The Craftsman V20 VersaStack Bluetooth radio is adapted from the Dewalt 20V Max TStak Radio, which is an awesome music player.
The only downside about the Craftsman Bluetooth radio and music player is its $199 price tag. Here, we’ll discuss how to get your hands on one for just $99.
First, hit up the product page and make note of where’s it’s available for Free Store Pickup. Do NOT add it to your cart at this time. Here’s the link:
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Okay, now that you can see where it’s in stock, make sure to change your store selection accordingly. If you don’t do this, Lowe’s shopping cart will add a $79 freight delivery fee to your order, or at least that’s what I’ve been seeing.
Next, hit up the Craftsman V20 starter kit product page and add it to your cart, but not before selecting the radio as your “free gift.”
(The starter kit comes with a 4Ah battery and charger.)
Tap or click on the “select your free gift” button, and add both the starter kit and VersaStack radio to your cart with the “add to cart” button.
Your starter kit and free radio should now be in your cart for the $99 price of the starter kit. Piece of cake.
Thank you to Tom for the heads-up!
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Lowe’s also offers a freight shipping option, where you can get the radio and starter kit delivered to you for a fee. For my zip code, I’m seeing a $79 delivery fee. A couple of stores in my area have the music player in stock, and luckily yours does too. But if your selected store doesn’t have it in stock, the freight fee is tacked on automatically.
It’s not very straightforward to take advantage of this deal if your closest or selected store doesn’t have the radio in stock, hence the odd step by step way I wrote out the post.
It looks like you can select in-store pickup for the radio and free shipping or pickup for the starter kit, so you can mix and match fulfillment. But if you have to go to the store to pick up the radio anyway…
Similarly, Lowe’s has a really good deal on Dewalt’s 20V Max cordless 1/4 sheet sander, where you buy the special buy kit for $99 and get a second bare tool sander for free. What’s the catch? It seems that no stores in my area have the sander kit in stock, and so freight delivery is the only option, attaching a $79 fee on top of everything. I’m mentioning this in case anyone can find a workaround.
Doug N
Great find, thanks!
Stuart
Thank you again to Tom for the alert!
Mike McFalls
Great tip!
Doug in PF
In my area I have five Lowe’s stores. Only one with the radio in stock and that one has zero starter kits, which earns the dubious $79 merit badge. Doh!
Stuart
Sorry! I hadn’t considered that since the starter kit is supposed to be a featured Black Friday deal item.
Gordon
Give it a few days and check again.
Matt the Hoople
I know the title of this post says “half off” but maybe it should say “half off plus free battery/charger”. So it’s really a much better deal than just half off. Especially if you already have some of the other craftsman tools. I don’t have any craftsman tools so need the battery so added bonus there as well.
Hmmmm, I wonder how close the Dewalt and craftsman batteries are as far as how they “click in” to the tool. I have the Dewalt 20v stuff so lots of batteries. Wondering if a little dremel work on the radio will allow the Dewalt battery to fit it. Doesn’t need to lock in, just make contact. As long as the contacts are in the same location, it may be possible to make his work.
I suppose I could always buy one of those Dewalt to craftsman adapters off eBay for $30.
Stuart
I considered that, but I didn’t want to scare off the majority of readers who aren’t interested in entering a new cordless system but would otherwise benefit from a fantastic Bluetooth radio that can also be plugged in.
The battery and charger are a big bonus, however.
Despite my best efforts to avoid another regular-use cordless system, a couple of Craftsman tools have proved their worthiness.
Matt the Hoople
Thanks Stuart…..what you just mentioned made me think….. So I’m already invested in Dewalt 12 volt extreme and 20 volt max lines as well as the Ryobi platform. Heavy use construction type tools are Dewalt and all the “nice to have” stuff (lights, fans, leaf blower, glue gun, 1/2” belt sander, etc… are Ryobi. I would hate to invest in battery platform #4 but might consider doing so if I knew which tools in a specific platform were worthwhile. I think it would be interesting as a future post to have a discussion about which tools from a particular (less popular or lower tier) platforms are worth considering and which seem like a gimmick or garbage.
Think I’m gonna grab one of these radios while available. I can sit on it a bit and return it should I decide against it. That’s been my new M.O. with hot items which have limited availability. Missed out on too many great deals in the past because I hesitated.
Thanks.
Matt the Hoople
Ok. Bought it. If nothing else, I needed a decent radio/speaker for the garage as I’ve been using a 5 year old crappy $25 Bluetooth speaker that sounds awful. It will at least serve that purpose well even if I never buy another craftsman tool. If the one battery runs it long enough, I may not need to worry about making the Dewalt batteries fit although I still may tinker around and do it just because I can.
By the way, just an FYI for military and vets, the 10% discount applies so mine was $89 before tax. Couldn’t really pass that up.
Stuart
The problem with such a topic is that there are all kinds of specialty tools and accessories that might be worth it, and core tools too.
Readers’ needs are too vast for me to really judge what’s good and what not. Nothing in any cordless lineup is worthless.
With Craftsman, for instance, I’ve been using their crown stapler and their cordless stick vacuum.
Julian Tracy
I just ordered it. I’ll let you know about the cross compatibility of the Dewalt batteries, or any modifications needed to make it work, If it can be done, I’ll figure it out.
I’ve modified numerous M12 tools to take Bosch 12v max batteries as well as a few custom mods to allow both Bosch 18volt tools and Milwaukee 18volt tools to accept Makita LXT batteries.
IndianaJonesy
Interested to hear how you’ve accomplished those. Sounds like you’re committed to the same battery platforms I am; would be nice to open up some other options!
Julian Tracy
Update… though it has a socket recess with no contacts similar to what an M12 battery needs – this will not run on 12volts. It turns on, but shuts right off.
Too bad – that socket recess would be super easy to turn into a battery slot for the m12 batteries.
The VersaStk radio will run with two bare wires supplying 20v (18v actual, of course) from a Dewalt battery hooked up to the radio’s contacts though.
The entire time it’s running though, the low battery indicator blinks.
With any adapted 2 wire Li Ion battery conversion, it’s important not to let the adapted device drain the battery to zero – so you’ve got to keep an eye on the battery’s charge level.
I’ll probably make a simple Dewalt slide in battery slot with wires connected to the 20v craftsman battery’s slot rather than opening up the radio to do any internal wiring
Rod Norton
Got it. Thanks!
Benjamen
So none of the 7 stores around me have both the battery kit and the radio. So when I try to buy the kit with the free gift of the radio from a store with the kit in stock, it says I have to take the radio out of my cart or choose truck delivery ($79).
Oh well, I guess it’s just too much for Lowe’s to figure out that I could pick up the radio from a different store.
Matt the Hoople
I wonder what the process and turn around time is for returned items to be put back on stock? I wonder if you could buy a starter kit from Lowe’s A and then do a return at Lowe’s B. Then buy the returned starter kit along with the radio.
The question is “How quickly is the return available to repurchase?”
May be worth a call to the store manager at Lowe’s B.
Ryan O
Ordered, thanks!
William Shipe
Not that I wanted to expand to yet another battery platform, but the “sounds good” comments convinced me. Got it – will pick it up this evening. Hope it sounds decent enough. Thanks.
Stuart
I’m assuming it’s functionally equivalent to the Dewalt TStak version, and that sounded great. It also offered easy Bluetooth connectivity, which isn’t universally true for all jobsite radios.
Don Julio
Here’s another way to skin this cat:
Go to your local Lowe’s and at the register give them the item numbers #1631798 for the battery and charger, #1072130 for the radio.
Whatever isn’t in stock will be a PL (pick up later) purchase. Whatever is in stock will be CW (carry with). Be sure to explain all of this to the cashier.
Your total will be $99 + tax and you can pick up your items whenever they come in.
Stuart
There’s no guarantee that more inventory will come in.
For instance, Dewalt folding work tables and ToughSystem music players are not regularly stocked at any of my local Home Depot stores – they have only ever showed up for seasonal promos.
The VersaStack radio and starter set are likely seasonal items at Lowe’s, and so they might never be restocked.
Paying full price for the starter kit and only getting the promise of the free radio gift being available for pickup at a later time sounds like a huge risk.
Don Julio
I’ve done this several times before on other seasonal deals and it’s worked every time, no hassle, as long as I was patient for a few weeks.
Not really seeing the risk. Once the transaction is conducted, Lowe’s owes the customer the product. They and SBD aren’t going to leave the customer holding the bag.
Stuart
2 years ago, I requested a test sample. SBD put in the order, but the warehouse was depleted. Inventory was at stores and wasn’t replenished after the holiday season. It arrived the next September or so, when inventory was available for that year’s holiday season.
There’s the likelihood that the return period runs out before inventory becomes available, and I wouldn’t be comfortable with that.
If I had to wait for everything together and without my card charged yet? Sure.
Julian Tracy
I just picked mine up tonight… at first glance, it sounds pretty decent, though it’s fairly heavy and bulky. But honestly the software running the display is almost enough to get me to return it pronto. Damn thing feels the need to display a large “CRAFTSMAN” logo at every turn, frequently enough it’s almost psychotic..
If you’re listening to Bluetooth and adjust the volume the display flurries through a rotation of the volume level, the song title and that dumbass logo. We get it already! Wonder if the Dewalt version is so damn insecure?
The Dewalt batts definitely don’t fit, but it’s the electrical contacts that are the problem, not the actual mount. Looks like the slide and lock tab will work fine if the contacts are re-done.
I might dig into this and take it apart and try to both remove all battery charging potential (and hopefully the associated weight) as well as reposition and simplify the battery contacts to either allow it to be run by a Dewalt battery or a Makita battery.
Erik
Did this at a local store here, but returned the battery kit, so essentially a free radio. Did the same for the brushless recip saw. Already fairly into to battery platform, so couldn’t pass this up.
Ruslan C.
Great tip! Just ordered. I hope it sounds as Dewalt one. I was thinking about D for couple of years now but $200 was not worth it. Hundred bucks I can spare as a early Christmas present so wife won’t be too grouchy about it 😀
Horace P
Although the DeWalt and Craftsman batteries look like they would interchange, they have slight differences in their molding where they attach to the tool that renders them exclusive to their respective brands (without some slight mods). I have both and plan to look into interchangeability a little deeper now that I’m caught up on all my summer chores (right in time for the snow to fly). The cursory look I got at the two brands look like it’s doable with a little research and a DMM