Two gloved hands hold a Bosch Professional battery.

One battery. Many tools. Many brands.

By partnering up with expert brands, the Professional 18V System opens up new possibilities – beyond Bosch Professional.

Thinking universal

You used to have to carry different batteries and chargers for every tool and brand needed on a job. Bags were heavier, costs were higher, and tough work just stayed tough. To make life easier, we opened up the Professional 18V System to other expert brands and the list of partners has been growing ever since. Today, our 18V batteries are compatible with caulk guns, jobsite lights, UV lights, and more tools from more expert brands. With over 60 million batteries sold and a growing list of partners, we asked: Could you run an entire jobsite on just one battery system? A construction crew in Germany decided to put it to the test.

Discover how this crew built a turnkey construction project – with just one 18V battery system. 

Three men stand with Bosch tools in front of a brick wall and door.

A single source of power

HORSTMAR – The construction team from Maue Wohnbau GmbH are building a bungalow. It's a turnkey construction project, which means the bungalow will be ready for occupancy when they're done. The jobsite looks like any other, but with one key difference: All the cordless tools are running on just one 18V battery platform. From rotary hammer drills to caulk guns and jobsite lamps, Wilfried Beckel, Johannes Vorholt, and Reinhold Winkler are charging all their tools on a single power source: The Professional 18V System. For them, the days of sorting through piles of incompatible batteries and chargers are over.

Various Bosch Professional tools on a wooden surface.

Many expert brands

What if one battery could rule them all? Ever since the Professional 18V System opened up to expert brands, professionals have been able to take advantage of the increasingly diverse tools that run on the same battery. The current list of compatible brands include specialist tools such as flood lamps, caulk guns, hydraulic cutting tools – and even UV light applications that reliably disinfect surfaces against the coronavirus. Thanks to partnerships with FEIN, Heraeus, Brennenstuhl, COX, Klauke, Ledlenser, Lena Lighting, Sonlux, and Wagner, the range of applications for the Professional 18V System battery has never been wider. And the list is set to grow.

Man with short hair smiles in a blue jacket in front of a wall.

We build turnkey projects that need a full range of tools. Angle grinders, jigsaws, drill drivers, reciprocating saws... they now all run on the same battery. The battery is totally interchangeable.

Reinhold Winkler, Maue Wohnbau GmbH

Hands are changing the battery of a blue Bosch Professional tool.

Many expert tools

Work starts early in the attic, where it's still dark. With just one "click", Beckel turns on a Brennenstuhl ProfessionalLINE LED floodlight with our GBA 18V 5.0Ah battery. With a second "click", he plugs a battery into a COX caulk gun, a specialist tool from one of our new expert partners. The battery-powered cartridge system makes the work go quickly: “It's a lot faster and easier to tackle corners and tight spaces than with a manual caulk gun.” When he's done securing the damp-proof membrane to the roof laths and brickwork, he pops out the battery. In a final "click", he plugs the battery into a GST 18V-LI S Professional jigsaw and starts trimming the roof laths to length. Beckel has brought only one charger up to the attic – for three tools, from three different brands.

A hand holds a blue Bosch Professional cordless drill against a wall.

A cost-efficient solution

"We do turnkey construction," explains Daniel Maue, manager of Maue Wohnbau GmbH. "So we bring together lots of trades on our jobsites. Sanitation, heating, drywall construction, bricklaying, roofs, floors, carpentry, plastering, painting..." He's pleased to see how efficient the team is today and points out the advantages of one battery system: "It's crucial that our tools are uniformly supplied with power, as this saves us valuable time, cost, space, and effort.” He particularly values how Bosch Professional 18V System tools and batteries are backward-compatible all the way back to 2008, as they can continue to expand instead of replacing their existing tools. Thanks to the system's increasing compatibility with specialist tools, such as the Klauke ES1 05 CFB hydraulic cutting tool, he expects to recoup costs on specialist products more quickly than before.

It's a huge time-saver for us. You don't waste any time figuring out which charger to use for which battery. Now I just grab any fully charged battery and get straight back to work.

Reinhold Winkler, Maue Wohnbau GmbH

A man with safety glasses is cutting wood with a blue Bosch saw.

Uncompromised power

Compatiblity doesn't mean compromise. To saw, Winkler pairs two high-performance Bosch Professional products to unleash up to 1,800W of equivalent corded power. With the BITURBO GKS 18V-68 GC Professional circular saw and a ProCORE18V battery, he quickly cuts plywood sheets to size for interior paneling. Thanks to latest cell technology and superior temperature management, ProCORE18V batteries offer maximum power and longer runtimes. To move quickly, Winkler charges all batteries with currently what is the world's fastest charger, the GAL 18V-160 C Professional. In power boost mode, the ProCORE18V 8.0Ah battery charges up to 50% in just 15 minutes. Naturally, these high-performance batteries and charger are also fully compatible with tools from our partner brands.

A Bosch Professional battery with 12Ah is held in one hand.

Cordless that can

Before Vorholt can lay the base sewage pipes, he needs to remove the foundation – a job that normally calls for a corded tool. Instead, he "clicks" a ProCORE18V 12.0Ah battery into a GBH 18V-45 C Professional rotary hammer. Paired with the ProCORE18V, the BITURBO rotary hammer delivers up to 12.5J of impact energy, making it as powerful as a comparable corded tool and more flexible. With another "click", Vorholt trims the pipes to length with the GSA 18 V-LI C Professional reciprocating saw. With yet another "click", Winkler cuts two projecting reinforcement rods to length with a BITURBO GWX 18V-15 SC Professional angle grinder.

Various Bosch Professional tools on a brick wall.

A new level of diversity

Can you build a whole bungalow from scratch with just one battery system? “Well, everything is easier," says Winkler, who enjoyed "clicking" his way through the day with various tools and brands. "We no longer have to think about whether a tool will be compatible with the battery. We just pick up the Bosch Professional 18V batteries and chargers and get to work. All our tools can easily be integrated or swapped." Most of all, Winkler is happy that he no longer has to commit to just buying from one brand: "The diversity of tools is incredible. I think it's great."

I find it great that Bosch Professional is bringing different brands together. This means we don't have to commit to buying from just one brand. The diversity of tools is incredible.

Reinhold Winkler, Maue Wohnbau GmbH