Tool Model Number Decoder

Full reference

Every suffix, brand by brand

The trailing letters are the ones that cost money: they are what separates a body-only tool from a kit with two batteries and a charger. On a corded tool they carry the supply voltage as well, which is what tells a 110V site machine from a 230V one.

Makita

A Makita code is the tool code run straight into a pack suffix, with no space or dash. Strip the suffix and you have the bare tool. Platform is read from position: 18V LXT tools start with D (DHP486), 12V max CXT tools end the model number with D (DF333D), and 40V max XGT tools end it with G (HP001G). Corded tools carry a voltage suffix instead of a pack suffix, and in the UK that is the most important character in the whole code: /1 is the 110V site build and /2 is the 230/240V build. There is a fourth platform the code does not announce at all, and it is the one that costs people money. A large part of the range is 18Vx2, sold as 36V, and it wears an ordinary leading D like any other LXT tool. DLM382Z, DUC353Z, DSP600ZJ, DRS780Z, DLS714Z, DLW140Z, DJR360Z and DCE090Z all take two 18V batteries in the same handle and will not start on one. If you are buying body only, check the retailer title for 18V x 2 before you buy a single battery. Two more cautions on reading the front of the code. Makita and DeWalt both use DC codes, so DCE and DCL exist in both catalogues (Makita DCE090Z power cutter and DCL180Z vacuum against DeWalt DCE590 and DCL050). This decoder sends a DC code with a region suffix such as -GB, -XJ or -XE to DeWalt and one without to Makita, which is right most of the time but not always, so check the tool type in the title. And on garden tools a handle letter sits between the model and the pack suffix: L is the loop handle and U is the bike or U handle, as in DUR368LPT2 and DUR369LZ, so do not read that letter as part of the pack code.

In the UK: Makita UK is makitauk.com and the UK runs the same European model numbering as the rest of the continent, so there is no UK region suffix to hunt for the way -XE works for DeWalt in Australia. Two things actually matter on a UK Makita listing. The first is the voltage suffix on a corded tool: /1 is 110V for a site transformer and /2 is 230/240V for a plug, and Screwfix sells the HR3210C both ways to prove it. The second is whether the letters after the model number include a battery at all. A code ending Z is body only however much the photograph shows a pack. The one code family that really is foreign stock is the American catalogue, which uses a completely different grammar for the same 18V LXT tools: the US equivalent of the DHP486 is the XPH14Z, so an X-prefixed XPH, XFD or XDT code on a UK listing is US stock that will arrive with a US charger.

• HR3210C/1 Corded 32mm SDS-plus rotary hammer, 110V site build. HR is rotary hammer, 3210 is the model, C is the variant, and the /1 is the whole point: this one needs a 110V transformer. Screwfix describes it as 110V and lists the /2 version of the same drill as 240V.
• HR3210C/2 The same 32mm SDS-plus rotary hammer in the 230/240V build. Only the digit after the slash changes, and it changes whether the tool will run in your house. This pair is the cleanest proof of the Makita voltage rule there is.
• DHP486Z 18V LXT brushless heavy duty hammer driver drill, body only. D is 18V LXT cordless, HP is hammer driver drill, 486 is the model, Z is no battery, no charger and no case. In the box: tool, grip assembly, depth rod and belt clip.
• DHP486RTJ The same DHP486 drill sold as a kit in the usual UK configuration. R is the DC18RC rapid charger, T is 5.0Ah and J is the MakPac connector case, so the box holds the drill, two 5.0Ah packs, the rapid charger and a stackable case. Swap the J for an E and you have the same kit in a plastic kitbox instead.

Milwaukee

Read a Milwaukee code in three parts. M18 or M12 is the battery platform, the letters after it are the tool, and the number block after the dash is what is in the box. The letter straight after the platform sets the motor tier: B is the entry line, C is a compact body, BL is brushless and F is FUEL, the top brushless line, and these stack, so M18CBLDD is a compact brushless drill driver. A trailing digit on the tool letters is the generation, so M18FPD3 is the third generation FUEL percussion drill. Milwaukee the UK prints the code without the hyphen, so M18FPD30 on the UK site is M18FPD3-0 and M18FPD3502C is M18FPD3-502C.

In the UK: In the UK you want the X codes. -502X is two 5.0Ah packs, a charger and an HD Box, and it is the standard UK kit ending: UK and European trade retailers list M18 FPP2A3-502X and M18 FMT-502X exactly that way. A -502C on a UK listing is the Australia and New Zealand pack, which is the same tool with a different charger, and it is the one suffix worth checking before you buy. The other half of the code is easy: the digits are battery capacity then pack count, so 502 is 5.0Ah times two and 202 is 2.0Ah times two, and a plain -0 means body only with nothing in the box at all. One last thing for secondhand buyers. The M18B and M18C tiers, such as M18BPD and M18CBLDD, are discontinued new but common on Marketplace and Gumtree. They take the same M18 batteries as a current FUEL tool, so an old body and a new battery will work together.

• M18FPP2A3-502X M18 FUEL brushless twin pack: percussion drill plus impact driver. Strip -502X for two 5.0Ah packs, a charger and an HD Box, and FPP2A3 stays with the tools as the twin-pack code. This is the standard UK kit ending.
• M18FMT-502X M18 FUEL cordless multi-tool in an HD Box with two 5.0Ah batteries and a charger. Same -502X reading on a completely different tool, which is the point: the digit block and the trailing letter travel across the whole range.
• M18BLPP2A2-502X M18 brushless combi drill and impact driver twin kit with two 5.0Ah batteries. BL is brushless rather than FUEL, PP2A2 is the twin pack, and -502X is the same two 5.0Ah packs plus charger.
• M18FPD3-0 M18 platform, FUEL brushless, percussion drill, third generation, tool only. Printed on some sites as M18FPD30. In the box: 13mm hammer drill driver, bit holder, side handle, belt clip. No battery and no charger.

DeWalt

A DeWalt cordless code is DC, then a letter for the tool family, then a three or four digit model, then a short battery and case code, then a dash and a two letter region code. DCK and DCZ codes are multi tool kits rather than single tools. Corded DeWalt uses DW, DWE, DWS or DWD instead and takes the same region code, so DWS780-XE is the corded 305mm mitre saw. The pack code is where the money is, and it has one trap worth learning: a T at the very end with no digit after it is the TSTAK case, while a T followed by a digit is a 6.0Ah FLEXVOLT battery and the digit is how many. DCZ207M2T-XE is two 4.0Ah packs in a TSTAK, DCZ507T2-XE is two 6.0Ah FLEXVOLT packs, and DCZ407P1T1-XE is one of each. Note also that Makita and DeWalt both use DC codes: DCE and DCL exist in both catalogues, and this decoder sends a DC code carrying an UK region suffix to DeWalt and one without to Makita.

In the UK: DeWalt UK sells both -GB and -XJ coded stock through the same authorised channels, so the suffix is not a legitimacy test: it tells you which box and which plug, not whether the warranty is good. What to actually watch for on a UK listing is -XE, which is the Australia and New Zealand pack, or a bare -B with no region code at all, which is North American 20V MAX, either of which means the charger will be wrong for a UK socket. Then check for -LX, which is 110V site voltage. A -LX tool is a perfectly genuine UK product, but it needs a transformer and will not run off a plug in your kitchen. The kit-content codes in front of the region suffix are global DeWalt grammar and read the same wherever the tool was packed: N is bare, NT is bare in a TSTAK, and a letter plus a digit such as P2 or M2 is the battery size and the count.

• D25033K-LX Corded 22mm SDS-plus rotary hammer in the 110V site build, supplied in a case. The -LX is the only part of the code that changes against the mains version, and it changes whether the tool will run without a transformer. Listed with a UK plug on the transformer side, not a 13 A plug.
• DCF850N-XJ Cordless fastening tool, model 850, N for a bare tool with no battery or charger, XJ for the European pack. Ordinary UK stock: the XJ tells you the box, not the provenance.
• DCD805N-XJ 18V XR brushless compact combi drill, body only. Strip the -XJ region code and the N is the whole packaging story: no battery, no charger, no case.
• DCZ2050P2T Two piece combo kit. P2 is two 5.0Ah XR packs and a charger, and the trailing T with nothing after it is the TSTAK case. If a digit had followed the T it would be a FLEXVOLT battery instead, which is the single most useful rule on the whole DeWalt table.

Bosch Professional (blue)

Bosch splits into two things you have to read separately. The name, for example GSB 18V-55 or GWS 18V-10 PSC, tells you the tool and its capability. The ten character part number, for example 0 601 9J4 002, tells you exactly which pack you are buying. Unlike Makita or Milwaukee, the Bosch number is a lookup key rather than a readable code. There is no letter in it that spells out battery count, and two packs of the same tool can differ by a single character while one has an L-BOXX and the other a cardboard box. Two practical notes. It is not always all digits: letters appear inside the middle groups, as in 0 601 2A6 500, 0 601 4A3 040, 0 615 A50 08V and 0 611 24A 042, so if you meet a letter in the middle you have not misread it. And spaces and full stops are cosmetic, so 0 601 9J4 002, 0.601.9J4.002 and 06019J4002 are all the same part.

In the UK: Bosch Professional runs on the same European numbering in the UK as everywhere else in Europe, so there is no UK region suffix and no -GB equivalent to look for. The block split is the whole decode: 0 601 and 0 611 are the tool alone, 0 615 is a set with batteries and a charger, and 0 603 is the green DIY range. Bosch deliberately gives you nothing else to decode, and a decoder should say so rather than guess. Because the numbers are global, an imported tool carries the identical number and what tells you is the plug, the charger model and the seller, not the code. One last thing to keep in your head: a 0 601 number can still include an L-BOXX, as the GWS 18V-10 PSC shows, so never read 0 601 as bare in a cardboard box.

• 06019J4002 GWS 18V-10 Professional 125mm cordless angle grinder, bare. The 0 601 block marks a single tool rather than a set. In the box: tool, protective guard 1 605 510 365, backing flange, quick locking nut 2 608 000 684, cardboard box. No battery, charger or case.
• 06019G3F0B GWS 18V-10 PSC Professional 125mm cordless angle grinder, bare but cased. Same 0 601 single tool block, but this pack adds the case. In the box: tool, L-BOXX 136 plus inlay, Vibration Control auxiliary handle, quick locking nut, protective guard, clip-on cutting guard, backing flange. Still no battery and no charger, which is exactly why you must never read 0 601 as meaning cardboard box.
• 0615990M1G GWS 18V-10 SC Professional angle grinder tool kit. The 0 615 block marks a set with batteries and a charger. In the box: tool, 2 x GBA 18V 5.0Ah, GAL 1880 CV quick charger, L-BOXX 136 and inlay, GCY 42 Bluetooth module, Vibration Control auxiliary handle, quick locking nut, protective guard, backing flange.
• 0615990J4J GSB 18V-55 Professional 4.0Ah kit, cordless combi drill. 0 615 marks a set. In the box: tool, 2 x GBA 18V 4.0Ah batteries order number 1 600 A00 163, GAL 18V-40 quick charger order number 1 600 A01 9RN, toolbag order number 1 600 A00 3BH. Note this one ships in a bag, not an L-BOXX, so the 0 615 prefix tells you there are batteries but not what they travel in.

Bosch Home and Garden (green)

Green Bosch uses a written name rather than a letter code, for example UniversalImpact 18V-60 or EasyDrill 18V-40, plus a ten character part number that starts 0 603. The name tells you the tier and the tool, and the part number tells you the pack. As with blue, the part number is a lookup key and not a readable code, so the only reliable way to know what is in the box is to match the full number or read the words in the product title, which Bosch spells out as either Without battery | Without charger or 1 x 2.5 Ah battery | charger. Older green tools, the ones filling sheds and Marketplace listings, use a completely different naming system of short letter codes such as PSB 18 LI-2, PSR 18 LI, PST 700 E and PEX 300 AE. Those predate the Easy, Universal and Advanced tiers and cannot be read with the tier rules below.

In the UK: Green Bosch and blue Bosch are two separate 18V systems and the batteries do not interchange. Green PBA 18V packs belong to POWER FOR ALL, and in the UK the alliance partners that matter are Flymo, Gardena and Husqvarna alongside Steinel and Rapid, so a Flymo mower battery and a green Bosch drill battery are the same pack. Blue GBA and ProCORE 18V packs belong to the Bosch Professional 18V System, shared with the AMPShare alliance. The two use different battery interfaces and the chargers do not cross either, so do not buy a green kit expecting the battery to power your blue Professional tools. The numbering tells you which side you are on: 0 603 is green, 0 601 and 0 611 are blue tools on their own, and 0 615 is a blue set. The naming trap that still catches people is the word Impact: UniversalImpact is a masonry hammer drill, AdvancedImpactDrive is an impact driver.

• 06039D7100 UniversalImpact 18V-60 cordless impact drill, without battery and without charger. 0 603 marks it as green Home and Garden. 60 Nm maximum torque, drills up to 13mm in masonry and 35mm in timber. In the box: tool, double screwdriver bit, cardboard box. Impact here means hammer drill, not impact driver.
• 06039D7140 The same UniversalImpact 18V-60, sold as a kit. Only the last three characters change from 100 to 140. In the box: tool, 1 x PBA 18V 2.5Ah battery, AL 18V-20 charger, double screwdriver bit, carrying case. One battery, not two.
• 06039D7040 UniversalDrill 18V-60 cordless drill driver with 1 x 2.5 Ah battery and charger. Drill rather than Impact, so there is no hammer setting and it will struggle in brick. 60 Nm. In the box: tool, 1 x PBA 18V 2.5Ah, AL 18V-20 charger, double screwdriver bit, carrying case.
• 06039D8100 EasyImpact 18V-40 cordless impact drill, without battery and without charger. Easy tier, so a step below Universal, and 40 Nm against the 60 Nm of the Universal. In the box: tool, double screwdriver bit, carton.

Ryobi

Ryobi runs three naming systems side by side, so the first job is working out which one you are holding. The older Euro style code is R, then the voltage, then tool letters, then a generation digit, then a dash suffix, like R18CS-0. The newer ONE+ HP style puts the tool letters first and the voltage second, like RPD18C1, with no dash suffix at all. The 36V MAX POWER garden range uses R36 or R36X with the letters after the voltage. On anything but the old dash codes the retailer's product title is what tells you whether there is a battery in the box. The code will not. If your code does not resolve here, that is normal for Ryobi and the title wins.

In the UK: Ryobi is sold across the UK rather than through one chain: B&Q, Homebase, Screwfix, Halfords, Very, Argos and Amazon UK all carry it, so there is no single retailer whose listing is the source of truth and it is worth price-checking the same code in more than one shop. What the code does tell you is which market it was built for. UK and European Ryobi codes are the R18, R36 and RY families; the United States uses a completely separate P-prefixed family such as P215 and PBLHM101, so a P code on a UK listing is US stock that will arrive on a US charger. The practical point is that Ryobi is mid-transition between three code styles at once, so treat the code as a way to find the right listing and then read the title and the includes list for what is actually in the box.

• RPD18C1 18V ONE+ HP brushless compact hammer drill, tool only. RPD is percussion drill, 18 is the voltage, C is the compact body and 1 is the revision. There is no packaging suffix, so Tool Only lives in the title. In the box: drill, double screwdriver bit, belt clip.
• RPD18X1 Same family as the RPD18C1 but X is the high torque body rather than the compact one. Tool only again, with no suffix to tell you that. In the box: drill, double screwdriver bit, belt clip, auxiliary handle.
• RCS18C 18V ONE+ HP 165mm brushless circular saw, tool only. RCS means circular saw here because the voltage is 18. On the 36V garden range the same three letters mean chainsaw, which is why you read the voltage before the letters.
• R18CS-0 18V ONE+ 165mm circular saw, body only. Older Euro style: R18 is the platform, CS is circular saw and -0 means no battery and no charger. Still sold alongside the newer RCS18C, which is a good reminder that both code styles are current.

Erbauer

Erbauer is Screwfix's own tool brand, and its part numbers are retailer SKU style rather than a published grammar: a letter block for the tool, the voltage, and then -Li for lithium-ion, as in EHPB18-Li-4 for an 18V 4.0Ah battery and EFC18-Li for the 18V EXT fast charger. There is no suffix that says body only or kit, because Screwfix writes that into the product title in words instead. The word that matters in the name is EXT, which is the current platform: EXT tools and batteries work together and older non-EXT Erbauer does not join in. The dual-voltage EXT packs are the other thing to read, because one pack carries two ratings, 4.0Ah at 36V and 8.0Ah at 18V on the larger one.

In the UK: Erbauer is a Screwfix exclusive and is not sold by Toolstation, B&Q, Amazon UK or anyone else, so buying into EXT means buying into one retailer: there is no second shop to price-check against and no independent service agent network. That is the trade-off for the price, and it is worth knowing before you build a kit on it. Two compatibility rules matter. EXT does not talk to older non-EXT Erbauer, and EXT does not talk to Titan TXP even though both brands sit on the same Screwfix shelf. There is no official adapter in either direction.

• EHPB18-Li-4 Erbauer 18V 4.0Ah EXT battery. EHPB is the battery family, 18 is the voltage, -Li is lithium-ion and the trailing 4 is the capacity in amp-hours. Fits the 18V EXT tools only.
• EFC18-Li Erbauer 18V Li-Ion EXT Fast Charger. EFC is the charger family and 18 is the platform voltage. It charges EXT packs and nothing else.
• Erbauer 18/36V 4.0/8.0Ah EXT battery The dual-voltage pack. It is one battery with two ratings: 4.0Ah when a 36V tool is drawing from it and 8.0Ah at 18V. The pack switches itself, so you do not choose a mode, and the 72V tools take two of them.

Titan

Titan is Screwfix's budget own brand, sitting below Erbauer, and like Erbauer its codes are retailer SKU style. Battery and charger codes run TTI, three digits and then a short letter block for the part type, as in TTI801BAT and TTI803BAT. Nothing in the code says whether a tool comes with a battery: Screwfix writes Body Only or lists the kit contents in the product title instead. The word to read in the name is TXP, because it is the platform and not a model variant.

In the UK: Titan is a Screwfix exclusive, so the same single-retailer caveat applies as to Erbauer: one shop, one warranty route, no independent service agents. The trap that costs people money is inside the brand rather than outside it. The TXP range is not compatible with previous non-TXP Titan tools and batteries, so an older Titan 18V drill and a new TTI803BAT will not work together, and a cheap body-only tool is no bargain if your packs are the wrong generation. Titan TXP is also incompatible with Erbauer EXT despite both being Screwfix brands, and there is no adapter between them.

• TTI801BAT Titan 18V 2.0Ah Li-Ion TXP battery. TTI is the part number family, 801 identifies the pack and BAT says it is a battery rather than a tool. It fits TXP tools only.
• TTI803BAT Titan 18V 5.0Ah Li-Ion TXP battery. Same family as the TTI801BAT with a different pack: the code does not carry the capacity, so read it off the listing title.

HiKOKI

HiKOKI, formerly Hitachi, uses a Japanese style code followed by a packaging code in round brackets. The tool part reads as tool letters, then the voltage, then a series block, as in DV18DE or G3613DVE. The part in brackets, such as (NN), (H4Z) or (HRZ), is the pack. HiKOKI does not publish a legend for the bracketed codes and the letters are not consistent across tool families, so treat the brackets as a lookup and not as a decode. UK trade retailers print Body Only or Kit in the listing title, and that is what you should trust.

In the UK: HiKOKI UK uses the same bracketed European suffixes as the rest of Europe and Japan, so there is no UK-specific code to look for. HiKOKI is a trade-channel brand here rather than a shed brand, sold by ITS, Toolden and the specialist retailers rather than by B&Q, and those retailers print Body Only or Kit in the listing title. That wording, not the bracketed code, is what tells you what is in the box. A decoder that tells you (H4Z) means four amp hours is wrong, and that error costs you a battery, because H4Z tools ship with none. Watch for Japanese domestic stock on marketplaces, which often carries codes ending (NN) or (NNG) and ships with a 100V charger that is no use on UK mains. On the brand confusion that gets asked more than any other: HiKOKI and German Metabo are separate brands owned by the same parent, Koki Holdings, and their batteries do not interchange, because HiKOKI runs MultiVolt and Metabo runs its own 18V LiHD packs in the Cordless Alliance System. Metabo HPT is the North American name for the HiKOKI tools, not for German Metabo.

• DV18DE(H4Z) 18V brushless impact driver drill, meaning a hammer drill driver, body only. DV is impact driver drill, 18 is the voltage, DE is the series and (H4Z) is the body-only pack. No battery and no charger in the box.
• DV18DC(H4Z) 18V brushless 1/2 inch impact driver drill, body only. Same DV family and same (H4Z) pack, with DC being a different series to DE.
• WH18DC(H4Z) 18V brushless 1/4 inch impact driver, body only. WH is impact driver, and (H4Z) again means no battery and no charger.
• G3613DVE(H4Z) 36V MultiVolt 125mm angle grinder with a slide switch, body only. G is angle grinder, DVE is the slide switch series, (H4Z) is the body-only pack. The paddle switch version of the same grinder is G3613DVF(H4Z).

Metabo

Metabo does not use a packaging suffix at all. The tool is named in words and letters, for example SB 18 LTX BL Q I, and the pack is identified by a separate nine digit order number such as 602361850. Two versions of the same tool share the name and differ only in that number. If you have a Metabo in your hand and no box, the name on the tool gets you the model and the nine digit number on the rating plate or the box gets you the pack.

In the UK: Metabo's tool names and nine digit order numbers are global, so the code alone will not tell you which market a tool was packed for: an imported machine carries the identical number and the tell is the charger plug and the seller. There is no suffix shorthand to learn and no equivalent of a Makita Z or a Milwaukee -0, because Metabo states the pack in words, cardboard box or metaBOX, in the delivery scope. The practical UK point is CAS: Metabo 18V LiHD packs run tools from the Cordless Alliance System partner brands, which is a real reason UK trade buyers pick Metabo over a bigger-selling platform. If you are comparing Metabo with HiKOKI because someone told you they are the same company, they share a parent and nothing else that matters to you: different batteries, different chargers, different dealers.

• 602361850 SB 18 LTX BL Q I cordless combi drill, bare. SB is combi drill, 18 is 18V, LTX is the lithium platform, BL is brushless, Q is the quick change chuck and I is Impuls mode. Delivered in a cardboard box with the tool, quick change chuck, side handle, belt hook and bit case. No battery pack and no charger.
• 602360850 SB 18 LTX BL I cordless hammer drill, bare. Note the missing Q against 602361850, which means no quick change chuck. One letter different in the name, a different order number, and a materially different tool. This is why you paste the number and not the name.
• 602359850 BS 18 LTX BL Q I cordless drill driver, bare. BS instead of SB means no hammer action. Same LTX BL Q I feature letters, so brushless with a quick change chuck and Impuls mode.
• 603182850 SB 18 LTX-3 BL Q I Metal cordless combi drill, bare. The -3 is a three speed gearbox and Metal is the metalworking version with an automatically re-tensioning chuck. Cardboard box delivery with the Futuro Top quick change chuck, side handle and C-wrench. No battery or charger.

Festool

Festool names the tool in words and letters, for example TPC 18/4 or TXS 18, then adds a pack word: Basic, Plus or Set. A six digit order number such as 575604 identifies the exact pack. The pack word is what tells you what is in the box, and the six digit number is what you should paste into a decoder rather than the word, because retailers use Set and Plus loosely for the same pack. An I that appears before the pack word, as in I-Basic and I-Plus, belongs to the tool version rather than the packaging, so read the word after it.

In the UK: Festool order numbers are the same six digit global numbers in the UK as everywhere else, so there is no region code to check and an imported machine carries the identical number: the difference shows up only in the charger plug and in who honours the warranty. Festool UK sells through a controlled dealer network rather than general sheds, so the dealer is the thing to check rather than the code. The trap in the numbering is the word Basic, because unlike a Makita Z or a Milwaukee -0 a Festool Basic still includes the Systainer, so you are paying for a case whether you wanted one or not. The second trap is that retailers mix Set and Plus for the same pack, so use the six digit number and not the word.

• 575604 TPC 18/4 I-BASIC. TPC 18V four speed hammer drill, Basic pack, tool only but supplied in a Systainer. In the box: drill, soft grip handle, CENTROTEC BH 60 CE magnetic bit holder, CENTROTEC tool chuck, FastFix keyless chuck KC 13-1/2-MMFP, belt clip, PZ 2 bit, Systainer3 SYS 2 M 187, manual. No battery and no charger, but yes to the case.
• 577285 TPC 18/4 5,2 I-Plus. The same TPC 18V four speed hammer drill with batteries. In the box: drill, soft grip handle and belt clip, CENTROTEC BH 60 CE magnetic bit holder, CENTROTEC tool chuck with FastFix keyless chuck, PZ 2 bit, TCL 6 rapid charger, 2 x 18V 5.2Ah batteries, Systainer3 SYS 2 M 187, manual. Replaces the earlier 575012. Both this and the 575604 Basic carry the I, which is exactly why the I cannot be read as a battery marker.
• 576894 TXS 18 Basic. TXS 18V compact two speed drill driver, Basic pack: a Systainer yes, battery and charger no. UK retailers usually title this as body only in a Systainer, which is accurate as long as you understand that the case is included.
• 575601 TDC 18/4 Basic. TDC 18V four speed drill driver, Basic pack in a Systainer. TDC rather than TPC means no hammer setting. Same Basic rule: case yes, battery and charger no.

Worx

Worx uses WX or WG plus a three digit model number, then a full stop and a digit that tells you the pack. The decimal is the whole packaging system and it is the simplest of any brand here. A .9 is tool only and any other digit means there is a battery and charger in the box. On the WG garden codes a region letter can sit between the model number and the decimal, as in WG349E.9, and the decimal rule still holds. The base WX or WG number identifies the tool regardless of pack.

In the UK: The WX and WG numbers are global, so the code will not tell you which market a Worx tool was packed for: the tell is the charger and the plug, and the North American listings are the ones that turn up on marketplaces. In the UK Worx is sold direct and through B&Q, Argos, Homebase, Amazon UK and some Screwfix lines. The decimal is the whole packaging system and it is the simplest of any brand here: .9 is tool only and any other digit means there is a battery and a charger in the box. The practical point is that the 20V PowerShare pack also runs the 40V tools by pairing two packs, so a .9 body-only tool plus the batteries you already own is often the sensible buy, as long as you own two of them.

• WX370.9 Worx 20V 13mm hammer drill, tool only. WX370 is the tool and .9 is the body-only pack. Battery and charger are sold separately.
• WX370.1 The same 20V 13mm hammer drill as a kit. Only the decimal changes. In the box: drill, 2 x WA3551.1 POWERSHARE 20V 2.0Ah batteries, 1 x WA3760 20V charger, carry bag, double ended bit, belt clip.
• WX530.9 Worx 20V 165mm EXACTRACK circular saw, tool only. In the box: saw, blade, vacuum adapter, hex key, parallel guide. The listing states in plain words that this is a bare unit and the battery and charger are sold separately, which is exactly what the .9 promises.
• WX352.9 Worx 20V 60Nm 13mm brushless hammer drill, tool only. Different model to the WX370 and a different motor, same .9 rule.

Stihl

Stihl does not encode the pack in the model number at all. The model, for example FSA 57 R or MSA 80 C-B, names the tool and tells you which battery family it belongs to, and Stihl then sells that same model as either tool only or as a kit, with those words written into the product name. Paste a Stihl model number into a decoder and you will learn what the tool is, but you will never learn what is in the box from the code. The petrol range works the same way: MS 251 names a chainsaw and says nothing about packaging.

In the UK: Stihl in the UK is sold through the Stihl dealer network and approved retailers rather than general hardware, so you identify where a machine came from by the dealer and not by the code. Stihl writes the pack into the product name in words, which is unusual among these brands and makes the listings self-documenting: the same model is sold as a tool-only machine and as a kit with no change to the model number at all. Note the vocabulary difference if you are reading a listing from the other side of the world: Stihl Australia says skin where Stihl in the UK and Europe says bare tool or tool only. The real buying trap is the battery family rather than provenance: an AK-System tool will not take an AP-System battery, so a tool-only purchase made without checking the system leaves you holding a machine you cannot run. The second trap is watt hours, because Stihl does not advertise amp hours the way the trade brands do and the two numbers are not comparable without converting.

• FSA 57 R Listed as "FSA 57 R AK-System Tool only". Battery grass trimmer on the AK homeowner system, loop handle, tool only. FSA is battery grass trimmer, 57 is the model and R is the handle variant. Comes fitted with a Stihl AutoCut C 3-2 mowing head that refills without tools. No battery and no charger. The same tool is sold as FSA 57 R AK-System Kit.
• MSA 80 C-B Listed as "MSA 80 C-B AK-System Tool only". Battery chainsaw on the AK system, tool only. MSA is battery chainsaw, 80 is the model, C is comfort features and B is quick chain tensioning. The kit version carries the identical model code and only the words change, which is the whole Stihl system in one line.
• HSA 50 Listed as "HSA 50 AK-System Tool only". Battery hedge trimmer on the AK system, tool only. HSA is battery hedge trimmer and 50 is the model. No battery and no charger, and it takes AK packs, not AP.
• KMA 80 R Listed as "KMA 80 R AK-System Tool only". Battery KombiSystem powerhead on the AK system, loop handle, tool only. KMA is the battery Kombi powerhead, which takes the interchangeable KombiTool attachments. Budget for the attachment as well as the battery and charger.

Husqvarna

Husqvarna uses a model name with a trailing i on the battery tools, for example 120i, 340i and 540i XP, and spells the pack out in words in the product name, either tool only or with battery and charger included. There is also a nine digit article number, written with spaces and a hyphen like 970 72 05-07, which identifies the exact pack. There is no suffix code to decode. There is a second family as well, Aspire, which uses names rather than numbers and sits on a different battery system. A bare three digit number on its own is ambiguous, so check whether it carries an i before you buy parts for it.

In the UK: Husqvarna in the UK sells through its own dealer network plus selected retail, so a machine is identified by the dealer rather than by the code, and article numbers are global so an imported machine carries the same number. The important point in the numbering is that the i separates battery from petrol, and people regularly order parts for the wrong machine because 120 and 120i are different saws. The second point is the battery family. Aspire runs the Power for All alliance P4A 18V pack, the same alliance battery used by Bosch green, Gardena and Flymo, while the numbered saws such as 120i, 340i and 540i XP run Husqvarna's own BLi or 40-B series packs. Those two families do not cross, so an Aspire battery will not run a 540i XP and buying one for that reason is money wasted.

• 120i Listed as "Husqvarna 120i (tool only)". Homeowner battery chainsaw. 120 is the size class and the i means battery rather than petrol. Sold tool only, so no battery and no charger. There is a separate kit listing of the same saw and the code does not change between them.
• 120i Listed as "Husqvarna 120i Kit". The same 120i chainsaw sold with a BLi200 battery and a 40-C80 charger. Brushless with a savE mode for longer runtime. The word Kit in the name is the only thing that changes.
• 135 Mark II Listed as "Husqvarna 135 Mark II". Petrol chainsaw with an X-Torq engine, for firewood and felling small trees around the garden. No i, so it is petrol and not battery, and Mark II is the generation. If you have been shopping for a 135i you are looking at a different machine.
• 540i XP Listed as "Husqvarna 540i XP (tool only)". Professional rear handle battery chainsaw. XP is professional grade and i is battery. Sold tool only. The matching batteries are the BLi series or the newer 40-B codes, not the Aspire P4A packs, so do not buy an Aspire battery for this saw.

The rules that hold across every brand

• ▸Body only is UK retail English for a tool sold with no battery and no charger. Bare unit and tool only mean the same thing, and all three turn up in the same listing. The word you will not see here is skin: that is Australian and New Zealand retail English, so if a listing uses it you are reading a page written for another market, which usually means the charger and the warranty are written for that market too. Body only does not mean the box is empty: it normally still includes the fixed accessories such as a side handle, depth rod, belt clip, blade or guard. Two brands break the pattern in opposite directions, so learn them: a Festool Basic is body only but still includes the Systainer case, and a Makita ZK is body only in a case while still having no battery.
• ▸Kit or body only at a glance, one line per brand. Makita: Z means no battery, ZK and ZJ mean no battery in a case, and anything ending R or S plus a letter is a kit. Milwaukee: -0 or a bare 0 on the end means tool only, and a three digit block such as 502 or 202 means a kit. DeWalt: N means bare, NT means bare in a TSTAK, and a letter plus digit such as P2 or M2 means a kit. Bosch: the part number does it, 0 601 and 0 611 are the tool alone, 0 615 is a set with batteries and a charger, and green 0 603 states the pack in words in the product title. Ryobi: the newer ONE+ HP codes carry nothing at all, so the retailer's title is the only answer. Erbauer and Titan: nothing in the code either, so read the Screwfix title. HiKOKI: (NN) means no battery and no charger. If you remember nothing else, remember that the brands split into two groups, the ones that encode it and the ones that make you read the title.
• ▸A kit code with a digit block at the end usually reads as battery capacity first and then how many packs, and that part of the code is the reliable part. Milwaukee -502X is 5.0Ah and two packs, -202X is 2.0Ah and two packs, -302X is 3.0Ah and two packs. DeWalt uses a letter for the capacity and a digit for the count, so P2 is two 5.0Ah, M2 is two 4.0Ah, T2 is two 6.0Ah FLEXVOLT and X2 is two 9.0Ah FLEXVOLT. Makita does not fit and you should stop trying to make it: it encodes the charger type and the capacity as separate letters and does not encode the count at all, so RTJ is a 5.0Ah kit with a rapid charger and a MakPac, while RT and SF are equally normal kit codes with no count in them anywhere.
• ▸The digits are usually right about the battery and almost never right about the case. This is where suffix decoders mislead people most. A Bosch 0 601 number is a single tool with no battery, yet the GWS 18V-10 PSC at 0 601 9G3 F0B ships in an L-BOXX while the GWS 18V-10 at 0 601 9J4 002 ships in a cardboard box. Milwaukee's kit letter tells you the case type on paper and still varies tool by tool. If a case matters to you, the includes list is the only thing that will tell you, not the code.
• ▸Some tools take two batteries to run at all, and the code will not warn you. Makita's 18Vx2 range wears an ordinary leading D like every other 18V LXT tool, so DLM382Z, DUC353Z, DSP600ZJ, DRS780Z, DLS714Z, DLW140Z, DJR360Z and DCE090Z all look like single battery body-only tools and none of them will start on one pack. Einhell does the same on its 36V Power X-Change range, which is two 18V packs in one tool. Erbauer goes further: EXT runs at 18V, 36V and 72V, and a 72V tool wants two 36V-capable packs. Before you buy a body-only mower, chainsaw, plunge saw, mitre saw or cut-off saw, look for 18V x 2, 2x18V, 36V or 72V in the retailer title and count how many packs you actually own.
• ▸The same tool has a different number in different markets because the pack differs, not the tool. The drill is identical, but the charger plug, the case, the battery capacity and the language of the manual change by region, and each of those combinations gets its own part number. Makita signals it with the last letter, J for the European MakPac against E for a plastic kitbox, and on corded tools with the voltage digit after the slash. Milwaukee signals it with X for the UK and European HD Box against C for the Australia and New Zealand kit. DeWalt signals it with a region code after a dash: -GB and -XJ are both normal here, -XE is Australian and a bare -B is North American. Bosch, Festool, Metabo and Husqvarna do not signal it at all, because their numbers are global and an imported tool carries the identical number.
• ▸The strongest import tell is a suffix that returns nothing on the brand's UK catalogue. Run the code through the brand's UK site search before you trust any suffix rule. A Milwaukee kit advertised here as -502C is the Australia and New Zealand pack where UK stock is -502X; a DeWalt -XE is the Australian pack; a Makita code in the American XPH or XDT family is US stock. If the code does not resolve on the UK catalogue, it is not UK channel stock, whatever the seller says. What that test cannot do is prove a code is foreign just because it looks European, which is the mistake in the next item.
• ▸The DeWalt -XJ scare does not apply in the UK, and this is the rule that inverts most completely if you have been reading Australian advice. -GB is the pack built for this market, with a BS 1363 plug and a UK manual, and -XJ is the general European pack, which is sold here through the same authorised channels and is ordinary stock rather than a grey import: the UK sits inside DeWalt's European distribution. The suffix tells you which box and which plug, not whether your cover is good. The codes that really do mean another market are -XE, which is Australia and New Zealand, and a bare -B with no region code, which is North American 20V MAX.
• ▸Warranty in the UK turns on registration rather than on the channel you bought from. Most of these brands ship a standard period and extend it when you register the tool on the brand's UK site, and the window for doing that is short, usually measured in weeks from the date of purchase rather than months. That is a different worry from the Australian one, where the manufacturer's document excludes parallel imports and named online resellers outright: the UK sits inside the brands' European distribution and the mainstream UK retailers, Amazon UK included, are ordinary authorised channels for most of them. We have not verified the current UK periods brand by brand for this edition, so register the tool, keep the receipt, and read the brand's own UK warranty page rather than a number quoted on a forum.
• ▸Where a brand sells in the UK still tells you something, and it is mostly about how many shops you can price-check. Erbauer and Titan are Screwfix's own brands and are sold nowhere else, so the Screwfix listing is both the source of truth and the only price, and warranty claims go back through Screwfix rather than to a manufacturer service network. Ryobi, Bosch green, Worx and Kärcher are shed brands, sold across B&Q, Homebase, Argos, Screwfix and Amazon UK, so the same code is comparable in several places. Makita, DeWalt, Milwaukee, HiKOKI, Metabo and Festool are trade-channel brands sold by Toolstation, ITS, D&M Tools, Powertool World, FFX and the specialist dealers, and Makita and DeWalt reach the sheds as well. The shop no longer predicts the code family, but it still predicts who you talk to when something breaks.
• ▸Three brands deliberately give you no suffix to decode, and a decoder should say so rather than guess. Bosch uses a ten character part number that is a lookup key, where 0 601 and 0 611 are Professional single tools, 0 615 is a Professional set with batteries and a charger, and 0 603 is the green Home and Garden range. It is not all digits either, so letters inside the middle groups, as in 0 601 2A6 500 or 0 615 A50 08V, are normal. Metabo names the tool in words and identifies the pack with a nine digit order number, stating cardboard box or metaBOX in the delivery scope. Festool names the pack Basic, Plus or Set and pins it with a six digit order number. In all three cases the number is the answer and there is no letter to parse.
• ▸My code has no suffix, so what now. That is a real answer, not a dead end. On Ryobi's newer ONE+ HP codes such as RPD18C1, on every Bosch tool, on Erbauer and Titan, and on a lot of Makita two letter kit endings, the packaging is simply not in the code and the product title carries it instead. Bosch writes it out in words at the end of the name, either Without battery | Without charger or 1 x 2.5 Ah battery | charger. Screwfix puts Body Only or the kit contents in the title. Milwaukee puts a full includes list on the product page. So the instruction is go and read the title and the includes list, and that beats a confident guess every time.
• ▸When the code will not decode, that is the decoder being honest. A meaningful share of live codes resolve to nothing under any published rule, including Makita DUR193F001, DUR192LST and DRT50ZJX2, and Ryobi R18XSV914BLK. Manufacturers change their own grammar, keep old series running beside new ones, and make market-specific packs that never get documented. A no match here does not mean the tool is fake, an import or discontinued. It means the code alone is not authoritative, which is true of every code on this page. Check the tool type and the includes list on the retailer listing before you spend money.
• ▸Buying secondhand with no box. Find the code on the tool itself before you decode anything. Makita stamps it on the foot of the handle or on the motor housing label, Milwaukee prints it on the label under the battery, and Bosch puts it on the motor housing sticker along with the ten character number. One trap on Makita: the six digit numbers with a dash that you see everywhere, such as 197280-8, 1915J2-8 and 127701-6, are part numbers for batteries, cases and accessories, not tool codes. B- numbers such as B-90928 are the same thing, a battery multipack. If the number you are holding has a dash after six digits, you are reading a spare part, not the tool.
• ▸Will my old battery fit, which is what half of these questions really are. Within a brand, mostly yes and sometimes no. Makita LXT 18V has held its footprint for years, so an old body-only tool and a new pack work together, but LXT and 40V max XGT do not interchange in either direction, and 18Vx2 tools need two LXT packs rather than one bigger one. Milwaukee M18 has held its footprint across every generation, so an M18BPD from 2016 runs a current 5.0Ah pack. Ryobi ONE+ has held its footprint since 1996, which is the longest run of any of them. Two UK own-brand exceptions catch people out: Titan TXP does not work with pre-TXP Titan tools or packs in either direction, and Erbauer EXT does not work with older non-EXT Erbauer. Across brands, no: green Bosch PBA on POWER FOR ALL and blue Bosch GBA or ProCORE are separate systems, Erbauer and Titan do not talk to each other despite sharing a shop, and Stihl AK and AP are different families within the one brand. Check the family, not just the voltage.
• ▸Watch the words that mean different things on different brands. Impact on a Bosch green tool, as in UniversalImpact, means a masonry hammer drill, while AdvancedImpactDrive means a hex impact driver. Makita HP and Milwaukee PD both mean hammer drill driver, but DeWalt DCD covers both plain drills and hammer drills so the prefix tells you nothing about the hammer. Ryobi RCS means circular saw at 18V but chainsaw on the 36V garden range. Metabo BS is a drill driver and SB is a combi drill, a one letter difference for a materially different tool. HiKOKI DV is a hammer drill driver and DS is a plain drill driver. A decoder that maps prefixes to tool types has to be brand specific, because there is no shared grammar.
• ▸The same letter means different things on different brands, so do not carry a rule across. A trailing X on a Makita combo kit is a packaging index carrying no capacity at all, while on DeWalt X is a 9.0Ah FLEXVOLT battery and X2 means two of them, and on Milwaukee X is the HD Box that marks a UK kit. A T at the end of a DeWalt pack code is a TSTAK case when nothing follows it and a 6.0Ah FLEXVOLT battery when a digit does, which is the difference between M2T and T2. A trailing C is a connectivity marker on Bosch blue and the Australia and New Zealand kit letter on Milwaukee. Makita's E is a plastic kitbox ending and DeWalt's E appears to be a POWERSTACK pack. Decode one brand at a time.
• ▸When a suffix cannot be decoded with confidence, say so rather than guessing, because a confident wrong answer costs someone a battery they did not buy. HiKOKI is the clearest case: the bracketed codes such as (H4Z), (W4Z), (NN) and (HMZ) are not documented publicly, the same letters appear across different tool families, and (H4Z) tools are sold body only with no battery despite the 4 in the code. Reading the 4 as 4.0Ah is the single most common HiKOKI error. Makita is the same story in a quieter way: its two letter kit endings such as RT, SF, RM and SM are common and none of them say how many batteries are in the box, and Makita does not publish the grammar anywhere.
• ▸Hyphens, spaces and full stops are cosmetic and should never change the decode. Milwaukee prints M18FPD30 for M18FPD3-0 and M18FPD3502X for M18FPD3-502X. Bosch prints 0 601 9J4 002 or 0.601.9J4.002 while retailers write 06019J4002. Husqvarna prints 970 72 05-07. Festool writes battery capacities with a European comma, so 5,2 Ah is 5.2Ah. A decoder should strip spaces and hyphens before matching, with two exceptions that are not cosmetic at all: the full stop before the last digit of a Worx code is the entire packaging system, and a slash at the end of a Makita corded code is the supply voltage.
• ▸Garden brands rate batteries differently from trade tool brands and the comparison catches people out. Stihl rates AK packs in watt hours, so the AK 10 is 72 Wh, the AK 20 is 144 Wh and the AK 30 S is 180 Wh. Husqvarna's Aspire P4A 18-B72 pack is listed as 18V, 4Ah and 72 Wh, which shows the conversion. A typical 18V 5.0Ah trade pack is around 90 Wh. Battery family also does not cross within a brand: a Stihl AK tool will not take an AP pack, and a Husqvarna Aspire P4A pack will not run a 540i XP. Buying body only without checking the family leaves you with a tool you cannot power.
• ▸Two brands make the body-only versus kit question trivially easy and are worth holding up as the benchmark. On Worx the digit after the full stop does the whole job: .9 is tool only and any other digit is a kit, and it holds across drills, saws, inflators and garden gear. On Milwaukee a trailing -0 means nothing in the box but the tool, and any digit block means a kit whose capacity and pack count you can read straight off. Every other brand in this list requires either a multi letter lookup or reading the retailer title, and the two Screwfix own brands require the title every single time.
• ▸110V or 230V is the UK question that has no equivalent anywhere else, and it applies to corded tools and to some chargers. Building sites here run 110V centre-tapped-earth through a yellow transformer, so brands sell the same machine twice. Makita marks the 110V build /1 and the 230/240V build /2, and Screwfix lists the HR3210C both ways with the voltage stated in the title. DeWalt marks 110V with -LX, as on the D25033K-LX SDS-plus drill. A 110V tool is genuine stock at a normal price, and that is exactly why it catches people: nothing about the listing looks wrong until it arrives and there is nothing to plug it into. If you are buying for a house rather than a site, check for the voltage code before you check anything else. We could not source the equivalent 110V suffix letters for Bosch, Milwaukee corded, HiKOKI or Metabo, so on those brands read the stated voltage in the listing rather than trusting a letter.

Codes change, and the same tool can carry a different number depending on which market it was built for. Before you buy on a code alone, check the photo and the listed contents: the box is the final word on whether a battery is included.