Tom sent in a tip that new Craftsman cordless power tools popped up on Sears’ website. (Thank you, Tom!)
I took a look, and yes, Sears has come out with a new Craftsman 20V Max cordless drill and impact driver combo kit. It’s model CK202A, item 00921417000, if you want to search for it.
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The drill is said to deliver up to 300 in-lbs of torque, and the kit comes with a “charging station” that “notifies you when the battery is charged and ready for action.”
“No project is too hard now with this kit from Craftsman.”
The combo kit is currently “on sale” for ~$125.
There’s a September 7, 2018 customer question about whether replacement batteries are available. Sears’ response:
Yes, this will be available soon on sears.com December first week. #46530 only battery, #12882 Battery with charger.
This is important, because it suggests that this might be just one new offering from a new Sears Craftsman 20V Max cordless power tool platform.
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This concerns me, for three reasons.
First, what about Craftsman C3 19.2V users? Will Sears maintain two cordless power tool platforms? Will C3 batteries still be available? Bare tools?
Second, what happens if the lineup doesn’t sell well over the upcoming holiday season? Will they abandon it, just like they did their Craftsman V4 lineup?
You remember Craftsman V4, right? They’re the tools that launched in the Fall of 2011 and were on clearance by December. I haven’t seen any replacement batteries after initial sales floor supplies sold out.
Third, in my opinion, this will surely confuse customers.
Shown here are some of the new Stanley Black & Decker Craftsman cordless power tools.
Here’s a side-by-side of Sears and Stanley Black & Decker Craftsman drill/driver offerings.
The batteries look different, and have DieHard branding.
But two lines of 20V Max (Sears just says 20V) cordless power tool platforms, completely incompatible with each other?
Sears will sell their Craftsman 20V Max cordless power tools, and Lowes will sell Stanley Black & Decker’s Craftsman V 20 tools. But, Amazon is also said to be an upcoming online retailer partner that will also sell Stanley Black & Decker’s Craftsman tools.
In today’s deal of the day at Amazon, there is a selection of Sears Craftsman tools on sale, and they’re sold and shipped by Amazon directly.
What will happen if Amazon carries these tools? Will they sell Craftsman V20 AND Sears Craftsman 20V Max products.
Most enthusiast users will know the difference. But there will likely be instances where the general public is confused. What happens when someone receives a tool kit for the holidays and buys a bare tool a year down the line? A battery? A charger? An expansion tool kit? And they find out that it’s not compatible with theirs? Oh boy.
I’m at a loss of what to think about this.
Sears sued TTI, one of their cordless power tool suppliers. Chervon, their other main cordless power tool partner, just launched their own cordless power tool lineup under the Skil brand they purchased from Bosch 2 years ago. Stanley Black & Decker, which made Sears’ Craftsman Bolt-On lineup, probably doesn’t have the capacity to manufacturer tools for anyone else right now, seeing as they’ve got plenty of new Craftsman tools to stock Lowes stores with.
So, it seems that Sears went with another OEM, but which one?
Are these new Sears Craftsman cordless tools – the drill and impact driver, and any other tools they have planned – designed and built especially for Sears and their Craftsman brand?
I’m really not looking forward to the types of emails I might receive down the road. “I bought a Craftsman 20V tool/battery/charger, and it won’t fit my other Craftsman 20V tool/battery/charger, what’s going on?”
Why, Sears, why? How could this possibly be a good idea?!
Thank you to Tom for the tip!
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Adam g
My guess is they’re trying to get people to buy thinking it’s the new Stanley made craftsman power tools. That’d be why the 20v name.
Gary
…and solely for the holiday season. I don’t think there is any long-term strategic thinking going on here.
Mosh
My question is not why Sears why?
It’s SBD why? What are they thinking?
Gary
I’m not following…
David
Perhaps he meant, “why did SBD cut a deal where Sears can create this confusion?”
satch
+1
CT
Because SBD doesn’t believe Sears will be around long enough to cause any lasting damage…at least not much more than they have for the last decade.
Mitch
Well the drill certainly looks like a cheap piece of crap. Plastic chuck, small frame, small reverse level, pew-pew space age overmolding, and undoubtedly made in China of Chinesium components.
On a related note, we used to have 2 Sears stores near here. They closed one last year, and I’m sure the other will close soon. I’d ordered some things online that were “not as advertised” and decided to return in store instead of mailing them back (don’t do this by the way). I walked through the tools section to scour one last time for any new old stock US stuff, and found that they’ve even made a knockoff design of the Western Forge screwdrivers and those are now made in China.
As much as I will miss having a brick and mortar store that is actually well stocked with tools (including the oddball stuff the box stores don’t carry in store) I can’t wait for Sears death at this point. I just wish it was actually going to hurt Eddie Lampert instead of all the people he’s royally screwed with his mismanagement.
Stuart
They also replaced their pliers last year, after suing Western Forge.
https://toolguyd.com/sears-craftsman-sues-western-forge-usa-tool-supplier-also-releases-more-imported-pliers/
Erik
Stuart, this battery looks almost Identical to the Craftsman 24v Max batteries. Minus the battery fuel guage and the release tab is different. LAWNMASTER makes the 24v Max tools for Sears Craftsman.
I dont think they make Power tools though. Maybe they have a sister company who does?
Adam
I’d you are looking for v4 batteries, you can always grab the Ryobi version. I still see a few floating around Home Depot here and there. Those were/are a great set of small sized tools
Ian
Given Sears Craftsman were normally Balck and Red, but now they’ve come out with a Red and Black version, that closely resembles the SBD version, is obviously a way to cash-in on the potentially better reputation of the SBD tools, probably just for Christmas.
Does seem a bad business decision from SBD to allow Sears to continue to produce their own brand of Craftsman tools. They must have really wanted the brand name.
The Amazon sale of Craftsman handtools suggest they are clearing out the Sars versions ready for SBD ones. This is where confusion will come in, if 3rd party vendors sell the Sears tools on Amazon, and Amazon also sells the SBD ones.
Stuart
It was a one-day deal, and for those, I believe that minimal quantities are often requires. My point was that it appears Sears is selling directly to Amazon. That gives rise to the potential that Amazon might list both “brands’ ” cordless tools.
Raoul
I think SBD visited Sears in the ICU and made the deal to let them co exist figuring it’s just a matter of time. Lampert always has as trick up his sleeve so the headache for SBD might end up being prolonged. I could see a future when all Sears are closed and Eddie transferring his rights to Craftsman to another company he owns and continue an online presence. Allowing SBD to make Craftsman made him a $billion and now he’s going to ride their coat tails. Or something like that.
Scott
This situation screams “stay away from Craftsman until SEARS goes out of business.”
Diplomatic Immunity
I was going to say I think it screams stay away from Sears overall if they’re going to pulling this kind of stunt.
James C
If a tree falls in the forest…
Rob NEPA
How long can Sears manufacture or rebrand using the Craftsman name? This deal could hurt SBD!
Doresoom
I’m surprised SB&D’s contract with them allows for these shenanigans. This could really hurt their Craftsman launch, with confused customers getting upset at what they perceive to be just one OEM. I think Sears is in it for a quick buck, and don’t care what confusion it causes.
OhioHead
So my take – this creates serious “brand” confusion for the uneducated tool buyer.
You can only sue your suppliers for so long until they cut you off from products (or you do not pay your bills). IMO TTI is very financial strong company and they know that Sears is a sinking ship & cut their loses and won’t supply product (19.2 line) unless Sears pays cash before shipment. I also speculate that TTI was approached 1st to acquire Craftsman and did not since since their “brands” are stronger with a more focused distribution strategy (IC Houses & HD in the US) & Joe G knew that Craftsman would take the SBD focus off of DW which MKE is taking market share from……
Toolcraze speculates that the new HF tools are made by LuTool, I did not go down Aliba (spelling) wormhole to investigate, the new tools look like a cross of Chevron & LuTool.
I do not work for a tool company!
Stuart
SBD execs expressed interest in the Craftsman brand YEARS ago.
I’m sure TTI considered it, but in my opinion it would not have been a good move by them to acquire the Craftsman brand.
OhioHead
Thanks Stuart – excellent insight!
Bryan
Sears is so lost right now, hopefully these are their final death throes and this all goes away.
Erik
Could they not work something out with Chervon or TTI since the C3 line has been established for so long to try to get some new tools? I doubt this 20v line will have any other offerings besides basic drill/drivers.
Why would anyone want this new stuff when SBD Craftsman is releasing better 20v Craftsman tools?
Tom
I did a webchat with Sears yesterday. They said that these drills were the first offering in a new line of 20v tools. I asked for details on the other tools and they referred me to Craftsman.com.
Gary
Craftsman.com is owned by SBD … Sears is not listed as a vendor.
I sincerely believe this is Sears’ final holiday sales push before they close their doors. They contracted with the cheapest manufacturer they could find, and asked them to design a color scheme that resembled SBD Craftsman. There will be no new line of 20v tools!
satch
Gary, I suspect you are correct. A last minute grab at consumer dollars for the holiday season. The fact they changed over to the mostly red scheme SBD went with is so noticeable it is laughable. I wonder what it will be like if they do indeed pull a stunt like the 4v abandonment job and batteties and chargers disappear? Of course if these are just typical Alibaba quality drills(not saying they are just speculating) no one will use them enough to remember whether they worked well. The first time someone tries to set ten pounds of 3 inch deck screws and the magic smoke appears will drive them straifgt to the j own brands. SBD may be fighting this imave for years.
Tom
I had thought that SBD’s contract allowed Sears to continue selling products from existing suppliers only. I didn’t think that Sears could get a new OEM for their products.
My gut tells me that Sears was having a hard time getting inventory on the C3 products and needed to fill shelves. So they went somewhere that offered them credit so that they would have something to sell over the holidays.
How would you like to be a Hometown store franchisee right about now?
Erik
Sears can source and manufacture their own Craftsman tools still that was part of the agreement in the sale.
Stuart
From what I read, they can continue to develop and market their tools. I had not seen any limitations barring Sears from striking deals with different suppliers.
Shane
I decided years ago to never buy a Craftsman cordless tool again. I bought a 14.4v right angle drill and decided to go back a few weeks later to expand my investment in the platform only to find out they were discontinued. I decided then and there that if I was going to go cordless, I’d go with DeWalt who at that point had 20 years on their 18v platform with their new 20v platform just coming out. I started with a DCD985 and haven’t looked back.
Erik
Another addition to this that’s suspicious. ShopYourWay in product descriptions tells you when the item was added to their website/sears and it’s always been accurate for anything I’ve ever checked. It says this kit was added Oct 21, 2010.
I wonder if this was something that was released and discontinued right away or they scrapped it and never released it? Has anyone actually tried ordering it?
I know the Professional Series 20v was discontinued long ago and not on their website then last summer the tools mysteriously re appeared and listed as in stock. I tried ordering some just to see then get an email they weren’t in stock and discontinued.
Zachary solomon
I bet your right, it was probably an experimental run of Nov drills, like there 24v drills. This is probably New old stock that they have left. Remember if you can still find sockets from 2010 in stores, think what else Sears logistics could have that’s old stock.
Zachary solomon
*20v not Nov, autocorrect is very annoying.
Zachary solomon
Hey look at this, on Sears Parts Direct, all the products that have CK in the beginning of the model numbers are made by Mitsubishi.
Could this be like an Emerson deal that sears had?
https://www.searspartsdirect.com/model/search.html?q=CK
John S
Not only is it stupid that there will be 2 completely different lines of Craftsman tools from 2 different actual companies/manufacturers, if the batteries are not compatible, I say to hell with Craftsman as a label. Utter stupidity. The customer is the loser.
This rings of the dumb move for Hitachi to change its name to Metabo HPT and the batteries to have no compatibility between Metabo and Metabo HPT.
Yet more reasons why there needs to be a standardized battery mount across all brands. Then companies can do their own electronics and whatever cells they choose for power vs price point.
OhioHead
I hope in the years to come the combined Hitachi/Metabo power tool company will use the same battery platform, since the sale was announced in the past 15 months it is tough to combine all the production to 1 platform & which platform will win?
An adopter between the two brands is most logical; each company produce excellent cordless tools in areas (Hitachi = impacts Metabo = grinders/hammers) IMO it would be tough to shrink the line quickly w/o end user impact (short & long term).
John
These are probably “take what we can get” products from a random Chinese factory to carry Sears thru this holiday season. Given their sad financial state and the lawsuits with existing suppliers, it surprises me that they found a factory willing to manufacture private label Craftsman tools.
Did anyone else notice that Sears failed to announce their Q2 earning today, as they previously said they would. I’d be willing to bet a dollar or a donut that there won’t be a 2019 holiday season for Sears; at least not with brick and mortar stores.
John S
My understanding is that the transition period is supposed to be temporary for Sears to continue to release Craftsman labeled tools on their own. Maybe SBD couldn’t wait until then given the holidays seasons approaching and Sears is taking advantage of that last windfall. This honestly feels like a big “screw you” on Sears’s way out when that ends. I wonder also how many people are going to be upset when warranty claims come up and stores start pointing at each other for who’s responsible.
Stuart
https://toolguyd.com/craftsman-brand-sold-to-stanley-black-decker/
Sears has a perpetual license to manufacture and sell their own Craftsman tools. It’s royalty-free for 15 years, and after that there’s a 3% royalty fee.
Nathan
not surprised one iota. WHen you posted about the sale deal and that line of sears has the right to market craftsman tools for 10 years (or whatever it was) I figured something like this would happen.
I hope SBD will sue the piss out of them and win somehow. Sears and all their created brand names needs to go away
Eric
It does seem like this is a move almost designed to get people upset with SBD. “What do you mean you won’t warranty my drill?”, “What do you mean it isn’t compatible with Craftsman 20v batteries?”, etc.
My guess is when they made the cross-development deal, SBD thought Sears would already be gone.
A W
Sears also has a 20v max charger (refurbished) currently on clearance that works with their old 20v max bolt on system. Hit it looks like those batteries are not compatible with the new 20v Max system.
This is going to be so confusing for customers.
To be fair though, the Craftsman sticker inside a rectangle was standard on their Nextec drills and they also used that on the bolt on drill.
Flotsam
What a mess! I kind of feel sorry for BSD over this.
Sears is merely dead store walking
ktash
Holy cow!!!! Whatta mess.
Harbor Freight is now far ahead of Sears/Craftsman in trustworthiness/quality! Never thought we’d see that happen! No-status tools, but you know what you are getting at HF, and the warrantees will hold since the company is stable.
You don’t know what you are getting when you buy Craftsman. Is it a longer term problem? When will crazy-destructive Eddie pop up with some other Craftsman scheme since he has the right to do it? The confusion will hurt Lowe’s, Ace, etc. even if they are carrying the presumably stable Craftsman tools. Too bad since those are trustworthy businesses that carry good quality tools. When I read this, I thought “poor Lowe’s.”
Toolfreak
This is just the first signs of the $#!^storm that’s yet to come from the agreement that lets Sears and SBD market and sell completely different tool lines both with the Craftsman name and branding.
Right now things are relatively mellow, with SBD sourcing a LOT of it’s stuff from Apex and the same places as Sears.
When SBD starts making more tools in the USA and unless Sears starts stocking and selling the same tools from SBD, there are going to be a lot more confused and unhappy customers.
I suppose if you want to screw people over though, the way to do it is with power tools, since they have a fairly high initial cost compared to say, a wrench set, and don’t have a lifetime warranty.
Like the other comments, I won’t be buying ANYthing cordless with a battery system that may or may not be around in a few months. Even with the SBD offerings, I’d rather buy a Black+Decker 20V tool since the cost is lower and the batteries are everywhere.
Popgun42
I will stay with Ryobi. HD is 5 minutes away and 1 battery fits all.
Mike J.
Have to agree with most of everyone above, at first glance, this clearly appears to be an attempt by Sears to ride the coattails of SB&D.
Its very hard to believe that SB&D (and more so their lawyers) could not have foreseen this coming. Something as simple as requiring that Sears products be clearly labeled “Sears Craftsman,” and not simply “Craftsman,” could have done a lot to avoid obvious (and possibly intentional) brand confusion.
Maybe they tried this and Sears threatened to walk, or maybe they just figured that Sears is so close to extinction that the effect on SBD would be mild, at best.
KMR
So glad I jumped off the Craftsman (sinking)ship over a decade ago.
Jim Felt
I haven’t bought any Craftsman “power tool” since a small chopsaw in the ‘80’s? Someone literally turned it on without tightening the blade down and it shot off and screwed up the shield. Sears provided a new one from a local Sears Parts Store and the darn thing still works. Never even tuned up. We’ve just used it with metal cutting blade ever since. Nearly 40 years?
Nothing I’ve said can exist in this present day “Sears” environment.
RIP.
Brian M
Sears doing something stupid and reckless which will hurt the industry, their brand, alienate customers and suppliers while losing more money so they have to take loans from Eddie Lampert’s holdings? I’m shocked.
Neighbor Joe
Eddie…making 200 million a year on interest for loans his hedge fund provided Sears. That’s just the interest payments. You know how it feels to pay 80 dollars in interest on a credit card debt. I can’t imagine an ailing Sears forking over $200 mil a year to Eddie Lambert’s hedge fund just in interest payments. So, maybe that’s why their is not sufficient capital improvements at Sears of product development at Craftsman/Sears. Instead we get what appears to be a cheap knockoff of a newer SBD Craftsman drill design.
mizzourob
A little digging around on the K-Mart website and it appears that there is also a hammer drill too for this lineup leading me to believe their may be more tools rolling out. The item# is A028159079 and the model# is CK202B.
David
My secret wish is that Amazon buys Sears. They already sell Kenmore and Craftsman. Save the Sears name and make it valuable again.
I know, Amazon is a bit of a monster, but at least it would save this icon and some jobs/locations.
They could even spin it off again when the regulators break Amazon up!
David
Just had a thought… love to be at the Walton family dinner after that announcement.
Toolfreak
That ship has pretty much sailed, but I was hoping for the past several years that Amazon would go full bore into the retail market by buying Sears and turning all the Sears mall stores into Amazon mall stores. It would have been perfect since the hardware/garden depts of most of them are mostly warehouse-like space and the softlines depts in front could have been the main retail space for Amazon to sell books/electronics/gizmos/etc.
For whatever reason, Bezos didn’t want to invest a few billion or so, even though I’m pretty sure he would have made many, many more billions back in profit, given that so many more customers who don’t buy from Amazon online would become Amazon customers in-store.
mizzourob
I should also add that Sears Craftsman (SBD Craftsman) also has new pro series electrical tools, including a Bluetooth multimeter that looks very tempting,
Jared
I was at the Ace Hardware show in Chicago last month. The Craftsman booth was right next to the Dewalt booth. Looked like the new line of craftsman 20v cordless tools are just takedown versions of the dewalt line. A lot of the same tools at a less expensive price. Batteries look similar but ofcourse wont be compatible.
Gregory Thomas
My thoughts exactly. I own a few of the Dewalt 20V Max products and the batteries look identical. I am curious how they are able to use Dewalt’s product name.
DFA
As an orphaned C3 owner, I say screw both SBD and Eddie Lampert. Lesson learned.
They really missed the market by not working out some deal to keep their existing customers happy. You know, those of us who were waiting for the SBD deal to produce something that might help us. Otherwise known as Marketing 101: it’s easier to keep existing customers than to get new ones.
Neither rebadged Stanley-Porter tools nor crap that was headed to Harbor Freight before Sears hijacked the boat will actually grow the brand or do one thing for existing customers.
So, my vendors want me to buy all-new stuff. That’s fine. When that happens, I re-open the contract to other bidders; I don’t just go along with what they try to foist on me. Government contractors call that a Swiss Challenge.
So, Sears and SBD are out of the bidding. My new tool purchases since the C3 fiasco have all been Makita.
CT
What did SBD do wrong? Do you really expect the biggest power tool company in the world to use Chervon’s obsolete C3 tool designs on their new line?
Toolfreak
Lots of the C3 stuff was actually made by TTi, and is just rebadged Ryobi stuff. A few things were rebadged Black+Decker.
TTi likely dropped Sears as a vendor just like Western Forge and so many others, since Sears might go bankrupt at any moment and not be able to pay their bills.
SBD just redid a few Porter+Cable tools into Craftsman for the short term. I’d expect they will eventually have a unique and decent lineup of Craftsman power tools in the next few years, but they might just keep the redone P+C aesthetic going for quite awhile, too.
Christopher Carmichael
Spotted this in the wild today at a local hometown store. Not very impressive.
firefly
This is so sad it’s amusing. It’s like Sears is giving the birdie to everyone else on the way down.
Tim Dolton
I’ve had a Craftsman 19.2 volt drill impact driver circular saw first off drill only had 400 pound inch of torque no more than a Skil 18 volt drill but they lighter improved it with a 600 pound in torque brushless later the impact driver had about 900 pound inch torque only a hundred more then a Drill Master impact driver from Harbor Freight though they improved it with a new 1200 lb inch empac but those so-called all Great Die Hard lithium batteries were a joke they died too soon if you dropped it accidentally from a height of 3 ft it was as good as dead I no it happened to me twice my dad die hard lithium just died for no reason the only thing real good was the four Port charger it could charge both lithium or nicad but when I was given a Makita drill and impact don’t you know I turned around and gave away the Craftsman tools both of my K. Which lasted three times longer if not for but when Kobalt came out with a 24 volt I put it to a test to see what it was worth the circular saw with a 1.5 amp battery lasted three times longer then craftsmans five and a half inch circular saw off of a 4 amp battery needless to say I turned around and sold it as well I now own the Kobalt 24 volt circular saw and cordless drill and jigsaw a friend of mine had the Kobalt 18 volt line and they were superior to the Craftsman all they needed to do was to change the battery to a high and lithium battery and brushless motor to the Tools that would have been all but I like the 24-volt lots of power runs long does everything I needed to do and then some Kobalt lithium drill has about 650 lb inch of torque about the same as my Makita but it’s Revolutions in the second speed is about 2000 revolutions I have both the Makita and the Cobalt I like Kobalt also has an impact driver with y’all be investing soon and saber saw 200 Lumen flashlight and a 1700 Lumen work light but as for Craftsman they need to just quit if you’re not going to put your all into it and whip your competition don’t bother at all go just a waste of time and money.
Patrick H.
I had a hard time following your comment but are you saying you like Kobalt more than Makita?
CT
So this combo kit is now listed as unavailable at sears.com. I wonder did they actually sell out or did something else happen?
Brian M
The check to the Supplier probably bounced.
satch
That’s funny stuff right there. Who knows, maybe they filed a lawsuit against another supplier?
satch
I just followed the link to these tools that was posted in the Skil cordless thread. It did not say out of stock and allowed me to add it to the cart but I did not go to a check out page just to see. Frankly, that Sears site gives me a headache. There is so much wording crammed on the product page I couldn’t tell what was what.
And honestly, this is part of the whole complaint against them. I have no doubt they were listed as ou of stock one day and in stock the next. I have never found their site very user friendly or easy to search. And product listings seemed to be come and go. Oi.
Erik
I’m sure this was another screw up by sears. It was added to the shop your way catalog in 2010.
I’ve noticed a lot old items somehow re appear every now and then. Causing this confusion.
Stuart
Nope. A photo if the packaging shows that Craftsman is “used under license.”
This is a brand new product; the date is wrong.
bobad
Don’t really care about drills and drivers, which are dirt cheap. I purchase based on the battery platform. They can easily cost you 3-4 hundred bucks for barely enough batteries to run all your portables. I have $450 tied up in my battery packs, and would never buy a drill, driver, saw, or anything that those batteries don’t fit.
Brad
I still haven’t been able to get an answer on this so I’ll try again. First, just as a baseline understanding, the Craftsman 20V Max (Bolt-on) and B&D 20V Max are fully compatible. I have tools and batteries from both and they are all plug-n-play compatible.
Is this new Sears Craftsman 20V Max product “line” compatible with ^^^ this standard, or is it totally off on it’s own island?
I can see and widely read that the B&D Craftsman V20 line is incompatible. That’s not my question.
epicat6
It’s funny someone mentioned LuTool and HF on this thread. My LuTool made Bauer from HF walks all over this Craftsman of which nobody can identify the OEM. I am a subcontractor and one of the guys I work for has this exact Craftsman. It shuts down trying to mix up Easy Sand 90 with a wide auger. The Bauer rips right through it and anything else I’ve put in its path.
Brad
I am not at all surprised that the new “Sears Craftsman” tools are junk. Sears is in desperate, grab-cash-now mode, and has no care about their past or long-term future. Sears just needs to die. They already are dead to me.