How we compare

Where the specs come from

Every spec on a product page (model number, voltage on the label, batteries it takes at once, capacity, energy, weight, cutting width, bar length, air volume, air speed, clearing width, self-propelled, brushless motor, warranty) is a claim we recorded with its source: the page it was read from, how it was read, and the date. The product page shows the source next to each value, so you can check it in one click.

Sources rank in this order:

1. The brand's own material: its product page, spec sheet or product feed.
2. A store's listing of that exact model number, when the brand doesn't publish the figure.
3. Anything else, such as a search result or a figure worked out from the source's own numbers. These values are marked with an asterisk.

Within a rank, a page read directly beats an archived copy of it, and both beat the same page seen only through a web search result. Right now most values on this site were read from search results of the brand's own pages, because the pages themselves couldn't be fetched when the catalogue was built. Those products are graded inferred until someone reads the page itself, and the source link on each value goes to the page the figure came from.

Of the 3,831 spec values shown on the site right now, 96% come from the brand, 4% from a store and under 1% from other sources. Another 0% are carried over from the original catalogue and haven't been re-checked yet. Those are labelled not re-verified wherever they appear.

When sources disagree

The highest-ranked source wins, and among equals the newest reading wins. A value carried over from before we kept sources ranks below everything, so any checked reading replaces it.

When two good sources disagree by more than measuring noise (half an inch or 3% on a dimension, 5% on a weight), we look at both and mark the wrong one rejected, with the reason. Rejected claims are kept rather than deleted, so the next check doesn't pick the same wrong number up again. 50 claims have been rejected so far.

A few conventions make products comparable:

• Voltage is the figure on the label. Brands print maximum or nominal volts inconsistently (a "20V MAX" pack and an "18V" pack are the same chemistry), so compare packs by watt-hours where the brand states them. We never work out watt-hours from volts × amp-hours ourselves.
• Weight is the bare tool, recorded only from a tool-only page or the manual. A brand often sells a tool only as a kit with a battery; the kit page gives the tool's specs (cutting width, CFM, self-propelled), never its weight or price.
• Air volume and speed are the brand's highest figures, usually with a boost or turbo button held. Where the brand's own pages disagree we flag it and keep both on file until a direct read of the page settles it.

Confirmed, inferred, unconfirmed

Every product carries a confidence label. It's computed from its sources, never typed in by hand:

• confirmed (599 products): the model number and every shown spec were read from the brand's or a store's own page, spec sheet or feed, or an archived copy.
• inferred (336): read the same way, but at least one value rests on a search result or a figure worked out from the source's numbers, or the product has no model number to pin it to.
• unconfirmed (0): at least one value hasn't been re-checked since the catalogue began. The product page says which.

Prices

A price is shown only with the date it was seen and the store it was seen at. A search result doesn't say when its price was current, so a price read that way isn't recorded; until a store page can be read directly, a product links to the store without a price rather than with a stale one. Once prices are on file, the headline price is the cheapest store that has the product in stock, and a price we haven't been able to re-check reads "recorded <date>, not re-checked since", never as current.

What a platform is

A platform is one battery family: every tool on it runs on the same packs. Some brands sell several that don't share batteries (Greenworks 24V, 40V, 60V and 80V), and those are listed separately. Some voltages are one platform: WORX 40V tools take two 20V packs, and Makita 18V X2 tools take two 18V LXT packs, so the tool's page says how many batteries it takes. Each platform's "every pack fits every tool" rule is quoted, with its source, on the platform's page.

We cover garden and yard tools and the batteries and chargers that run them, including garden tools on power-tool platforms such as DeWalt 20V MAX or Milwaukee M18. Drills and other power tools are left out. Counts are what the catalogue lists so far, not each brand's whole range.

Batteries across platforms

A battery fits its own platform and almost never anything else. Where one does cross, as DeWalt FLEXVOLT packs run 20V MAX tools, we say which direction works and name the source, on both platforms' pages. A fit claim without a source isn't published, and neither is one taken from a third-party battery seller's compatibility list or a Q&A page. Packs that don't fit every tool on their own platform (a large pack that won't fit a mower's battery bay, say) are listed with their source on the platform's page.

Discontinued products

Products a brand no longer sells new stay in the catalogue, because people buy them used and need to know which batteries run them. They're kept out of every comparison, listed under legacy & discontinued, and each one names what replaced it. 21 products are listed there now. 3 entries have been removed outright as duplicates or mistakes, each with a recorded reason.

How the site makes money

Some "buy" links are affiliate links: if you buy through one, the store pays PowerToolGrid a commission at no cost to you. Those links say so right next to the button. Affiliate status never decides what we list, the order things appear in, or which store a price comes from. The headline price is the cheapest in-stock store, whether or not we earn from it. No brand or store pays for placement.

What we don't do

• No scores or "best" picks. A single score hides whose priorities set the weights. We show the numbers and the sources, and you decide.
• No hands-on testing. Specs are the brand's or store's published figures. A runtime or CFM is the brand's claim, not something we measured.
• US market only. Model numbers, prices and availability are for US stores.
• No guessing. A value nobody has published is left blank, not estimated.

What the terms mean

Voltage on the label

The voltage the brand prints on the product. It is a marketing figure, not a measurement: some brands quote the maximum initial voltage (Black+Decker's 40V MAX packs are 36V nominal), others the nominal. Two packs with the same number on two brands almost never fit each other's tools; the platform decides fit, not the voltage.

Batteries it takes at once

How many packs the tool runs on at the same time. Worx 40V and Makita 18V X2 tools take two of the platform's packs.

Energy

Watt-hours: volts x amp-hours. The fair way to compare packs across brands that label voltage differently.

Weight

As the brand states it. For tools we record the bare tool without battery where the brand says so; the note says which.

Pack fits directly / with an adapter

"Directly" means one platform's battery slides into the other's tools as it is, in the direction the note gives. "With an adapter" means a named part sits between them. Each link is marked confirmed (the brand says so, read on its own page), reported (a source says so, seen through a search result or a store's page) or inferred (the evidence points to it but nobody states it).

Confirmed, inferred, unconfirmed

How a product's data was sourced; see above.