No. DeWalt 20V MAX/FlexVolt and Porter-Cable 20V MAX batteries are not interchangeable — and if this question feels familiar, it should. This is now the third Stanley Black & Decker sibling pairing where the answer comes out the same way: shared corporate ownership, zero shared hardware.
Stanley Black & Decker owns both DeWalt and Porter-Cable, which is exactly why people assume the batteries must cross over. One company, two battery systems? Surely not. But read what each brand actually says about its own platform and the doors stay closed. DeWalt’s FLEXVOLT Battery System page states that “FLEXVOLT® batteries are compatible with DEWALT 20V MAX* power tools” — DeWalt tools, full stop. Porter-Cable’s own pages draw the mirror-image boundary. The PCC685L 4.0Ah pack battery is “conveniently compatible with all PORTER-CABLE 20V MAX* power tools,” and the compact PCC680L is described as easy to switch out and “plug… in for use with any PORTER-CABLE 20V MAX* power tool.” Each ecosystem describes itself perfectly and never names the other. Neither brand’s page mentions the other anywhere.
If you’re new to Porter-Cable as a brand, its current platform is a real, self-contained 20V MAX system with a proper battery lineup of its own: a 1.5Ah compact pack built around minimal self-discharge and no memory, and a 4.0Ah pack rated for exactly the same “no memory and little self-discharge” behavior — each carrying a 2-year limited warranty. Its PCCK600LB drill/driver kit gives you a sense of the hardware those batteries drive — a motor delivering 330 Unit Watts Out, a 2-speed gearbox running 0-400/0-1,600 rpm, a metal ratcheting chuck, all in a 7¾-inch, 3.5-pound tool that ships with two PCC680L compact batteries and a charger. Nothing in any of that documentation references a DeWalt battery, a DeWalt charger, or a DeWalt adapter.
DeWalt’s side of the fence is equally well documented. Its FLEXVOLT page footnotes its whole labeling scheme precisely: maximum initial battery voltage of 20, 60, and 120 volts measured without a workload, nominal voltage 18, 54, and 108. Its DCA1820 adapter — the one product DeWalt sells whose entire job is bridging battery generations — allows “the use of 20V MAX* batteries in most 18v DEWALT® tools,” requires a “20V MAX* DEWALT® charger,” refuses to work with FLEXVOLT packs, and accepts only XR batteries from 1.5 to 5.0 Ah. Every clause of that list says DEWALT. It bridges DeWalt’s past to DeWalt’s present; it has nothing to do with crossing to another brand, sibling-owned or otherwise.
One genuinely interesting asymmetry showed up while checking these pages. DeWalt footnotes its voltage labeling precisely: maximum initial battery voltage of 20 volts measured without a workload, nominal voltage 18 — so “20V MAX” is an 18-volt-class battery wearing a peak-voltage label. None of the three Porter-Cable pages checked states a nominal figure at all. That’s an observed difference in how transparently each brand documents its own platform — not evidence about how either one actually behaves, and definitely not a compatibility signal either way.
Practical takeaway
Shared ownership does not mean shared battery hardware. Treat DeWalt and Porter-Cable exactly as you’d treat DeWalt and Craftsman or DeWalt and Black+Decker on this site: two separate systems under the same parent company, each needing its own batteries and chargers. If a third-party listing or forum post ever claims a Porter-Cable pack “fits” a DeWalt tool or vice versa, notice that neither manufacturer’s own documentation supports the claim. Match the battery to the brand on the tool, every time.
How this was checked
Facts on this page are drawn from DeWalt’s own FLEXVOLT Battery System and DCA1820 Adapter pages, and Porter-Cable’s own PCC685L and PCC680L battery pages plus the PCCK600LB drill/driver kit page.
Sources checked: 2026-08-23. A new review date will only be set after the linked pages are re-checked.