Dan left a great comment to yesterday’s Behind the Scenes: Dewalt Brushless Q&A post, asking where are the 12V brushless drivers? The answer, or at least a very reasonable-sounding presumption, is also found in Dan’s comment – brushless 12V drills and drivers might cost too much.
Where are the 12V brushless drills and drivers? I’ve actually thought about this myself a couple of times. While I haven’t spoken to any product managers or developers about this, I imagine that redesigning 12V drills and drivers around brushless motors would result in higher prices than most potential users would be willing to pay.
Oh, I’m sure such products are currently in development, but I wouldn’t expect to see them released quite so soon. In my opinion, premium-priced 12V tools just won’t be as marketable as 18V tools.
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Would brushless 12V tools be more powerful than brushed versions? I doubt that the small form factors can handle it, at least with respect to ergonomics and user comfort. Would their greater efficiency allow for more runtime? Definitely. But if maximizing runtime is a major goal, it would be far more economical for brands like Dewalt, Makita, and Bosch to follow Milwaukee’s example and develop higher capacity 12V battery packs. Besides, this would also have broader appeal as such batteries can be used with any of the respective brands’ other 12V tools.
My understanding is that, as with Dewalt’s new brushless impact driver, brands probably won’t come out with brushless 12V tools until or unless they can factor in additional redesigns.
Most current-generation 12V drills and drivers are also quite new, and so I really don’t think brushless upgrades are imminent. That said, Milwaukee’s M12 drills and drivers have grown a bit long in the tooth. If I had to guess which brand* would be the first to bring 12V brushless drills/drivers to the US market, I’d point towards the red team.
*Festool and possibly other brands already brought 12V brushless tools to market, but it’s not fair to consider them in the same light as other major professional tool brands.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think we’ll see any 12V brushless drills or drivers by the major brands until either engineers figure out how to design the tools without an appreciable cost increase, or the tools are redesigned to incorporate additional groundbreaking features.
My expectation is that brushless 12V tools will trickle to market after users are more familiar with 18V models. Once users see and feel the advantages brushless motored tools bring, they may be more inclined to spend more on 12V upgrades.
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PutnamEco
Where are the 36v brushless tools? Most of the people using 36v tools are already invested in longer run times and would be the group most likely to be looking for even more. I can’t be the only one who thinks 18v does not make a lot of sense for tools likely to see serious use on job sites, tools like circular saws and reciprocating saws, not to mention the manufacturers who think tools like cordless miter saws are acceptable at only 18v.
Stuart
That’s a good question as well. In the interview with Dewalt, they made it clear that brushless tech will be initially found in fastening tools – drills and drivers – because that’s where most of the runtime advantages come through. Maybe we’ll see brushless saws on the horizon, but with beefier motor needs the costs of such tools might rise prohibitively higher.
Seti
I can’t see price being too much of an issue. Chinese brushless motors and ESC’s are used in a variety of other industries and have come down in price significantly in the last decade. Given the same amp rating, a brushless set up in those industries would cost about $5 more, and that’s retail.
The problem is that this transition to brushless is so late coming in the tool industry that brushless is actually seen as something we should have to pay a lot more for. That’s why I’m quite happy to see the Milwaukee Fuel kits going for the same price, or cheaper, than their brushed equivalents.
Zack
“Chinese brush-less motors” might explain why they are cheap….
You get what you pay for I guess…
alan
Been using Panasonic brushless impacts and drills for over 8 years…
14.4 all the way up to 21.
It just boils down to cost
Dan Richards
I guess I’ll wait for Bosch to inventivate in their dream machines for a while. They seem more committed to updating their 12v line than the other guys. Or maybe I’ll get lucky and Snap-On will join this century with their next round of cordless tools.
Big Richard
Still waiting for 12v brushless tools…6 years later…