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written by Beowulf , November 08, 2007

I cannot give this a rating on performance as I have not tested the battery on a project. However, I will give this new Nano battery a resounding ZERO stars on fit with the existing 18V NiCad line. Although it does plug in, it does not even remotely match the body lines of the battery interface.

The new battery is shorter in length than the XRP. This means the edge of the tool body sticks out past the body of the nano, both front and rear. I undestand that they are doing this to not only make a smaller tool, but to annoy current owners enough to buy the new tool. But, owning many of the current desings, I don't see that happeing any time soon.

This is one place were Milwaukee has beaten Dewalt. Their 18V Lithium matches the body lines of their current 18V NiCad series. Now do I plan to switch to Milwaukee, no. But, at the same time I will not be buying any Dewalt Nanos until all my NiCads are dead and no new NiCads can be purchased or unless they come out with a Nano that matches the XRP footprint.

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written by Ben Jackson , November 08, 2007

Beowulf,

I'd agree with you-the fit of Nano batteries on non-Nano 18v tools is definitely not the most aesthetically pleasing design. We are posting an article tomorrow that has some photos of this issue.

However...
..A DeWalt rep told me that the "foot" on the bottom of some XRP tools can be switched out (by a DeWalt service center) to fit the new Nano better. I'll publish an article about that here on Toologics if I can find out more information about it.

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written by Guest , November 09, 2007

Now you have me intriqued. I would like to see this switch out of the battery footprint. I'm not sure how that would work since the footprint is part of the whole body on most of the tools.

If they do come out with a half way adequate new foot I'd be likely to switch if the preformance numbers show promise.