A couple of weeks ago, I came across surprisingly low pricing on a Bosch 18V wireless charging kit, complete with a 2.0Ah battery, charger, and “frame.”
Read More: Bosch Wireless Charging Tech
I haven’t tried it yet, but I presume that the included wireless-capable battery pack can be recharged in conventional chargers as well.
Advertisement
With this kit, you get:
- 2.0Ah battery ($53 via Amazon)
- Charger ($45 or $59 with frame)
But with the bundle, you get everything for $48. I hope you can appreciate why I said surprisingly low pricing. The pricing has held stable, but I don’t know what that means.
I have a review sample of the wireless charger, somewhere, but I don’t think I ever unpacked it after we moved. I still use my personal 18V drill and impact on occasion, but since there are always new models to test out and review, they don’t quite see much use these days.
If I were a typical user, would I use the wireless battery and charger? Absolutely. Or at least I think so. But, I tend to always have a spare battery or three on-hand, and so I don’t need to recharge any tool’s battery pack when it’s idle for a few minutes.
I used to have a wireless charger for my phone, 2 phones ago. The battery life was dramatically reduced after a year and a half; did the charger contribute to it? I found that it was useful for setting the phone down to charge when going to bed, as it meant I didn’t have to fumble in the dark to align the micro USB port.
With my last phone, I sucked it up and dealt with the micro USB charger.
Advertisement
With my current phone, I have a USB C port that is quick and easy to plug in, in any direction. I charge my phone before putting the kids to bed, and then it’s fully recharged before I go to bed. If I need more battery charge during the day, I plug the phone into a charger when I’m busy doing something.
What I’m trying to say is that I don’t need a wireless charger in any aspect of my life right now. Still, it might provide conveniences at times.
Right now, a 2-pack of 2.0Ah battery packs is $99 at Amazon. The wireless-charging batteries are slightly larger, but for a few dollars less than the same price as a single 2.0Ah battery, you can get a wirelessly-charging 2.0Ah battery pack, along with the charger.
That’s the deal – if you are so inclined, you can try out the wireless charging tech, without the typical premium. I don’t know if or when the pricing will return to normal.
Price: $48
Buy Now(via Amazon)
Update: In comments, TonyT informed me that this is a Prime member-only product.
Jim Felt
If it’s as slow as cell phone induction charging I’ll pass. And the confusion of tracking exactly which battery is which seems like a waste of user time.
An answer waiting for a question here?
Nathan
for a phone it makes some sense – for a power tool much less. If only because the battery is removeable and replaceable with such ease.
Now I know they make wireless charging with faster rates so if this has a fast enough rate without making parts hot – it might make sense in some production line work.
Ie a cabinet shop or other where you sit one of these on a work table such that you can drop your drill or driver etc on it while you are doing other assembly work etc and the battery is always in a middle state of charge. but I don’t think that does the battery any good – maybe you get away with useing a lessor battery for the whole day.
For me – I have no need for one.
Stephen
It’s a good price just for that battery, and a great price if you are even slightly interested in trying out wireless charging.
However, the application for this wireless charger seems pretty narrow. I could see it being useful in production/assembly environments where time and efficiency are key, or very dirty environments. The battery is always topped off and the contacts stay clean. The contacts also experience less mechanical fatigue because they are not being moved from the tool to a charger then back to the tool. No time is spent swapping out batteries.
TonyT
BTW, looks like the deal is for Prime members only.
Stuart
Hmm, it doesn’t like the deal is Prime-only, the product itself is. Thanks, I’ll add a note in the post.
They’ve done this before with some things, but there never seems to be any rhyme or reason to it. One of the products that was Prime-only went back to being a regular product for a time.
John
I’ve seen these on ebay for the last several months for ridiculously cheap – it was cheaper to get the wireless kit (new) than a used regular charger and battery. I can only assume they sold very poorly. I like the idea of wireless charging, but their implementation was pretty awful (they didn’t release a 12v car charger until years later, before that their suggestion was to use an inverter if you want to put one in your truck). It seems bosch ran out of enthusiasm when they released the stunted product line 4 years ago, and are now trying to salvage it.
Chris
Cheaper than $48 brand new? I don’t have a use for it really and I love the core 6.3 for all days use.
Rob
We evaluated this item a few years ago at the company I work for. Nearly full charge in 30 minutes (about 80-90%). Charger and battery pack get slightly warm, but not even close to hot, when charging in a normal room temperature environment. Pretty spectacular piece of engineering…it just works, and it works well.
Oleg K
This “deal” looks like a blatant promotion for Amazon’s Prime membership.
Home Depot sells this exact item for $1 less, delivers it to you or store of your choosing for free and all WITHOUT joining prime and paying an extra $12.99 in the process to get two day shipping. For $13 I am more than OK with waiting for a delivery to my local store, which takes a day or two most times, maybe three… In other words, like I said before: prime membership promo.
Stuart
Are you sure? I see Home Depot’s price to be $159.