milwaukee drill and wanted to go Milwaukee route for all my tools, because it was just amazing how powerful it was. Milwaukee dealer in my area was really uncooperative and I couldn't get any tool sets and stuff like that for a good price from him, so I went with Makita LXT and never looked back. Sure Makita has worse batteries in comparison, but for my job it just made more sense. Right now I own around 10 tools and 8 batteries from LXT range and one small impact driver CXT, but I really miss using my Milwaukee drill and I was thinking about getting an adapter for LXT batteries.
I have an old snap on drill i use Makita batteries on, i've left the drill out in all weathers and it just doesn't care. Old tools are great, old batteries are garbage so it makes perfect sense
@@mrcaboosevg6089 oh do I have stories about old tools... we had Hilti impacts at a construction site and since it was from a rental company nobody cared about them and left them out in the open overnight (mind you it was Sweden so a lot of rain and freezing temps) and those tools held up so well I actually thought about getting myself some of those older ones. Of course batteries were thrashed, but we had like 400-500 of them at site so nobody really cared if one died here and there.
The New Brushless HP Ryobi Tools Are GREAT!! Throw That Piece Of Crap Away And Buy A Decent Drill! I Have A Pile Of Older Drills And Screwguns That You can Not Even Give Away!
Absolutely. I’m no longer using power tools professionally so, for me it’s a way to replace a dead tool with a better one and continue using perfectly good “old”batteries till they die.
Whenever I use an adapter I always feel like I'm getting away with something.
😂😂
Ingersoll rand relaesed a new impact driver boasting 3800inch pounds love to see how that performs
It's the compact impact wrench we tested with a 1/4" collet, they even share the same manual
Gotcha makes sense
@@TorqueTestChannelcould you please test the massive milwaukee impact 1"½ with flex batteries . Would loveee to see that😂
That's 316 foot pounds and overkill for a impact drive gonna snap all of the adapters and bits
Some tips if you plan to use adapters. 1. Don't leave them attached to the battery. Some batteries do not protect themselves and will discharge until cell damage. 2. Not all adapters for a brand work on everyone of those brands tools. I had to cut some plastic off of one to work with an auger. 3. The battery levels may not work with adapters so to avoid cell damage I wired in small voltage displays and calibrated it based on my multi-meter. 4. Use good batteries. The point of the adapters was to spend more on higher quality batteries but use less batteries overall. Buying the cheapest battery of any brand is asking for under performance, lower tool life due to higher current draws and significantly reduced run times.
I bought a dewalt 18v to 20v adapter to use on an older 18v hammer drill. Noticed leaving the adapter plugged in drained the battery. A quick jump start and the battery is ok after recharging. I don't leave it connected anymore. It has a usb charger on the adapter so it can be used to charge a phone or whatnot. I suspected it was causing the drain but have not opened it to figure out why it drains with nothing connected.
I've been researching this lately. The only OEM I know that has low voltage protection in the battery pack is Ryobi. I've actually modded some adapters that I use for adapting HF Hercules to Ryobi with low voltage cutoffs set to 15 for a safety margin. The video I saw where someone tested the built in BMS for the Ryobis cut it off at 13v.
@@JoshReynoldsWhoaSci-fiMakita also, their leads won't give any power until recharge
Wish I had known #1 earlier. I had an adaptor kill a 9.0 HD. 😢
@@jamiethomas4079 I have the same problem. Dewalt drill 18V, Dewalt adapter 18-20V, Dewalt 20V battery. Leaving battery plugged into adapter runs the battery dead in 24 hrs.
It would be cool to see this adapter comparison on Makita LXT tools since their own batteries are so far behind the competition.
I run a Bosch 18v 8aH CORE on my Makita LXT Chainsaw. Has been flawless and run time is ridiculously long.
Makita has low voltage protection in the battery which only Ryobi also does. So using an adapter you can over discharge and kill your expensive non Makita batteries if you are not careful
@@FekillixRidgid has in battery protection as well.
@Fekillix I was considering putting my 'kita batteries on my my kids powerwheels car but I thought read that they didn't have low voltage protection.
40V does not have it in the battery, 18V does. So you can put the 18V batteries in your kidss powerwheels. Even more fun if you replace the motor with a brushless motor with a speed controller made to take a 5S (like the Makita) battery.@@jonathancorbett5917
One of the best Power Tool testing videos I’ve ever seen! We need more content like this. Hope it becomes a recurring series!
Great stuff, appreciate all the testing you do!
Would've loved to see you tested the adapters on Makita 18v tools since they don't update their batteries.
Yeah to me they could have turned this into a series and could have made a lot of single videos instead of stuffing everything into one video... Still a great video !!!
I standardized on the inexpensive Kobalt 24V Max batteries and made custom adapters for my Hitachi 18V tools out of old Hitachi batteries. This makes for a factory fit on the tools and supercharges them. Noticable gains on a circular saw and sawzall.
im doing this with a kobalt battery on a 18v motor in a worm drive circular saw,
Won't this fry lower voltage tools?
@LukeCampbell-ov6lz No problems with the Hitachi 18V tools so far.
@@LukeCampbell-ov6lz keep in mind on tools that draw lots of current, like a saw, the voltage will sag under load and will probably still be in the safe operating range of the tool. If an "18v" tool is designed to operate from 15-21V on a 5s pack, the 6s Kobalt packs might sag down around 20-22v from the fully charged 25.2v. But the major disadvantage is that if the tool has low voltage cutoff for a 5s pack at say 15-16v, that would be too low for a 6s pack and could damage it.
Kobalt batteries on my Ryobi tools work insane. I’d love to see actual measurements, but you can hear a signif difference in how much louder/faster they are
The channel Tool Scientist did some great testing on M18 batteries as far as depth of discharge, and they noted that the low-voltage cutoff does not work if you are using an adapter. As in, the tool will discharge the M18 battery's cells to absolutely dead and permanently kill the battery in no time if you're not careful. Just something to keep in mind when talking about battery adapters. Edit: This was for M18 batteries, I assume other tool battery brands may have the low voltage cutoff circuitry in the battery, rather than a negotiation between the battery and the tool like Milwaukee.
10:10 we didn't experience this. The M18 battery on a DeWALT saw ran until 1 bar flashing and even ran for less time than the equivalent DeWALT battery. The M18 battery is still healthy
@@TorqueTestChannel Interesting! In his videos he was manually measuring the cell voltages, and he saw them drop to below 2 volts (which is the normal, non-HO M18 battery cutoff)- which dropping individual cells below 2v will definitely rapidly degrade the battery. He had tested a huge range of M18 battery models, but all of them were domestic Australian SKUs as far as I can tell. I wouldn't trust battery adapters either way, for a mix of what I've seen from his videos and yours. Not worth it to me.
Had this happen with a cp 3.0 on a dewalt blower. Battery killed after one session
@@TorqueTestChannel Likely it cut out for other reasons (melting) or the DeWALT saw's cutoff worked on the Milwaukee battery, since DeWALT batteries also don't have low voltage cutoff built-in either so that function is in the tool. Try using a Milwaukee battery on a Ryobi tool that has no brains (just motor connected directly to battery) and it will drain to the point where a Milwaukee charger will refuse to charge it. You can 'revive' it by manually charging the battery back up past the minimum voltage using a power supply, but the internal damage is already done to the cells and I would no longer consider that battery safe to use. Makita was (is?) famous for straight up bricking the BMS if the battery ever goes below minimum voltage, same with older removable laptop batteries, because the liability involved in charging overdischarged/damaged cells is that great.
@ExodusC lithium ion batteries aren't at nearly the same risk of cell damage when discharged past LVC when compared to LiPo or LiHv, or the new pouch cell offerings. The LiPo/LiHv's in particular can swell and even spontaneously combust if used beyond the LVC/Recharged after.
I feel a bit cheated by the lack of Makita here, especially after the beans battery. Even with the losses I'd rather suffer those than buy a whole extra battery system, worrying to see one melting though.
Makita batteries self monitor and brick themselves of they work outside of parameters about three times sadly 😞. That may explain it
@@coolkid7500This is probably because the guy who did that ran them in overdischarge. Maybe Makita self locks, but you're anyway destroying your battery there. You need to get +/- and also the signal pin. Then cut off with simple electronic if the signal asks for it.
I've been using a Kobalt battery to Ryobi tool adapter. It's been great, especially for the circular saw that had been really underpowered.
If you did a few testes with kobalt 24v into 18v tools that would have made this episode perfect!
It would be interesting to see if older tools that ran NiCad batteries would benefit from using an adapter for a more modern Lithium battery, and if it would be a cost effective way to breathe new life (higher output, runtime, etc) into older cordless tools that still work fine. I have a bunch of 18v Dewalt NiCad tools but most of the batteries are not great anymore. I'd personally be interested in this test.
I have likely the same set as you but in 14.4v (XRP series). Original batteries were NiCad, which died long ago. DeWalt won’t make a lithium battery adapter for the 14.4v series but they do for the 18v set. Anyway, I bought a generic one that adapts LXT batteries to 18v XRP. I dremeled it to fit the 14.4v tool. Now everything runs faster, stronger, and with more runtime. Especially the trim saw!
I ran some 18v nicad black-n-decker tools on my 20v black-n-decker lions and they worked pretty good, although when i noticed power drop i stopped and recharged so not to possibly damage the lion by over draining them. I also run my hercules batteries on an older dewalt xrp drill (nicad), which ended up being one of 3 drills to survive trying to drill a 6in hole saw through the body of my van. the other two i had smoked themselves (older brushed hercules and a hitachi)
Awesome show! Great to see what makers can do in the small batch manufacturing arena these days, bringing good stuff to market.
A few years from now, we will see a computer chip module to make sure the batteries that go into the drill are official. "In case it damages the drill" which it of course won't but it will damager thier money
Yeah. Just like the f ing HP printer ink!
don`t give them any ideas
You should’ve tested end voltage and protection and such. The extra runtime on the grinder with the yellow pack, maybe the voltage ran real low depending whether the tool has the battery management or it’s done by a BMS inside the battery pack. Doesn’t DeWalt do protection and balancing with the tools and charger? But M18 packs have the BMS in the battery.
Just changing to thicker wiring on the Amazon adapter would be a neat for comparison. Or a better made 3d printed unit for same voltage adapers.. Thanks for the hard work!
Thats what I also wanted to see a custom and better adapter. Also 3d print is weak for big batteries. He got a older video where the 3d printed adapter broke when the chunky flex battery slaps on the desk while doing the wattage test
@@DanDan-li4hr You can print stronger plastic than the batteries are made of. Learn about printing before speaking nonsense.
One thing to note is which part has the low voltage protection. If you run a Milwaukee battery in a Ryobi, you can run the voltage all the way to zero and ruin the battery
I use many adapters, including Makita, Hilti,Bosch, Metabo Hpt and all of those that you have to Dewalt batteries. I also have a bunch of 12v adapters too. This video was extremely interesting for me to see, and i wish you do more of those to all the tools with all the batteries. Another TTC blockbuster, thanks!
I 3d printed a ton of Ridgid to Ryobi battery adapters since Ridgid's lineup is so space. Now I have a 50/50 mix of the tools, but all using Ridgid's batteries with the LSA (lifetime "warranty")
Great video. I nearly burnt one tool because of these adapters, It started melting just like in the video. I opened it up and noticed that the wires used are so pethaticly weak. Replaced them with bigger guage wires and high melting solder. Works cool. Every time I buy one of these adapters out of the box I open it and replace its silly wires and never had an issue.
I've been wondering about battery adapters for a while, you've helped me make my mind up. Thanks for a great video 👍
In other words: Batteries should be standardized.
That would make things very interesting!
NOOO! We saw what happened to nascar. Im more of a fan of using a corded adapter while my battery recharges. True flexibility.
Sounds good as long as governments are not getting involved
@@rutgerhoutdijk3547 EU's push for usb-c standardizarion is universally loved. Governments can do good things.
@@coRnflEks yes, but the cookie popup was made up by the same people. These people barely know what a mouse is, just because they were right on usb-c doesn't mean you should trust them to regulate the market.
This is important information. It's good to know when to be tempted, and when not to waste your money.
Absolutely love your channel, thank you for all the testing that you do! An important note on this topic not covered here, not all batteries can protect themselves from over-discharge. For example, when you tear down a Ryobi pack you can see that it does have FETs to disconnect the battery and protect it from over-discharge and permanent damage. Smart battery, dumb tool. However, Milwaukee M18 batteries do not, they rely on the tool to stop drawing power. "Dumb" battery smart tool. For that reason I will not use an adapter to use my M18 batteries on another tool because it could be permanently damaged and they are more expensive anyway. Additionally, you are absolutely correct, anytime you add an adapter you are adding 2 terminals and a wire on the positive path, and 2 terminals and a wire on the negative path, every single element there increases resistance and fundamentally will reduce efficiency. That's a simple physics issue. The only way to maintain the output of the tool would be to overvolt to adjust for the power being lost in the adapter. So adapters can be useful. Some batteries have slightly higher voltage or current capacity and could possibly get you slightly better performance out of your tool. However, simply using an adapter comes with an efficiency penalty, some of the energy in the battery will be lost to heating up the terminals and wiring in the adapter. Lastly, you need to dig into the details on any battery to make sure that it can safely shut itself down without damage. M18 batteries should not be adapted to other tools, but Ryboi would be fine. I haven't dug too deeply into the various other manufacturer's batteries, if other people in the community have it would be really helpful to share here which batteries protect themselves and would be safe to adapt to other platforms.
24 volt Flex batteries on the Dewalt dcf900 impact would be cool to see those numbers since it gave a big boost to the Milwaukee.
I bought an adapter for my old 18V Dewalt to M18. Makes the circular and reciprocating saw useful again for the occasional use.
I have an old Ingersoll Rand IQV 14.4 Volt Right Angle Die Grinder that I really liked, but the batteries died over the years. I would like to adapt to a Milwaukee or something similar. I also have an old school Milwaukee drill that I need to adapt to the new M18 battery. I’m glad you tested the adapters. Thanks for the honest reviews.
Really not bad considering. I have milwaukee stuff at work but couldnt pass up the $40 ryobi grinder for quick light work and the $20 adapter still had me at less than half the price of the milwaukee grinder😂
Years ago i had a snap-on 9.6v ni-cad 3/8th impact and a snap-on 14.4v nicad 1/2in impact. Discovered i could trim some plastic tabs on the 14.4 v battery and make it work in the 3/8 impact. The 3/8 impact is now long dead. I still have my 14.4v impact and still using it almost 20 years later. Bought a battery rebuild kit from amazon, and then the motor died. Went on ali-express and found a motor that would work. She's back into action, and going strong.
Another great video! Anytime you add more connections there is going to be a power loss. I.E. like adding battery adapter. However it may be worth it if you are locked into a certain battery brand.
I use them mainly for Dewalt batteries on m18 finish nailers. Works great.
I do this. I've got a bunch of Milwaukee batteries but Project Farm's review of right angle drills showed the Ryobi one+ HP was a better option. I just bought the Ryobi tool-only and an adapter off Fleabay. Rarely used but always available.
Awesome! This is right up my alley - call me an "adapter aficionado". I own tools from many different brands and I've purchased adapters for all of them. I mostly use them as backups since I also have brand-matching batteries for my tools - yet it's handy to be able to use other batteries when I want more runtime. This testing correlates with my anecdotal observations and armchair theorizing. I've always feared to run high-draw tools for any length of time on an adapter - seems like that's warranted. I suspect the wiring in many adapters just can't handle the load. Blowers and grinders for example, I don't like to risk it. On the other hand, some tools seem to run faster and better with an adapter and "good" batteries. My Ryobi tire inflator is audibly faster when I run it with my Dewalt batteries. I'm not worried running lights, drills, rotary tools, etc. with adapters. While there are some losses (something I appreciate knowing), it seems like an acceptable compromise in a backup situation. I might discourage someone though, based on this information, from buying tools and batteries from different brands intentionally.
I use Dewalt 20v batteries on Ryobi and Ridgid power tools without issue. Many years ago I had an old Dewalt 18v angle grinder and all my batteries died, I hooked two 12v deep cycle batteries in parallel and used a 12ga extension cord to power the grinder via a hacked up 18v batter shell.
TTC would love a test on dewalt xr vs flexvolt batteries, ie. 5ps,6,8,10 vs 6,9,12,15 fv. Also, which is the best performing battery in the 8-9 ah range?
Thanks for a great video! I have another idea for follow-up : charging using adapters. Possible at all, without all the communications? Risks, draw-backs? I think the biggest risk is missing over-heat protection and risk of unbalanced charge. I would love to use my 6 port Ryobi charger to charge my Dewalt packs. It is so convenient: you click in up to 6 packs in the evening and next day morning all of them are fully charged, ready to go. It charges one pack at a time @2.5A, so it should be "reasonable" for most of my 5Ah packs...
I use the Dewalt 20v->18v adapter keep my old tools going. Even if that adapter gives up some of the beans, I think the net gain over the 18v NiCad is a winner.
Can't wait to see more content on adaptors, especially using Flex batteries. Thanks!
I think that pulsing on the ryobi is possibly something to do with the speed controller safety with the motor being able to pull more amps than the speed controller is rated for. Possibly miss matched motor/speed controller or just ryobi batteries not able to out out as many amps
I'd like to see you test how much the adapters run down the batteries even when the tool is idle. I have a Dewalt drill 18V, Dewalt adapter 18-20V, Dewalt 20V battery. Leaving battery plugged into adapter runs the battery dead in 24 hrs or less.
For those that are considering using Flex/Hilti/Kobalt 6s batteries on tools designed for 5s packs (most other brands) while the voltage under load will probably sag into the safe operating range of the tool, the low voltage cutoff in the tool would cutoff far too low and damage the batteries, especially under light loads. That is, if the tool has a cutoff based solely on the input voltage. Not all do--some rely on a sense pin from the battery to initiate the low voltage cutoff / protection, e.g. Hitachi/Metabo HPT where the battery pulls the LD pin to ground when it gets to ~16v, otherwise the tool will just keep pulling power as the voltage sinks lower and lower...
This is a great topic. I'm balls deep in the Milwaukee ecosystem but the fact is the red tax is pretty high for some of the tools I don't think I'll use often or work hard. I would like to be able to buy some HF tools and use adapters so I can at least keep a single battery eco system. So I think it's very valid that people might want to use the expensive batteries on cheap tools - sometimes. But Milwaukee not having the low voltage protection built into the battery is an issue I worry about.
that would be a good approach but I'm not sure if there are any adpaters for Hercules being a HF only brand. Many of the adapters are sourced from overseas so you may have a harder time getting a Hercules adapter rather than a Dewalt, Bosch or Makita. I was planning to go that route but ended up becoming a 2 platform user when I found a BOGO deal that ended up costing less than a bare tool from the brand that I already owned. It's worked for me for the last 2 years
@@engineer_alv Some adapters are available. Of course, HF in all their wisdom have both Bauer and Hercules 20v tools AND THE BATTERIES ARE NOT INTERCHANGABLE! So irritating. For the low cost of the tools I'm interested in (
I have a DeWalt battery to Bauer tool adapter. To my surprise it's been the best quality. When I first got into adapters I bought all the types Amazon had to compare. Some sure are shit. The Ryobi adapters seem to be a level up and the Bauer one was the best. Side note.... sawzalls are hard on adapters, I've split quite a few in half. DeWalt battery (usually 9ah) on Milwaukee super sawzall. That being said Milwaukee sawzalls do not run smooth. My buddy even split a Milwaukee 8 in half on his non fuel hacksall. Also side note..... for anyone curious, got the adapter for the Bauer drain cleaner. Hell of a price and the design is pretty good. Way better than DeWalt and I'd say even better than the big 500 dollar Milwaukee in some ways because the Bauer keeps spinning forward when retracting where the Milwaukee needs to be in reverse to retract so anything you screwed into can be unscrewed from. In the adapter I got I found that some were simply wires inside connecting while others used no wires and had a board that did everything. Did you tear these apart and see how they were built? Last thing..... the DeWalt seemed to do much worse with other batteries which kinda surprised me. Was the DeWalt tool a power defect or flexvolt advantage that needs an additional something like the Ryobi hp tools? I've noticed the DeWalt pd and fa have a larger base where the battery connects, always assumed this had something to do with the detecting
HI, very interesting videos. Congratulations. For information, hoping that this will be useful, I have a Milwaukee 2719-20 hacksaw that I run with DeWalt batteries (2 Ah PS, 5 Ah), and that works well. But with the 5 Ah PowerStack, the tool shuts off, probably because of some protection against excessive amperage. Did you experience the same ? Thanks again for your work.
One thing to keep in mind is over/under charge protection for the batteries. With Ryobi having a battery version of just about everything, I was considering a way to use my supply of DeWALT batteries with Ryobi tools instead of needing to maintain additional batteries. I came across several discussions stating that Ryobi has their protection circuit in the battery, while DeWALT has it in the tool. As a result, if you use a cheap adapter to run a Ryobi tool with DeWALT batteries, you could drain the batteries below the minimum voltage they need to charge, killing the battery.
It’s nice to know there are some adapters that actually are worth it and that there are some for Hercules batteries as well! Of all these adapters, which would you recommend? Great video y’all!
this sort of stuff really scratches an itch of mine. awesome work.
This very interesting for me, because the knowledge of which batteries work with tools you don't want to get rid of, when gradually up-scaling your power tools.
Out of 15 dewalt 20v batteries I've only had 2 quite working. I've a 2ah since 2014 and it still working.
Always answering all the most important questions of the universe 😁 👍
I'm mainly in the Makita battery environment. Although, I also have a Milwaukee charger & batteries, as well. Most of my tools are Makita, but I do have Milwaukee, DeWalt, and Ryobi. I do have adapters for Makita to Mil, DeW, & Ryo, as well as adapters for Milwaukee to Mak, DeW, & Ryo. They work pretty good. I'd love to see this same test with the Makita batteries and adapters, using the meters and test benches.
My assumption on the melting adapter is that I would expect the adapter to be made of inferior plastic... like ABS. Unfortunately, I can't imagine the adapter companies would be bothering to add that info into their molds, like the tool companies do. 😊
I recommended this test to another KZhead friend , im so glad you guys did it
I wish you included some Makita 18v tools using other batteries. Their older batteries don’t have the beans anywhere near what the other brands have with better cells and larger sizes. I recently bought a couple adapters on Amazon to use my DeWalt XR 6.0Ah packs on my Makita 18V angle grinders and it makes a world of difference in runtime for sure. It would be nice to see your measurements to confirm what I feel.
@@johncoops6897 I don’t need other people, it would just have been cool to see the testing he’s capable of that I don’t have the equipment or time to do. Also, the results don’t always follow what the labels and specs may suggest, as evidenced in this video.
Thank you so much! I’ve been wondering about this! I’ve had great success using a cheap ryobi chop saw with my dewalt batteries courtesy of an adapter.
BE CAREFUL when using adapters with ryobi tools. Ryobi does the voltage management on the battery instead of the tool. If you use other brand batteries with Ryobi tools, they will drain your batteries below the safe voltage level and kill then. You need to install a low voltage disconnect module such as xh-m609, but these are good up to around 20 amp. Also, the losses are mainly due to the voltage drop caused by the thin wires used inside the adapters connecting the different terminals. They are easy to replace.
So the flip side of this, wouldn't Ryobi batteries be best to use with different brands' tools? Tool X can't communicate with battery Y regardless, right? So having the battery protect itself would be ideal.
I took the bms from a hart pack and put it in my ryobi/dewalt adapter, it gave it low and overvoltage protection
Ryobi offers a lot of affordable tools and I'm already on the DeWalt 20V system. So, I have considered buying Ryobi to DeWalt battery adapters several times. Cool test!
Great and informative video! I can honestly say that I wasn't aware just how many adapters are out there. I've got an old Craftsman impact that they no longer make or sell batteries for, so I might give a Craftsman to Milwaukee adapter a shot and use some M18 batteries. Would make it a lot more useful than the paperweight it currently is 😂
Thanks for all your answers man
Been impressed with cost/power/warranty from hercules stuff so started buying those when on sale. I've liked em enough but their platform isn't that wide so I've been using the adapters for my dewalt tools and I've noticed comparable performance so no complaints from me
It would be interesting to see if this keeps tools running after batteries decide to give up the ghost for certain models and you can continue to run it on an adapter with other batteries. For instance the Earthquake XT battery impacts. Harbor Freight has discontinued it and I fear for the day the batteries give up. I guess I could always disassemble the case and install new batteries, or if the adapter makes sense I could get the Earthquake to Ryobi adapter and only have to run one brand battery at that point.
I would love to see some behind the scenes in how you make your videos. I get the feeling in all of your videos that there's so much more that we don't see. It's easy to tell how much effort you put into your videos but I would still enjoy actually seeing some of it
Been running Ryobi tools on Bosch 21700 pixies for a while now. It makes using two platforms so much easier
I've been thinking of using an adapter from makita lxt to the makita 18v nicd tools that I have. Old wimpy tools, but an additional small circular saw can come in quite handy.
This was an interesting video. I have kinda stayed in the M-12 and M-18 platform because I have a bunch of the batteries and chargers already. However there's a few tools that I would like to get, however I don't think they would get used very much. I think a Bauer or Hercules would do what I want, I just don't want to have another battery platform. I may need to see if they have a m-18 to harbor freight adapter.
There have been several 12v impacts and power ratchets from dewalt and Milwaukee that it would be interesting to see on 20v packs, especially eith the 12v offering already performing close to the 20
Would it be worth upgrading from the snap on 18v 5.6ah to a flex 24v 6ah
That increased voltage performance bump was what I also noticed with our chinese leafblower. It is a 20v tool which didn't performe well. We wanted to return it but the seller offered to send another battery in exchange for the one the tool came with incl. another charger. It is a 28V battery and with the new battery that leafblower moves some serious air. Maybe an idea for tool testing to include higher voltage on some models and thereby making them more attractive with higher power.
How would this work on framing nailers? I want the Milwaukee nailer but I'm in the Makita and Dewalt battery platforms already. Trying to avoid a 3rd platform for batteries.
Have the Milwaukee cordless vacuum with an adapter to run my Dewalt batteries. Shorted out one vacuum right away got it replaced and I can tell this other one has some issues as well. So yeah in certain tools they would be good idea
Nice video, thanks. Is there a way to run bosch and/or metabo angle grinder on milwaukee batteries vs original? Would love to see that
you showed Milwaukee 1/2 with flex bat, it would be nice to see how much dewalt 1/2 improves with that bat..and as always great vid..
A detail that would be interesting to point it out, in my opnion, is that the work on your RPM X Time chart is that the work is also the area below the lines. So because the one with the adapter has a smaller area, it means that it did less work. This is more a pet peeve from me knowing a lot about engineering and I don't think is that important in the end as pointing it out as the amount the RPM also works but a more correct way of pointing it is the area
Have you ever tested how much variance there is between the exact same batteries? For instance say you take 5 Milwaukee XC6.0 High Output packs... do they all measure nearly identically or are there signficant differences between the packs? This was an interesting test regardless... I've considered trying adapters in a few cases where a tool from another brand is significantly better than anything my preferred brand offers, or to meet a specific price point, or in a case where my preferred brand just doesn't offer some niche tool I need/want, etc.
I have one from Black and Decker 20v to use my 20v Dewalt batteries on, I can't tell if my B&D Tools are starting to wear out, but I do know my jigsaw did not like the 1.8AH Powerstack (would not work).
i use makita lxt on my 18g ryobi brad nailer. so cost effective!
Great video and unsurprising results. For future testing please continue test with the brands own batteries. I would have no problem with adding an additional test with a “standard” battery and adapter
Man you guys are like in my head it seems -- I discovered 3DPrintedAdapters last night and ordered some 😂. I would love to see high quality adapters for other batteries, I'm a little concerned about overvolting long term. Do any of the adapters work with the chargers? Can I charge other 18v batteries on the milwaukee charger? Thanks and keep up the good work.
Over volting causes more heat, if you let the tool rest it is fine, don't double the voltage. But I have had a motor spit out a molten fan. M18 requires communication between the tool and battery for the power cut off to work. If you run an m18 on a DeWalt you are fine. Ryobi and Makita the battery needs to cut its self off, and the tool will still spin below 12v. The chargers all require either communication or a direct connection to the individual cells.
Im mainly on Ridgid platform and have a Ryobi and M18 tool to Ridgid batteries. No issues with either adapter soo far.
I have a couple of adapters that I bought expressly to run _low_ demand tools. Specifically, my Ryobi power inverter. It was a really inexpensive way to get some more run time out of it with the Milwaukee batteries I already had.
I know the form factor makes it impractical, but I wish there were adaptors for tools to use Ryobi batteries. I have a mess of Ryobi batteries since a lot of their deals often include two or three batteries per tool.
Can you test the new 8/12ah ryobi batteries? Maybe the compact 1/2 impact as well?
Awesome video, I will say I have been using a Ryobi to M18 for lots of one off tools IE nail gun my reason is for a non professional I don't want or need to spend double for a tool I use a couple of times. The Milwaukee tax is real!! But IMO they have the best batteries.
I'm on the Makita 18v platform. I really liked the Milwaukee vac so I bought an adapter. I would start and work once. After shut off it wouldn't start again until you pulled and reinserted the battery. I thought maybe it was a defective vac so I tried a second and same thing. I returned the vac and just bought the Makita which I ended up very happy with.
I love my Makita Vacuum, it's multistage filter design is awesome. Take a blower to it to clean it out and it's even good enough for drywall dust!
Talk about timely. My next purchase is going to be the Ryobi right angle die grinder and I was looking at getting an adaptor.
so thankful you tested this. but all had failure issues except the one you linked? i have ridgid batteries and they dont have that option
Maybe look at that brands other adapters? Not sure what they have, Etsy guy is solid too if he had what you need
This is perfect timing I wasn't happy with Milwaukee's heated apparel so I just bought a Makita heated jacket, an adapter and I'm troubleshooting the power supply
I primarily have Dewalt 20v tools . On Craftsman v20 I use an adapter to my Dewalt 20v battery. I bought a v20 Jigsaw, because I use it infrequently and didn't want to pay $100± more for a Dewalt to just lay around most of the time.
I've used milwaukee tools for years, when i want a garden tool, find them too expensive for the small jobs and have had a ryobi tool to milwaukee battery for years, fantastic way to have one battery system and use over multiple brands where it does not matter as much, im sure whatever losses my hedge trimmer have are minimal :)
My main concern about adaptors is whether the battery management systems can still function and shut the battery down to protect it in the event of cell overheating or deep discharge etc
Im pretty surprised to see the performance loss from some of these adapters. Ive got one to use my Milwaukee batteries on bauer tools but I think im going to branch out to some ryobi stuff because I really like their lineup and price.
I just tried an adapter for our Dyson V8 vacuum to use 5ah M18 batteries. I was able to use the Dyson on high quite a bit longer than the standard Dyson battery. It worked. I weighed the junk I picked up before switching and had .7oz including the plate. Using the M18 over the exact same sections of carpet I was able to pick up an additional 1oz. I could feel the difference. The vacuum was harder to move around as it was more powerful. Not sure I am going to keep it though. It’s a PITA to go to the garage first to get a battery.
@@johncoops6897this WOULD be true except for the fact that the cells dyson use are a very poor preforming 18650 (LG HD2C) under high load compared to the performance of the 18650s that all the cordless tool brands use in their 5ah batterys. ( Samsung 25R cells) this causes an 18v/20max 5ah tool battery to hold a higher voltage than the dyson battery even from brand new under said load (15A), despite having one cell more in series. And like you point out they can't really handle the load very well and have a short life span. I used my v8 a lot and it didn't even make it to one year, my friend didn't use their's as much and it didn't make it to 2 years. Hopefully dyson's newer models use a better cell than the pathetic LG cell used in the v8.
Great episode
Careful though. Some batteries protect themselves and some tools protect the battery. I think it would be possible to get a combination that can overdischarge and damage the battery.
Not even consistent with brand. My Ryobi rotozip melted with Dewalt batts but none of the other Ryobi tools overheated.
Seeing the graph at 13:23 made my jaw drop. I'm just a person who does DIY stuff and has the 4th gen m18 hammer drill with 3, 5ah (because they came with the kit for free) and I cant believe how much more power that drill has! I'm most likely gonna buy a flex battery if and when those 3 batteries die!
Would loved to have seen what these larger packs can do on Makita tools. Since their current 18V battery packs lag behind the rest in capacity, and technology like stacked lithium packs.
Hey Bro/Guys, Awesome video Bro ! Quick question, Can you use a flex pouch batteries on M18 tools such as drills and impact long term without damaging tools or would you just consider just sticking to HO and maybe forge but forge is expensive and didn't see results good as say the flex 6 pouch batteries ? What do you think ? Thanks
Really interesting findings. I really liked the adapter stack. I could only imagine how awkward that would be to use