Skil recently launched a new 20V Max 2Ah battery that charges via USB-C internally.
That’s right, you just plug in a USB-C power cord and the battery charges itself. A full charge takes 55 minutes.
That’s not all – it also serves as a power bank that’s capable of power delivery of up to 100W.
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The kit comes with a 45W AC charging brick and a 3A USB-C power cord.
Price: $60 for the battery (BY5100B-00), $99 for the kit (CB5100B-11)
Discussion
The built-in charging undoubtedly adds to the size of the battery, but not by a lot, especially given that certain Skil batteries previously had built-in USB-A ports that allowed them to serve as power banks when not in use with tools.
Changing over from USB-A power connection to USB-C would have been a nice upgrade in itself, but two-way USB-C charging definitely seems even better.
The pricing seems fair as well, especially given the cost of other brands’ USB charging adapters and power delivery attachments.
Surprisingly, there’s no special naming for the two-way charging feature, unlike the PwrAssist power bank feature built into some of Skil’s first-gen batteries.
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It’s unclear if Skil will be adding this to all of their cordless power tool batteries, or if their parent company will extend the same tech to Skil’s sibling brands such as Flex.
Robert
I don’t have Skil, and don’t want to buy into another battery platform. But I welcome this in hopes that it will prompt the battery platforms I do have into doing something similar.
Jared
I agree, that’s a neat trick. I use Dewalt’s USB-C charger and it’s very convenient. Not even requiring a charger? That’s nice.
Dave (not here)
At first glance this sounds like a good idea, and maybe it’s an extra draw for DIYers who aren’t already tied to a platform. For a second I started to wish Milwaukee would copy it.
The I started thinking about the rough environments my tools see when at work, and I can easily imagine the rubber cover for the USB port failing and the port itself either getting gummed up with dust and gunk or possibly causing a catastrophic failure. I think I’ll stick with the slide-on adapter that allows me to turn the battery into a power source. Still a cool idea and I’d love to be proven wrong about the durability.
Robert
Dave, there are ways around that leaking into the USB port, though it may make it too expensive. The Olympus TG4/TG5/TG6 family of snorkelers’ underwater cameras have a duel latch system on the USB port (with gasket) that allow it to be rated to 50 feet deep. I tried to find a zoomed in picture of the duel latch little door, but couldn’t find it readily. The middle picture of 5 on the top of this article has a view of the underside of the camera, showing the ports.
https://www.dpreview.com/products/olympus/compacts/olympus_tg5
Blocky
What if the usb-c port was in the slide mount zone with the other terminals — that would cover most ingress even without a dedicated gasket – it could also have a hinged abs port cover rather than a squishy one.
Jared
That certainly seems like a possibility. It would depend on your usage though. If the USB-C port is covered when the battery is inserted into a tool, that would reduce the concern from debris even further.
Overall I feel like this is a neat addition, but not a “necessary” one that other brands should rush to adopt. I’d rather have it than not, but not so badly I’d switch platforms.
Skil has that jumpstart charging feature too, so maybe even minor perks like this will eventually add up into a level of versatility other brands can’t match.
Koko The Talking Ape
Hm, that’s a good point. From the photos, the USB port has a rubber cover, but no telling how durable it is.
Also, it appears the port won’t be covered when the battery is in a tool or charger. That’s a good idea though.
I wonder if you can buy rubber caps for USB ports. You’d lose them of course, but they wouldn’t be expensive.
Benjamen
From the Amazon Listing: “Each cell is surrounded by revolutionary phase change materials to keep the battery cool and powering through any project. ”
I would think this has more to do with the size than the USB charging circuitry.
Also, did you see anywhere if the charge time limited was by the provided charger and cable, or if you were able to supply 100W as per the spec, could it charge faster. It might not be as big of deal for a 2Ah battery, but how about if they release a 5Ah battery?
Stuart
They don’t mention the max charging limit, and only specify a 55 minute charging time with the included power brick.
According to the user manual for the battery itself, the max USB-C input is 5/9/12/15V 3A Max, and so it seems to be limited to 45W.
Not all of Skil’s 20V batteries have a USB-A charging port. I don’t see USB-C charging coming to the higher capacity batteries (yet?) either.
Rzorrok
The manual I read indicated 100w output. That’s enough for a large tablet or even a laptop. Certainly enough to be a useful feature. The older style with USB-a only do 5w. Not very useful even for a phone.
Stuart
Are we talking about the same battery?
Koko The Talking Ape
“Each cell is surrounded by revolutionary phase change materials to keep the battery cool…”
Huh. That’s interesting. So there’s something like wax that melts (changes phase), which absorbs heat and cools the battery, kind of like ice in a drink.
But that stuff doesn’t have infinite heat capacity. Once it all melts, it will not absorb any more heat, and will just get hotter. It might even have an insulating effect, slowing down heat loss. I guess they looked at a hard use scenario, where the battery is used continuously until it’s maybe 80% gone, and provided an adequate amount of phase change stuff. Balancing act.
Wayne R.
This is the kind of battery that could be used for almost anything. Whether used as a regular power bank, adapters might let it be used with any tool, or anything at all.
Opens up a world of possibilities…
Saulac
Probably not practical, but in theory, the battery could be charged by another (more full) battery.
Blocky
‘popping back and forth’
Nate
Sure, you take your mostly-dead ones and pour their remaining charge into one hero battery, and hope that one can power the fan all night so you can sleep without waking up sweaty to swap batteries in the middle of a power outage.
The trick is figuring out which one’s the donor and which one’s the recipient, if there’s no “in” and “out” port. I’m pretty sure USB-C cables don’t have a direction either, and you wouldn’t necessarily know which direction power is flowing without some indicators on the units.
JJ
Nice, I guess I can use these with my… [checks notes] Amazon Denali by SKIL power tools.
Jim Felt
Given the availability of higher rated native or easily added vehicular USB-C ports, why would this be a compelling reason to invest in another battery system. Especially given the bigger brand versions that have been out for years?
I know I bought into a couple of red and blue versions and never really used them given the ever increasing battery capacity of my iPhones.