I have a fair bit of construction tools (DeWalt brand) but the batteries are damn expensive
Is it unethical to buy the cheaper compatible batteries
This feels like a trick question. 🤔
Am I missing something here? Where’s the potential immorality behind it? Maybe if they’re work tools and the cheaper batteries ruined the tools over time, sure, there could be an argument for it…
The fuck? Of course not.
Corporations aren’t people. You can’t harm them.
And even if they were, you wouldn’t owe them loyalty.
LOL no.
You are in no way morally obligated to go out of your way to protect some corporation’s exploitative business model.
Corporations are not your friend. Ethics plays no part in it. It’s economics. If they price themselves out of the competition, that’s their problem, not yours.
Absolutely not. What’s actually unethical is the ruinous prices the name brands charge for their “genuine” batteries which under the hood are just as much Chinese garbage as the off-brand ones.
What sort of circumstance could possibly make buying cheaper compatible batteries unethical?
- Did you make an express promise to only buy brand-name batteries? (I.e., are they paying you money to showcase their brand? Did you lease or rent tools with a contract that specified brand-name-only batteries? )
- Are you spending someone else’s money who wants name brand batteries?
- Are the third-party batteries illegal in your country?
- Is there a known greater ecological harm in the manufacture of the third-party batteries?
- Are you expecting to have your power tools be harmed by the third party batteries and returning them for warranty repair you caused?
For a typical consumer in America, and likely most professional contractors, the answer is “no” to all of these. And DeWalt apparently only offers a one year warranty that specifically excludes “normal wear and tear”.
https://www.dewalt.com/en-us/support/warranty
Anything up to and including prying open the proprietary casing and swapping in new cells is entirely ethical.
Inhumane labor to reduce costs
Why would that be unethical? I honestly don’t even understand this question, of course it wouldn’t be.
Of course it isn’t.
Those cheaper batteries are usually lighter in weight or a fire hazard though.
No, more like the other way around
It’s unethical that companies constantly produce incompatible chargers and batteries that cause more pollution when lost, cut customer options, which after a few years when they no longer get made, cause even more pollution
No ethical consumption in capitalism….
I think the most ethical would be buying used, no?
That’s called the other side of the coin of the free market economy. Capitalism.
You sell your tool’s battery for $200/ah? Someone makes the same thing without the tag that is compatible with the same ah rating but without your warranty for $50 and I buy it from them, you lower your price or see your sales drop off a cliff
What you think anyone should actually subscribe to the Ethics for thee but not for me model?
BTW I’ll be buying some aftermarket tabless 12ah batteries for my Ego tools when they kick and guess what I won’t be paying for 6 of them… $4,000
Yes, four. thousand. dollars.
I’ll be spending less than $1,000.
Absolutely not, crazy position to hold. Fyi you can buy orprint 3D adapters for a lot of things. My dyson runs on dewalt batteries.
unethical? no.
but depending on the batteries you’re buying, could be a fire hazard.
The manufacturers of those off brand batteries are unethical because they almost always use inferior cells and less robust protection circuits, and in many cases have less than advertised capacity.
No, but corporations that sell overpriced products absolutely love that you’re asking this question.
