Makita Battery Demo Day
As we look to move forward with additional safety features and improved efficiencies in our Fleet of small tools over the coming years, we decided to invite Makita to our Plant Yard to demonstrate their current battery powered range with several of our site teams. Makita, supported by Terratruck, came with a large array of the newest cordless equipment showing us products such as 40V SDS drills, 80V breakers, backpack blowers and pokers.
The format consisted of setting up an area where the tools could be tested and then compared against various other Plant tools that our team uses on a day-to-day basis. This meant they could get a sense of quality and feel by trying out the new kit and providing some honest open-minded feedback afterwards.
The benefits of this allowed our team to raise questions regarding different aspects of the products. Things such as:
- The battery longevity
- Battery performance
- Where to charge
- Theft risk
“The guys were very knowledgeable and demonstrated these tools in a straight- forward manner. Hosting a practical session like this will be very helpful for making informed future decisions regarding purchase of cordless tools.”
Paul Tonks, Tool Hire Manager, Moortown Group
As a business, we make it a top priority to provide the correct tools and keep up with the latest innovations for site equipment. This not only helps improve our site safety, but also encourages significant efficiencies such as:
- The reduction of refuelling
- Use of generators
- Trailing cables
- Heavy plant for transportation
When comparing some of the non-battery products, for example the cut off saw (14 inch blade) with a fuel powered cut off saw (14 inch), the difference was noted right away. The cordless product cut with much more ease, and many were very impressed with the running time and power capacity of these tools. For example, the 80V saw worked faster with less noise pollution.
Most equipment was expected to be naturally heavier due to the battery weight, yet this wasn’t always seen as an immediate disadvantage depending on which tool. Fro example, a breaker tool was deemed too heavy to lift when chipping at height, but the heavy weight of the cut off saw worked in favour by moving downwards with the blade.
When addressing concerns of theft, it was communicated that the batteries and tools were paired together with a 4-digit identity number when registered with the communication module app. The hardware is already inbuilt inside the battery and simply just requires activating. This means any attempt to steal batteries are void and become pointless acts, as the product is disabled when the wrong battery is attached.
We are pleased this was a successful day experiencing what Makita had to offer and there was some good feedback from trialling these cordless tools.