Batteries - Good Expectations

Between the watches I repair and the battery-powered devices and machines I use around my house, I go through a lot of batteries. As I give the watches away for free, I buy generic batteries (I can't afford brand name batteries for the watches). As for the machines, I have a brand name Green Works battery along with two generic. While neither generic lasts as long or seems as powerful as the Green Works' OEM battery (in my experience), the costs of the generic batteries is significantly cheaper than the Green Works battery. As I am someone who works for a non-profit entity, money is tight. That's not a complaint. I love what I do, I just realize I have to be mindful that I do not pull in six figures a year. Far from it. That is why I went for backup batteries that were generic.

Now, this past week, the nation got slammed with a lot of snow. Me? I live in Buffalo, but in the suburbs where snow falls a lot more than the city, mainly due to lake effect snow bands. Welp, gosh darn it, my main gas-powered snow blower froze up leaving me with my GreenWorks snow blower to handle the bulk of the 4 feet of snow we got. Oh, by the way, one of the generic batteries gave out early in the storm. It was the first generic battery I bought

over a year ago. The 2nd generic battery I purchased this past fall as I wanted to make sure I had a backup battery in case one failed. Thank God! You see, generic batteries have a habit of not lasting long so I figured at some point my generic battery would give out. Of course it had to be during the first storm of the season. All those words you just read come to this point. The generic battery brand that gave out actually lasted longer than most generic 40v batteries seem to last (based on my research). It lasted close to 1.5 years. So, I big shout out to the Powilling company for their generic battery - it served well during the 1.5 years I had it. Also, many thanks to the customer service rep who responded to my recent inquiries regarding the battery and options moving forward. I would say Powilling is very considerate of its customers.

All that said, when buying generic, my goal is to find one that lasts 2 years. That's my benchmark. Moving forward I will try out a variety of 40v generic batteries to try and find one that lasts at least 2 years. At this time, I recommend Powilling batteries. We will see if I find a better option in the years to come. Cheers.

*** P.S. My recommendation is to buy a GreenWorks OEM battery and a generic as backup. Of course, if you are flush with cash, get GreenWorks brand name batteries all the time.

*** I also used my trusted Snow Joe corded-electric to help me while recharging the batteries. Thank you Snow Joe! That's my Buffalo snow removal arsenal: Troy-Bilt 2840, Greenworks 40v, and Snow Joe 620.