Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day the Dewalt 20-Volt MAX Battery Adapter Kit.  As many of you know I am a huge fan of Dewalt Tools, I have quite a few I have owned for over a decade. Drills, Reciprocating Saws, Circular Saws, you name it, I have it and if I cut myself with one I might just bleed Dewalt yellow.

Like many I settled on the 18Volt line of tools many years ago and was very happy with them.  The batteries for these tools may have been old school NiCad but they were bullet proof and I often got 5 years of steady use before they went south.  Lately that has changed, the NiCads Dewalt is making today are just not what they used to be.

I guess this is a combination of wanting to move the installed base to the new 20Volt Lithiums, and simply that when a company, any company invests in a new line the old line is no longer a real priority.   But what is a guy like me with over half a dozen great tools to do?  Keep buying sub quality batteries?  Pawn all my shit for a fraction of its real value and buy new stuff?

Well, option three is what I went for.  Last week I was at Lowes and found the Dewalt 20-Volt MAX Battery Adapter Kit just sitting there looking at me.  That very day I had tossed another old school battery out.  So I thought what the hell and picked it up for 149.99.  My old tools are like new again, all the power is back!

The kit is a great solution it is not perfect but it is good.  If you read some of the lower rated reviews you will not that the main complaint is that if you leave the battery attached to the adapter it slowly drains the battery.  Okay, great as long as you know that it isn’t a big deal, when you are done remove the battery and fricken charge it, that is a best practice anyway and Lithiums have no memory so there is no reason not to.

The other is the balance and feel of your tools isn’t what you are used to.  The lithium is lighter but more powerful, the adapter makes the entire pack a bit longer than the old 18VDCs did.  It isn’t a big deal but you do notice it.

The other issue is going from tool to tool, you either need more adapters or you need to swap the battery when you go from say a drill to a saw.  If I really like it long term, I will buy a second adapter, perhaps a full kit because the charger, two batteries and adapter together are a great deal over a la carte.  Again this isn’t a big deal but I like to be honest about what I recommend, both the good and bad as very few things are perfect.

Here is the last problem, Dewalt got what it wanted from people like me.  I now have two 20Vdc Lithium Batteries and a charger, I will buy more, I know that now.  So what am I olgingly longly now like some school girl, other new Dewalt Tools of course.  Yea I have a drill but two is one and one is none and man this one is a beast!  Oh and have you seen the new Dewalt Cordless Nailer?  I have got to get one of those!

Yep over the next year Dewalt will get more of my money.  I was perfectly happy with my 10 plus year old tools but now I have the new light saber batteries and it opens up a whole new world of Big Yellow in my shop.  There are worse problems to have.

I thought long and hard about buying the adapter kit or just moving on to the new line.  The issue there is it isn’t a real solution unless I spend a LOT of money right away to replace everything.  Now my plan is simple, watch for special deals and sales and upgrade a piece at a time.  Move the older tools into the two is one and one is none mindset and get into the modern age of power.

If you have 18VDC Dewalt tools, consider the Dewalt 20-Volt MAX Battery Adapter Kit as it is one of the less financially painful ways to move forward and stay with Old Yellow.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com