WHAT IS POWERSTACK AND HOW DOES IT WORK

What is a Dewalt Powerstack?

Dewalt Powerstack is the latest innovation from Dewalt. With a redesign of battery technology, Dewalt Powerstack delivers longer runtimes for both power tools and your battery. With advancements in power, there is a reduction in both size and weight, meaning greater mobility.

Hi, I’m Darrell Morrison and in this article, I will be exploring the question “Is Dewalt Powerstack worth it and how does it work?”We have also included an FAQ on the Dewalt power stack at the end of the article if you’d like to head down there for a TLDR.

What is the Dewalt Powerstack compact battery?

The Dewalt Powerstack Battery boasts the following
(Comparing 2Ah Powerstack to 2Ah XR Models)

• 50% More Power
• 25% More Compact
• A Lighter Battery
• Longer runtime
• Approx 1000 Charge Cycles
• Dewalts Most Powerful Battery
• Dewalt’s Most Compact Battery

Packed with a powerful punch the Dewalt Powerstack Compact 18V Battery is Dewalt’s next step in battery technology. The POWERSTACK is an 18V battery with a sleek form factor.

Don’t let the size fool you, the Powerstack boasts a 2x battery life over the average XR batteries currently on offer by Dewalt. For example, if you were to charge the XR 2Ah (DCB183) Battery you would get around 500 cycles. The Dewalt Powerstack compact battery will charge 1000 times during its life cycle.

The Powerstack is also 25% more compact, offering the most condensed form factor of any Dewalt battery on the market thus far. If that wasn’t enough the Powerstack also claims to be 50% more powerful than the average XR battery.

When researching Powerstack I crawled the internet reading and watching testing results for hours. In every use case on every tool used, the Powerstack battery run circles around its counterparts. The 2Ah battery in some cases even outperformed the 5Ah XR. Bare in mind these tests were like for like, Same tool, same accessories, same user. Powerstack keeps to its end of the bargain, in testing the Powerstack has proven to increase (by a long shot) the performance of tools compared to the XR counterparts,

The 2Ah Powerstack is on-par and in some cases more powerful than a 5Ah (DCB182) battery which for such a small compact battery is indeed a feat to behold. In testing powerstack would drill holes faster, cut through wood faster and ever create holes using a flat bit faster. The difference in battery design is pulling more power and driving more results because of this.

SHOP DEWALT POWERSTACK

How does Dewalt Powerstack work?

Originally Dewalt battery casing would hold several smaller cylindrical batteries that work together to power in a similar way an AA battery would work and look. These batteries are then laid into a case and set up to interact with tools.

The problem with this design is that placing those cells into a casing would be inefficient and you end up having empty spaces, making the design clunkier than it needs to be. For years this technology has been used in batteries, you may have noticed this in other household appliances.

Powerstack uses a battery technology similar to mobile phone batteries. The batteries are made using lithium-ion pouches. Using this technology battery cells can be laid on top of each other and folded in an array creating an efficient increase in the use of space.

Due to the battery cells being layered they also share energy more efficiently and get energy from point A to B faster. This causes less energy waste when using your tool. It also gives you that extra battery life, which means that although the first Powerstack battery is 2Ah the run time on tools is more akin to a Dewalt 4Ah battery using the old design.

With the Cells interfacing more efficiently you also get energy travelling faster which increases the power output of your tools when being used. The 2Ah Powerstack battery (on paper) seems like a smaller battery than say the 2.0Ah (DCB183) but it outlasts it, overpowers it, and simply puts over-powers its counterpart.

Dewalt Powerstack vs Dewalt XR

After all, is said there are several reasons that you would pick a Powerstack battery over an older XR battery. In this comparison, we will take a Dewalt 2Ah battery using a Dewalt DCD796 Brushless Combi Drill and pit it against the same drill using a Powerstack Battery.

Previous Technology (2Ah Battery)	Powerstack Technology (2Ah Battery)
0.8 Hours Runtime 0.5kg Height: 48mm. Length: 110mm Charge Cycles: 500 approx.	1.6 Hours Runtime 0.31kg Height: 43mm Length: 104m Charge Cycles: 1000 approx. On average 50% faster drilling holes Increased Thermal production increasing power in colder weather

So, is Dewalt Powerstack really worth it?

So to answer the long-standing question, do we think that Powerstack is worth it!? first of all, I’ll recap what we have discovered.

The POWERSTACK Battery:

• Faster speed of application
• Superior thermal performance versus cylindrical cells, thus increasing recharge cycles
• Low impedance construction increases power
• Increased battery life
• Increased output
• Increased durability
• Improved user comfort
• Greater productivity
• 1000+ Charge Cycle

My thoughts.

The Powerstack is set up to last a lot longer than the normal XR batteries. If you buy 1 Powerstack battery it should have a 2x longer runtime than XR batteries. They also have up to 2x more charge cycles meaning that they should stick around longer than the XR range.

In my opinion with all this in mind, how would I answer “Is Dewalt Powerstack worth it?”. Firstly I believe you should double the price of an XR battery when comparing prices as it should last 2x as many charging cycles. This means that if XR lasts 1 year, a Powerstack battery will last 2 years. Technically if the powerstack is £100 then it will be worth 2x £50 XR batteries.

This is a very simplified way of looking at it. So if the price of 2Ah Powerstack is 2X 2Ah XR it is always worth getting powerstack instead.

This doesn’t factor in added performance. Powerstack will let you complete jobs faster by being more productive. Time is money. If you value your time, you know that a faster job complete = More money per hour. With that in mind, I believe that Powerstack is always worth buying over XR.

SHOP DEWALT POWERSTACK

My verdict.

I would first like to add that if money was no option it’d be best to get the powerstack. But this is an article on if the powerstack is worth it. At its current price of around £70-£80 for a 2Ah powerstack battery could I honestly say it’s worth buying?

Looking at our website you could potentially buy 1x Dewalt 4.0Ah battery or 3x 2.0Ah batteries for the same price as a 1.7Ah power-stack battery.
(prices from 12/8/22)

There is inherent value in using Powerstack over XR batteries and if you’re on the fence id pick one up and test it, worst-case scenario you can go back to buying XR next time you need batteries. With this in mind, I think that getting things done faster and more efficiently saves you money. Over the lifetime of the Powerstack Battery, it will save you enough time to pay for itself. In this case, I believe that Dewalt Powerstack is worth it.

The future pricing and value of Powerstack

I’d say that 7/10 of customers I’ve spoken to about powerstack see the 1.7Ah Battery and say NOPE. I can sit here and explain why it’s worth giving it a try but at the end of the day, we get it, we’re pretty sure Dewalt gets it too and is probably working on larger powerstack batteries as we speak.

With any new technology, things start small and tend to expand rapidly. Take for instance the iPhone the amount of revisions it’s gone through over the years is amazing and those who were early adaptors saw the benefits way before a lot of us android and BB users did. Being early to the party can be intimidating but I believe powerstack is the future of power tool battery technology and it is likely here to stay. Powerstack is Like a good pair of shoes, fits snug, does the job well, and will last you ages, And as they say buy cheap buy twice.

There are so many situations and tools that benefit from Powerstack but you’ll need to decide for yourself if the benefits outweigh the price. To make an educated purchasing decision my recommendation is to add value to the benefits of Powerstack vs XR batteries. If this value outweighs the price of XR then by all means Powerstack will be worth it! (Hint: It is worth it)

SHOP DEWALT POWERSTACK

Dewalt’s new compact twinpack

With the release of the POWERSTACK battery , DEWALT has kept in theme and released a new compact drill and compact impact, here’s a quick overview of the two. They are both available click below to check them out.

Frequently asked questions