Over in Germany, Bosch has announced a new 10.8V (12V Max) compact cordless hammer drill driver. Dubbed the GSB 10.8-2-LI Professional, the combo drill is said to be the shortest in class. This shouldn’t have been too difficult a feat seeing as how Milwaukee’s M12 hammer drill is the only other pro-grade 10.8/12V Max model on the market today.
Maximum torque is stated as 30 Newton meters, or 265 in-lbs, matching that of the PS31 drill we assume this version was based off of. We reviewed the Bosch PS31 drill/driver quite some time ago, and were impressed with how well it punched through every reasonable drilling task we threw at it. With the new hammer drill (PS130) looking to be a close sibling of the PS31, we have high expectations for its versatility and performance.
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Additional specs:
- 0-380/0-1300 RPM gearbox
- 0-19500 bpm
- 20 clutch settings
- Max drilling: 19mm in wood, 10mm in metal or masonry
- Electronic battery cell protection
The new drill/driver will be available as part of a kit or bare-tool. European prices will be 115 euros for the tool, and 179 euros for the kit, which includes an L-Boxx, charger, two 1.3Ah batteries and a holster. The tool has not yet been announced in the USA, and if released here, we do expect for the USA kit configuration to be different (e.g. sans L-Boxx and holster).
(Note: at the time of this posting, 1 euro ~ 1.34 USD.)
Jay A
Nice find Stuart! The real question will be when are we going to see them here in the US… if ever. Still waiting on Bosch to bring over their hybrid miter saw / table saw we never got.
Stuart
I can understand the reasons for holding back on the hybrid miter/table saw, and believe Dewalt’s got one in Europe as well. Could be because track saws are much more popular in Europe, and many contractors here still use circular saws or portable table saws.
But this looks like it would be a very attractive addition to the US line. Maybe Bosch will do some more market testing before deciding?
Patrick
Hopefully it’ll make it… I have the PS31 (among other 12v tools) and I really like it. I have a the new model 18v hammer drill, as well as a big SDS Plus Boschhammer, but recently I’ve found that 95% of my drilling is small 1.25″ tapcons for electrical boxes. Seems like a perfect fit for a 12v hammer drill.
Don
You reversed the Euro to dollar conversion.
Stuart
Oops, it appears that I did. Thanks for the catch! I mean, I was… er… testing you…
Adam
I am getting so fed up with American tool divisions holding out on the systainers and L-boxx’s they ship their tools in in Europe. All the ridiculous mismatched size blow molded cases I have from Bosch, Dewalt, Makita, could have just as easily been nicely coordinating systainers. Instead, if I want to have a manageable transport system, I have to invest in the individual boxes, which cost more than half as much as the tools themselves. And the Bosch L-Boxx system is priced even higher than Tanos’ systainers, which makes it a bad choice unless you have somehow gotten one with a recent purchase. Dewalt’s tough system looks to be a good buy-in, as the largest boxes are still under 70 dollars, but they are still hard to find, and the one tool that I own which came with an original systainer (Makita track saw) would not benefit from that system. All in all, the fact that we have to shell out over 50 dollars per case, makes it a real hard sell when it comes to replacing a whole arsenal of tool boxes.
Stuart
I believe this is done because Systainers and similar transport/storage systems have not really caught on with American contractors or the public yet. As such, most people would not appreciate having to spend the extra money on kits that come with L-Boxxes or Systainers.
A few of Bosch’s tools are available with L-Boxxes in the USA, but I don’t think they’ve been selling well. Blow-molded cases seem to be on the decline as well. A recent Bosch kit I purchased came with a soft padded bag.
In any case, Dewalt’s ToughSystem is FANTASTIC! But they’re configured to be flexible and don’t have inserts for specific tools.
Offering many L-Boxx sets wouldn’t really fly in the USA unless kits were available without them. Notice how in EU there are two options for this new release – bare tool or L-Boxx kit. They can do that in the EU since Bosch has a huge following. If they tried to do that here, other brands would undercut their prices and Bosch would stand to lose market share. And adding an L-Boxx on top of a regular kit and bare-tools might be frowned down upon as well. One more SKU per product times however many products or combo kits would call for a lot more inventory that needs to be packaged and passed along to resellers.
Maybe these cases have potential, maybe not. EU and USA tool preferences and trends are very different, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Manufacturers aren’t causing these differences, they’re simply playing along with them.
Adam
I have to disagree with you there. Most Americans have absolutely no clue what a systainer is and what the benefits are. I can tell you with confidence that no one would prefer 20 different shaped cases if given the option of 20 that fit nicely together and allow you to transport them as grouped units. Further, there can obviously be no demand for something that has absolutely no market share, nor any reasonable ammount of public exposure. I guarantee if you put up a display in any home improvement store of a stack of linked systainers of various sizes and configurations, they would sell (setting aside the afformentioned sticker shock of initial buy in). On top of that, i feel if contractors knew that nearly every power tool sold in Eu automatically came with one, they would be plenty dissapointed with our American offerings.
In going forward, my last thought is this. Don’t just offer the single boxes to us via special order or online. That is no way to test a market. Why not put together a starter kit with a small medium and large [systainer] at a fair and reasonable discounted price, and see how popular they become over time. Make them more widely accessible and make sure the public knows about them. If we have 30 minute television ads for blenders and blankets with sleeves, why do we not promote a system that can make so many hard working American lives easier?
Stuart
Tool kits in the EU don’t “come with” Systainers, they’re factored into the price. There might be some savings in bundling the boxes with the kits, but you still pay for it in the end.
Bosch offers a couple of tools with L-Boxx kits (e.g. 1590 and 1591 series jigsaws), and they do seem to be selling well. But don’t expect to see these kits at home centers, who have limited shelf space that must be reserved for the best-selling SKUs.
I think that down the line Dewalt might seek to distribute their ToughSystem through home centers, targeting contractors. If that happens, I think we can expect to see response from Bosch and perhaps even Festool. Right now Fein Multimasters can be found in many major home centers. Perhaps eventually Festool will make a push as well.
Adam
Festool is a partner company of Tanos, who makes and distributes the systainers(to my knowledge, they are linked in some way, but not the same company). They make systainers for many more applications, but it is Festool that we in America have come to associate with systainers. Festool does market its own branded systainers but it really is nothing they would ever be interested in pushing as a leading product line. Since all their tools come in them, they would be taking away part of their exclusivity by mass marketing the boxes, especially to large home centers. They are a price controlled company with a niche market and wouldnt stand a chance selling a 500 dollar drill in home center next to similar drills costing 150.
When I say the systainers come with the tools in EU, I am factoring in the added cost. If you look at Amazons price for the jigsaw and the 12v drill kits that include the l-boxx, you will notice the price is nearly identical to what it would be with a blowmold or soft case. Here in America, the cost of the case is factored into pricing, just as it is in EU. What I cant figure out most of all is why manufacturers would even choose to make 2 or 3 different cases for the same tool, just to send them out to different markets. Logically, it would be easier and cheaper to ship tools in the same case, no matter what part of the country its going to. But my feeling is that the American cases are either much cheaper to produce, or the European companies that supply the systainer systems would prefer to limit their supply to the US, in hopes of gaining sales on back end single unit purchases.