Li-ion batteries for C12

E

Eli

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Joined
Jul 10, 2007
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Anybody have any info on how long it will be (or if at all) the switch will be made to Li-ion batteries for the C12. I'm going to cash in all my other drills most likely anyway, but I would wait a while if this is imminent.
 
I've heard they skip Li-ion and will make Li-Pol batteries next spring. No back compatibility.
 
Jo,

I thought the Li-pol batteries were pretty much limited to small format electricic devices like PDAs.  Festool is a pretty conservative company from a technology standpoint.  Using Li-pol batteries seems like a very aggressive, leading edge (maybe bleeding edge) approach.  Do you have any more information on this?

Regards,

Dan.
 
My vote is for the LI-Poly batteries.
Depending on the manufactuing process it seems that the li-poly battery can be way more powerful in a smaller package than LI-ion and have the ability to dissepate heat more efficiently due to it being a flat cell vs. a coiled of folded cell.

Eiji Fuller
 
Eli,

There are currently no plans to come out with LiIon batteries for the C12 anytime soon.

Regards,

Christian Oltzscher
Festool USA
 
Well then....I guess my li-ion Makita Impact driver will have to be lonely 'tell that any time soon comes along.

BTW I am a full time carpenter/woodworker and I have to charge my Li-ion batteries maybe 1-2x per week.
 
I have the ridgid 24v li-ion set (circ trim saw, recipro saw, drill) and they made the trip to Australia and worked right out of the toolbox. I've been impressed with them. I have to charge the two bats I have from a transfomer though :( 

I'm thinking about a makita impact to match the native 14.4 mak drill I got while I was waiting for them to show up. C12 definitely in the cards though.
 
Eli, just found this thread after posting a new thread and posting in your "wish thread".

If Festool is releasing a Li-Po or Li-Ion battery based C12 - or the likes of it - it would win me over for sure.

Like Eiji F I am using my Makita on a daily basis and find their performance impressive. Time for Festool to get innovative on the driver market. Many of the Festool owners I have come across love their Festools but use other impact drivers because there simply are better alternatives, and yes - I have used Festool drivers.

The ergonomics and compactness of the C12 has gotten my attention though so I am hoping for Festool to raise the bar and introduce faster charging batteries with less drain and LED guide light.  :)

In the mean time I got myself a pair of Makitas. One for home (sometimes sitting there for weeks - but always ready to kick into action) and one for work. All the gadgets available for the C12 is not worth switching for as long as the batteries are old hat. Said with all respect for Festool.
 
Ratwell,

Thanks for the question. Nothing has changed. Lithium Ion batteries will come, just not for the C12.

Regards,

Christian
 
something to ponder about lithium batterys
as this topic has popped up again and I just read a advertisement from one of the "other" brands claiming that their lithium cordless tool batterys can sit on the shelf charged for 18 yes 18 months and be used without having to recharge it first. wow! but the real question is why would you buy a tool to sit for 18 months without use?  give me nicads and I'll charge them when they need it. I have found them better for heavy load ,constant use applications. 
 
Bill; it is a valid question indeed - I for one would not have any battery tool idle for a year (maybe there is the odd gadget in the tool, come to think of it...) but still; I have a spare impact driver at home and it doesn't see as much use as my every-day-working driver and it was a welcome relief when I was fitting a new security door under a tight schedule to know that the driver was up for the task without me having to sip a coffee for the better part of an hour waiting for the tool to charge.

Also, on a particular jobsite I am currently in doing window restoration on site I can go two weeks without using the driver more than maybe two times a day. Then there comes a day when I am mounting forty-fifty iron brackets, predrilling five holes per bracket and then fitting the brackets with few screws each, totalling over two hundred plus two hundred operations in one day. That is when it is real nice to know that when the battery depletes there is an extra battery - that might have been idle for six or seven weeks in that cold container - that will refreshen my driver instantly.

As we have had problems with tools "gone astray" on the jobsites over here I keep the chargers separate from the handtools which means I have two batterys in the Systainer. 

I heard from my Festool rep over here that something was in the pipe and I was hoping it would be an updated C12 but I guess I will have to wait some more.

:'(
 
WATTSPD said:
Li-poly batteries are very unstable.
Click to expand...

Hi,

        What is a Li-poly battery (Lithium Ion?) ?  Also what do you mean by unstable  (won't hold a charge, explode,etc) ?

Seth
 
Lithium-Ion batteries are different to Lithium-Ion-Polymer batteries.

See this page in Wikipedia.

An interesting point to note (and something that I didn't know myself unti 5 mins ago) is the nominal cell voltage. The cell voltage of Ni-Cads is 1.2V, meaning you can have packs of 6V (5 cells), 7.2V (6 cells), 12V (10 cells) etc., but for lithium-ion it's 3.6V, meaning that a battery pack can only have a voltage of a multiple of 3.6V. This means that it's not possible to have a 12V Li-Ion battery pack - only 10.8V or 14.4V.

That rules out the possibility of having Li-Ion packs which are backwards-compatible with any of the existing drills....
 
jonny round boy said:
Lithium-Ion batteries are different to Lithium-Ion-Polymer batteries.

See this page in Wikipedia.

An interesting point to note (and something that I didn't know myself unti 5 mins ago) is the nominal cell voltage. The cell voltage of Ni-Cads is 1.2V, meaning you can have packs of 6V (5 cells), 7.2V (6 cells), 12V (10 cells) etc., but for lithium-ion it's 3.6V, meaning that a battery pack can only have a voltage of a multiple of 3.6V. This means that it's not possible to have a 12V Li-Ion battery pack - only 10.8V or 14.4V.

That rules out the possibility of having Li-Ion packs which are backwards-compatible with any of the existing drills....
Click to expand...

      14.4v would work out. Assuming the company had made 14.4 tools ( like DW ). But if I have Li Ion I don't think I would care about backwards compatibility much anyway.

            BTW, JRB-  is Wallace out getting more cheese?

Seth

 
I'd LOVE to see a Festool Impact driver, Li-Ion or otherwise. Right now I'm using the Makita 18v LXT impact, and I just adore it! It has plenty of power (enought to driver lag screws, or pop the lug-nuts off of my truck), but the body is still small enough to fit into my Occidental tool belt. I've made more than one trip around a house looking for it, only to find it safely nestled in my tool pouch! I couldn't be more impressed with Festool's Centrotec system with all of the chucks, but I am going to bide my time for another year or two for two reasons. First, my LXT kit is still running very strong after two solid years of day-in day-out use, and because I'm waiting to see if Festool releases either an impact driver, or some sort of hybrid driver like Makita or Panasonic. Li-Ion batteries are VERY nice, particularly with lower draw tools such as drills and impacts (circ and recip saws can ruin a Li-Ion battery in a hurry if used incorrectly), but if Festool were to release an impact driver or hybrid driver I probably wouldn't care what kind of battery it utilized.....
 
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