DeWalt 12V/20V/60V MAX 4-Port Lithium-Ion Battery Charger

Why I added a four-port charger to my kit

I’m not short on batteries or chargers, but keeping a crew (and a few lights) running all day had turned my bench into a tangle of cords and single-bay bricks. The DeWalt four‑port charger promised to clean that up and, more importantly, charge four packs at once at a genuinely fast rate. After several weeks of use in the shop and on jobsites, it’s become the hub of my 12V/20V/FLEXVOLT ecosystem—with a few caveats you should know before you mount it.

Design and build

This is a serious piece of kit. It’s long and heavy for a charger—roughly 22.5 inches across and just under 9 pounds—and that heft comes with some advantages: a robust housing, a cooling system that doesn’t wheeze, and enough thermal mass to keep temps under control. The layout is straightforward: four bays across the face, cord management wraps, thru‑holes for wall mounting, and provisions to accept a Tool Connect tag.

On a flat bench, the footprint is wide but stable. Still, yanking big packs off a horizontal charger can slide anything that isn’t bolted down. Wall mounting solves that entirely, and the thru‑holes line up well for clean installs. The cord length is ample for most shop walls at about 6.5 feet.

There are side brackets intended to mate with DeWalt’s ToughSystem rails. On older ToughSystem setups, the brackets click in and carry the weight fine. On newer 2.0 boxes, the fit isn’t the same—I couldn’t get a confident, tool‑free lock without an adapter. If your plan is to integrate this into a ToughSystem 2.0 cart, budget time (or a third‑party bracket) to make it work, or just choose the wall.

Charging performance

This is where the four‑port charger earns its keep. Each port delivers up to 8 amps simultaneously. In practice, that meant I could throw on four depleted 20V MAX packs and they’d all climb at the same brisk rate rather than taking turns. With four 4.0Ah 20V packs (a very common size for me), I consistently saw right around 40 minutes to a full charge from low. Stepping up to 6.0Ah 20V packs, charge time landed near the one‑hour mark. FLEXVOLT packs charged without complaint as well; the larger capacities naturally take longer, but the current is there to move them along.

If you’ve used “multi‑bay” chargers that are really sequential, this is a different experience. Workflows change when four batteries come back online at once—especially for teams dividing tasks across multiple tools.

Thermal management is handled by an active fan system. The fans start up quickly and move a fair amount of air across the body of the charger and the packs. They are audible—the sound is a steady, low “whoosh”—but not shrill. In an open room, I barely notice it after a minute; in a quiet shop, you’ll hear it. The upside is that the charger never hit uncomfortable temperatures, even with four high‑capacity packs on a warm afternoon.

Charging behavior was consistent across the board. The charger properly recognized 12V MAX, 20V MAX, and FLEXVOLT 20V/60V packs, and it handled mixed sizes simultaneously without tripping a breaker or throttling one bay in favor of another. Overcharge protection is built in, and I didn’t see any odd cycling at the end of a charge—packs topped off and stayed cool afterward.

Power considerations

Four bays at 8 amps each is a lot of energy moving through one box. While the math on the DC side doesn’t translate one‑to‑one to AC draw, plan for meaningful input current. On a 120V, 15‑amp circuit, I didn’t have nuisance trips as long as I kept other heavy loads off the same run. Where people run into trouble is daisy‑chaining this with compressors or shop vacs on a marginal extension cord. Give it a dedicated outlet when possible, use a quality 12‑gauge extension if you must, and you’ll be fine.

I also tested it off a small inverter generator. As long as the generator supported 1000W continuous and had a clean sine wave, the charger behaved normally. Anything less and the fans ramped strangely and charge rates slowed. It’s not a defect, just physics—plan your power accordingly.

Mounting and everyday use

Wall‑mounted at about chest height, the ergonomics are great: you can see each port’s status at a glance and swap packs without wrestling the unit. On a bench, the charger’s weight keeps it planted pretty well, but firm detents on DeWalt packs mean you’ll occasionally slide it if you pull straight up. If you insist on benchtop use, a strip of anti‑slip pad under the feet helps.

The side brackets, as noted, are best matched to older ToughSystem rails. For ToughSystem 2.0 users, I ended up treating the charger as a wall fixture and using my boxes as battery storage instead of trying to make the charger ride on the cart.

There are thoughtful touches: the cord wrap is robust enough to keep the cable tidy when traveling, and the housing feels overbuilt rather than brittle. It’s UL listed, and while I wouldn’t leave any charger out in the rain, the casing looks ready for jobsite bumps and dust. There’s no USB or auxiliary power—this is a straight battery charger, and I appreciate the focus.

How it changes workflow

The real benefit is predictability. If I throw four packs on at lunch, they’re all green by the time we’re cleaning up. Lights, drills, impacts, nailers—everything rotates back into service in sync. With sequential chargers, I’d constantly shuffle packs to prioritize what I needed next, and something inevitably lagged behind. Here, the packs you start together finish together.

For small crews or solo operators, it’s equally useful. I park two 20V packs and two FLEXVOLT packs on the charger most evenings and start the morning at 100% without juggling. It’s a single plug, one piece of gear, and a lot less countertop clutter.

What could be better

• ToughSystem 2.0 integration: The brackets need an update or an adapter for true drop‑in compatibility with the newer rail profile.
• Noise: The fans are audible. It’s the cost of fast, simultaneous charging, but in a quiet, shared space, you’ll notice.
• Size and weight: It’s not a grab‑and‑go charger. Think “charging station,” not “toss it in a bag.”
• Price: Performance is excellent, but you pay for it. If you rarely need four packs charged at once, a less expensive sequential multi‑bay may make more sense.
• Tool Connect: It’s tag‑ready, not integrated. I’m fine with that, but if you expect built‑in connectivity, set expectations accordingly.

Who it’s for

• Crews who run multiple tools all day and want lunch‑break top‑offs that cover everyone.
• Users with a mix of 12V MAX, 20V MAX, and FLEXVOLT packs who want one dependable charging station.
• Shops that can dedicate wall space and a reliable circuit to a centralized charger.

If you only own a couple of 2.0Ah packs and work intermittently, this is overkill. A compact single or dual‑bay charger will be cheaper, smaller, and quiet.

Recommendation

I recommend the DeWalt four‑port charger for anyone serious about a DeWalt cordless setup who values time and predictability over footprint and cost. It truly charges four batteries at a fast rate simultaneously, runs cool and reliably, and cuts down on the charger clutter that plagues most benches. Mount it on a wall, give it a good outlet, and it becomes a set‑and‑forget station that keeps 12V, 20V, and FLEXVOLT packs flowing. I’d like to see native ToughSystem 2.0 rail compatibility and it’s not the quietest box in a small shop, but those are manageable trade‑offs for the performance you get.