Hardware retailer Harbor Freight offers tools and accessories from a variety of in-store brands
, including Pittsburgh, Central Forge, Predator, and more. Two of the chain's most noteworthy brands are its two primary purveyors of power tools, Hercules and Bauer. Both of these brands utilize rechargeable battery packs of various sizes and energy levels to power their respective power tools, like cordless drills, random orbit sanders, and reciprocating saws.Considering both of these brands are owned
and distributed by Harbor Freight, it'd be fair to assume that they're just the same brand with different colored bodies. This, in turn, would mean that their battery packs are actually the same and could be used interchangeably. Unfortunately, this is not the case; Hercules and Bauer may both be owned by Harbor Freight, but they are still entirely independent brands with their own, exclusive battery pack frameworks, which can't be utilized by any other brand's products. This could technically be circumvented through the use of third-party battery adapters, but doing so comes with its own set of warnings and risks.
Read more: 6 Non-DeWalt Tools That Work With DeWalt Batteries
Hercules And Bauer Batteries Are Not Natively Interchangeable
Despite being owned and distributed by Harbor Freight, both Hercules and Bauer are technically independent brands, managed and manufactured by their respective companies. As with any other hardware brand, such as Ryobi or Milwaukee, Hercules and Bauer's tool systems are designed to be exclusive, keeping you within their frameworks.
This exclusive design also extends to battery packs. While both brands are conceptually similar in how they use batteries with their tools, such as hooking the packs onto the bottoms of power drills, the devil is in the details. If you take a close look at the shapes of the connectors on the tops of Hercules and Bauer battery packs, as well as the counterpart connectors on the bottoms of Hercules and Bauer tools, you can see that their shapes are subtly different.
A Hercules battery has four notches in the far side for the contacts to link up, while a Bauer battery has five notches that serve the same purpose. Unless all of the notches on a battery are connected to a tool, it won't be able to deliver power. Even putting that aside, the rails that allow the batteries to connect to a tool are also different, with the rails on a Hercules battery moving at an angle, while the rails on a Bauer battery sit straight. You wouldn't be able to even attach a battery with different rails to a differently-branded tool.
Battery Adapters Could Allow The Batteries To Fit Other Tools, But This Presents Risks
Another major similarity between Bauer, Hercules, and other major hardware brands is that there are more than a few users who would very much like to be able to use whatever batteries they want on whatever tool they want. This is why there is an entire unofficial sector of third-party adapters that allow batteries from one brand to connect to a tool of another brand. Naturally, this includes adapters for both Hercules and Bauer tools and batteries, which would allow a Hercules battery to power a Bauer tool and vice versa.
However, it should be stressed that using battery adapters on these or any tools comes with potentially severe risks. All power tool batteries, even those from Harbor Freight's in-store brands, communicate directly to their counterpart tools via advanced internal systems. This helps to regulate and optimize power delivery for that specific tool-battery combination. When you use a battery adapter, you cut that means of communication and force the battery to simply deliver power. This can result in power delivery that's inadequate for the tool's needs, resulting in underwhelming performance. More concerningly, if the battery delivers too much power, it could end up burning out the tool's motor or shorting out the battery. It's even possible for the battery, the tool, or both to fail completely, and since adapters are third-party products, Harbor Freight's lifetime warranty won't help you, as it doesn't cover failures and damages incurred through unsanctioned accessories and modifications.
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Read the original article on SlashGear.
