A few days ago Hitachi rolled out their new 10-Year Lithium Ion Tool warranty — it bumps the existing 5-year warranty to 10 years for the original purchaser of tools in the HXP Lithium line.
Word has it that the new warranty will automatically cover all Li-Ion sets purchased since their initial launch back in August of 2006, and owners aren’t required to register or re-register their tools, which is sort of cool.
The 10-year warranty will cover the following categories of tools: driver drills, hammer drills, impact drivers, impact wrenches, circular saws, jig saws, reciprocating saws, and blowers. That sounds pretty good to us, but unfortunately a few items won’t make the list — cordless Li-Ion grinders, cordless Li-Ion rotary hammers, and cordless Li-Ion gas nailers will only be covered by Hitachi’s 1-year warranty.
It’s not really world-changing news, but in a market where warranties influence the selection of one system over another it’s a fairly strong play for the long-term crowd.
10-Year Warranty Info [Hitachi]
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5 Responses to Hitachi’s 10 Year Li-Ion Warranty
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Anyone know if this covers batteries too? If not it seems rather worthless as a 10-year old battery isn’t going to be much good.
Jim,
That was quoted from the site Sean linked to. Since a decrease in an aging battery’s charge capacity is expected, it would probably not qualify as a defect in materials or workmanship.
Ahh, thats what happens when I search for “battery” instead of “batteries”.
So basically this increased warranty is completely worthless.
If what I have read is true about Lithium Ion batteries – then they have a shelf life that is likely to be less than NiCads. Not so bad for those of us who use tools commercially – paying for them with each job – and depreciating / amortizing the expense each year – but surprising for the DIY’er who may be shocked (or not – to use a pun) when the battery no longer can hold a charge after 4 or 5 years of relatively infrequent use.
@fred:
Depends on the exact “formulation” of the LiIon battery. The older style LiIon’s had a 2 year life, regardless of use or lack thereof. After that they’d go downhill fast.
There are newer ones that have lifetimes of around a decade or so (I believe Iron-phosphate is one of them), but slightly lower energy densities.
I have no idea what variation is most commonly used in power tools.