Festool Battery Question

[dschmid4]

I'm a bit confused on Festool battery interchangeability for the various tools.  Can someone point me to a good place that describes this?
I plan to purchase a cordless Carvex when released, and this would be my first battery driven Festool.  Specifically, I would like to understand which Festool drills would be compatible.

 

[TOOLTOWN]

dschmid4,

You can use any battery in a tool that accepts that battery or higher.

For instance, the jigsaw is an 18 volt battery, so this will work in the T-18 drill.  The T-18 drill can also accept a 15 or 12 volt battery.

Hope this helps,

Ken

Update, here is the compatibility chart from the 2013 catalog.

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[neeleman]

You are right about this.

But you can only use lower Voltage batteries in higher Voltage machines and not the other way around!
So a 12 V battery will work in a 15/18 V Carvex. But a 18 V battery will not work in a 12 V machine.

I believe that only Panasonic recently presented different 18 V machines who can use both 14,4V or 18V batteries.

And you can also use NiCd and NiMH batteries in Li-Ion machines as well. But they are from the old days.

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

The short answer is that the cordless Carvex is compatible with ALL Festool batteries, with the exception of the CXS compact drill battery, including all old NiCd and NiMH batteries and independent of voltage. The cordless Carvex would perform best with an 18v battery, but will also run off of the 12v (10.8) or 15v (14.4).

So, regardless of which drill you choose with the exception of the CXS, you'll be able to use the battery with the cordless Carvex.

Edit: Ok, Ken posted the chart from the catalog which does a good job of illustrating compatibility.

 

[TOOLTOWN]

You are right about this.

But you can only use lower Voltage batteries in higher Voltage machines and not the other way around!
So a 12 V battery will work in a 15/18 V Carvex. But a 18 V battery will not work in a 12 V machine.

I believe that only Panasonic recently presented different 18 V machines who can use both 14,4V or 18V batteries.

And you can also use NiCd and NiMH batteries in Li-Ion machines as well. But they are from the old days.

Yes, you are correct.  Panasonic did recently bring these tools out. 

We have them in the store, and they work great.  I will not compare them to Festool directly for fear of getting  [ban]

Ken

 

[festnoob]

You are right about this.

But you can only use lower Voltage batteries in higher Voltage machines and not the other way around!
So a 12 V battery will work in a 15/18 V Carvex. But a 18 V battery will not work in a 12 V machine.

I believe that only Panasonic recently presented different 18 V machines who can use both 14,4V or 18V batteries.

And you can also use NiCd and NiMH batteries in Li-Ion machines as well. But they are from the old days.

Yes, you are correct.  Panasonic did recently bring these tools out. 

We have them in the store, and they work great.  I will not compare them to Festool directly for fear of getting  [ban]

Ken

I'm hopefully coming by one of these days. I'll check them out.

 

[festnoob]

Hey Shane, I saw that the new 420 cordless comes with a 18v 4.2ah battery. Will this battery be compatible with only 18v tools?

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Hey Shane, I saw that the new 420 cordless comes with a 18v 4.2ah battery. Will this battery be compatible with only 18v tools?

No. The 18 volt battery will only fit an 18 volt tool. Lower voltage batteries will function in higher voltage tools, but not the other way around.

If you look at the top side of the batteries, you will see a pair of ribs of various lengths. These ribs are designed to prevent a higher voltage battery from being inserted into a lower voltage tool, but not the reverse. So you don't have to worry about accidentally inserting the wrong battery in any tool. The batteries and tools are designed to accept only those batteries for which they will function with, and do so without damage to themselves.

The PS420 saw will operate with any BPC or BPS battery of any voltage (including NiCd, NiMH, Li-Ion). You just can't use the 18 volt battery with tools of a lower battery voltage.

 

[festnoob]

I wanted to confirm. Shane wrote in the Carvex 420 sticky that the new Carvex were coming with a 4.2 battery that is backward compatible

The Basic version is the same as the regular cordless Carvex, less the battery and charger. The charger and batteries are over $250 if purchased separately. The price is $350 USD for the Basic.

Note that the Carvex cordless (non-Basic) will come with a 18v, 4.2Ah Lithium Ion battery. It is backward compatible with all NiCd, NiMH, and LiIon flat pack batteries in 12v, 15v and 18v.

The 4.2Ah battery will extend battery life by about 40%. That means roughly 120 feet of cutting in 1-9/16" particle board from one battery.

 

[neeleman]

I think he means that the Carvex 18V Jigsaw is backward compatible with all batteries available (12-14,4-18V) independent of the Amperage of the battery (2,6-3-4,2A).
The battery itself is NOT backward compatible with lower Voltage machines.