-
If you are running a chopsaw or table saw onsite you NEED to have a mains powered unit if it's going to see anything more than light use - on big sites the battery charging station could be a 10 minute walk away. Also battery table and chopsaws are no where near as powerful as the mains counterparts so will struggle with tricky timber or difficult cuts.
Myself and most of the other guys.i work with tend to have 3 of each tool (this list doesn't include small sds drills, comvi drills or impact drivers but does include the likes of drywall screwguns): one battery one for occasional use pottering around site ticking off jobs on a snagging list, 240v mains powered units for general domestic work, 110v for big sites. Obviously if you only do domestic you won't have many 110v tools and if you only do commercial you won't have any 240v tools for work.
Trades that are only on site for a limited time and then go will rely on battery units much more than any other trades because they don't have to worry about PAT testing as much or going through lengthy PAT test records with the PCs health and safety man.
Bobbo-
Interesting, one of my brothers is a landscape gardener and the other is a carpenter, both working on big new build sites, they are saying that more people are starting to switch over to cordless even for big tools, apparently they can run a Milwaukee chop saw for the whole day off of 2 12ah batteries with no issues at all. Their reasoning was as you said not having to bother with PAT testing and lugging stuff round, whack it all in some pack out cases and stick it on the trolley.
-
My old man used to insist in 110v tools for home use.
Zero practical benefit, and a very attractive target for tea leaves.
Which is why he was regularly cleared out of all of them...
-
We dont have any issues with charging stations or ten min walks to get batteries as we only do domestic thankfully.
-
They’ll still need to have the chargers PAT tested, so not sure there are many gains there!
Sam_w
NotThamesWater
konastab01
Dramatic_Hammer
Yeah to be fair I think the big batteries are a great idea if you are running a chopsaw on site all day every day, no need to worry about lugging around a 110v transformer and having a H&S guy tell you off for making trip hazards.