Dewalt is getting into the cordless outdoor power tool business with 20 and 40 Li-Ion battery powered blowers, string trimmers and a hedge trimmer, all of them using brushless motors. I recently bought the 20 volt blower at my local Lowe's, and it's quite impressive with 400 max CFM and a 100 Wh battery weighing only 7.2 lbs. It's a bit pricey at $199, but seems worth it for the performance and quality. It actually outperforms my Ryobi 40 volt jet fan blower, while weighing 1-1/4 lbs less.
Quality seems very good, better than B&D, comparable to Bosch/Skil. The brushless motor is very smooth and the trigger very progressive. The molded plastic is very uniform and fits together well. The handle is the most comfortable I've ever seen with a soft contoured grip that fits a human hand perfectly. It also has a trigger lock like my Echo gas blower, that makes it super comfortable to use for long periods of time. I am really happy with it so far.
I'd estimate about 30 minutes on about half power with maybe 5 to 10 percent on full power. So far I've run it for about 10 minutes at a time before recharging, and it still had about 2/3 of a full charge remaining. No doubt if you run it at full power all the time, run time will be a lot less, maybe as little as 10 minutes.
#6
MowerMike
For any of you who might be interested in the 20 volt blower, Amazon has them in stock with a Father's Day $20 off promotion that's good through 6/21.
#7
MowerMike
Update on 7/11/15. The $20 price drop on the 20 volt tools (blower and trimmer) to $179 appears to be permanent now. I brought my purchase receipt to my local Lowe's store, and they cheerfully refunded the difference including sales tax.
#8
MowerMike
It looks like Dewalt is adding a 16" chainsaw to their 40 volt Li-Ion lineup.
This is helpful information. Thanks for sharing it Mike.
#10
MowerMike
Dewalt backpack blower
Dewalt will introduce a 40 volt Li-Ion backpack blower in March 2016. It will be sold with either one or two 7.5Ah batteries that can be carried in the backpack with a selector switch for the two battery ports. It promises 142 mph and 450 cfm maximum performance, which falls at the low end of gas backpack blowers. No pricing has been announced yet.