Ridgid has announced with much fanfare its new 4.0 Ah and 2.0 Ah premium lithium 18V batteries. These new 2.0 Ah and 4.0 Ah batteries are still backwards compatible with current 18V slide packs. Not to be confused with the orange Ridgid power tools, these pack to go with the Ridgid brand red pipe (Emerson) side.
The newly updated battery adopts new higher energy density cells and provides short circuit protection, over current protection, over discharge protection and cell balancing. These batteries are also designed to handle higher temperatures. In fact, they can operate in sub-zero temperatures from 29° F (-20° C) to 158° F (70°C). The battery's thermal protection shuts down the pack when you go above or below these ranges. And, as you might expect, there's over-discharge protection to keep the battery from discharging past the usable point (which would damage the battery pack).
A 2.0 Ah battery is standard on all Ridgid battery powered punching tools. So equipped, it delivers over 200 compressions per charge. The 4.0 Ah battery gives you over 400 compressions. Since I doubt anyone would do that much before lunch break, I'd say lose weight! Both batteries have an expected lifespan of 400-500 charges.
“By offering the latest battery technology in our next-generation 18V Li-ion battery platform, we are able to maximize tool uptime while reducing battery size and weight.” – Christopher Burton, Ridgid Global Marketing Manager
The new battery is backwards compatible with existing 18V slide packs. Charging times have also been reduced and are now more than 50 percent faster, taking 30 minutes for the 2.0 Ah battery and 45 minutes for the 4.0 Ah battery. Will we see these new batteries in Ridgid's line of power tools soon? Of course, it's just a different shape. As we've seen in testing, using a 4.0 Ah battery pack yields an almost absurd boost in runtime and torque potential compared to a smaller single-layer battery.
We can't wait.