It’s official – Dewalt announced today that their 18V NiCad cordless power tool system will be discontinued, and they expect for remaining NiCad batteries to be phased out by March 2022.
Dewalt also notes that their 18V XRP Li-ion battery (DC9180) has already been discontinued. ALL other batteries compatible with 18V XRP tools have already been discontinued.
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Once the Dewalt NiCad batteries sell out, users can still operate most Dewalt 18V tools with their 18V to 20V Max adapter. This adapter is compatible with Dewalt 20V Max batteries up to 5.0Ah.
The adapter is not compatible with FlexVolt batteries or 20V Max batteries 6.0Ah or higher in charge capacity, and it should not be used in DC970 or DC759 cordless drills. The adapter cannot be used with 18V chargers; you’ll need to use it with a compatible 20V Max battery and a 20V Max charger.
Dewalt launched their 20V Max platform in mid-2011. According to Dewalt, they have since grown their 20V Max cordless power tool system to include more than 250 tools (as of the time of this posting).
It does not come as a shock that Dewalt has finally discontinued their 18V NiCad system, as this was always bound to happen. When Dewalt first launched their 20V Max platform, they emphasized that they wouldn’t be phasing out the system anytime soon. Indeed, it has been a little more than 10 years since they said this, and 6 years since they launched their 18V to 20V Max battery adapter.
Although Dewalt expects their inventory of replacement batteries to last until March 2022, their supply is dependent on customer demand and can change. In other words, everything is set in motion and once they run out of 18V NiCad batteries, they’re not making any more.
This marks the end of an era.
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Albert
I still remember my Dewalt DW972 12V drill that I paid $200 for at Home Depot, the most I paid for any tool thus far in 1998. It let me work in a whole new way, without having to run an extension cord and look for an outlet. I’ve bought so much since then, but still remember my first.
Steve
25 years, that’s a quarter century, that’s pretty good for a battery platform.
I have a feeling 20V is going to be their standard for even longer as it evolves and crosses over with their other voltage platforms. I have a feeling it will be this way with other manufacturers too, not just Dewalt. They all have humongous lineups and gigantic user bases now. The voltage is enough for most anything and the battery packs are right sized. As higher capacity battery cells come on line you will see the high Ah batteries get more compact. But this is all just a guess at what the future may hold, no one knows.
Roger
FINALLY! They should have discontinued the form factor 5 years ago. Batteries (normally) go bad faster than tools. So when they came out with the 18/20 adapter, the 18v ff should have been canned. Aftermarket could have filled the gap while they concentrated on promoting the 20v form factor via adapter. I’m assuming they were scared users would have switched companies. It is also possible some kind of contract limitations. Maybe they had manufacturing reallocation issues. Whatever the case, they should have been doing the phasing out a long time ago.
Sure, Flexvolt isn’t intended for 18V use. However, it hardly matters when the push should have been use on the 20V line. The adapter is also designed to deter FV use on 18v. Some decisions just take too long to happen.
MM
The push was on the 20V line. They discontinued most of the 18V line long before they discontinued the batteries.
I suspect part of the reason why the 18V batts hung on as long as they did is because of large corporate customers who had the older Dewalt tools written into their operating procedures or QC. Sure the job may have easily been doable with the 20V version of the tool or even a different brand, but updating the paperwork isn’t so easy compared to just buying another battery. I know this sounds silly but I have dealt with it at multiple companies. I have also encountered situations where there is no money in the budget for “new equipment” while there is money in the budget for “parts and accessories”. I’m sure there were large corporate and government customers doing exactly that: they had piles of 18V tools, they needed batteries, but due to red tape or accounting gotchas or whatever else they found it easier to keep buying more 18V batts than to upgrade to Li Ion.
Scott
I’ve had the 18v tools for over a decade. As a home owner, I don’t use them that much so I’ve never had to replace a battery. I’m glad that there is at least an adapter I can use with the new batteries. I plan on keeping the old tools forever!
MichaelHammer
There’s always third party batteries when DeWalt batteries are no longer available. Hit or miss quality-wise, but still a viable option. I suppose you’re right that it’s the end of an era, but for me that era ended in 2005 when Makita came with their LXT system. Li ion changed everything instantly. Makita was way ahead of the curve back then. I remember ordering the the kit online before it was even available in most US markets. That impact driver changed the industry.
Jared
That went on for a LONG time. Good grief – who was still buying new 18v tools?
I can’t imagine it was regular retail customers. Maybe some specialized factory or something where they spec’d a certain tool for a specific task years ago?
MM
That’s my guess. Most homeowners or contractors or other small scale users would have long since upgraded. But imagine if a company like Boeing or Ford happend to be using the 18V line. They may have thousands of those tools in use, and those tools have already been vetted through the company’s safety procedures, etc. Switching to new tools would not only be a large up-front expense but also a change in procedures, paperwork, etc.
A good friend of mine used to work for Hewlett Packard, specifically in their computer printer division. I asked him why the build quality and durabilty of desktop printers seemed to be dropping as time went on. Surprisingly he had the answer straight away: they didn’t really care about the average Joe or even small business users. But they really wanted to sell printers to big corporations, state agencies, schools, etc. And those big customers found it easier to budget for buying a new cheap printer every year as opposed to buying more costly better quality printers once every several years even though the multiple-cheaper-printers option cost more money in the long run. I’m sure there are companies who were happy to keep buying new 18v batts over and over again even if it was a better idea to transition to Li-Ion for that reason.
Micah Tice
Really? I still have my first 12v model and an 18v model. Both work. Why on earth would I want to toss a perfectly good tool because of a battery. In fact, I went on ebay a couple of months ago to buy a used saber saw because I’ll be d****d if I’m buying yet another battery system. They’re as bad a Nikon.
Doresoom
NASA still uses an 18V DeWalt DCD940 drill and impact driver onboard the ISS. They better buy some spare batteries, or get to work flight qualifying something else!
Stuart
I wonder – would NASA approval differentiate between batteries that roll off the production line and those made with stockpiled housings and off-the-shelf NiCad batteries (assuming they still exist)? I suppose that while functionally equivalent, manual vs. automated battery pack construction might require separate vetting.
Terrance Walleser
Sadly the lithium battery’s are worthless in cold weather. The 18 ni cad worked fine even though it didn’t run as long
Stuart
Modern Li-ion batteries are far more cold-tolerant than earlier generation batteries from 10+ years ago.
Adabhael
That’s interesting. Got me thinking about NASA being an extreme case of needing to balance conflicting demands for space/weight/energy density against volatility/flammability. Turned up this neat article about exactly that:
https://www.nasa.gov/offices/nesc/articles/li-ion-batteries
TL:DR: NASA sciences the s**t out of Li-ion batteries.
Doresoom
LOL, the entire time I worked for NASA they were in the process of upgrading the ISS batteries from nickel hydrogen to lithium ion. It took 14 EVAs to finally finish it: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/spacewalkers-complete-multi-year-effort-to-upgrade-space-station-batteries
Raycr
They are very adverse to fires since the Apollo disaster. I guess they did not want lithium up there. NASA also uses silver batteries like your car key fob.
They can afford the $20 something an ounce silver.
Scott
Its not buying NEW tools. It’s keeping the old ones. I want to accumulate tools over a lifetime.
Plain grainy
I wonder if a Lithium shortage could spawn a return to Nicad. Chile has the Lithium mines, and with the autos going electric, supply might be pinched.
Jared
We’d have to be pretty desperate to go back to Ni-Cd tools. 😛
If that happened I think you would just get price increases first.
Kevin
Lithium is pretty abundant, but the problem is the lack of efficiency when mining it. A considerable amount of lithium is lost in the mining process, and it takes time to purify. NiCad will never come back though, it’s all about solid state batteries. They’re superior to lithium in every way, however, still not cost viable to introduce to the consumer market. The technology is already there, it’s just not cost justifiable for anyone to switch when all the infrastructure for lithium and lithium alloy batteries is already largely in place. And they’re still developing the mining tech to increase output. Lithium will be here for a long time, but there’s already better stuff out there already being used for high integrity applications. We the consumer just won’t get it for a crazy long time.
Brian Quinn
If Dewalt is not going to make more 18V Lion batteries they will lose me for good. I have 2 of those batteries and they make the tools better than they ever were.
All my subsequent tools have been Ryobi. Their 18V lion hand held compressor, pole saw, leaf vac etc have fit my home owner needs when dewalt didn’t offer anthing comparable.
I always try to buy American. Especially CT based products. If they were going to abandon 18V, they should have stopped making the tools yet kept making lion batteries for another decade after the last tool was sold.
Companies like Motorola Cell phones and Dewalt tools who get you to buy in to an ecosystem and then once you buy up all the compatible accessories, pull the plug……….. Those companies lose loyal customers like me forever. Its bad when even the Chinese have more loyal behavior than the Americans.
Jared
Really? 🤨 I don’t understand your gripe at all.
Dewalt kept this going for years. They pretty much did what you suggested, continuing to make 18v packs available for a decade after the switch to Li-on. They also came out with an adapter so 18v Ni-Cd users could use the new Li-on batteries.
Despite that, it sounds like Dewalt lost you as a customer to Ryobi quite some time ago. Especially if your last Dewalt purchases were 18v tools.
MM
I think it’s amazing how long Dewalt has kept the 18V line supported with batteries as long as they have. It has been many years since Ni-Cd power tools have been obsolete. Other than Ryobi which is not on the same quality or performance level, no other tool company supported their old Ni-Cd line anywhere near as long as Dewalt. If you had old Milwaukee, Bosch, Makita, Porter-Cable, etc, tools you lost OEM battery support years before.
Steven B
Come on, dude! If your 18v tools are still holding up, then use the adapter or buy up some batteries now. Probably a 3rd party vendor still makes them after March. If you’re a tradesman, you’ve probably had to replace the drill by now. DeWalt did a great job supporting the platform. I am very impressed.
Try using a 10 year old iPad or iPhone. Try buying parts for a 10 year old laptop. It’s not unheard of, but the 20V platform is far superior and they’ve done a great job supporting existing customers, IMHO.
I’d rather see SBD focus on bringing out new products…like GOOD storage options that compete with Packout, than supporting legacy tools.
Also, if Ryobi works for you, great. I own a few ryobi and a LOT of DeWalt. Ryobi is junk. My neighbor buys Ryobi as well. Between us, half the tools we bought were broken RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX. Every DeWalt tool I’ve ever purchased still works perfectly. Every Ryobi I’ve owned failed or had to have major repairs. They’re not even that much cheaper. I own a Ryobi lawnmower because they’re the only ones making 12″ lawnmowers and I have a tiny yard and little storage space. I considered buying their leaf blower. I picked it up in the store, picked up the Dewalt…definitely the Ryobi was not an option. I could feel it flex as I moved it around. The DeWalt was lighter, more solidly built, higher quality, and had better specs….was pretty much the same price,apples to apples.
DeWalt is literally my favorite company, over any tech company or tool company. Why?…reasons like this. They support old tools and most of all, you can blindly trust them. You can buy DeWalt and be guaranteed you’ll fine. You’ll get a good value for the money and have something that holds up and lasts. Each DeWalt tool may not be the VERY best made, but it is easily in top 5, for everything they’ve ever made, from what I can tell.
Dean DeCoursey
I’ll never buy another DeWalt product. I have a 20 year old DeWalt disk sander that they rebuilt with a 30 day warranty. After 1 week, it quit working. I took it back in to the service store and they told me tough luck. They would not honor their warranty. That was 5 years ago and I haven’t bought a DeWalt product since
Kent Skinner
Agreed, and I’m really upset I can’t buy a new ’76 Toyota Corolla too.
Scott ALKB
This article is about discontinuing NiCad, not Lithium Ion.
fm2176
DeWalt detractors are going to cry foul regardless of what they do. Like most other brands, they decided to replace a dated battery technology and design with a system that continues to show flexibility and potential for future expansion. Let’s face it, when the 18v system was state-of-the-art batteries were limited to under 3Ah , required constant monitoring as to charge state and conditioning, and were large and clumsy compared to today’s offerings. Unlike most other brands, DeWalt worked a compromise that allowed 18v users to continue powering their tools using either new factory-made batteries or the DCA1820 adapter. To my knowledge, Milwaukee didn’t make the short-lived V18 platform backwards-compatible with their Ni-Cad system, nor is M18 compatible with V18. Yet, time and again, DeWalt takes the HEAT round for deciding to support an established user base, while other brands’ past transgressions often go unmentioned.
DeWalt markets itself as a brand for professionals, with a few notable entry-level cordless tools (mostly drill kits). Despite having served well in its day, the now-discontinued system is stagnant and largely obsolete. To me, it was a disservice to customers that the tool line was continued so long after its replacement was released. Lowe’s and Home Depot carried 18v kits until a few years ago, causing more than a few people to buy new $99 18v drill kits over their 20v Max cousins at the same price. Imagine finally getting an 18v DeWalt drill kit in 2017, only to find out that it was replaced by a far superior system 7-8 years earlier. Even the most basic of 20v Max drill kits (i.e. the DCD771C2) makes its 18v predecessors look archaic.
Ryobi is a great system for those unwilling or unable to pay more for “professional” brands, and their tactic of keeping the One+ platform going is great. I like the concept of buying a drill in 1996 and replacing its old worn-out Ni-Cad batteries with new Li-Ion batteries capable of 3+ times more runtime. With that said, however, Ryobi is not trying to some across as a cutting edge professional brand. Even their new compact batteries are noticeably larger than those produced by other brands. Ridgid, while using a slide-on design as opposed to a pod battery, is in a similar boat. They also use an older Ni-Cad battery housing design, which makes their batteries a bit larger than their higher tiered competition (really, who knows where Ridgid is supposed to fall in the tool hierarchy?).
The bottom line is that if you’re still pushing DeWalt 18v tools to their limits, it’s probably time for an upgrade to a lithium-ion system. If you have an old 18v drill somewhere and might need to replace the battery one day, spend the $100-$150 or so for the DCA1820 with 20v Max batteries and charger.
Kent Skinner
If they came out the 18/20v adapter when they launched the 20v line, I’d still be a customer. Sadly for them (and good for me in the long run) my 18v batteries needed replacements just as the 20v line was gaining traction.
I had the choice of buying more dead end batteries or moving to a new platform. I chose M18, because there was no reason to stick with DeWalt if I was replacing everything. I sold all my DeWalt stuff to a guy who had batteries and a few tools, and never looked back.
Hopefully, Makita 9v -> DeWalt 18v -> Milwaukee 12/18v will be the last leap I make.
MFC
Well done Dewalt. You didn’t drop those of us stuck in the 2001 and gave us plenty of time to transition to 20v or wherever we were headed. Hope Makita does the same.
Ecotek
I have a couple questions. 1st. How long has it been since Dewalt released any new tools for their 18V system? It seems like this system has been effectively dead for years, no? 2nd. Could they have simply loaded their existing stem battery form factor with lithium cells, as Ryobi did? And just running the same platform and made everybody happy? Just idle curiosity.
Stuart
They could have limped along for a little while longer, but they really needed a new 18V platform designed from the ground up with Li-ion in mind.
Ryobi looks to be the last holdout, but they also seem to command greater market share among their competitors, giving them little reason to change things anytime soon.
Back when I toured Dewalt’s factory and assembly facility in 2016, they still had a line for select core 18V tools.
Bob
DeWalt has been misleading consumers for years. I bought a new 18V Li-ion when it first came out and was surprised that the new battery wouldn’t fit in my old fluorescent light. When I went to my local DeWalt service center and inquired as to why, they told me that he light was not considered a “tool”. That light came in a 3 Tool combo kit, but what do I know, I guess they considered the bag or charger a “tool”. I immediately started looking for a replacement line.
I returned the newly bought tools and sold the rest to another tradesman for a great deal. I started buying Milwaukee’s new M18 series and have never looked back. Soon after that DeWalt put out a press release stating that the 18 volt system wasn’t going anywhere, that it would be around for a very long time. Then he next year the 20V* line came out.
I love how people here believe they are actually getting a 20 volt system from their 20V* line. It’s output under use is 18 volts, just like everyone else’s. Read the fine print. In Europe it’s called the 18V Max system. Gotta love our lack of truth in advertising here in the states.
Big Richard
Bob you are gonna lose it when I tell you this, but 12v tools aren’t really 12v either. Including Milwaukee’s M12 that is sold in Europe. They’re 10.8v. Shall we drag them too? Or is it only misleading when DeWalt does it?
Bob
It’s a little different if everyone is calling their tools 12 volt but they are all 10.8 volts. DeWalt purposely misled consumers by calling their redesigned 18 volt system 20 volts instead of 18 volts that all the competitors were using. If everyone else started calling their’s 20 volt, then I would have no problem with it.
Steve
Dewalt did not mislead customers with 20V Max, that is the Maximum Output of the battery after all, Nominal Output is 18V. Other brands call their tools 20V too (not just SBD brands). They called them 20V Max to make it easy to differentiate their old line of 18V Nominal tools from their new one so people wouldn’t confuse the two. In Europe they have stricter laws on that type of thing and the 18V NiCad platform wasn’t there preceeding it, so they used 18V there. Theoretically Milwaukee was more confusing with V18 and M18 and having no cross-compatibility between the two than anything Dewalt did.
Big Richard
Bob, you’re gonna lose it again when I tell you this, but not all brands call it 12v. HiKOKI and Makita, to name two bigger brands, still advertise as 10.8v. Don’t hate the messenger!
But Steve is right, DeWalt called it 20v MAX to differentiate between their 18v lineup that was still being sold in the US. I do not recall EVER seeing DeWalt advertise that their 20v MAX line had ~10% more voltage than other brand’s 18v systems, but I could be wrong.
All brands use sneaky marketing techniques, like the how many cuts their tool can perform kitted with a 5Ah battery vs. a competitor’s tool kitted with a 2Ah battery. That is misleading, The whole nominal vs. max voltage can be confusing to the uninformed, but I don’t see it as misleading if they are not advertising it as being superior.
MM
I think you nailed it with that last statement: it’s not misleading if they’re not claiming that it is superior. Personally I think it was a good idea to give it a different name because it makes it extremely clear that they are two different platforms and not to expect native battery cross-compatibility between the two.
JoeM
Had they put out the adapter at the same time they launched the original Brushed line of 20V Max tools, we could’ve had this band-aid ripped off quite some time ago. What is it? 15 years since launch for the All-Lithium lines? With the Adapter coming early, instead of the huge delay in its release, I don’t think anyone would gripe as much as they do now.
“Here’s our New Lineup! Better Ergonomics, Better Runtime, Lighter, More Efficient, Longer lasting Batteries!!!”
“Woah… Slow down there… I’ve got $20 grand invested in the 18 Volt line… You gonna make me invest another $20 Grand to switch over?”
The way they did it in reality: Their answer was “It’ll be a slow phase out… We’ll still make batteries, but… you have to know we’re not going to support it forever… Watch for options to upgrade as you can afford it!”
The way they Should have done it: “Oh, we’re releasing an adapter. Keep using your 18 Volt tools, the adapter will just mean you start buying new batteries. At most you’ll spend, what? $2 grand on adapters and batteries? And look! Same tools! Eventually the warranty will just not support the old system, but at least you will get the benefits of the new batteries while you work at replacing them. We’ve worked really hard to make the tools better, and easier for you to use, more ergonomic, lighter… So you can do the work you have to do without wrestling with the tools as much.”
Really… This should have happened a decade ago… Or however long it has been… I’m sorry, but the Pandemic has made me lose a lot of my sense of how much time has passed, so, my estimates are all over the place. I just know, even though I’m invested in the 20V Max Lineup… I do think DeWALT did things wrong by leaving the adapter so late in the release cycles. But, as of this moment, there is an adapter, and there are a plethora of batteries to choose from. There’s no excuse anymore, and I have no sympathy for those who have the old 18’s as their primaries. 18V or 18V XRP, doesn’t matter. Too many benefits to the new system over the old. There’s no turning back.
As to Lithium… Afghanistan has an untapped estimate of $2.7 Trillion worth of Lithium Ore… Untouched, undeveloped… To answer those Electric Car/NASA/Tool Battery inquiries… Basically imagine Afghanistan being the new OPEC… All new wealth, all new wars, over an all new finite resource. We’re still going to need Crude oil… Just not for fuel anymore. We’ll need it for Polymers and Greases, but not Fuels. Plus there’s the dream of the Hydrogen Fuel Cell, and the Graphine Electrolyte Self-Recharger battery… Plus NanoBatteries… Most of this is based on Carbon… So… A lot of waste products are going to be turned into a whole new kind of recycled material…
Rambling… sorry… Uh… yeah… Goodbye 18V series, you overstayed your welcome. The future awaits us all!
Raycr
News article just advised that China will use the Bagram airbase and will will partner with Afghanistan over rare earth minerals. Sad but true.
JoeM
Not to get too political, but there are far worse things to deal with there right now. I won’t even list them, lest Stuart put the anti-politics hammer into action on us.
Just know I understand what you mean, and I see things going badly anyways. I’m just hoping for the more advanced tech from the science sectors to get some serious development ASAP. Carbon and Electrolyte materials are incredibly natural, and renewable. If we can get those technologies up and running safely, we can avoid a lot of bad politics, and worse conflicts. Plus it would decentralize the production of these… for lack of a better term for the audience I’m writing for right now?… Living Power Cells… so it would extend the recyclability, reduce the cost universally, and allow pretty much any tool company to produce their batteries where their products are sold, creating jobs everywhere.
And if I go any further into details, I’m likely to cross the line to “Too Science Nerdy” or “Too Political” and I gotta avoid that. But I do understand where you’re going there.
Steven B
How do you even have 20k worth of 18v tools? I don’t think I could find that many tools sold by DeWalt on their 20v platform.
If you’re a home owner or hobbyist, I can’t imagine one person have that many tools. If you’re a business and own a fleet of them, wouldn’t you be replacing them every 10 years anyway?
JoeM
Just a number I pulled out of nowhere. Don’t worry about it. Not a realistic case scenario, just an extreme number to demonstrate the benefit DeWALT would have had, if the adapter was there at day 1 of the Lithium lineup.
Frankly, use whatever excuse you want… The discontinuation is about a decade later than it should have been. Plus, the tool bundles that came out for the original lineup were significantly cheaper than the equivalent/parallel 18V XRP bundles of the same tools. The people seriously complaining about having to replace their NiCD systems are just complaining for the sake of complaining at this point.
The end of the line has come. There was plenty of time to act before this. It’s no longer DeWALT’s responsibility, or any of ours to answer for them. Frankly, if DeWALT is losing that kind of user as a customer, good riddance. They had a decade to convert over, or prepare, and they didn’t have the sense to think ahead? That’s something I learned being a Computer Tech… PEBKAC. Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair. Nothing you can do to fix it. They are the ones doing harm to themselves, just back away.
Serendipity
The band-aid was slowly ripped off. Sometimes you just have to move on and realize corporations are in it for the money, if keeping nicad around was profitable they would keep it.
Technology moves on, things get updated. Kicking and screaming into a modern era is counterproductive. I still hear old, mostly, mechanics stating that carburators were better, all cars should come with bias plys. But they also think their 68 Camaro is better built than anything modern.
Robert
You mean they were still making those and people were intentionally buying them?!!!
JRod
As far as I’m concerned they sold their old school tool buyers out. Not only do you have to buy the adapter but new batteries and new battery charger as well. Total bullshit. Fortunately you can buy aftermarket 18 volt batteries. Plenty of people still have 18 volt tools.