{"post":{"id":210,"title":"One battery platform for all my cordless tools: is sticking to one brand actually cheaper long-term?","body":"I own a drill, an impact driver, and a circular saw. Three brands, three chargers, three piles of batteries that don't talk to each other. Thinking about selling the odd ones out and going all-in on one 18V platform. Is the 'one battery ecosystem' thing real savings, or do you just end up paying a premium for that one brand's overpriced tools? Anyone actually done the math on batteries + tools over 5 years?","community":"Tools","score":3,"answer_count":1,"standing":{"kind":"leading","answer_votes":1,"leading":{"id":72,"name":"Milwaukee M18 system","score":1},"runner_up":null},"author":{"username":"marcusbuilds","verified":true},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-09-15T00:11:55.609Z","url":"https://settd.com/p/210","thumbnail":null},"comments":[{"id":72,"name":"Milwaukee M18 system","body":"I ran the numbers for my shop: five M18 tools sharing two XC5.0 batteries. Milwaukee publishes torque and runtime specs per tool, and the packs use the same 21700-cell layout across the line, so you're buying cells once instead of three half-used proprietary packs. There is a brand premium, but it evaporates around tool number four. I sold my odd-brand tools used and recouped about 70% of what I paid for them.","score":1,"rank_score":1,"author":{"username":"dandev","verified":false},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-09-15T00:21:50.393Z"}],"pagination":{"limit":50,"offset":0,"has_more":false,"next_offset":null}}