L -ion 4ah

[green fever]

Just thought I would throw this one out here , as other company's are now going down the 4-ah batteries anyone think festool may go this way just made me think after watching Peter parfitt with the 4ah Hitachi drill review.

 

[Deansocial]

I should think so at some point. Metabo has had them for about 6-9 month now

 

[Stone Message]

I am sure that the guys at Festool HQ are looking at this but is it really needed?

How many of the professional woodworking FOGgers find that they do not have enough power to last a full day assuming that you start out with a pair of fully charged batteries? If you answer this question please state the tool model or its voltage and the Ah capacity of the batteries.

I no longer do very much serious woodwork away from base (too busy with the magazine and video work) but I was always let down by the low capacity of my old NiCads on my cordless drills (one each of drill-driver, combi drill and impact driver which are still in use). I have been lucky enough to have been allowed to use the Hitachi machines, seen in my latest videos, for over a month and they really do have loads of power. I have not been able to play with any Festool rechargeable kit and so cannot make any comparison. The current Festool kit might be better than the Hitachi machines if they are more efficient. Until I test them I have an open mind (hint!).

Peter

 

[Deansocial]

I am sure that the guys at Festool HQ are looking at this but is it really needed?

How many of the professional woodworking FOGgers find that they do not have enough power to last a full day assuming that you start out with a pair of fully charged batteries? If you answer this question please state the tool model or its voltage and the Ah capacity of the batteries.

I no longer do very much serious woodwork away from base (too busy with the magazine and video work) but I was always let down by the low capacity of my old NiCads on my cordless drills (one each of drill-driver, combi drill and impact driver which are still in use). I have been lucky enough to have been allowed to use the Hitachi machines, seen in my latest videos, for over a month and they really do have loads of power. I have not been able to play with any Festool rechargeable kit and so cannot make any comparison. The current Festool kit might be better than the Hitachi machines if they are more efficient. Until I test them I have an open mind (hint!).

Peter

I charge my drill battries a couple of times a day if im busy. But i would rather do that than have a heavier tool

 

[Alan m]

i have two  2 ah and one 2.6 ah(had 2 until one gave up) dewalt nicad(or similar) . i often charge those 3 every day, sometimes more. it depends what your doing. one battery might last a week sometimes.
when these bateries die i will buy a set of 4 ah li ion. that should last a while on site

 

[green fever]

Hey Dean I had a chat with my festool guy and he rates the metabo very highly although I had a mains one years ago and that was very good , would be interesting to see a side by side comparison with the festool drill of the same voltage .

 

[Bob Gerritsen]

I am sure that the guys at Festool HQ are looking at this but is it really needed?

How many of the professional woodworking FOGgers find that they do not have enough power to last a full day assuming that you start out with a pair of fully charged batteries? If you answer this question please state the tool model or its voltage and the Ah capacity of the batteries.

I no longer do very much serious woodwork away from base (too busy with the magazine and video work) but I was always let down by the low capacity of my old NiCads on my cordless drills (one each of drill-driver, combi drill and impact driver which are still in use). I have been lucky enough to have been allowed to use the Hitachi machines, seen in my latest videos, for over a month and they really do have loads of power. I have not been able to play with any Festool rechargeable kit and so cannot make any comparison. The current Festool kit might be better than the Hitachi machines if they are more efficient. Until I test them I have an open mind (hint!).

Peter

I charge my drill batteries a couple of times a day if im busy. But i would rather do that than have a heavier tool

Exactly, what you guys are saying. Why bother training your arm muscles with a heavy 4.0 Ah battery when you are not able to finish it quicker than the charger refills the other battery? I have never ever finished a good working full battery in less than an hour and even then, plenty chargers only take 30 minutes. When, on occasion, I'm out of fresh batteries it is because I forgot to charge them. That is with a C12 3 Ah but I also use the small Bosch drills a lot, I think those are 1,3 Ah and now the Protool 18v that has 3 amps I think. Ok, I make furniture, I'm not in the construction business were you might screw 8 hours a day but still.

I cannot help but think a lot of it is misunderstanding and giving the (misinformed) people what they none the less. In my experience even 80% of the salesmen claim higher amps means more torque and thus a better machine, I'm fed up arguing with them by now, you can hardly expect the consumers to keep track. As soon as one brand starts lifting the bar a bit higher, the rest has to follow to keep sales up.

 

[green fever]

my point was the batteries are becoming smaller with more- ah , i remember the first l-ion impact drill i picked up and could not believe how much lighter it was compaired to my dewalt impact 18v with a 2.6 nicad, i do admit that i have a lot of mains drills and as many cordless , its the same old thing i guess we would like more power with a cordless when required , and to answer peters question about battery run down i had a big job on a while back with many trades most with their own tools corded and cordless and you would not believe how many chargers were on the go all day every day for four months , i am thinking of changing my entire kit of nicad to l-ion its a huge expense but the price of new batteries these days its almost cheaper to buy a new drill long term  and a 3 year guarantee on the whole tool batteries included .

 

[Stone Message]

There are some good points being made about weight v runtime tradeoff. As I said near the start, I have not had the chance to review any of the Festool drills but I bet that they come in lighter than any of the competition.

Peter