A reader wrote in, saying that they “noticed as of today, Lowe’s is no longer listing Flex tools online.”
I took a look, and sure enough Lowe’s has purged a majority of their Flex cordless power tool and accessory listings from their website, except for a couple of bundles that have now been labeled “in Store Only.”
Interestingly, Lowe’s does still has some Flex Stack Pack tool boxes listed in their online store.
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It’s become clear that Lowe’s has dropped Flex tools, although perhaps not yet completely.
This appears to be the end of Flex 24V cordless power tools and accessories at Lowe’s in the USA.
I don’t believe it’s the end of Flex. However, I also can’t see what kind of future they can have in the USA without Lowe’s or other major retailer support.
Flex seems to have been putting more energy into growing in Europe, but will that be enough to fuel innovation and expansion?
Flex started off as a Lowe’s exclusive and is now available at other retailers, such as Amazon.
Will that be enough to fuel innovation and expansion, even though we haven’t seen much from Flex these past 2 years?
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I wonder what will be next at Lowe’s – maybe Bosch’s 18V cordless power tool line will fill the void.
What’s next for Flex?
Robert
A shame to see Flex in this situation. They started off with so much promise.
Jared
My thoughts exactly. There was a lot to like when they launched.
processwrench
Seems troubling that all Cervon brands here in the USA seemed to have stalled out. Skil and Flex have been mentioned here often lately about discounts/clear out etc. And when is the last time you heard anything big out of Ego?
Dean
It seems like tool brands go to Lowe’s to die (sadly).
Jamie Lee Davis
Agreed
Andy
Ego continues releasing new tools, and updates to existing product types, every year, on both their consumer and pro lines. They even show some of these products on their website: https://egopowerplus.com/coming-soon/
They just recently came out with shop vacuums, pressure washer, dethatcher, backpack sprayer, riding mower, and a minibike.
They just debuted an 8ah battery with tabless cells for sale next year. That should be pretty cool for some of the bigger power consumers like the 765+ CFM leaf blowers, and two-stage snowblowers.
Rumors are that Ego is tentatively slated to release a leaf vacuum in the US in the fall of 2026. It’s been available overseas for a bit now.
Stuart
The mini bike was 2-1/2 years ago https://toolguyd.com/ego-mini-bike/ .
I haven’t heard of any Ego tabless cell battery yet. I’d like to see new dual stage snowblowers designed around the higher performance.
Big Richard
The BA4480X. It was at a German event a couple months ago and also has been showing up on retailer sites. The 20 minute charge time for a 8Ah battery is nuts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rdtbg3_Uwg (13:40)
https://ego-power-plus.de/products/ego-ba4480x-8-0ah-akku-fur-profis
Andy
https://youtu.be/9bm90917J88?t=557&si=oKY1nCvJWvo6mEqM
The video appears to be the UK market product releases, but I’ll be very surprised if that battery doesn’t make its way here at some point next year.
Lance
Ego BA4480T
They’re not advertising it as a tabless cell battery, curiously still referring to it as G3 like existing models, but it obviously uses a different cell format, likely 21700. User reviews point out how much more powerful it is compared to existing 3S packs.
Big Richard
BA4480T is standard tabbed cells, the BA4480X is the new tabless version.
Big Richard
https://egopowerplus.co.uk/node/6090
Rob K
Ego seems to be hitting pretty big with snow removal equipment at the moment. Other than that, even Kobalt 24v doesn’t seem to be being pushed very much.
Michael F
I think the power tool market in general is in consolidation. Tradesmen especially had a lot of reasons to upgrade tools over the past few years but I’m questioning if that trend continues. If you already have a nice new set of power tools bought within the past 5 years – is there really a compelling reason to upgrade? Milwaukee has all but won the power tool wars in North America and every truck I see is full of red. I suspect we will see the continued contraction of the market until anything but DeWalt, Milwaukee, and Roybi is only carried at specialty stores.
ElectroAtletico
Harbor Freight/Hercules has joined the thread
Nathan
No they havent
ElectroAtletico
Craftsman, Ideal, Flex, Toughbuilt, Bosch, Metabo…….LOWE’S – where tool companies go to die.
Will
Maybe adding dewalt 12v soon 🙁
Ken
I think Lowe’s has removed all listings for power tools but retained listings for accessories, including batteries. The bundles showing power tools are only showing up in search results because they include an accessory in the bundle. If a local store has enough batteries in stock, they do show up in the search results (at least in my region).
I’ve observed that Lowe’s frequently pulls an active SKU from the website only to replace it with the exact same item under a different SKU. Sometimes this appears on the website as two different SKUs for the exact same item at the same time. So, I wouldn’t definitively interpret the fact that they have pulled active FLEX power tool SKUs from the website as evidence of FLEX being permanently unavailable from Lowe’s online. They could easily add the same products under different SKUs next month.
My uneducated read of the situation is that FLEX will continue to expand their lineup in NA. There are a number of new tools that show up on Chervon’s international websites (FLEX 18V and Devon 18V) that may be trivial to release as FLEX 24V tools. In some cases, they are already in black/grey stackpack branding, like the stackpack vacuum.
But maybe my optimism for FLEX is biased because I just bought a bunch of very cheap, high-quality tools with lifetime warranty 🙂
Saulac
On the flip side of the coin, Flex going away shows just how advanced or developed the power tool industry has become around the globe. Fact is an impressive system like Flex can be created in the US without much investment in R&D here. Whole ecosystem can be ordered from China. And what comes easy also goes easy.
Robert
The Lowe’s I’m in has Dewalt fan and radio and hit collections where Glex tools were before. Flex sign is all that remains.
David
FWIW, I worked at both HD and Lowes after I retired and came away from my time at Lowes dumbfounded. If ever a business made money in spite of itself, it’s Lowes.
I’m not a Flex devotee as I think much of their power tool lineup is bulky and heavy, but it seems on-brand for them to randomly jump to a new direction.
I could be generous and say they have a good reason behind this decision, but very likely that is not the case.
BMak
I asked about Flex earlier this week and was told that it would be available online only moving forward
Nathan
I never really saw much appeal to flex other than being the tool nobody heard of sold only at Lowe’s. They had a few heavy hitters but then you’d see ok it has more torque but it doesn’t work any better than the red yellow blue team. Or etc. It was cheaper than most yellow or red items but not much.
Ego and Skil on the other hand seem to be where chevon shines. Ego has a lot of cred in the ope market even partnering with John Deere named lawn mowers using 56v batteries. So who knows. Lowe’s is weird and I feel dirty when I go to one