If you buy something through our links, ToolGuyd might earn an affiliate commission.
Dewalt’s 20V Max USB power adapter (DCB090) came out nearly 7 years ago, and so it’s been around for a while. Although it continues to be a useful accessory for anyone looking to use Dewalt 20V Max or 12V Max batteries to recharge USB devices, USB standards and trends have changed over the past few years.
Well, it looks like Dewalt is finally coming out with a massively upgraded version, DCB094.
Images of a UK/EU 18V XR version of the new Dewalt DCB094 USB device charger have been floating around social media for about a month now, and I came across an advertisement that implies it will also be coming to the USA.
The advert lists the new Dewalt USB charger for $89, which is quite a bit more than the $49 the existing charging adapter sells for. (Amazon has the DCB090 for $41 at the time of this posting.)
$89?! At this price, you of course get one USB A and one USB-C charging port – which a lot of users have been asking for – but that’s not all, and here’s where things get interesting. Let’s read the side label on the adapter.
- [USB] Type A Output: 5DC, 2.4A
- [USB] Type C Port: Input/Output 5-20V DC, 5A DC
- Battery Port Output: 18V DC, 6A DC
- Battery Port Input: 18V DC, 6A DC
The standard USB A output is 5V at 2.4A, which is decent and typical these days, but what’s that about the USB-C and battery ports?
The front of the adapter says USB 5A, and it took me a moment to realize that this works both ways.
That’s right, the Dewalt DCB094 is a USB power source type of accessory for use with 20V Max batteries, AND it appears that this is ALSO a 20V Max battery charger.
USB-C PD (Power Delivery) standards allow for 100W of charging/power delivery, based on 20V at 5A, and it appears that’s what you get here.
A recent USB PD 3.1 revision allows for even higher power delivery rates using appropriately rated cables, and so we might see even faster cordless power tool charging rates in the future.
Thus, if I’m reading all this correctly, Dewalt has come out with a USB-C PD battery and device charger.
Sweet.
Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote a post titled Why Dewalt Probably Won’t Make a USB-Chargeable Cordless Power Tool Battery, where I was answering a reader’s question about the potential for batteries with built-in USB ports.
In the post, I said:
That actually sounds like a good idea, in theory, for power tool batteries to be rechargeable via USB.
A reader brought up USB-C PD in the comments section, saying that while chargers were still rare, the entirety of the consumer electronics industry was heading in this direction.
I said:
But how likely will it be for [tool] brands to adopt this, and for both devices and chargers to be ubiquitous?
This new release answers that question.
Dewalt is not the first cordless power tool brand to offer USB battery charging, but is this the first 18V/20V Max charger and device charging adapter to feature USB-C?
If USB-C has become popular enough for Dewalt to offer such a charger, we are surely bound to see similar accessories from some of their competitors.
There’s no word as to whether this will work with all of Dewalt’s 20V Max-compatible batteries, such as FlexVolt, but I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t.
The 5A charging rate isn’t much slower than the 6A charger Dewalt came out with last year, but it’s nowhere near the 12A charging rate of the 20V Max and FlexVolt charger Dewalt launched at the same time.
Still, 5A is quite good. Plus, you also get USB-C and USB-A device charging with the adapter.
Hopefully the adapter comes with a wall plug and rated USB charging cable so that users don’t have to source these components separately. Priced at $89, I’d assume it’s a complete kit.
Even though details are limited right now, who else is excited about this?!!
For my own use, while I prefer standard charging stations over clip-on battery chargers, I’d jump at replacing most of them with devices like this, for the space-saving and convenience factors.
