Nuked Ryobi and DeWalt are testing the waters with usb-c-c powered battery options. The batteries are some of the densest lithium-ion packs. But they rarely play nice with the kind of chargers and batteries that top up your laptop, phone and PC.
Ryobi is the first major manufacturer to stick a USB-C charging port on the battery itself. It lets you use the same charger to top up your power tool as you’d use on a laptop.
The 4v 2ah batteries are not compatible with existing tools. They’re not remotely powerful enough for the 18-20v power tools that dominate the market today. You’ll have to buy into a new’Ryobi USB lithium’ range of tools with roughly the power of a cordless Dremel.
Both Ryobi and DeWalt are also releasing snap-on USB-C adapters this spring. The USB-C adapters let you charge their 18V (Ryobi) and 20/60v (DeWalt) batteries with a USB-C cable.
Dewalt’s $ 99 20v Max USB charger/adapter will come with a bidirectional 100W port so you can charge its batteries at the highest speed USB can deliver.
Dewalt battery product manager Sean fitzgibbons says the kit works with literally any of the company’s 20v or flexvolt batteries. The kit can turn every one of the batteries into a 20-volt, 5 amp (100-watt) charger for your laptop laptop laptop.
The company’s 5ah dcb205 battery has a capacity of 100 watt-hours. The 1.4-pound pack is theoretically capable of filling the largest laptop batteries on the market.
A monster 15ah/300wh battery pack that could charge a 16-inch MacBook Pro three times over if not for transfer losses.
‘we designed right up to the threshold of what’s defined in that USB standard itself,’ says fitzgibbons.’it gives you a solution for an in-vehicle charger, now you’ve got your batteries charged on the way,’ he adds.
Only a handful of DeWalt’s chargers put 5 or more amps into a battery at once.’it can charge most batteries we have in about an hour,’ says DeWalt.
Dewalt’s shipping it with a 65W adapter, not a 100W one. You may need to provide your own charger for the fastest speeds.
The USB-C charging port is limited to 30W, less than a third of DeWalt’s. It also has a three-prong AC outlet, a built-in light and a pair of USB-A ports.
We do n’t want to create a situation where people already own a bunch of power tools and batteries.’there would be some cost to integrate that type of technology directly into a battery,’ says DeWalt.
