Festool USA has a new 18V phone charging adapter, PHC 18 (SKU 577155), that they describe as a clever adapter that transformers every Festool 18V battery pack* into a power bank.
* with the exception of 3.1Ah Ergo battery packs.
Basically, it works with Festool 18V cordless power tool batteries, but not the ones designed for their 18V hybrid-powered cordless sanders. Since Festool’s 18V and 18V Ergo batteries arevery different, I don’t think anyone expected the sander batteries to be compatible.
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The new Festool USB charging adapter has a lot going for it. To start off, it can serve as a wireless/inductive phone charger.
But, it’s not just a wireless phone charger, Festool’s adapter also has USB charging ports.
Festool PHC 18 Phone Charging Ports and Specs
- Inductive: Qi-BPP (5W), Qi-PPDE (9W)
- USB-A: 5V at 2.4A (12W max)
- USB-C: 5V at 3.0A (15W max)
Dimensions: 125 mm x 77.4 mm x 39 mm (4.9″ x 3.0″ x 1.5″)
As shown in the first image, all three charging ports/methods can be utilized at the same time. This means that you can simultaneously charge up to 3 different phones or devices via USB-A, USB-C, and inductively.
The top surface is rubberized, to ensure smartphones stay put during charging, and there’s also an on/off power button.
Festool says that when paired with a fully charged 18V 5.2Ah battery, the adapter can charge a mobile phone with 3000 mAh battery up to 8 times.
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Price: $49 (tool-only)
ETA: July 2022
Discussion
This is one of the rare types of products where I find the marketing to be spot-on; this does look to be a clever adapter!
Most cordless power tool brands have their own USB charging adapters. But, as far as I am aware, this is the first-ever battery adapter built with inductive charging.
Could the Festool adapter be more-featured? Absolutely. Could it be higher powered? Of course. But, as it is, wireless charging plus 2 types of USB ports seems fair for the adapter’s $49 price tag.
I think this is going to be extremely popular with Festool 18V cordless power tool users.
Jared
Surprisingly inexpensive. Not what I expected to say about Festool. This looks handy – I’d buy it if it was available for one of the platforms I use.
John Blair
Shockingly I thought the exact same thing.
Jim Felt
That’s exactly what I was thinking. And the USB-C is now and into the future. All the others I’ve seen (and own) are only USB-A and totally lack any inductance plate.
Maybe they’re not updated because they don’t sell very well? Chicken and the egg syndrome to everyone’s detriment?
Kilroy
Agreed.
If you already have the batteries (or will be getting into the battery platform for tools in the very near future), $50 isn’t much more than a basic power bank, most of which have less capacity and fewer features.
fred
Could be handy but not a must-have – and certainly would not convince me to buy into the Festool cordless platform. Like you – if this were either a Makita or Milwaukee add-on – the $49 would put it on my maybe wish list.
I do have both a Makita (ADP05) and 2 Milwaukee (2846-20) variants. The Milwaukee ones have been put to use at my summer place during some short power outages to power the cable modem and router at that place. This Festool – more like my Makita – would not be up to that – but I wouldn’t expect it to be so at its price point.
This all reminds me to test the generator at my principal residence – before hurricane season is upon us.
Dust
How many generators do you have?
fred
I only have the one Kohler (natural gas fired) at my principal residence. At our condo in Florida – they have a generator (I think it is diesel-engine powered) for the complex. I have thought about buying something like a small Honda for our summer place – but figure it might not be worth the hassle. When I think about how few times the Kohler has needed to start up, how short most of the outages have been and what it cost me to buy it – I’m pretty sure I have not hit a breakeven point. It is a bit like some other forms of insurance – where you may never collect on what you’ve laid out.
Mike
I don’t trust wireless charging much. Too often I put it on, think it’s charging only to find out it got bumped a mm to the left and now didn’t charge at all. If it’s in some sort of stand or holder then it’s cool.
Jim Felt
Never been an issue with my Apple chargers for this iPhone 13Pro even with its leather case. Plus while far slower both SUVs I drive work fine too.
Maybe off-roading would be different?
Munklepunk
Cheap or old chargers cause this. New ones are much more forgiving.
TomD
I’ve been using the chargers that look like this: https://www.amazon.com/Yootech-Wireless-Charger-Charging-Compatible/dp/B082XDGK8J (not this brand but there’s tons of basically these) and it works great for my iPhone through the case; which is good because the plug doesn’t work hardly at all anymore.
Yadda
I see all the platforms coming out with something similar within the next 12 months.
Kingsley
Disappointing not to be able to do PD (power delivery) for laptops and at more than 15w (PD can now do up to 200w)
Wireless would be useful on a building site though.
Stuart
Maybe, but could they have offered USB-C PD at the same price point?
I think more people will be interested in the wireless charging over USB-C PD that might mainly be used for charging laptops.
Adam
200w on paper. cables top at 100w right now. I think if they did 45/60w, that would be more that satisfactory for most people that have heavy use devices.
And then had they put a 110 outlet on it, that could have handled more power hungry laptops, but also then needed at least another model for overseas.
I totally see on a workshop or jobsite, wanting the wireless. Either gloves handling or extra dust to shove into the charge port, can be a nuisance.
In any case, each feature is great, but sort of ho-hum, in the power output. Beef it up, future proof the dang thing.
Nathan
so Festool doesn’t do any heated outer wear – like the others. Which I think is why they included the wireless charging. for some of the other companies their USB adapter is also their power point for their heated outer wear and putting wireless charging on that would be dangerous or at least highly useless.
it’s a neat idea and useful for some. I could see someone making a battery adaper to use this with some other battery. I like the new dewalt device that does do USB PD up to what 65 watts. I think it was.
Jack
Interesting to see, kinda nifty, but not overly thrilled with the inductive charging feature until some real world experiences are publicized. My experience has been the OEM products work well and the aftermarket products do not. For now, my Milwaukee power adapter works well enough via cable to recharge my devices. I suspect Milwaukee, Dewalt, Makita et al will release a comparable item in-time for Black Friday sales.
Wayne R.
This would be a salable package outside of the tool world, I think. Phone stores, Costcos, Best Buy, etc.
Jared
The design maybe – but I can’t imagine many non-tool people want to invest in the Festool battery platform. It would make more sense to cross pollinate with a “homeowner” battery platform like Ryobi, Craftsman, Hart, etc.
TomD
You can already buy battery packs for phones that are much more “slim” and I’m sure some exist with charging. This is a nice add-on for those already in the system, but I doubt many would buy it as their first tool.
Wayne R.
Yes, there are a bunch of battery banks out there, but I’ve not seen any with exchangeable battery, nor wireless charging (but I might’ve missed them).
This concept, sans Festool’s prices, would be pretty slick, I think. Two batteries, one “head”, keep a bunch of things charged while moving. Next day, swap that big battery, off you go.
Bonnie
Anker has a few power banks with wireless charging built-in. There’s no great need for the charger to be swappable given the capacity (10ah) and intended use of modern USB power banks.
JoeM
This thing makes me simultaneously Happy (Relieved?) as well as Angry.
Why Happy/Relieved? Festool actually released something new, different, and I may even say Superior to the DeWALT/Milwaukee equivalents. That’s right… You heard me correctly… I, the Festool Hater, put a high confidence and quality rating on a Festool release! Why? This is genuinely innovative, with great features, and yeah… For something that operates off a Tool Battery, that is smack dab in the bullseye range for pricing. Sure… the DeWALT and Milwaukee versions are less expensive, but not nearly enough to be angry at Festool about it. There is, after all, a Qi Charger on it.
The Angry: Qi has been using these standards since at least 2010, last I checked. (Note: Covid Lockdown for 2 years has rendered my capacity to estimate or perceive time extremely distorted. If someone has a correction to this date I’m giving, Please Do Inform me! I need more anchors in time to undo what Covid did!) so What has taken Festool so long to consider this?? How could it have been such a long development cycle to create a battery-powered charger like this, integrating 10 year old technology?? The DeWALT DCB090 and DCB091 USB chargers were originally a consequence of them entering the heated jacket/work gear market… so I get that theirs was simultaneously the prototype for everything to come, as well as barely a fluke that they were at all used. The 091, from the Heated Jackets, is especially a fluke, because it really doesn’t have enough structure to stay plugged onto the batteries as we need it to be. Hopefully the new one (DCB094? I think?) will have a tighter grip on the battery. And I don’t think I need to mention Milwaukee’s power block/brick… they probably looked at DeWALT’s fluke and said “Yeah, that’s cute and all, but we’ve got something to blow it out of the water!” But this is now years past all that… Qi, On-Battery USB devices… And hell, doesn’t either Bosch, or Makita, have In-Battery USB support? Is that Metabo/HPT? Ridgid? Nearly the entire pro level tool market has had these available for an astonishingly long time, in terms of release cycles. What was Festool waiting for? Where were they with this thing when Qi came out? It angers me that, yes, for the high prices they have on 100% of their products, with so few total products in their lineup, they have the audacity to demand we award them and congratulate them for being this late to the game on innovation? No. Joe Angry. Joe No Support Festool. Festool Bad Company.
…Okay… Took a breath… I think I’m calmer… But can anyone else see why this would be so frustrating for me? They do something truly innovative… but looking at the specs… aside from USB-C support, everything on this charger could have been released when DeWALT released the chargers for their Jackets. The DCB091 could have been made to look like a death knoll for the DeWALT heated gear, if Festool had released some version of this back then. This article right now? Could have been the USB-C and USB-C Power Line edition to the device… instead we’re just getting Version 1.0 of this… That is just… So Sad!
Stuart
You acknowledge that it’s innovative and attractively priced, but are angry that they didn’t come out with the product sooner?
“Festool Bad Company” is a bit unreasonable.
JoeM
That was just me being funny. I probably won’t buy it because of the simplest fact of all: I don’t have the Festool battery ecosystem, therefore, won’t likely buy this charger simply for its features.
Though, it does kinda miff me that the development cycle for all the old technology in this thing has been so extremely long. And, for once, it’s a Festool product with a price tag above the rest, but only at the top of what is perfectly reasonable for the product.
The rest was a spiral of anger that I had to end in a joke, or it would have been tragic. Trying to take the humour in this one, to counterballance the frustration. Maybe some people will read it and get a laugh out of that? I dunno… I try to be funny where I can be.
Robert
Some months back, I purchased a Skil 12v Pwrcore drill and impact set. It came with one battery and a charger. I payed the extra 30 bucks for another 2 AH battery. At the time, the entire thing cost me around 130 bucks total. May sound crazy, but I purchased it primarily because the batteries and charger all have USB ports. I wanted the batteries primarily for my IOS devices. For what it would’ve cost for the batteries and charger alone, I payed 30 bucks more and got the tools as well.
The tools are great, and the batteries have been exceptional. Even just for the occasional times I reach for the tools, the 30 extra bucks extra was a no brainer. The Chervon batteries are outstanding, charge quickly, and always provide the security of knowing that I have extra device power. That’s even if I’m away from an outlet. They’re also cheaper, smaller, and easier to carry than these. Can’t say enough good things about my experience with them.