Customer Reviews

Black & Decker CRS144K 14.4 Volt Cordless Reciprocating Saw

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If you are buying the 14.4V Firestorm to go with your other previously purchased 14.4V Firestorm tools (like your drill and circular saw) be warned. For some unfathomable reason Black and Decker uses a different battery for this new reciprocating saw. This means you are stuck with the horrible trickle charger that they supply with the saw and can't share your batteries with your other tools. Black and Decker, what were you thinking!?!?!?! I don't even know if B&D offers a fast charger for this battery or how much or how available replacement batteries are. Batteries and chargers for the other Firestorm tools are interchangeable with Dewalt chargers and batteries and therefore available everywhere.

This appears to be a change with the K models this year. The older 144 model appears to use the same battery as the other Firestorm tools. I have no clue why B&D made this change. Perhaps this is the new battery design for all new Firestorm tools to differentiate them from Dewalt. The new battery is bigger and slightly heavier than the old one (by two ounces.) Perhaps B&D increased the power in the newer model. If so, the increased power is completely negated by the lack of convenience and if you wanted more power you could have always used the bigger Dewalt battery. The newer battery design looks to be shared with all "K" tools so if you buy only the newer K versions you will be OK.

For the rest of us, this is a "NO SALE." I returned mine.