Cordless sawsall

[SBLGFD]

Looking for feed back / input on a 24 volt DeWalt V/S 18 volt Makita cordless sawsalls. Currently running 24 volt DeWalts and have had battery life issues - both in run time and over all shelf life. Considering the Makita with a Lithium Ion battery. Looking for good / bad and the indifferent

[jonnyirons2]

li-on batteries arent really that good for high demand deep drawing currents. They weigh nothing, but they just dont have the ability to give the current you need for an electric motor that generates torque instantly. We have 18v ones at work and they work fine, we basically use it for projects around the Firehouse, and for cutting cars apart.

[Halligan84]

Vol house uses 24V DW not too many problems. We have the adapters to convert them to 120V so they tend to get swapped over for anything long and drawn out. Just got a 36V DW at work, not much chance to play with it yet, I believe that is LI.

[Mihlrad]

we have two 24v dewalts on our rescue truck. I believe we have 4 batteries for it in total. The second of the two has the adapter for corded on it, so like someone else said for drawn out things, we get it hooked up to the truck.

[fire0099881]

we have a 18volt I believe it is milwaukee sawzall, it works good except the same as you guy's have a problem with the batteries not lasting too long, if I know that I am gonna have to use it for a long time i break out the corded one, also make sure you keep a lot of blades on hand!

[backsteprescue123]

We have a 24v Dewalt on our ALS engine and there have been no problems as far as I know. There is always at least one battery on the charger in the truck and there should always be at least one fully charged ready to go.

We've also got a corded Milwaukee on our Rescue Engine. At all accidents or rescues both trucks will be there.

[numbir39]

We have 4 Dewalt 24volt Sawzalls in our department. the saws are great and hold up well. However, the batteries tend to die quickly during heavy cutting, and they tend to die completely after a few months. We always have the 24v-120v adapter handy, that is a must have. For anything extended, I prefer the Milwaukee corded sawzall, it just doesn't stop for anything . I hope this helps!

[donk7267]

We have a Dewalt 24v Cordless Saw. Like everyone else's problem, they have horrible battery life so we have 4 batteries fully charged on the truck with the saw so we can change them out at any time.

[nmfire]

Our battery powered 24v DeWalt can cut circles around our corded Milwaukee. We keep two batteries and the 120v adapter ready to rock on them.

[callaway75]

I have owned a cordless sawzall, drill, and circular saw by Dewalt, and the batteries died in a little over a year, thought it was just bad luck until I spoke to others with the same problem. I switched to Ridgid brand cordless tools a couple of years ago, mainly because they offered lifetime battery replacement warranty. I have found them to be excellent tools, and the batteries have not lost any life. Same power as Dewalt, and with that kind of warranty, why not try them out?

[djgilbert32]

I've used the Dewalt, Milwaukee and the Rigid, all batteries will lose charge without being in use, if you don't use the tools all the time even having a battery that has been fully charged and removed and place with the tool it may not be fully charged when ready to use, but if you leave them on charge all the time then you lose battery life and capacity. I know the new Milwaukee Lithium Ion batteries, the charger for them you can leave the batteries on them and the will charge every so often, not sure with the other brands. For the durability I like the Milwaukee and DeWalt, I haven't had my Rigid set very long, but did get that because lifetime on batteries, parts and service, and they had a deal I couldn't pass up.

[doughesson]

My old department's DeWalt's were used like this:While the extrication team uses the battery to start the cutting on the wreck,another firefighter is laying out the extension cord reel and plugging in the adapter unit.When that is done,the extrication troops stop,remove the battery and use the adapter to keep the saw from running out of juice.The batteries are not used for more than a couple minutes of the job.
Sound familiar?It's similar to using the water tank to make the initial attack while waiting for a hydrant to be tapped.

[firefighter1962]

I tried cutting a windshield with a cordless sawzall at a practice once. The battery died, and we replaced it with one that was in the charger. It died as well. Threw that cordless POS in the sump. I'll take a corded 11.5 amp saw even with a 10 mile cord on it any day.

Stay Safe

[hwoods]

And...........

We use DeWalt. After all, their stuff IS Yellow and Black.... (To see why... www.gdvfd18.com ) We have all 18V Sawzalls, Drills, Etc. With the First Battery on a Saw, Second One ready to go, and the Third One in the Charger, we have things pretty well covered. Sawzall total is 5 Battery and 4 Cord. And there are the Skilsaws, Chain Saws, Vent Saws, K12s, etc. Adding up every Saw in the Department, there's probably about 26 Power Saws of one type or another..... Most of the Gas powered stuff is Stihl, with a few Husquvarnas.

BUT, while we're discussing Sawzalls..... How does everyone else carry theirs?? Ours are hanging in brackets, blade on, battery on, just pick it up, turn safety off, and cut. Any thoughts on whether carrying them in the case is good or bad?

[MattyJ]

We're getting word that DeWalt will be discontinueing the 24 Volt products. Our job is supposedly stock piling batteries so we can go a few more years after they do discontinue them.