18 volt News & Reviews

Back in May, when writing about the introduction of the Makita 36-volt cordless chainsaw, I commented that I would personally like to see a cordless string trimmer. Well, guess what turned up on Makita's website of Friday? The Makita LXRU02Z 18-volt cordless string trimmer.

We first saw the Bosch 18V Multi-X pop up on the German website back in March, and then Bosch confirmed that it would be coming to the US when it made an appearance on their US Facebook page in May. We have been anticipating the 18V Multi-X for a while now, and finally Bosch has given us a release date and a price to go with it.

Back when I tested the Milwaukee M18 Fuel Brushless Hammer Drill, I found that it easily proved itself to be a powerhouse. It took on every task with speed, while also showing long battery life. Being that their M18 Fuel Impact driver is in the same M18 Fuel family, can it too prove to be a powerhouse? Let's find out.

It looks like Bosch US will be coming out with an 18-volt version of their oscillating multi-tool. They gave us a sneak peek at what is to come on their Facebook page. From the photo all we can really see is that it runs on 18-volts and has the tool-less blade change feature that is found on their corded models, but I suspect it is pretty much the same as the cordless model that is already available in Europe. No word on pricing or availability.

It may not be very well known, but Makita as a worldwide company has a pretty extensive line of outdoor power equipment. Still, I was surprised to see a couple of cordless chainsaw SKU's make an appearance on their U.S. website.

About 6 months ago I wrote about the Makita LXDT06 and its new Quick-Shift function after I spotted it on the Makita site. But shortly after I wrote about the new impact it was removed from the site. Now almost a year after Canada had it, it looks like we will finally have an opportunity to buy the LXDT06 for ourselves.

Literally, if you took all of the products Bosch Germany announced the other day and multiplied them by X, they would surly weigh a ton or more. There are so many tools I don't know where to start—how do tools that talk to your smart phone sound?

While some brands advertise that their cordless tools can be used with compact batteries and full sized batteries, Panasonic has gone one step further by making a series of dual voltage tools that accept both 14.4v and 18v batteries. Panasonic is also leading the charge with 4.2Ah batteries, the highest in the industry.

Milwaukee Tool has been really targeting and capturing the speciality tool market with their cordless line over the last few years. While most of their speciality tools fall under their M12 line, the newly announced Milwaukee cordless grease gun will indeed be powered by 18-volts.

Porter-Cable has announced a February release date for their new 20V Max Lithium-ion Drill and Impact Driver. And Tool-Rank still hates having to explain to people that 20V Max is the same as 18V.