Which Dewalt cordless circular saw?

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

My cordless "system" is Dewalt. I want the circular saw next but which one? The 6.5 or 7.25?

I use my corded simply for breaking down sheet goods to rough size. Occasionally I'll crosscut boards too awkward for my RAS.

Your advice, gents?

[iamrfixit1966]

If you need to stay with 20v, go with the 7.25", it has the brushless motor where the 6.5" doensn't. The brushless motor should offer improved performance, battery life and the additional blade size will give you more cut capacity. I bought the 6.5" early on and it's OK for light work but it is still noticeably a cordless tool.

I don't use it much anymore because I bought a 60v brushless saw as soon as it was introduced. The performance is night and day different, the 60v makes it hard to tell you're not using a corded tool.

The 60v saw is more money but offers superior performance and the batteries will still work on your 20v tools. They automatically switch to 20v when connected to a 20v tool.

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

The 20V batteries won't work on the 60V tool, right?

[iamrfixit1966]

Correct, you do have to use 60v batteries only in a 60v tool, but your 60v batteries can be used in most 20v tools. They won't work on the 20v-18v adapter.

There is a switch built into the top of the battery that automatically switches the cells from series to parallel when the battery is attached to a 20v tool. The 60v batteries perform equal to a 20v but will have a little more reserve power (amp hour) than most 20v packs offer. The 60v packs are 6.0ah, 9.0ah, and 12.0ah depending on which battery you buy.

[Sean®]

My cordless "system" is Dewalt.  I want the circular saw next but which one?  The 6.5 or 7.25?

I use my corded simply for breaking down sheet goods to rough size.  Occasionally I'll crosscut boards too awkward for my RAS.

Your advice, gents?

I have had the 6.5 for awhile.

Buying again today??

I use mine mostly (only) for breaking stuff down, often in Lowes parking lot.

7¼ blades are cheaper and easier to find.  However I very rarely need a blade and even then its not like the 6½ are the Holy Grail.

These saws preform worlds different from the cordless saws of just afew years ago.

I'm 20v only so have no Flex Volt.  I do however have the 6.0AH 20v so battery life is far beyond my needs for this saw.  The only thing FV offers past 6.0 would be 9.0 and 12.  This are good for a cabin in the woods stuff but not very good around the house.  They are very large and heavy and about 250 bucks a pop.  Even the 6.0 20V is not a small battery and I don't use it on the saw much.

Brusheless vs brushed??  I have some BL stuff and really don't notice much difference.  New and shiney appeals to me so I buy the latest wizzbang stuff.  If you don't care about that I'd get whatever was cheaper.

Look for holiday deals.  This weekend I seen a deal of buy a bare tool and get a free 5.0 battery.  The 5.0's are pretty nice.  A step up from the 4's without the bulk of the 6's.

[EricU]

I have the dewalt 18v saw, and I have never used it.  Should try it with the 20v adapter.  I have the adapter in the drill right now.  It does go through batteries faster than the brushless drill I have.  I have the brushed impact driver.  I sorta wish I had held out for the brushless, but I'll live.  It does seem to go through batteries faster than the brushless drill would have doing the same sort of thing, but that's hard to measure.  Battery life is the main advantage that they advertise.  The way the pricing is going, I don't expect to see the dewalt brushed units around  all that much longer, all the $99 specials on drills and drivers are brushless

Is Acme tool's website broken for anyone else? Only the front page looks like it made it through 1998 unscathed.

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

Thanks, gents.

I have four batteries now and always have at least one on the charger. I'll go for the 7.5" 20V model.

[ez-duzit]

"Which Dewalt cordless circular saw?"

None. Use corded.

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

I'm moving away from corded tools where I can.

That, and my wife is trying to figure out what to get me for Christmas.

[EdL]

I bought the brushless 7 1/2" one.

Very pleased with it other than the pita switch safety.

Ed