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Comment by woeh | Hacker News Reader

I was pleased to see recently that a couple of different brands at my local DIY store had interoperable batteries. I bought a small lawnmower which now uses the same battery as a cordless drill from another brand. The brands that joined are listed on their marketing site[0].

Edit: One of the companies has a slightly less obnoxious website which also lists brands[1]

[0]https://www.powerforall-alliance.com/en/#technology

[1]https://www.gardena.com/int/products/powerforall/

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I’m glad we’re finally working towards standard batteries for power tools. I have to say that website is terrible.

It plays absolute havoc with the browser history, how did they think that was a good idea?

Oh cool, so there are two competing battery pack standards :D

https://www.cordless-alliance-system.com

Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/927/

This is why the EU is right we have to regulate these things. There just aren’t right answers here, each battery has pros and cons, so it’s a political matter full stop.

I've never even heard of a power tool from any of those companies

There are a lot of German niche companies in that list. Like seriously "one specific job" niches ;)

Metabo (the one I know for their powertools, though Fischer is famous for their dowels and Edding for their markers) is known for drills as well as gardening power tools. I think this is more a non-consumer area (though Metabo certainly dabbles in consumer devices)

Wow this is a great idea. I do have to say I'm disappointed, but not surprised, that none of the bigger brands in power tools look to be participating.

The only name I recognize there is Bosch, I've never had any of their tools but my perception is that they are a mid-tier brand. It would be great to see players like DeWalt, Milwaukee, and Makita do something like this.

Bosch segments its own market into the "green" and "blue" parts, the latter being for professional use. They're very well-made and costly, on-par and competitive with the other brands you mentioned. But of course they are not in this Power4All alliance thing and are incompatible with the "green" consumer stuff.

wow this is very interesting, and the main reason I hadn't bought many cordless tools, because I didn't want 2-5 years down the road to have a bunch of chargers and batteries that are all incompatible among each other! I'll reconsider it whenever I need new tools, thanks for sharing!

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