18v Cordless Drills

- Will a B&D 18v portable chain saw work with Porter Cable 18v batteries?
I recently purchased a 18v Porter Cable combo kit with the standard tools and lithium Ion batteries and smart charger for both LI and NCad batts. Since Porter Cable is owned by B&D and the batteries look similar in configuration, I was wondering if I could use the PC batts in the B&D 18v chain saw. It would be a handy addition to my kit since PC doesn't make one. Any thoughts are appreciated.

A Hi Steve, this is Mike with The Home Depot. You are correct, Black and Decker has acquired the Porter Cable Power Tool Company, however the interchangeability of the brands batteries has not changed. Porter Cable still operates as a separate entity, and is still responsible for the design and performance of their tools. While some of the internal components may be interchangeable, the major ones such as the batteries are not. The primary issue is product design. Black and Decker tools and batteries are designed and priced for a specific market, mainly home owner use. Thus an 18v volt Black and Decker battery, will not necessarily offer the some run time or power output as a Porter Cable Battery. A good example would be a v8 engine. A truck v8 will often offer more power and performance than a v8 in a passenger car, even though they are both v8’s. Porter Cable products are designed for the professional contractor, are built to a much higher standard of power and performance and sell at a higher price point. If a less powerful Black and Decker battery were to be used in a Porter Cable tool, the performance would suffer and the Image of Porter Cable tools would suffer as a result. While it would be nice to use the Porter Cable batteries in a Black and Decker tool to boost the performance, the bottom line is the batteries are not interchangeable. I hope this answers your question Mike, The Home Depot Answer Man

- can you run a 19.2v battery in a 18v driver from porter cable?
porter cable made a set of tools labeled as 18v and now it is hard to find 18 v batteries. now they use 19.2v . if they mechanically match can you use them safely?

A I just called them, and I'm glad i did. Personally, I would have tried it, but they said that indeed, the higher voltage would be a problem for the motor of the drill. It may not fail immediately, but they did say that over any reasonably long time period, that it WOULD eventually hurt the motor. Now weather or not they are just trying to get you to buy a new drill I cannot say, but it does seem reasonable that the higher voltage would be a problem. So i would advise against it. Al