# Dewalt Flexvolt - Worth it going cordless?



## MattK (Apr 2, 2009)

I'm looking to find out if guys are using this line as an alternative to a generator. I would say I'm going through 15 gallons of gas running my Generac GP5500 and Rolair gas compressor 5-6 days a week. Some weeks, I'm up to 4 cans(20 gallons). 

If you assume purchasing the Flexvolt battery table saw and miter box at a cost of around $1200. And an additional cost of say $1800 on their grinder, circular saws(2), sawzalls(2), flush saw, etc. you'd be around $3,000 to get started and many of the Flexvolt tools have the option of purchasing bare, with one battery or with 2 batteries.

Ok, so in RI the current gas cost is $2.35 per gallon. Assuming this would stay the same and assuming of my average gas consumption of $35/ per week, I'm going to allocate $25 to the generator as my Rolair is far more efficient. Basing this on $3,000 worth of tools, this would take me 120 weeks or a little over 2 years to break even through the tool savings. 

Now on my jobs, 75% of them we don't have access to power. There aren't too many guys that set up temp power on single family homes. Occasionally, you'll see the tripod in between buildings in a condo development but you're usually running cords 150' to get to the house. Most of the time the lag on tool operation is too significant to bother. 

This may not work for everyone, some of you probably do 100% of your jobs on powered homes/sites but for some of the exterior trades guys, I could see this being a big help. I thought about it because a framer I know runs a 3 man crew(with a Lull) off Milwaukee batteried tools. He has about 3 of everything and doesn't use the table and miter box. He has accumulated about 25 batteries and says on average, they'll go through 5-6 batteries per day. Now I think Milwaukee batteries go up to 9.0 mAh but the Flexvolt are stronger than the standard Dewalt 20V also. 

I guess to wrap this up I'd ask, do any of you run off battery? Is it worth it? Do you think I'm off base trying to cut the generator out of the daily rotation? If you were going to switch to cordless, would the Flexvolt be the brand of choice? I'm leaning towards them because we need a miter box and table saw on site and I currently own some 20V tools/radios that from what I've read will all still operate with the 20/60V batteries.


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## sparehair (Nov 21, 2008)

MattK said:


> I'm looking to find out if guys are using this line as an alternative to a generator. I would say I'm going through 15 gallons of gas running my Generac GP5500 and Rolair gas compressor 5-6 days a week. Some weeks, I'm up to 4 cans(20 gallons).
> 
> If you assume purchasing the Flexvolt battery table saw and miter box at a cost of around $1200. And an additional cost of say $1800 on their grinder, circular saws(2), sawzalls(2), flush saw, etc. you'd be around $3,000 to get started and many of the Flexvolt tools have the option of purchasing bare, with one battery or with 2 batteries.
> 
> ...


Dont forget the daily cost of rolling out and rolling up hoses and the cost of your time at the gas station. Maybe two hours per week. Popping batteries in a charger is much faster then buying fuel, filling a tank, rolling out power and connecting to all your tools.


If your time is worth 75 an hour and you have the capacity to work as much as you want then the savings might be more like 150 or 200 a week. Times 50 weeks or about 10k.



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## sparehair (Nov 21, 2008)

Couple more thoughts.

The head of exxon is our secretary of state. You better believe he is working to increase the price of oil.

The giant batteries get pushed at the top of the market cycle.

If we get raising interest rates and a massive increase in energy prices concurrently housing will STOP.

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## MattK (Apr 2, 2009)

sparehair said:


> Dont forget the daily cost of rolling out and rolling up hoses and the cost of your time at the gas station. Maybe two hours per week. Popping batteries in a charger is much faster then buying fuel, filling a tank, rolling out power and connecting to all your tools.
> 
> 
> If your time is worth 75 an hour and you have the capacity to work as much as you want then the savings might be more like 150 or 200 a week. Times 50 weeks or about 10k.
> ...


Great point. Additionally, some sort of setup could be mounted on a piece of plywood, housing all the chargers plugged into a gang type plug and I could run a 15' cord right to the plug on my tailgate. I used to do that for the block heater in my diesel. I set it up with a timer to warm the truck from 3:30 to 6am so I'm not wasting house Kwh. The same could be done to run for 60-90 mins and then shut off.


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## MattK (Apr 2, 2009)

There is also a DeWalt portable power station as well. It runs off 4 batteries and can charge them when plugged in. The reviews on Amazon and other tool sites are positive but at almost $400, I don't think I'd buy it with the initial purchase. 

https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DCB18...UTF8&qid=1492788659&sr=1-17&keywords=flexvolt


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

MattK said:


> There is also a DeWalt portable power station as well. It runs off 4 batteries and can charge them when plugged in. The reviews on Amazon and other tool sites are positive but at almost $400, I don't think I'd buy it with the initial purchase.
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DCB18...UTF8&qid=1492788659&sr=1-17&keywords=flexvolt


That thing is so tempting.


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## SearchforSignal (Aug 30, 2016)

I'm a one man show as far as my business goes so take this for what it's worth. 
I operate complete on battery. I have a van that has an inverter to charge everything but I don't rely on any gas engine or air compressor for my work. Granted I'm a low voltage guy that doesn't use his nailer every day or circular saw every day but I do use them. I rebuilt a shed not to long ago and all I had to do was bring the tools to the location and get to work. Obviously I brought the materials as well. I can NOT stand extention cords or air lines. Now has everything paid for itself vs the corded versions? I don't think so. But they will and the quality of life that they bring in the work day is well worth the money in my opinion.


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## Warren (Feb 19, 2005)

We have done many one day jobs with a crew of 4 completely cordless. That being said, the demands of a framing crew would be much more intense. The weather plays into this as well. Not to mention, batteries wear out, so you need to figure that into the cost, as well as the power usage needed to charge them. I would think you would need at least 3 or 4 batteries per man working. Even then, a pneumatic gun is lighter and can be fired faster. As for stinging out cords, I think thats a wash compared to the time doing 4 battery swaps per day. They never seem to run out unless you are 50 feet away from a fresh one.


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## Golden view (Feb 16, 2012)

I'd say the cost of charging batteries can be rounded to about $1 a week. But them wearing out might be more measurable.


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## SearchforSignal (Aug 30, 2016)

Ive had zero issues with my batteries thus far. My oldest being maybe 4 years old. I usually sell or trade in old tools to recoup costs. Local store offers $100 off with old tool trade in once a year, so I usually upgrade then!


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## rjf builder (Dec 20, 2016)

I'm a one man show and run flexvolt stuff every day. I use the table saw and skilsaw. I didn't opt for the chopsaw because of its size. Instead I bought the 7 1/4 chopsaw with a flexvolt battery to save weight. With those 3 tools each having a battery I keep a 4th on a charger and am usually fine unless I am doing a lot of ripping I may get out a 5th battery. I also have the grinder which is great as well.
I also use the dewalt framer which I'm pretty happy with although it takes a little getting used to.
As for pricing I always wait till there is a free battery deal going with the flexvolt stuff since it's so expensive.
Hope that helps.


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## MattK (Apr 2, 2009)

When thinking about the cost savings, I never considered replacing the Rolair compressor as part of this equation. We do enough wood siding and roofs that battery versions would never keep up with those guns, assuming they even make them. 

Now, if we were framing a small addition, I think we could test using a smaller, corded compressor plugged into that 4 battery box or using the battery framing guns by Dewalt.

I'm not sure how fast the batteries will hold their life. I've had so many sets over the years, it's hard to put a gauge on how long until they're no longer viable but I'd guess it'd be 4-5 years with intermittent use and maybe 2 with non-stop use.


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## Warren (Feb 19, 2005)

MattK said:


> When thinking about the cost savings, I never considered replacing the Rolair compressor as part of this equation. We do enough wood siding and roofs that battery versions would never keep up with those guns, assuming they even make them.
> 
> Now, if we were framing a small addition, I think we could test using a smaller, corded compressor plugged into that 4 battery box or using the battery framing guns by Dewalt.
> 
> I'm not sure how fast the batteries will hold their life. I've had so many sets over the years, it's hard to put a gauge on how long until they're no longer viable but I'd guess it'd be 4-5 years with intermittent use and maybe 2 with non-stop use.


We have two of the Dewalt framers, and use them quite a bit. I recall on a small addition working with another guy all day cordless building walls. The batteries last quite a while in the guns. I heard a review on another forum about the power box, and it seems it wouldn't last a whole day fully loaded running a compressor. 

While my Flex volt batteries are newer, I have had 20v stuff for almost 3 years now. In that time, I have one battery out of maybe 7 or 8 that died. Ours are rotated pretty well, and usually charged at home and not on site. 

I do really love the 60v saw. It is powered much like a corded. Ripping is great, but the thin blade it comes with is crap. If it is just me, two batteries will get me through most of a typical day. I looked at the 60v sawzall, but it feels just too big and bulky, so I will likely stick with the 20v and occasionally put the bigger batteries on it.


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## RobertCDF (Aug 18, 2005)

We're almost 100% cordless, most projects run 95% cordless and some run 99% (haven't found a cordless jackhammer yet). I've got a mixture of brands, no flexvolt yet but some 20v dewalt and the rest is mostly Makita.


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

The only thing I still carry a generator for is my big drill, but I'm getting out of doing CVAC anyway and haven't busted out the generator in almost a year. Rough-ins are pretty much all cordless now, I still have my multimaster which isn't cordless but I will replace it eventually with a 20V DeWalt.


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## RobertCDF (Aug 18, 2005)

I should also note that we have power available at 100% of our jobsites, cordless is just far more convenient.


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## Golden view (Feb 16, 2012)

Before I moved where everything is easy, I built in Alaska with generators and gas compressors. I've contemplated this issue and wondered if you could have success with something like this:

6000/12000W inverter: $500
100A battery charger: $300
Honda 1000w inverter generator that burns 3-5 gallons a week: $800
Large lead-acid battery with 800CCA: $200

I know from looking at new home meters that framing, roofing and siding a house takes less than 1KWH per 100sf of house. So on average the generator would barely be idling. You could run an electric compressor, the site would generally be quieter, and you'd save $30 a week or more on gas.

On the other hand, keeping things simple is best.

If I had to do it over with what's available today, I think I'd stick with gas compressor, 1000 watt generator, and about 3 9.0 batteries per man.


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## RobertCDF (Aug 18, 2005)

Could build up a battery bank (6v golf cart batteries), inverters, and a bunch of solar panels on the roof of a trailer to give you "free" power.


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## SearchforSignal (Aug 30, 2016)

RobertCDF said:


> Could build up a battery bank (6v golf cart batteries), inverters, and a bunch of solar panels on the roof of a trailer to give you "free" power.


I'm going to buy a trailer in the near future and this is my plan. Plug in or charging and solar panels as back up


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## MattK (Apr 2, 2009)

SearchforSignal said:


> I'm going to buy a trailer in the near future and this is my plan. Plug in or charging and solar panels as back up


I have a buddy who has been talking about going solar for a few years now. Here's a link to some of their products. Before I ever bought a system, I'd want to know if they charge a 9.0mAh battery in minutes or days. 

http://www.goalzero.com/


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