Erbauer tools

[mrcharly-YHT]

Last year Mrs C and I bought an Erbauer cordless drill for general domestic use.

I've been fairly impressed with it.

Needed circular saw; bought erbauer. That, too, seems pretty decent (although I can't get the hang of using the laser as a guide). Was very impressed with the case for it; sturdy, with good clips. Entirely unlike the usual plastic junk case.

Burnt out the cheap Mcallister angle grinder; worst grinder I've ever owned. So Erbauer replacement ordered. That, too, arrived in a very solid case. Seems a bit overkill for an angle grinder, since these are usually kicked around workshop floors. Again, good quality for the price.

I'm sold on these. The usual faults with cheap power tools are crap switches and vibration. None of that with erbauer.

[rogerzilla]

Seems to be a Kingfisher own brand with a name to make you think it's German (like Möben kitchens).

[Ham]

I've also had  a positive (although limited) experience of them, most notably recently with a wet tile cutter, they seem to be of similar quality to the average domestic kit, like bosch B&D etc, so very much OK but nothing exceptional but good value at the price point. Their Magnusson brand for hand tools by contrast seems to be of a superior quality.

[Jurek]

When m'Julie's estranged husband made off with most of the domestic tools, I bought her a toolkit, much of which consisted of Magnusson tools. As primary user of these tools, I can attest as to their quality.

[rogerzilla]

I have a BFO Magnusson adjustable spanner which is good, if not Bahco quality.  Mainly used for headset locknuts.

[T42]

The Erbauer track saw looks suspiciously like the Titan one, which I have. Bit of a faff to use since the rails are only 70mm and the two in my kit don't marry up perfectly.  The saw will fit the Festool 1400mm rails but they cost over half what the Titan saw cost.

[robgul]

Erbauer (yes it's a Screwfix own brand) cordless drill here - been using it for about 4 years without problem . . . the hammer drill setting isn't that brilliant though -I bought a Bauker SDS from Tool Station for £79 - goes through concrete like no tomorrow 

MacAllister - another Screwfix brand - isn't bad - cordless hedge trimmer and corder leaf blower/vac do the job . . . the track saw is best described as OK, but again for what I need at about £100 it does what I need (any big, major sheet goods cutting I get done by the timber yard)

Now in the process of slowly replacing the old corded tools I have - Einhell seems to be pretty good with a common battery platform - and at keen prices.   I looked at Makita, Bosch Blue and de Walt (a.k.a. Black & Decker) stuff but can't justify the cost.

[iandusud]

I've been suitably impressed with own brand corded tools I've bought from Screwfix and B&Q but when it comes to cordless much less so. For me it's Makita all the way. It may seem like a lot of expense but the truth is I would have saved myself a lot of money over the years if I'd bought Makita in the first place. Not only is the performance much better but the batteries, battery life and battery charging is far superior.

[Kim]

Only thing with Makita is the batteries brick themselves^[1] if you allow them to self-discharge too far.  Which is unnecessarily evil, I reckon.  Fortunately, I became aware of this shortly after owning them, and have been careful to maintain their charge.


_{[1] Technically they brick themselves after three consecutive failed attempts to charge.  But if the cell powering the battery electronics is too low, the charge will fail...}

[Polar Bear]

My use of power tools is too infrequent to facilitate cordless.  I am hopeless as maintaining a battery charge regime so my power tool preferences have a flex and a 3 pin plug attached.

[Kim]

Owning a little vacuum cleaner that uses the same batteries pretty much solves the problem for me, as it means one of them needs charging every couple of weeks.

[SteveC]

Only thing with Makita is the batteries brick themselves^[1] if you allow them to self-discharge too far.  Which is unnecessarily evil, I reckon.  Fortunately, I became aware of this shortly after owning them, and have been careful to maintain their charge.


_{[1] Technically they brick themselves after three consecutive failed attempts to charge.  But if the cell powering the battery electronics is too low, the charge will fail...}

Kim
What is the recommended way of preventing this if you don't use the batteries that often? With my caravan leisure batteries, I have a reminder to charge them every six weeks. Would something similar be sensible?

[Ham]

The leisure battery is lead acid, not Li-ion, I fitted a solar panel for that reason, trickle charge works well for them, deep discharge doesn't make a lead acid happy, notwithstanding Leisure Batteries are meant to be able to deal with it better.

[Kim]

Only thing with Makita is the batteries brick themselves^[1] if you allow them to self-discharge too far.  Which is unnecessarily evil, I reckon.  Fortunately, I became aware of this shortly after owning them, and have been careful to maintain their charge.


_{[1] Technically they brick themselves after three consecutive failed attempts to charge.  But if the cell powering the battery electronics is too low, the charge will fail...}

Kim
What is the recommended way of preventing this if you don't use the batteries that often? With my caravan leisure batteries, I have a reminder to charge them every six weeks. Would something similar be sensible?

Yeah, that should be fine.  The rate of discharge should be pretty low, so it's mostly a case of keeping them charged, rather than putting them away flat and forgetting about them.

(This is a particular quirk of Makita batteries.  Other manufacturers' batteries will discharge in a similar way, and possibly refuse to charge if deeply discharged, but not in a way that permanently bricks the management electronics.  So you can at least replace the cells.  The corollary to this is that if you have a Makita battery that refuses to charge, don't just shove it back into the charger repeatedly and hope - better to try to bring the cells back to spec by nefarious methods, or replace them, before allowing it anywhere near the proper charger again.)

[Ham]

Yeah, that should be fine.  The rate of discharge should be pretty low, so it's mostly a case of keeping them charged, rather than putting them away flat and forgetting about them.

SteveC - IS yours a Li-Ion battery? I know they are available, but given the comparative cost (> 6 x conventional Lead Acid), I couldn't see any advantage unless I was heavily into off grid, when it would power an inverter better, and probably (?) recharge faster, and I assumed yours was conventional lead acid.

Caravan electrics are fun, while close to 100% of electrics are switched off from a master switch, there are likely control units and burglar alarms that remain as current draws.

[Tim Hall]

Carrying on with the Makita theme, what are the options for Makita NiMH batteries that won't charge and give flashing lights on the charger saying they're U/S?  Said batteries have lain dormant in a cupboard for some considerable time.

[Ham]

Main option, is find an effective Kim-post to describe your situation

Secondary option, follow something like this https://www.instructables.com/Makita-18v-LXT-Lithium-ion-Battery-Repair/ with the assistance of this

[grams]

SteveC - IS yours a Li-Ion battery? I know they are available, but given the comparative cost (> 6 x conventional Lead Acid), I couldn't see any advantage unless I was heavily into off grid, when it would power an inverter better, and probably (?) recharge faster, and I assumed yours was conventional lead acid.

Lead acid batteries of all types are shite, apart from their (apparent) cheapness. The usable capacity of them is about 25-50% of the nameplate capacity without risking damage, whereas you can merrily use 90-100% of the capacity of lithiums. You can also permanently ruin them by moderately overdischarging them even once, whereas lithiums need to be repeatedly heavily overdischarged and even then will likely be revivable.

Lithiums can also put out high currents even when partly discharged. Lead acid can only do high currents when full or nearly full.

We only get away with them because most leisure batteries are barely used, especially if you’re going straight from car to campsite hookup. You could use a far smaller lighter lithium battery for the same purpose.

Charging speed is mostly a function of current, which is a function of voltage, which can be quite piddly at the far end of a trailer cable. If you want faster charging you need some sort of voltage booster / active charger at the caravan end.

[SteveC]

The leisure batteries are standard lead-acid. We have two due to me blagging a replacement when one died (the dying was probably my fault). They don't stay in the 'van when it's in storage, but come home and live in the garage. I only really mentioned them because I have the regular recharging regime in place and adding the Makita batteries to that would be fairly easy.
Most of our caravanning is not done on commercial sites so having reliable batteries is a must.

If we ever need to replace the 'van batteries I would certainly look at Li-ion ones. I didn't know such a thing existed until now!

[Tod28]

If we ever need to replace the 'van batteries I would certainly look at Li-ion ones.

They will be Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) rather than Li-ion and have a cycle life 4-5 times that of Li-ion.