POWER TOOL BATTERIES - Lxt, Cxt - what's all that about ?

[816swim]

As you can guess, I am new to cordless - thousands of years of corded experience !

HOW DO I KNOW:
- Which to use?
- Can I swap them around ?
- My Makita came with an LXT battery, do I always have to buy Makita batteries?

Thanks for your patience.

 

[lostinthelight]

Other tool manufacturers batteries wont fit but there are some third party ones that are made to fit Makita but some are rubbish.
I think some on here use Waitley Batteries and find them ok, the come in higher capacity than makita supply as well

 

[flameport]

Both LXT and CXT are Makita devices.

LXT batteries fit LXT tools.
CXT batteries fit CXT tools.

Other cheaper batteries exist which may fit and perhaps work.
Or they might not, they may have a substantially lower capacity than advertised, the capacity may reduce dramatically after a few uses, they may fail completely, they could damage the tool they are connected to, they might set on fire and destroy your tools / van / house / workplace. It's anyone's guess.

 

[816swim]

Thank you guys, that's really educated me.