I got my Harbor Freight catalog for February the other day and spotted the new Atlas OPE lineup featuring a dual voltage 40V / 80V battery and several outdoor tools. This is interesting as Harbor Freight has had their Lynxx line of 40v tools for a couple years, and has recently released a few OPE tools as part of the Bauer 20v system. It’s a bit odd that they’re also introducing another brand that features a dual voltage battery that overlaps the 40v category.
My thoughts: This looks to be another good, better, best scenario from Harbor Freight like we’ve seen with many of their other new brands, as it caters to users of all price ranges and applications. These new OPE options from Atlas look to be in the Best category as they’re running the highest voltage and assumably the most power of any Harbor Freight offerings.
In the catalog they show an 80 brushless blower, 80v brushless 18” chainsaw, 80v brushless self propelled 21” mower, and an 80v 16” string trimmer (motor type unknown, the catalog image isn’t clear enough to see if it says brushless).
In addition Harbor Freight has a separate landing page on their website for the Atlas OPE tools and shows 2 other tools which appear to be 40v, including a hedge trimmer and a pole saw, although it’s not listed if they’re brushless or not and there’s no other info at this time. The 80v tools have a couple specs for each one and they’re quite good and should do well in competition with other major brands.
The 21” self propelled Brushless more features a steel deck, brushless motor, and claims to get 65 minutes of runtime which is pretty good and should be enough to mow most residential yards on a single charge.
For the 80v brushless blower it features an impressive 605 CFM at 105 MPH as well as a brushless motor and a cruise control lever.
On the 80 brushless 18” chainsaw, it features an 18” bar and chain, brushless motor, and claims to get 140 cuts through 4×4 on a single charge. It also looks like it has metal bucking spikes as well as a kickback break, which aren’t that common yet on cordless saws so hopefully that’s the case here.
For the 80v string trimmer it features a 16” cut width, bump feed head, and accepts up to .095 line which is better for heavier trimming. In terms of batteries, they only highlight the dual voltage 40/80v model, but on the 40v hedge trimmer we can see another, smaller 40v only battery.
This leads me to believe they’ll be rolling out a dedicated line of 40v tools that can use the dual voltage battery much like the DeWalt FlexVolt or the Hitachi/Metabo HPT/Hikoki Multivolt, except these are the first OPE tools I’ve seen to use this technology.
Whether or not they continue to carry the Lynxx 40v tools remains to be seen, but it should be interesting. Overall this is very interesting and should compete well with major brands if the performance is as good as they indicate.
According to the catalog, these Atlas tools should be hitting the market sometime in March of this year (2020).
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not impressed with 22 inch hedge trimmer 40v battery. The battery lasts less than 30 minutes and when you go to recharge shows error. maybe just a bad battery but being 2 hours, one way, from nearest harbour frieght makes it difficult to return. Left on charger four hours lasted 20 minutes next time and still not finished with job.
I’ve watched some videos regarding their 80V and 40V chainsaws, and there seems to be an issue with the 80/40 batteries. Even though the indicator light shows a half charge, it doesn’t seem to want to work properly. Some think it might be an over heating issue, but others have said the batteries themselves didn’t seem warm enough to support the claim. Some think it might be an issue with the battery’s ability to read the charge properly. I haven’t seen any videos where a standard 40V battery is being used, so I’m not sure if the problem also exists with those batteries too. Have you heard any issues with the 40V batteries not using a full charge? Thanks in advance.
Well Harbor Freight has done it again, as a faithful customer they have chosen profit over customer service. Last year they discontinued and attachment for one of their aluminum floor jack brands that allowed you to have a wider area to jack up your vehicle. Tried to buy the last one my store had but was not allowed to because even though it was available they had not formally announced the discontinuing. Sent email to customer service and they did respond but it took over 3 months for the “process” to take place so I bought a competitors and modified it to work. Now with 3 Lynxx blowers, 1 weed eater and a polesaw less than 1 1/2 yrs old , I’m stuck with products I can’t buy part’s for. I’ve been on both sides of the buisness world and there is no reason they cannot have their supplier’s make at least batteries that are interchangeable. Sad that a company many people rely on and can’t afford high dollar equipment for their needs are put behind profit.
There is a detailed Lynxx teardown here.
http://www.etotheipiplusone.net/?p=4187
The print on the PCB points to the original OEM, Lera.
http://www.lera.com.cn/merchandise?cat_id=15
The same products are sold under several brand names, on Amazon you find LiTHELi.
https://www.amazon.com/LiTHELi-480CFM-Brushless-Battery-Charger/dp/B07RLYKVT4/.
I don’t know if the internals are identical, and the HF ones are just a different color plastic, or if one is using better parts than the other.
Tool manufacturers often have high-end and low-end versions of the same tools under different brand names. The low-end has cheaper bearings, weaker motors, lower quality battery cells, cheaper electronics etc. I cannot tell which is which here, I have not seen a side-by side teardown.
The teardown above indicate that the Lynxx motor on the chainsaw is very good, but the batteries are missing a proper battery management system, which would be a no-no.
I am not sure if that is correct, my batteries contains a different and newer PCB. From what I can tell, it contains cell balancing resistors, switches and the other component you would expect to see in a properly managed Li-battery pack.
However, I have not been able to trace down the datasheets for the two ICs on the board, an OZ9355SN that may be a battery management chip based on what else it is connected to, and a Holtek HF66F018, which is a 8051-based microcontroller of some kind. But I doubt they would be adding that much electronics just for blinking the LEDs.
But yes, I am skipping Harbor Freight for battery powered anything I want to last from now on. This is simply not worth the hassle.
High-end brand name tools pay off in the long run, even if the up-front cost is higher. They work, they last, and in the rare case something does break, you can easily get parts for them. And they keep the same form factor batteries forever. For my 15 (?) year old DeWalt 18V NiCd system I can get new batteries or I can get an adapter to use the new, lighter 20V lithium batteries on the old tools. (I got both over time.) The tools will most likely last me another 15 years, if not longer.
What does OPE stand for?
Outdoor power equipment. Basically outdoor power tools like lawn equipment such as mowers, weed wackers, leaf blowers, chain saws, etc