Hacker News Reader

Comment by al_borland | Hacker News Reader

With power tools, it’s more than that. It’s not just that you keep needing to buy their batteries if they die. It’s that once you have the battery for one, you are much more likely to buy their other products when the need arises. That way you either have multiple interchangeable batteries, or you can save money by not needing to get another battery with the main product.

View on HN

Good thing is that once you decide to lock in into particular brand you can have interchangeable batteries for machines... Whoops.. What's that? New line of products with new battery standard?

Manufactures don't do that often. They might have a couple different battery lines, but everytime there is a new standard buyers have opportunity to check out the competition. I standardized on Dewalt 20/60 volt tools, I don't even look at other brands anymore as then I need to invest in batteries when I already have plenty of batteries so Dewalt is almost always cheaper because I'm buying a tool without a battery,

Sometimes a 12volt tool looks good (lighter), but so far I don't have any. If I ever do I'll be comparing all the brands (and their catalog) to see which I think is best, already having Dewalt 20 volt tools gives them no advantage (My dewalt radio can take 12 or 20 volt batteries, but that isn't enough of an advantage)

You have to effectively marry your power tool provider to get worthwhile economies of scale.

I wonder if there's a market for battery adapter-shims? (then they'd start doing HP-ink-level shenanigans, if they're not already).

Looks like CharlesW answered my question before I asked it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41507481

This has been likened to a sorting hat for dads.

https://x.com/andykreed/status/1741888763083604090

Green and red are technically under the same corporate owner.

https://tool-kit.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/power-tool-br...

Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw always seemed pretty much the same to me anyways

I'm not had much luck with the "save money by not needed to get another battery" part. The local stores have only had the tools in the bundles which include the battery and charger.

Amazon has usually had the tool without a battery and charger but many more sellers had the tool with battery and charger and those were actually cheaper due to sale prices or due to the tool only not being Prime and having high shipping cost.

So I've ended up with the 3 batteries and 3 chargers for my 4 Black & Decker cordless tools. (It's only not one for one because the first purchase was a bundle of a string trimmer and hedge trimmer with one charger and battery).

I'll probably need to buy an oscillating multi-tool next summer and am thinking of going with something other than Black & Decker. That way the next time after that when I need a tool (probably a paint sprayer) my chances will be twice as good that I can find one unbundled that matches one of my existing battery systems.

This is really true.

Or you hold off on buying other tools because you want to be in a different battery/tool family.

There are convertors for batteries though, so I should probably consider that.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com