I was looking at my tools the other day and noticed that the batteries on the DeWalt 20v impact wrench and the Black and Decker look pretty similar.
Since they are from the same company, as you can see from the image below, my DeWalt battery was manufactured by Black & Decker Co, Ltd.
What if I interchange the battery? Use Black & Decker battery on my DeWalt impact wrench to remove the lug nuts, not possible?
So, I decided to experiment around a little and found out the answer to whether or not DeWalt 20v batteries are interchangeable with Black and Decker.
Read:
- Most Common DeWALT Impact Wrench Problems Troubleshoot
- DeWALT Battery and Charger Indicator LED Problems Troubleshoot
My Experience When Testing DeWalt 20v Battery with Black and Decker and vice versa
To show you I wasn’t just imagining things, I took this image below. As you can see in it, both the batteries and their slots have pretty similar shapes.
They both work on a pin system and move into the slot to fit on the device.
But, when I tried putting the Black and Decker’s battery on the DeWalt, this is what happened.
Like you can see in my image directly above, the Black and Decker battery doesn’t slot all the way inside the DeWalt.
It stops right towards the end, where the pins close.
I took another image, this time from up close, to show how the battery matches the shape but doesn’t exactly fit into the DeWalt impact wrench.
In this case, my DeWalt impact wrench receives no power.
So, half of the experiment already turned out to be a bust.
But, after going that far, I figured I might as well try the DeWalt’s battery with the Black and Decker drill too.
After realizing that the Black and Decker’s battery was able to slide into the DeWalt but not fully slot in, I figured that the same would happen this time around.
And it did…
As you can see in the image below, the DeWalt 20v battery doesn’t go all the way through.
I took another shot up close that shows how far the battery slides in before it just won’t go in further.
This image shows pretty clearly why the two batteries aren’t interchangeable.
If all my photos haven’t clued you in by now, let me make it clearer.
While it’s obvious to see that the batteries are both similar in shape and working, a couple of big details make it impossible to interchange them as they are.
The first and most important difference is in this next image I took.
Both devices have a different number of pins in their battery slot.
That means the batteries are made to accommodate that particular amount of pins.
So, the Dewalt’s 4 pin battery doesn’t fit the 3 pin Black and Decker, and vice versa.
As for the second difference, it’s pretty apparent when you look at the two batteries side-by-side.
One battery is bigger than the other, which also makes a difference for obvious reasons.
Lastly, I took an image to highlight the difference in their columns.
The difference in columns and design make it impossible to normally change the two batteries with each other.
They simply won’t fit, and now you know the reason why.
Here’s another example of this with a photo I took of the Black and Decker charger trying to fit the DeWalt 20V battery.
You can see how it won’t wrap around the battery because of the differences in their original designs and size.
Similarly, the Black and Decker battery is also not compatible with my DeWalt 20V charger as they are not working.
Conclusion
Hopefully I’ve cleared the topic up for you by now.
It’s not possible for users to interchange 20v DeWalt batteries with the Black and Decker, and all the reasons above are why that’s the case.
There is one workaround, which you might need to purchase an adapter or converter if you would like to interchange the batteries.
