New RIDGID 18 Volt Lithium-Ion Batteries

RIDGID has announced new Advanced Lithium-Ion 18 Volt batteries. They are available in two amp-hour ratings, 2.0Ah and 4.0 Ah. (Compare this to the current 1.5Ah and 3.0 Ah versions of their Hyper Lithium-Ion batteries.) They work in a greater temperature range – from as low as 29° F (-20° C) and to as high as 158° F (70° C) – than the current versions. (FYI, we didn’t do the conversion to metric as we’re very lazy. It was in the presser. Also, we must point out that most humans cannot work in conditions where it’s 158° F for very long without, we don’t know … dying maybe.) The batteries offer short-circuit protection, over-current protection, over-discharge protection and cell balancing and blah, blah, blah. (Nice features, but talk about something interesting.)

It sounds like they’re initially going to be for the RIDGID Press Tools. Press tools are used to join pipes without the need to solder, braze, thread or weld. The pipes are, you guessed it, pressed together. The batteries are the new standard battery for RIDGID’s underground utility locating tools.

Now the good stuff. These batteries are backwards compatible with all the existing RIDGID 18 V batteries. And the charge time is claimed to be 50% faster. The 2.0 Ah battery will charge in 30 minutes and the 4.0 Ah battery will charge in 45 minutes. Compare this with the 25 minutes needed to charge a current 1.5 Ah battery and the 50 minutes needed to charge a current 3.0 Ah battery.