Wednesday, November 26, 2014
A Multi-Port Charger with a Difference
Tools of the Trade: Multiport chargers have been around for years. Some models charge two batteries, some four, and some charge six. But no matter how many batteries they hold, up until now, they all charged sequentially. If a particular battery takes an hour to charge and there are six in the charger, it will take approximately six hours to charge them all. Makita’s new Dual Port charger (DC18RD) holds only two batteries, but it charges both at once.
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4 comments:
This is a great development. One of the biggest downsides to using cordless tools is the wait time when charging batteries. That being said, Makita has always been one of the best when it comes to charge times. I used their drills and drivers all summer and being able to throw a battery on the charge, wait 15 minutes and have it already be done is great. Now being able to charge two batteries at the same time is even better. Minimizing down time is always the goal at any job and this chargers absolutely helps achieve it. I didn't know Makita made tools that used two batteries but this is a logical development considering that. Having to wait twice as long for batteries to finish charging is a problem so making a charger that addresses that issue is the next logical step. Makita makes, in my opinion, great tools and it's nice to see that they continue to innovate.
The ability to charge two batteries at once on one charger in the same amount of time seems like something that would not be that impressive but if you have ever been on a call and you and a friend have a battery that runs and only one charger you are screwed. Not only does the charger charge to batteries it looks like it charges both of them faster then some chargers can charge one battery. It is natural that while you are working you will run out of battery and you want to be able to reload fast and not be sitting around waiting for a fresh one. I have seen a few different articles about Makita recently and it is proving to be an impressive brand of power tools.
The issue with charging two batteries at once is the high current draw. Being able to charge two at once will double the "current-per-plug" making it twice as likely that a breaker will trip somewhere.
As for the X2 system itself, it's an interesting idea, but I don't know how reliable the performance can be using two separate batteries. Perhaps the batteries are designed in such a way that the cells can all be used together, but the way I see it, it's likely that the double battery system performs unreliably.
I wonder why it took until now for this to become a thing, as I would think that a system like this would be useful for more situations than just a tool powered by two batteries. I wonder what it is that they changed with the circuitry that allows for the batteries to charge at once rather than one at a time. have they changed from wiring things in sequence to in series? Is each port now wired on its own circuit? I would really like to know.
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