Test: New batteries give the circular saw more power – but it's not for everyone

Wires are living on borrowed. The tool, which in the past always required a nearby electrical outlet, can increasingly be purchased with the crabs clinging to their batteries, which according to the manufacturers have the strength enough to cope with even very demanding tasks.

Immediately, it could thus look out for that everyday life can already be a lot more everyday and effortless for those who use heavier machines. But the question is whether the technology is ready to deliver the promised freedom – or whether, as with electric cars still require compromises to switch to battery mode.

It has Ekstra Bladet set out to investigate by putting four of the latest, powerful batteries from Bosch, Milwaukee, Dewalt and Metabo, each in a circular saw and let the tv carpenter Casper Kjerumgaard test them in its daily work through a month.

He has along the way used rundsavene to cut the battens, plywood and boards to the length. A terrasseprojekt it has also been to, but he does not hide that he was skeptical to begin with.

- When we started, I was colored by my experience and thought, it here does not work. But when I had tried them a little, I was wildly impressed with what they could. They cut just and have not gone cold – and it doesn't matter whether I have cut spærtræ or plates, says Casper Kjerumgaard.

the Batteries are all 18V, but varies from seven amperes at Bosch over the Metabos eight amps and Dewalt and Milwaukee, which are both involved with batteries, at nine amps. The batteries are in other words not 100 percent identical, but each have their strengths and weaknesses.

It is, according to Casper Kjerumgaard important to make clear what one should use his machine to in the daily before you buy.

- no matter which brand you take, so they can't have it all. Should you be standing day in and day out on countless take, then you should probably choose something with muscles – but then it might not weigh so much. Is it betonmand, who make storebæltsbroer, then don't do it so much, that the battery is a little heavy. Then you have the still huge muller and drinking porter at lunch, he laughs.

All four combinations of batteries and circular saws provides, according to the Casper Kjerumgaard a very powerful result, but one should especially consider if you weigh extra long durability or weight the highest.

The more amps the battery has, the longer there in the rule, before the power is exhausted, and the Milwaukee and Dewalt leads, therefore, on this parameter. In turn, they are also noticeably heavier than the other two testmaskiner, which still offers a relatively long shelf life.

Casper Kjerumgaard can easily get an eye on the tradesmen, that will get good use for the extra power and durability, as the two americans, Dewalt and Milwaukee, with the big 9 Ah batteries.

It is the craftsmen who are with Casper Kjerumsgaards words 'go with lægtehammer in the ago, beats the battens with nails instead of screws and they toil away as they were on the chord'.

For tv-the carpenter himself plays the weight, however, a greater role than durability. For as he says, 'most probably a extra battery in the car, sitting and leave.

If I had to choose between having one large battery that could stay all day, and then two, where the one stood and charged, then I would go with two. I must still down to go to the bathroom, eat lunch and have my break, says Casper Kjerumgaard and adds:

- It is not the case, that I am the one and alone out on a deserted island, and it is one battery, I die.

Casper Kjerumgaard would personally choose Bosch with the slightly smaller and lighter battery, since, in his view, provides a multi-purpose circular saw. The four testmaskiner is, however, dominant in their field, he believes.

- It is the top of the cake, it's here, but they are each in their own shelf: Bosch is a good all-purpose solution, and Dewalt I would call a bulldozer with the battery. Milwaukee can stand to be the carpenter's best friend, and Metabos solution provides a truly high-end hobbysav.

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Metabo

Indicative price for two 8 Ah batteries and charger: 4199 kr. excl. vat. Photo: Mathias Grams
Battery: Li-HD 18V 8 Ah

KS 18 LTX 57

" This feels like the easiest package of the four, even though the battery is 8 Ah. The saw blade is in turn also a bit more plastikagtig than the other.

- Immediately makes me think that it is a do-it-yourself-machine. But definitely a high-end ones, for it has all the same adjustments and great grip as the others.

- It has, however, not as good balance and control on the large battery – instead, it seems to make Metabo-machine a little heavy in the back.

- If you think the others get too heavy, so can Metabo be an alternative – but so many grams do you save not. In my eyes the weight must not be the most important parameter, if the housing ruptures, because it is made of plastic, so it's just not good enough, says Casper Kjerumgaard.

Milwaukee

Indicative price for two 9 Ah batteries and charger: 5398 kr. excl. vat. Photo: Mathias Grams
Battery: M18 RedLithium-ion 9 Ah

the M18 Fuel CCS55-902X

- here is a delicious circular saw. It runs away and has a good balance despite the large battery. When you get this kit in hand, so you sense that you have a lot of power available.

- saw blade gets a little heavy with 9 Ah in length. In return, it has a pretty cool hook so you can hang the saw blade on the battens, while we are on the roof. Can it hang here most of the time, so that makes it maybe not so much with the large battery. But cut day long, so being the heavy.

- It is a really tømrermaskine, there are simple without too much lirum larum. I should have a machine that could just deliver the power, so I would choose the here package. I would not at all be in doubt, says Casper Kjerumgaard.

Dewalt

Indicative price for the battery: 1398 kr. excl. vat. For the circular saw: 1198 kr. excl. vat. Photo: Mathias Grams
Battery: XR Flexvolt 18V 9 Ah

18V XR Li-Ion DCS391M2

- the brands with the same that the saw blade is made for a large battery. The handle is more horizontal than at the other, and it is really good thought. Usually, one must tilt the hand forward when you cut, but here the arm rest. It makes it easier to keep out, that the battery is heavier. But we cannot deny that it is a heavy package.

- saw blade exudes kraftkarl, so you are just by faith, and runs off with one, when you press start. You sense immediately that you have something stuff in your hand, not just going in pieces.

- It is possible to buy a støvsugerudtag, but it is unfortunately not on the testmaskinen. It should be noted, says Casper Kjerumgaard.

Bosch

Indicative price for the battery: 1598 kr. excl. vat. For the circular saw: 1578 kr. excl. vat. Photo: Mathias Grams
Battery: Bosch ProCore 18V 7 Ah

GKS 18V-57

- Overall, it is the coolest multi-purpose machine of the four. It has a good weight and balance with 7 Ah battery, and it lies good in the hand. The will you could go with a whole day.

- I'm running with ProCore-the batteries on my own machines, I think the Bosch can something purely batterimæssigt, which they are not quite the performer in the same way. But the circular saw has the smallest battery of the four, and puts a strip on and let rundsavene run, so I'm pretty sure that the others will run longer. Bosch is, however, on the road with bigger batteries, which will perhaps match the other on power.

- hand-held circular saw is available supposedly with a støvsugerudtag, but it does not sit on the testmodellen. It is a ommer, says Casper Kjerumgaard.