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Comment by taeric | Hacker News Reader

Yeah. I don't think I can explain how awesome it is to be liberated from a bucket of gas in the garage to make it through the yard. That it also stores nicely and I can use the same battery for a chainsaw and weed eater? Battery powered devices really did get usable while people were not paying attention.

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I think this speaks to a similar problem with BEV adoption. Plenty of people tried them, or read a ton of press about them back in 2016-2018, when they really weren't all that great. People now hold onto those ideas, not realizing how much they've improved in the short years in between.

The first battery lawn mowers were terrible. Today's are excellent.

Yeah, this is what I meant by saying that they got good. I remember the first batch of battery screw drivers/drills. Could do basic work, but that was about it. Now, my blower, chainsaw, mower, and weed eater are all battery. And all work great.

Having an ecosystem of batteries + tools is great. The question is which of the endless ecosystem options (ryobi, dewalt, milwaukee, bosch, etc.) to pick

I bet you can make adaptors for those different batteries.

Just don't short them accidentally. And check the voltage and charge/discharge power. And maybe check the thermal probe still works.

https://youtube.com/c/ProjectFarm

Tons of reviews of battery powered tools. My priorities led me to Milwaukee for power tools (not hand tools), YMMV. Great channel though.

Nthing this. ProjectFarm is an impressive, objective, numbers based review of all sorts of tools and lubricants. The guy looks like your average farmer, but he covers pretty much every real world use case and is always impressively thorough, with the knowledge of someone who has actually used tools/products like that in the field. He also does some amusing things like lubricating a lawn mower with bananas.

Surprised the EU hasn’t addressed this.

Yeah, they've addressed phone and car chargers, that'd be a logical next step.

This problem isn't on the political radar yet. Give it time.

Also portable solar panels for direct DC charging of these batteries.

Just a personal recommendation for domestic use. I use two Bosch 36V 4.0AH batteries for their mower, strimmer, and leaf blower. For long tasks, I put the first battery on charge as soon as depleted and switch to the second one. I haven't been without juice so far.

What I did when I needed to bridge the gap: https://www.stlfinder.com/3dmodels/milwaukee-to-ryobi-adapte...

Be wary of, or careful when using, these dumb adapters. Lithium batteries require protection electronics, in particular ones to shut off the tool when the battery reaches too high a temperature or the cells reach too low a voltage. Most manufacturers put the electronics in the tool, using the connector's other conductors to sense the battery's condition. Since these cheap adapters don't also adapt the sensing electronics and conductors, the electronic safety is substantially or completely disabled. If the battery's user doesn't take as much care as the tool's electronics would have, there is a great increase in the probability of premature, and possibly incindiary, battery failure.

> Having an ecosystem of batteries + tools is great. The question is which of the endless ecosystem options (ryobi, dewalt, milwaukee, bosch, etc.) to pick

Dead dinosaurs is basically the universal tool battery for larger tools.

Like everything, in a few years we'll standardize around the most mediocre option.

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