We Built the Best Power Tool Battery for the "Worst" Brand 

This is EXACTLY the kind of experimentation that I like to see from you guys.Great job!.

I have Makita battery packs that are around 10 years old and are just now dying off. I appreciate a tool that is somewhat dialed back and favors longevity. I would consider myself an above average weekend warrior, not a full time contractor so take my testimony for what it is.

I build tool batteries for fun all the time for my landscaping business. Love molicel, however the 30t is my go-to, especially when needing every possible bean. Nickel copper sandwich connections will fix any overheating issues. Loving the next level science in your latest content 💪. I don't believe I have ever posted a comment on a video before but this one deserved it!

3/4 of my battery packs are self made super packs now. Definitely worth the effort on all brands. My Makita, DeWalt and Milwaukee all work way better than stock.

I'm amazed the BMS inside these packs isn't the "evil" type that bricks itself once you disconnect the cells!

I have a 3.0 Makita battery I bought new in 2008 that still holds a good charge and that I still use. It's 15 years old now, lol.

I own Makita tools, because my father had Makita tools. He built the house I grew up in with a Makita 7.2 NiCD screw gun. My Grandfather used Makita. That being said, I'm pretty sure I'm the average Makita customer. I don't care what Team Red or Team Yellow are doing. They do everything I need and will for the next 20 years.

Any reason you didn’t use one of those adapters to use different brand batteries with different tools? If nothing else, that could be a video on its own, testing to see if there’s any power loss or boost from swapping them around. Keep up the great videos y’all!

As a battery pack rebuild hobbyist (my wife doesn't understand) this is one of the coolest videos I've seen anyone do on the subject. I have rebuilt multiple M12 3-cell packs, but I think it's time to graduate to rebuilding my 4.0 M18s. The Molicel P45B and P28B are truly the business! Thanks for the great work!

Wow so glad you are doing custom makita batteries! I have made something similar with xgt ones, they have better pcbs abd build quality in general and I used cells that are even more powerful than original xgt ones. I have also used P45B in one pack, they are crazy. Just like P28B 18650s that are even more powerful and have more capacity than 25S. Speaking of which, they are used in metabo hpt's 2.5ah multivolt packs, and their equivalent vtc5a from murata/sony is used in xgt 2.5 so you basically made that pack :) Interesting to see that grinder gets so much more power from upgraded pack, I assumed lxt tools would be limited internally since makita doesn't make powerful 18v packs. Also in eu xgt tax is much much lower, with most tools only being just slightly more costly compared to lxt, but batteries are much costlier, that is why I made my own :D

I definitely laughed when I saw the can of beans on the graph

As a contractor I can say that my Makita 5ah batteries work all day, every day. I haven't touched my milwaukee super sawzall, or mag 77 since i bought brushless makita tools. I also run Milwaukee m12 drivers and a drill as they fit in my belt perfectly, but I'm makita all the way otherwise. Also, like infants, you can only drop densely weighted electronics so many times before things start to go wrong.

As an owner of of a large inventory of LXT tools, this is VERY informative. Thank you!!!

This is one of your best videos ever. Stepping outside the box is super interesting and just plain cool. Thanks for the video!

This is an awesome episode. I love you show us what we could get if they would update the batteries. Keep up the amazing work!

Considering how much hay Ryobi seems to make keepin' on w nicad era battery compatibility but now doing the 21700 thing (hey, I switched from 14.4 Makita partly for that reason) this makes sense. I also love that the spot welder is a SeeSii.

As a battery nerd, it hurt me to see you use those sad thin nickel strips on the tool battery at first, but got SO happy to see you DOUBLE STACK the 0.25mm strips using P45B's with a much better spot welder. My only compliant is not using the P28B's for the 18650 version as those blow the 25S's out of the water. The only thing better you could have done is either do the "copper nickel sandwich" method or TRIPLE STACK lol. This video also proves that it's not only about the battery cells inside, but the entire circuit design. The lower the resistance, the better. That's why they use monster thick copper strips (nickel plated i think), thicker wires inside the tool, and add extra contact points (see FLEX stacked batteries, Ridgid max output, etc). I myself redid an ancient Ridgid 3.0ah with P28A's, except I had a cheap spot welder and only 0.10mm of pure nickel. So I triple stacked it to get the most out of it with what i had. Ended up with a nice old/new 5.6ah pack for less than a new 4ah battery, cells and tools included. Freaking amazing video!

You guys go the extra mile to not only make great videos, honest tool reviews, real world comparisons, but you make simple improvements that produce great results! And it seems that tool companies are watching. Great job! Im waiting to see the dewalt flexvolt grinder tested!

Really awesome episode and great content as always. Keep up the great work guys!

Hand down the most honest and up front channel around. Excellent work.

I have various makita lxt tools and 4 and 5ah battery packs. Really glad you’ve made this video because a few have started to go so I’ll be able to rebuild/ upgrade them.

I saw these diy kits and got really curious, so glad you did a video on them!!

I have noticed that makita batteries, even though lower A/H, will last longer through the same job compared to Milwaukee with higher A/H comparable tools. And you really can't beat makitas charge time. I wish the rest of the industry would help develop battery technology. We've hit a point where all the tools are strong enough for their given applications and very close, but what matters is how many time you have to stop and charge or switch batteries and the extra fatigue from carrying bigger and heavier batteries to avoid that.

I found this interesting and very funny at the same time because we LXT users know that we can get after-market 9.0Ah batteries for years. And for less than any battery that size by any manufacturer. The big mystery is why Makita themselves never offer their battery in this format. 😕

Amen, brother! Thanks! Majority of my tools are LXT.... XGT is like changing to another brand.... I can't justify it. Great experiment...

Thanks for this video! I miss our Lear Jet 8. My dad had one in 1970; sadly it died shortly after he did several years later. We used it in the living room, versus a portable.

Happy Friday Friend! Have a great weekend and thank you for the video!

They questioned it and sought out a proper Diag and correction of issues. That's good.. Beats it becoming a pile of busted parts

Great episode! I've been wanting to swap the 3ah cells in my high output milwaukee battery's for the new molicel p45b, mainly wanting to see slightly longer runtime, and also swap some Nee p28b cells into a dead 4.0 M12 battery great info on this video!

Makes you wonder if you can see gains from a STOCK battery just by upgrading its nickel strips to reduce voltage drop.

Of course it works. But what about the unseen cost of possibly burning up a lot of older tools with these extra amps? Not sure if the tool protection circuitry was all that great when a lot of their 18v stuff came out. In my opinion, it would be a HUGE mistake for Makita to risk burning up trusted tools with a higher output battery. But that'd make a good video to test tool protection when Clyde Simpleton sits on the same lug nut for several minutes uninterrupted. haha! Makita has probably done the best job of drawing the line, albeit due to their own shortsightedness in sizing tools based on the 5ah pack footprint. They saw that they were close to the limit on 18v and the advantages of higher tool voltage. But they continue to produce new tools in both 18v and 40v platforms that are adequate to suit their customer's needs. I know the channel is all about the beans, but the vast majority of users just don't need all those beans. There is a market for beans, of course. But Makita and Milwaukee both cash in on platform tool variety. It's hard to switch, or add another platform to your inventory for 100 ft/lbs that you probably already have in your shop with air tools for that rare occasion that you need it. My analogy on this subject: Just because the speedometer goes to 120mph doesn't mean you should DRIVE at 120mph. The real elephant in the room is where does Milwaukee go with 18v? My opinion is that they have already gotten 99.5% of the juice out of the 18v lemon. And they did some unbelievable engineering in the process. But MX Fuel is too big for handheld tools and a bridge too far for most users. They are already going where they scoffed at Makita for: Dual pack tools. Now what Milwaukee? For the record, I'm happily, and heavily invested in BOTH Milwaukee and Makita's 18v platforms. They do what I need them to do, and they do it well. There are very few of them that get taxed heavily. And those are mostly M12 tools that I reach for most due to their lighter weight and small tool box footprint. I can just carry more of them. So it'd take one amazing, must have for me to even think about going to a 3rd high power platform. Don't get me wrong, this is a great video! Well done on the battery packs and the showing the evidence. Anyway, keep up the great content.

I can't understand why this channel doesn't have millions of subscribers?? I wont purchase a tool now till I come here first to see TTC's choices and tests on tools... Thanks Guys for all your hard work informing the masses...

I made a pair of 9.0Ah Makita batteries several years ago by 3D printing a spacer to allow for a triple stack of 15 Samsung 30q 18650’s (just made the battery about 20mm taller). They are great! Use them all the time especially with the 18x2 (36v) chainsaw, the extra capacity makes a huge difference to the usefulness and there is definitely more amperage available with less voltage sag. Really wish Makita would make official 9Ah batteries.

I'm all-Makita LXT. Frankly, if they made the batteries too chunky to fit in my x2 tools, no big deal. Just extend the ConnectX line to break out an x2 tool into x2 big-LXTs on a belt clip or something. The landscape tools already need a ConnectX to be usable anyway.

Awesome job man keep up the great videos thanks for sharing

powering a tool with a dc power supply and giving it all the amps would be interesting

It's interesting to see the different curves on that 15 second run right at the very end, the 3/4 Makita still has quite a steep curve indicating it is still making more torque, whereas the Milwaukee has started flatten out quite a lot. Would of been interesting to see if it flattened out at the 20s mark. It wouldn't surprise me if the Makita made more power than the Milwaukee after 20 seconds.

Love this content , just got some of the same new cells and had the same voltage drop issues

Awesome video! If used one of those battery adapters to run a M18 high output on my Makita tools how close can I get to the results of the crazy homebuilt Makita battery? Keep up the great content.

Well done. Great to see some hard torquing journalism. And a sprinkle of tinkering in between :)

Cheers guys, I really wanted you to test this 3/4 Makita impact.

makita has a mac charge/discharge cycle limiter as well, in japan they have a tool available that looks kind of like a charger that reads the chip in each battery and will tell you how many cycles its experienced

Excellent job. I was working on a Makita Beast also, you beat me to it! I am jealous of that spot welder...👍

I just did a mental inventory of my Makita LXT tools. None of them really need The Beans otherwise I would really like build that kit, too.

Holy shit!!!!!! very nice. This is one of my favorite channels. You guys are the truth.

I've been using the lxt platform since 2007 and because of this very problem I'm now moving over to milwaukee

I just did a project like this yesterday and today, no torque numbers, but I had knockoff milwaukee batteries that no longer charged, so I put molicel p28a 18650s in them. I now know I might want to get thicker plates than the ones that came with the seesii spot welder I got...

The LXT line can definitely use the larger cells... with the caviate that might not work with the 18v x2 or some other rare cases; but it would be great for long run tools like the lights and fans. Don't know if I'd like the extra lbs of batteries on the end of a drill, but saws and grinders would be okay. they could also do a redesign of future tools to accept all the larger packs for the x2 line up. my only thought of a non marketing reason for this not to have been done yet is the charger. It might not be rated for more than an hour of rapid charging. Charger has 2~way communications, it could put the battery in fault mode if it doesn't charge up as expected (like taking 2hrs vs 45mins to charge).

Love your channel! keep it up! do you have a link for the diy makita battery kit? I can only find one for the 18650's not the 21700 like used in your video. Thanks!

You should test the sisi tools with this beast. I'm sure they would love a taste of them extra beans as well!

Been waiting for this for months. Good stuff

Great video! But the question is, how is the quality on the bms in those Chinese battery kits?

Yeah I had the same thought, its like Makita gave up on updating the 18v battery's. Would have been nice if they went the FV route making a 20/40 FV pack.

Great video and DIY battery pack! You can always count on Bush's Batteries to bring the beans!

Thank you for the great video. You can‘t replace „the problem cells“, you always have to change all cells of the pack. Best Spotwelder is Kweld!

Test the high output XGT batteries (ones which model number end in "F" like 5ah and 8 ah) vs regular ones 🙏🙏 I notice a big difference.

Those Molicel P28A & P42As are HOT cells for sure. I've considered doing this exact thing before for curiosity's sake...But just didn't see the point in spending that kind of money to find out. Happy to see it here! SUper interesting

Pouch Cells (aka stacked lithium) would be a good alternative, since they would allow makita to keep the formfactor and 18x2 compatibility. And while the max output of round cells has gotten better pouch cells can drive much higher currents (I've got som with a 93c discharge rate pushing almost 100A out of an 1Ah cell -> ~450A from a 5 Ah cell). That would be mone ten enough. And active balancing would allow for really fast charge rates. The only drawbacks would be a little bit lower life expectanca and maby lower energy densiti meaning reduced total capacity.

Two points.. please put insulation strips on the positive side. With the connector heating up it can melt the jacket and touch the live case. Then you have a fire.. Remember the bms is also a limiting factor. At some point it wont matter how powerful the cells are tbe bms will be the bottleneck

Yes! More of this! 🤘🏽 Hell, I'd buy myself one or two "Beans" in red. The margins some brands have on them is criminal.

Now I'd love to see you guy to run the SeeSii tools you have on these modded battery packs.

I like the warning on the Samsung 25S: "Do not carry, handle, or install"

You guys could have done what I did and easier. Get a battery adapter. I run my Makita tools off of Core Bosch batteries and Metabo multivolt’s

Maybe Makita can keep it simple and just offer their current batteries alongside some new pouch cell batteries. This seems like a logical next step for the LXT battery line. Great episode! Lots of good info and a witty script. Especially interesting to me as I own/use a lot of DeWalt 20v and Makita LXT tools.

could you do a video on how you built that 9Ah battery? and/or link to where you bought the batteries?

25r's used to be the standard in vape stuff a few years ago but the sony vtc6 was the better choice with 3000mah and 30 amp discharge per cell. But they were more expensive at the time. Now in my ebikes, I use low discharge cells like 7 amp ones but add many in parallel.

I love hacking batteries (so long as safety precautions are made), I made an M12 battery that uses a lipo battery from an RC car, between the 5x higher current output combined with the 14.8v it is roudy

Would have loved to see this on a big drill or circ saw something that is really battery limited.

This was a GREAT episode!

You guys should look into what people are doing for electric skateboard batteries haha, we've been rocking molicel 21700's for quite awhile with stuff like braided copper series connections, and pushing some serious power out of these cells.

Great video & especially testing methodology. 👍 I’ve been building 18650 Molicel & Samsung cell packs for my Milwaukee M18’s for years and LOVE the extra beans they provide over stock Milwaukee packs. I’ve been building pouch LiPo cells for over 15 years for our RC planes & in the last 8 years, our racing drones, so am planning to do the same to all my Milwaukee tools if I can ever find the time. Talk about spicey! LiPo is just a little too dangerous for most people however.

They listened with a small blower 40V XGT - 18V LXT, so maybe they will also listen with batteries ... Great channel, always great content, cheers!

I'd like to see you test the cat graphene battery's. Interested how well they preform.

Absolutely. Fantastic. Video. Thank you my good man

I'm just here sitting in my apartment, only with a brushed 18v rigid drill/driver and impact driver combo with 2 1.5 amp batteries. I also have my daily apartment driver, an 8v NoCry electric screwdriver.

The Samsung 25s cells would be nice in a 2.5ah pack for Makita. Gives some more beans to the ratchet

Hope I can answer this for you, XGT began development around 2015. Makita wanted to keep lxt to be slim and light weight for the mid tier demands and lower job demands, know xgt would hand that and everything above. It’s part of the Japanese culture/mindset to have a specific tool for specific job instead of an all encompassing tool. This explains why you will find some of Makita tools “under power” for the American mindset. It’s not that they can’t but a motor capable of doing it like Milwaukee, Makita’s philosophy and global users don’t see the point.

Damn I love you guys!! Now this is just DOPE!

I have the big 9inch disc grinder (dual 18v) and I'm sure this would be heaven for it.

2:14 I dunno. As contractors and electricians we've been using them heavily for a decade and they've survived really abusive scenarios no problem. The first few batteries we bought are just starting to die after tens of thousands of hours of work.

I have never, EVER had a bad Makita battery, but I have had plenty of bad Milwaukee batteries.

The reason Makita don't up the battery is because they don't have to! Our company exclusively uses Makita tools and 5ah batteries and these tools get ABUSED! We're landscapers so work in dust, mud and rain and they just don't give up. The lower powered battery would protect the gearboxes too. My personal tool brand is Milwaukee and I've broken stuff in home shop use.

you guys ever think of building one of those giant custom LIPO packs with like 1ga wire to a remote M18 cassette just to have a fire?

Have you tried adapters. It would be interesting to see the same tool (makita) with other brand packs

Idea for future video, history of battery powered tools. What was the point where they went from being mostly know for garbage to better option to use over air powered (atleast for automotive use), or some other benchmark. I do remember them really being hot trash… but now, not so!

They make adapters to switch one brand of battery to another. I'd like to see how Makita does with a Dewalt powerstack.

I need more Craftsman debunking!! Are the just disguised dewalts? Also, awesome tunning!

Ya I know Makita makes some good stuff but I was told to avoid because of their batteries… apparently you get 2 “strikes” (over discharge, over temp, etc) and the circuit board shuts you down permanently!

Thank you for posting a link to the battery spot welder. That looks like one of the nicer ones I've seen. But, where did you get the 21700 cell battery case kit for Makita? ebay, aliexpress?

Loving the can o beans icon!

8:46 they already know this, and they definitely have a nice graph showing how life expectancy stays mostly flat up until you beef up the battery as you just did, perhaps they left a 10-20% buffer zone for future "upgraded" tools, but you have no idea if you simply filled that up or went beyond it and your tool will burn out within a month

Awesome content!!

The bigger pack would work just fine in the three 18Vx2 tools i have (weed eater, chainsaw, tracksaw). Only a few of them have silly placement like on the circular saw you showed.

Makita also can't make 15 cell batteries because of how they do cell balancing during charging. That kept them above the competition on charge speed for a long time. They've kept the same platform since 2005 though, so that is very impressive even if we're stuck with 18650s now. I'd also be pretty careful with those Aliexpress circuit boards. There is a reason why they're half the size. Do they even do cell balancing?

Imagine if our tools came with a simple coverable port on them so we could...plug them in if we wanted to. Great episode. If you're going to experiment, why not make some cordless tools corded?

You should use Country Style Bush's beans for The Beans battery pack since this is kind of a farmer fix.

Great work!

what I would really wish you would do is test dry verses oiled threads on the bolts

Like to see "The Beans" with Makita's DGA519 grinder - specs say 8500rpm - however it's X-Lock

Tools&stuff mentioned on several occasions that makita won't be improving the lxt 18v batteries. I haven't found a source for that, but I didn't look hard. And the price difference between lxt and xgt is quite massive for some tools.