I have a fair bit of construction tools (DeWalt brand) but the batteries are damn expensive
Is it unethical to buy the cheaper compatible batteries
Why would that be unethical? I honestly don’t even understand this question, of course it wouldn’t be.
No ethical consumption in capitalism….
I think the most ethical would be buying used, no?
Used batteries would already be at degraded capacity, but I guess it’s ethical at least, if you can save it from going to a fucking landfill.
This feels like a trick question. 🤔
Am I missing something here? Where’s the potential immorality behind it? Maybe if they’re work tools and the cheaper batteries ruined the tools over time, sure, there could be an argument for it…
The only way this could be unethical is if your employer gave you the money for buying original batteries and you bought cheaper knock-offs instead, pocketing the remainder.
Funnily, my former job had minimal theft - it was always identified and solved to either’s benefit - until a new owner bought over and started copping around & placing friends… The ethical issues during that period were interesting.
I’ve bought several knockoff tools that work with DeWalt batteries and I have an adapter that lets me use a DeWalt battery in my old craftsman drill.
Unethical is making the tools such that the battery case is incompatible with any other tool. FYI, all tool batteries are just a bunch of 18650 style cells (little bigger than a AA). They are literally all the same inside. Because of greedy corporations, we have to buy different batteries for different tools with different chargers. You know, like back before all phones were usb-c?
There should be a universal tool battery spec. Instead they are all a little different so they can make money and we get tons of e-waste.
I believe in the eu they have standard batteries. It’s just us schmucks in the usa that get this bullshit.
you mean, someone else found a way to do the exact same job but cheaper? According to capitalism, all is as it should be and you should rest easy buying the knockoffs.
More pragmatically speaking, from what I recall when I watched AvE (before he revealed himself as a canadian maga), the performance of knockoff batteries was in general adequate as long as you didn’t expect the same low temperature performance. That’s apparently where knockoffs and the legitimate batteries tend to differ, is when you’ve got to use them in freezing temperatures. So if you’re planning on using your power tools in a frozen shithole, stick to buying legit batteries – I know you were asking about the ethical concerns, but that’s something else to keep in mind. but imo fuck DeWalt, they’ve already got their pound of flesh out of you buying the legit tools in the first place.
Say it isn’t so. AvE is MAGA?
I knew someone was gonna ask me about this, so allow me to clarify: I don’t know that for a fact, but I picked up on bits and pieces and you would too if you watched him long enough. The thing that made me say “yeah this dude’s politics are probably problematic” was when he put out a video in support of the Freedom Convoy. He never came out and straight up said he loved Trump or Poilievre or whatever – at least not up until then, but that was the point I stopped watching. But it was enough altogether that made me go “yeah nah I don’t need to watch this dude I’ve got other ‘make/do cool things’ youtubers I can enjoy”.
I do miss the old AVE. Pretty big bummer that he bought into all of that Covid and maga crap. Though his content was shifting away from my interest soon before that anyway, so it wasn’t a huge loss. Now if TOT or Bad Obsession starts bleeding stupid, it’s gonna sting.
I could only imagine BOM getting political if tea, biscuits, or funk were being banned
oh good someone else remembers he went this way, too, I’m not just imagining it.
Personally I’m quite a fan of Peter Brown, Styropyro, Chronova Engineering, Attoparsec, and Robert Dunn’s channels (the woodworking/maker channel Under Dunn, the car channel Aging Wheels, they’re both fantastic), to name just a few of the better ones. I do genuinely miss AvE’s storytelling abilities and Red Green style humor, but there are still lots of people who are enjoyable to watch who I don’t think support fascists, or at least have the good sense to keep it to themselves.
What sort of circumstance could possibly make buying cheaper compatible batteries unethical?
- Did you make an express promise to only buy brand-name batteries? (I.e., are they paying you money to showcase their brand? Did you lease or rent tools with a contract that specified brand-name-only batteries? )
- Are you spending someone else’s money who wants name brand batteries?
- Are the third-party batteries illegal in your country?
- Is there a known greater ecological harm in the manufacture of the third-party batteries?
- Are you expecting to have your power tools be harmed by the third party batteries and returning them for warranty repair you caused?
For a typical consumer in America, and likely most professional contractors, the answer is “no” to all of these. And DeWalt apparently only offers a one year warranty that specifically excludes “normal wear and tear”.
https://www.dewalt.com/en-us/support/warranty
Anything up to and including prying open the proprietary casing and swapping in new cells is entirely ethical.
Inhumane labor to reduce costs
The “originals” will be built in the exact same Chinese factories by the same workers.
The only difference is which brand’s QC controls they pass.
It’s unethical, because when you buy compatible batteries the DeWalt CEO may have to wait a month more for his second yacht.
/S
This can’t be a real question
It’s unethical for companies to force you to buy overpriced essential parts. If you find a compatible battery for cheaper, there’s no reason not to buy it. Unless the company prevents third-party batteries from working in their products…
Nothing unethical about finding a better price.
I’m no kind of expert, but as I understand it, lithium-ion batteries are something to be treated with significant care & caution. Poorly-constructed ones for example are evidently more prone to developing filament damage and becoming exposed out of their protective cases, with the fire risk (in the presence of O2) scaling up by size. Actively charging from AC seems to boost that risk.
So it seems pretty clear to me-- research that sucker when you’re buying replacement cells / batteries, or simply dealing with an old, poorly-performing one. Even if the risk of an Li+ cell event is less than 1% (or whatever), avoiding the disaster of that seems pretty wise to me. Personally, I charge my Android devices and my DeWalt module in a metal container, just in case. Also, old cells are stored in steel baking pans & similar.
This sounds like it was written by a bot. My local recycling center has a huge bin of old lithium power tool batteries and in 8 years, I have never seen a burnt one.
You guys are delusional if you think brand = higher quality.
This sounds like it was written by a bot.
Okaaayyy… I guess I’d be interested to hear how that’s working in your mind. Care to explain?
I have never seen a burnt one.
Really, were you expecting them to keep the remains of the few that created dangerous fires around for you to examine? Were you hoping to see a little pile of melted plastic and ashes, is that it?
You guys are delusional if you think brand = higher quality.
And you lack reading comprehension if you think that’s what I said. Want to try again, boss?
He is right though, a lot of offbrand power tool batteries have dangerous construction
Are the cheaper batteries better than the expensive ones? If not, dewalt is charging you for a superior product, which is fair IMO. Is the difference big enough to justify the difference? That’s up to the customer to decide. If the difference is not worth it, just buy the cheaper one instead.
Is any of this ethical? Probably not. I suspect both manufacturers have poor labor practices and a negative environmental impact. The way I see it, consumers are destroying the planet through indirect means for the most part. Directly, if you’re burning gasoline, and indirectly, when you’re buying stuff from various companies. Those companies are directly destroying the planet buy burning stuff, leaking toxic chemicals into the groundwater etc. If you’re worried about ethics, you might want to look into the environmental impact these two companies have. If you’re serious about this, you might need to do a proper life cycle analysis of the entire production chain, but that’s a topic for another thesis.
The cheaper batteries may have a lower true Wh capacity.
But given the cost difference, I’ve found they have a much higher value - I get 80% of the capacity for 30%-50% of the cost.
And you always want to have at least 2 or more batteries to ensure sufficient runtime.
Sounds like a very reasonable compromise.
You have to keep in mind that power tool batteries are kind of the worst case scenario when it comes to lithium battery safety because they get knocked around, shoved into tool boxes, crushed, etc. of all the consumer products most at risk of fire, tool batteries are up there. That’s part of the reason they are so expensive. At the same time, knock off 18650 cells are generally well known fire hazards on their own.
I think it’s up to you what your risk tolerances are, but if a DeWalt battery burns my house down, at least you have a company to sue. If the Temu battery does the same thing, you are going to be SoL. I’ve been building and repairing various kinds of packs for more than a decade and am quite wary of random bootleg cells. I’ve never had a real Panasonic or Samsung cell fail, only knockoffs.
That’s called the other side of the coin of the free market economy. Capitalism.
You sell your tool’s battery for $200/ah? Someone makes the same thing without the tag that is compatible with the same ah rating but without your warranty for $50 and I buy it from them, you lower your price or see your sales drop off a cliff
What you think anyone should actually subscribe to the Ethics for thee but not for me model?
BTW I’ll be buying some aftermarket tabless 12ah batteries for my Ego tools when they kick and guess what I won’t be paying for 6 of them… $4,000
Yes, four. thousand. dollars.
I’ll be spending less than $1,000.
The fuck? Of course not.
Corporations aren’t people. You can’t harm them.
And even if they were, you wouldn’t owe them loyalty.
Intellectual property isn’t real.
I like TechDirt’s rephrasing to call it imaginary property.
Nope, why would it be?
The only concern that I would have buying off brand batteries is durability. The left something out to make it significantly cheaper and batteries are notorious for unexpectedly catching fire.
Have you actually seen these fires in reality? If I were a CEO of a US based tool company making everything in China, I would certainly invest in a PR firm to convince people the exact same battery without a brand would catch fire.
Frankly, Lowes and Home Depot have been repeatedly been caught selling counterfeit tools, so even branding wont save you.
Yes, I’m special hazards and life safety engineer. I design fire suppression systems and fire alarm systems.
Oh shit, got em
Why do you think it could be unethical?
