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The leaf blower battery can be used to charge a laptop. The drill battery should be charged. We should be able to charge those power tool batteries while we are at it.
There is nothing different between a power tool battery from DeWalt and a battery bank from Anker. Power tool batteries need a powerful port to do all that.
Until now, that has not been a thing.
You can add that port to any power tool battery with the DeWalt DCB094 kit. You can get a bi-directional 100WUSB-CPD port with this quarter-pound accessory. Not only can you charge up to a MacBook Pro-sized laptop with a big enough DeWalt pack, you can also charge those packs with your laptop or phone'susb-C charging port.
Everything from the cheap 1.3Ah packs that came with your loss-leader combo kit to the massive 15Ah FlexVolt packs are supported. Outside of power stations, it is the biggest battery you can find.
I had a drawer full of DeWalt batteries in my garage and I couldn't wait to use it. It is not quite what I was hoping for.
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I have been testing the DeWalt DCB094 for months and it works.
I used the 15Ah pack from DeWalt to charge my wife's Macbook Pro three times, and still had gas in the tank. What do you think about my steam deck? It took me 10 hours to charge up the 40.06Wh pack. I knew there was no way I would run out of juice when I plugged my phone into a 6Ah pack.
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I tried every DeWalt 20V battery I could get my hands on. I have two 1.5Ah packs, one 1.7Ah pack, two 5Ah packs, and two 6Ah packs that I rarely use. I put them all over that port so they could charge up to 100W in either direction.
When it came time to refill those power tool batteries, the 100WUSB-C port sometimes let me do it faster than DeWalt's AC adapter. Even though DeWalt only ships the DCB094 with a 65WUSB-C charge, it should still offer a faster charging rate than the company's cheaper AC adapters. I was able to shave off time over my 4A (80W) DeWalt AC adapter when I added my own 100WUSB-C charger.
How much I got out of the batteries is similar to how fast I got them charged.
| DeWalt battery | Battery condition | 65W USB-C charger + adapter | 100W USB-C charger + adapter | 4A DeWalt wall charger (DCB115) | Steam Deck charge from DeWalt battery* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeWalt battery | Battery condition | 65W USB-C charger + adapter | 100W USB-C charger + adapter | 4A DeWalt wall charger (DCB115) | Steam Deck charge from DeWalt battery* |
| 1.5Ah (30Wh) | Moderately used | 26 minutes | 27 minutes | 22 minutes | 21Wh (half charge) |
| 1.7Ah (34Wh) | Brand new | 30 minutes | 26 minutes | 26 minutes | 22.8Wh (half charge) |
| 4.0Ah (80Wh) | Heavily used | 55 minutes | 51 minutes | 47 minutes | 48Wh (1 charge) |
| 5Ah (100Wh) | Moderately used | 1h, 29m | 1h, 5m | 1h, 14m | 66Wh (1.5 charges) |
| 6Ah (120Wh) | Lightly used | 1h, 47m | 1h, 24m | 1h, 29m | 84Wh (2 charges) |
| 15Ah (300Wh) | Brand new | 4h, 33m | 3h, 14m | 4h, 6m | 206Wh (5 charges) |
If I drained a battery and ran it all the way down in a leaf blower or drill until it wouldn't spin anymore, I didn't have a problem. Sometimes I had to put it in a different battery or charging point. You can't charge a DeWalt battery with another DeWalt battery. I attempted.
Why am I giving it a 6 if it works well? When you don't pair it with a 15Ah battery, the DeWalt's advantages begin to diminish.
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They didn't charge needy devices long enough to justify reaching for them over a traditional battery bank.
Transfer losses are likely to be a part of that. It is not possible to fully charge a 100Wh laptop battery with a 100Wh battery pack. The HyperJuice got uncomfortably hot to the touch when I charged it with the DeWaltadapter. The 6Ah (120Wh) DCB206 only gave me 80Wh worth of steam deck battery life, so I saw losses of between 20 percent and 33 percent.
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If we assume I don't have to buy the DeWalt battery because I already have one for my tools, then the 6Ah battery is twice as heavy as my HyperJuice. I might only be looking at 66Wh of power for my gadgets, since DeWalt's 5Ah battery is only a little lighter.
When you consider the fact that DeWalt batteries are pricey and heavy for the capacity they typically offer, I can't recommend anyone buy into the DeWalt ecosystem just for this feature, unless they really need rugged batteries that can charge their devices and power tools on the go.
If you have a lot of DeWalt batteries in your garage, what do you do with them? If I didn't have a power bank or two, I would spend $100. There is a lot to like between the 5A charging speeds and the 100W output.
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I want DeWalt and company to stick theusb-c port on the battery so we don't have to mess with the adapters at all. Sean Fitzgibbons, DeWalt product manager, told me in January that the DCB094 could be a bit of a test balloon.
DeWalt should do it. A lot of people would buy a native power tool battery, but they wouldn't consider a $100 accessory.
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