It looks like Dewalt just announced a bunch of new cordless outdoor power tools.
After seeing lots of images and info on social media, I found a Dewalt corporate release. It says they’ll be featuring new “Dewalt 60V Max commercial line” tools at the Equip Expo trade show.
Here’s the full list of products:
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- Top Handle Chainsaws (DCCS674X2, DCCS673X1)
- Pole Saws (DCPS673Z1, DCPS675Z1)
- Pole Hedges (DCPH673Y1, DCPH675Y1)
- Edgers (DCED470Y2, DCED471Y2)
- String Trimmers (DCST980X2, DCST981B and DCST975Y2)
- Brush Cutters (DCBC580X2, DCBC581B)
- Brush Saw (DCBS681B)
What’s Dewalt “60V Max commercial”?
Powered by DEWALT’s industry-leading battery expertise, these commercial handheld products run on a single DEWALT 60V MAX battery platform – delivering breakthrough innovation, streamlined charging and productivity for professionals who demand performance.
60V Max – isn’t that just FlexVolt?
This just looks to be a FlexVolt expansion, which is welcome. Maybe someone can explain the “60V Max Commercial” part to me.
Dewalt’s pricing seems to be far higher than for comparable Milwaukee cordless outdoor power tools.
Frankly, I’d rather have the M18 Fuel version with FORGE tabless cell 8Ah or 12Ah batteries than a FlexVolt or “60V Max commercial” version at higher price with older battery tech.
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I tried to find more media info on these Dewalt tools, but all I found was the info quoted above and a press release about how some of the tools won “innovation awards.” You know how I feel about that – see Don’t Be Fooled by Tool “Awards”.
Taking a deeper look, I see there’s also a new 20V Max cordless blower.
And a hedge trimmer.
Here’s a smaller one. Dewalt says this 20V Max 8″ compact hedge trimmer kit delivers up to 38 minutes of runtime with the bundled 2Ah battery. Looking at the fine print, that’s 38 minutes measured with no load.
Stanley Black & Decker has had a Craftsman 8″ hedge trimmer (the full kit for $65 at Lowe’s at the time of this posting), and it’s good to see a compact Dewalt too. But why doesn’t the Dewalt have a brushless motor?
OldDominionDIYer
Wow the price of the 60V “brush cutter” is insane! Just need to look at your previous article on tariffs to see the stark difference in corporate strategy for tariff mitigation. This clearly exhibits the end result for the consumer though and it is not good.
Big Richard
It’s part of their new pro line of landscaping tools (trimmers, pole saws, etc.). They are expensive compared to homeowner grade tools, but on par with other professional landscaping brands like Stihl (which is who they are comparing a lot of the tools to).
MM
Yeah, it’s pricey compared to a home weedwhacker but it’s not out of line for larger pro tier outdoor equipment.
I have two brush cutters; both are gas Stihl. My FS240-R cost about $550 several years ago, and I paid nearly $1400 for my FS560. The FS240 is 1.7kw, I suspect that this Dewalt is probably in a similar performance class, it might even outperform it. Assuming these are well built I think the price is not unexpected.
Big Richard
They claim the trimmers/cutters have “18% more peak power than a 36CC gas model [Stihl FS 131]”.
That is a 1.9bhp model, or 1.4kW, so that would put these at around 1.65kW.
Big Richard
The Craftsman 8″ hedge trimmer also has a second grass cutter attachment, I didn’t see any mention of the DeWalt also including that. I will add that I have the Craftsman and do like it, but I’m imagining the DeWalt version will be almost twice as much for the bare tool ($119 is my guess).
OldDominionDIYer
Those small 8 inch hedge trimmers are super useful in my experience, it’s good to see DeWalt offering one in the near future. I have the Milwaukee 2533 brushless model and it’s light, and plenty powerful. It’s my wifes go-to hedge trimmer for most work she does. Hard to beat the convenience and capability of these little trimmers for quick touch ups and the like. Being an M12 Fuel ensures it has the very best tech and functionality. Milwaukee says the 4.0 Ah M12 battery lasts 35 minutes under “light trimming” whatever that means, so very comparable to the new 20V max DeWalt model.
Michael
I’ve had the Stihl version for a few years, but only because Dewalt didn’t make one!
Andy
I wonder if they removed the Flexvolt (20V or 60V max) capability and have a line of dedicated 60V batteries for this stuff, which would mean these batteries don’t have the ability to work at 20V.
Big Richard
Not at the moment, these all run on the standard Flexvolt 20v/60v batteries. There were rumors of a dedicated pouch 60v battery, back when PowerStack first came out, but I think that ended up becoming the PowerShift light equipment battery.
And I don’t see them doing that now, as Flexvolt’s backwards compatibility with 20v tools is one of its biggest strengths. A lack of backwards compatibility was a big part of why 40v failed when they tried making that a dedicated OPE line, while the nearly identical FlexVolt models flourished.
To your point, if you are a landscape crew running 100% 60v “commercial line” tools, you don’t need that backward compatibility. The added complexity and cost of Flexvolt batteries doesn’t help you any. A larger capacity, cheaper, dedicated 60v battery would have some appeal.
Andy
Good info, thanks!!
I agree that larger capacity 60V batteries would make sense for a lot of OPE-dedicated uses.
Champs
Feels like a transitional product addressing OPE mandates rather than a breakthrough. Hopefully “commercial” means that they’ll be supporting investment in the system for at least 20 years.
Nick
Seems pretty clear cut, I don’t know where the confusion lies. DeWalt has two voltage platforms for tools, 20v and 60v. They have 20v batteries, and they have flexvolt batteries that can run at either 20v or 60v. The tools themselves cannot change between voltages, therefore why would they be branded as “flexvolt”?
Stuart
Because it’s how they’ve always marketed the 60V Max tools, as FlexVolt.
Could also be a false memory. Looking around, I see other examples of 60V Max. But in this case, there’s not even any mention of FlexVolt batteries in the limited resources I’ve seen.
Either way, I’m not familiar with 60V Max all of a sudden being a “line of commercial tools.”
Nick
Ah gotcha. Doesn’t make sense for them to sell the tool as FLEXVOLT, odd that they used to do that. Maybe it was a way to communicate that these 60v tools work with FLEXVOLT batteries to avoid confusion. Seems to have made more confusion
curtinfarmer
Why did they abandon 40v, they were perfectly good.
Stuart
I think it’s because there was greater retail interest (e.g. at Home Depot) in FlexVolt. SBD also abandoned Craftsman V60.
curtinfarmer
At least my weed trimmer, hedge trimmer, and telescoping hedge trimmer are all still working perfectly and I did score a highly discounted 6amp battery on a home depot closeout maybe 2 years ago so should be good for another 5 years or so.