This might sound like a rhetorical question, but it’s not. Why buy a Metabo HPT 18V 1.5Ah Li-ion battery pack when the 3.0Ah battery is just $8 more?
Over at Amazon, I came across a new product listing for a Metabo HPT 18V 1.5Ah battery, priced at $30. The 3.0Ah battery is priced at $38.
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So why buy a battery that offers half the capacity but at only 21% savings? Or, if you look at the numbers from the other direction, the 3.0Ah battery offers double the charge capacity at only 1.27X the price.
I suppose that the 1.5Ah battery offers faster charging times. But, with the 3.0Ah battery you should get double the runtime.
The batteries should be comparably sized and weigh approximately the same.
I also find myself thinking about the name change, from Hitachi Power Tools to Metabo HPT. Did you know that the name-change kicked off one and a half years ago? I can understand the need for reminders – I still think “Hitachi” and not “Metabo HPT.” Maybe eventually we can start referring to the brand as simply “HPT?” I wonder how long it will be for “Metabo HPT” to sound right, but I digress.
Buy 3.0Ah Battery via Amazon
Buy 1.5Ah Battery via Amazon
The 1.5Ah battery isn’t new, but maybe this is the first time it’s available for sale under Metabo HPT branding? The model number, 333353M, doesn’t have all that many search engine results yet, although you can still buy the Hitachi-branded version, 330139/BSL1815X, also for $30. I’d guess the newly listed 1.5Ah battery has simply been rebranded under Metabo HPT.
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In my opinion, the 3.0Ah battery is still the better buy over both Hitach and Metabo HPT-branded 1.5Ah batteries. At $38, it’s one of the most affordable compact cordless power tool batteries on the market.
Ecotek
Can I point out that, and I’m sure you know, the 1.5ah battery doesn’t offer faster charge times, it simply will be topped off sooner. So, if you think about it, the 1.5ah doesn’t even really have that advantage. The 3.0ah will have 1.5ah of capacity waiting for you, if you took it off the charger after the same charging period. With all that said, there are certain tools that I will specifically grab my smaller batteries for, radio, oscillating multi tool, even drill/impact, depending on what I’m doing with them, etc. If I don’t need the capacity of a larger battery, why carry the weight?
Stuart
The charging rate is going to be the same, but charging time is different due to capacity.
A lot of people like charging a battery all the way to 100%.
Technically, if both batteries are fully depleted, some chargers will bring the 3.0Ah to a higher charge level than 1.5Ah in the same time, if the rate isn’t linear. The final say 10% of charge capacity might take longer. So, depending on the charger, a 3.0Ah battery could in theory be fully charged beyond 50% (1.5Ah) in the time it takes a 1.5Ah battery to reach 100% charge capacity.
Things get really messy fast if you want to be *exact*, and so I simplify things with generalizations and broad assumptions.
andy
You are right, the 3.0 will be charged to 1.5Ah in less time. Lithium Ion batteries charge with a CC/CV or constant current followed by constant voltage, which means the current will reduce until it reaches zero and the battery is charged. Some (maybe most) chargers are more advanced than this but the charging profile doesn’t depart from CC/CV that much.
Vards Uzvards
I don’t have BSL1815X (1.5Ah). A slightly “smaller” battery, BSL1815S (1.3Ah), is 13.33oz, and the larger battery, BSL1830C (3.0Ah), has very similar weight, 13.61oz.
Adam
I can think of one situation, and one situation only where having the smaller battery is desirable: using the tool in an uncomfortable position, like over your head. The lighter weight battery is far less stress on your body to lift up over your head repeatedly, and having 2-3 of them and a quick charger means you can cycle them just as fast as you can deplete them.
Stuart
But that’s exactly my point – the battery packs are the same size and weight. These 3.0Ah batteries are built with 18650 cells.
Adam
Oh I missed that point entirely in the post!
Same weight, more benefits, seems logical to go with the “larger” one.
John
I have over a dozen of the 3.0ah Hitachi batteries, as well as a 6.0ah and 2 of the M-HPT 36V batts. The 3ah are excellent, charge fast, good runtime, very lightweight and cheap in comparison to other brands. The 3ah doesn’t have a fuel gauge but it’s never been an issue for me, since the tools have them and that’s enough for real world work. I think the 1.5ah are pointless, little savings in weight, none in size and little in cost. The 3ah batts are great bang for buck. For about a year or so they were $30 each, prior to M-HPT name change.
My stable of Hitachi and M-HPT cordless tools contains 2 impacts, 2 drills, SDS-plus, new table saw, 5 nail guns, 2 bandsaws, circular saw, LEDs. All work for me day in day out for commercial work. Only one that has been less than ideal is the 16ga cordless nailer, just not enough power for some reason to sink full length nails. The 15ga and 18ga do just fine. Their cordless framers are incredible. The triple hammer is my go-to impact. The Hitachi triple hammer’s used price is higher then the M-HPT triple used price, go figure. I think to it was a mistake for the M-HPT power tools only accepting the 36V batts which are huge and heavy for small hand power tools.
Makita is my other choice for cordless too.
The What?
I don’t think people have caught on to the Metabo hpt thing yet. I don’t know if people will. Very few people have heard of Metabo therefore very few people are likely to be buying Metabo which is likely the reason for the cheaper battery pricing. Hitachi on the other hand was a very popular and widely available brand of tools. Metabo has never been available in stores until now and it still isn’t Metabo tools. It’s all rebranded hitachi tools. I’m sure people are like who the hell is Metabo when they go into Lowes looking for hitachi tools. I would. And I would likely spend my money on a brand I’ve heard of. And it’s their own fault for not taking the brick & mortar approach for selling their products or getting their name out there. There’s not a store in the US that you can walk into and buy a Metabo power tool. And the only tools of theirs that I’ve found for sale online are angle grinders which seems to be their bread and butter. Hitachi made a lot more tools than an angle grinder. It’s gonna take more than that to get themselves some notoriety even with the hitachi name advertising.
G
Metabo is pretty popular in the welding industry. A lot of pipeline guys like the German made grinders and their plate beveler really does a great job. That being said, there are quite a few smaller welding supplies who keep Metabo grinders in stock, you just dont see them at the big box stores. Which is a blessing to most welding supplies. You are not competing on price
John
Read up more, Metabo and Metabo HPT are two separate companies, separate tools, no overlap.
Metabo HPT (Hitachi Power Tools) is nothing more than renamed Hitachi tools here in America due to corporate buying/selling/splitting/name licensing of tool divisions with regard to USA versus rest of the world. For the rest of the world Hitachi tools are called Hikoki, same tools as Metabo HPT (again nothing to do with Metabo).
It was dumb of them to use the “Metabo” word in Metabo HPT because the average person just doesn’t pay attention nor read.
John Fal
I think most people are figuring it all out. Plus I think the brand will take off even more when the 36v multi volt hits stores like Lowes ect. I’m just glad the multi volt battery has LED bars. I miss not having a power gauge on my 3ah batteries but I do love how compact and light weight they are.
FlyFisher
Hitachi had a great reputation. Really wished Metabo had kept the name. I suspect Hitachi wanted to divorce itself from Metabo once Metabo bought the tools division.
Regardless, Metabo has not backed up the hype since taking over. No new tools and no initiative to chase Milwaukee’s vast 18v lineup. Disappointing. Try something simple, like a Pex Expansion Tool.
Stuart
You have it backwards – Hitachi acquired Metabo, and then a private equity firm bought them both.
If they were to keep the Hitachi name, it would have been under a licensing agreement with Hitachi, which means needing outside approval for any and all uses of the branding.
MattF
I still think Hikoki would have been the better name for the us market.
Jon Brown
If I had to buy batteries for my mother-in-law I would be inclined to save the $8…
On a serious note, I manage facility maintenance shop and if I had the option to pay $8 to get somewhere between double and triple my “trips to the charger” efficiency I would pay the upfront cost in a heartbeat.
Andrew
A couple of things to note:
If you’re lucky you can catch the 1.5ah Hitachi battery on clearance at Lowe’s you can get it for $20. That’s not bad for a spare battery to maybe hold you over while 3.0ah batteries are charging, or just that little bit of extra time.
Second, I wouldn’t be surprised if the 1.5ah battery gets phased out of individual sale and only gets included in tool kits to make increase profit vs a comparable competitors kit.
Brett
Not really related to the battery thing but FYI Lowe’s is slowly changing out Hitachi branded tools to Metabo and clearancing out the Hitachi branded stuff. Got a perfectly good pin nailer a few weeks ago for a song.
Jeff
As somebody who sets pricing of software products for a living, I have to assume that few would choose the 1.5, but that’s the point. Perception of value is powerful is better framed by relative value rather than absolute.
Hypothetical: If we wanted to unload a certain SKU at $100 but people didn’t perceive it valuable enough to justify $100, we could squeeze on margin to go down, or we could — in some cases consider actually using a different version of the same product to establish the low end at lower relative value. I’m less familiar with costs in consumer manufacturing than software, but generally the good-better-best versioning psychology can be used to get people to buy a higher-priced option because they see the lesser-priced option as not as much relative value.
For me I’d guess they no longer want to make the 1.5a (or at least reduce the scale of it) and are intentionally either inflating its price (or reducing the 3.0) to intentionally deflect volume to 3.0 because we’ll all look at it, write blog posts, and even comment (first time commenter) at how silly it appears.
But sometimes people do things that don’t make sense, so could just be that too.
Cheers – thanks for the time you spend on this stuff man!
Joseph
If they’re using the same cell form factor, the 1500 cells likely have lower internal resistance and have a higher amperage rating. This would result in longer operational life. Now if it’s 18650 to 21700, that’s a different story.
Stuart
In theory, yes. But in practice, it’s not very relevant in the context of the tools these compact batteries are often used with.