Did You Pick the Wrong Cordless Tools? | The Internet Decides

Received a Kobalt 1/2” impact as a gift for a teaching moment while producing some custom hubs.  I love it, never use the air anymore.

One thing no one mentioned was part numbers.  I have a thirty year old Dewalt set.  Looks just like the five piece set on sale every holiday.  The difference is my drill has an aluminum body, three speeds and is super tough.  There are different grades of Dewalt tools, home grade and work grade.  Other brands probably do too, do your homework.

Speaking of batteries, I was about to get the 18v to 20v adapter kit with two batteries and a charger last year.  At Lowe’s looking for it and they had a great deal on two 18v batteries.  That’s what I have now.  I fit wasn’t for how strong my old set is I would switch to the red tools.

I will say Real Dewalt batteries last years longer that having them rebuilt by batteries R us.

RevRico said:

In reply to kevinatfms :

Can you swap them at the store now, or do you still have to take them to an "authorized service center"?

The lifetime warranty got me interested, and made me a customer, until I tried to use it and needed to make multiple trips to the middle of nowhere to get my tools sent out to be fixed then picked up again. If they've changed that so you can swap them at Depot now, or mail them in, I may need to revisit rigid. 

 

I've been more or less happy with Bauer since I switched off rigid. With the availability of inexpensive battery adapters, I think brands matter less now than ever before.

I called the support line and stated that i dont have the time to go to an "authorized service center" due to work...etc. Lady told me to send a video to their email w/ my claim number. They called back a day or so later and gave me a shipping number for the brand new tool/battery. I asked if i needed to send the old one back in and they said no.

The one battery i recycled but the impact i still have. It works but has this thing where the "auto" torque sensor goes off and stops the impact if the wind hits it. Makes it nearly useless to actually torque something but can be used once in a while for smaller things and to remove stuff(if it isnt torqued over 80ft-lbs or so).

In reply to kevinatfms :

That's really really good to know. 

20 years ago, I started with the Craftsman 18v line of cordless tools.  Impact, drill, circular saw, sawzall, etc.  After Sears went out of business, started replacing them with Ryobi stuff.  I'm a general hobbyist/mechanic and never had an issue with them. 

This year, however, I wanted a small impact for use around a car so I got the 3/8" impact and drill Milwaukee M12.  Didn't need the drill, but the kit was like $20 more than just the impact tool with no battery or charger.  So far, I'm impressed at how well it works.

My son works the lube line at a dealership and was the one that bought me the Milwaukee stuff.  He said he wanted one of the 3/8" ratchets for work, so I went to get him one for Christmas. Same thing as with my impact, the kit with the ratchet, a drill, the impact I have, the hackzall, a flashlight, two batteries and a charger was $20 more than just the ratchet tool by itself.  So, he left me with the flashlight and hackzall and took the rest. 

Looks like I'm moving towards Milwaukee stuff now.  I really prefer just ONE battery system, but the Ryobi stuff didn't have a small form factor like the M12 system.  I'll probably still buy the Ryobi stuff because it's cheaper and I have a bunch of batteries and chargers and keep the Milwaukee tools to the things Ryobi just doesn't make.  Like the small impact.

We were changing axle seals on his Fit and he brought over his air impact and his cordless Matco.  I didn't think the cordless would work on the axle nuts and it zipped them off like butta.  Now I want a big cordless impact for myself (I'm NOT paying tool truck prices) because my Ryobi 1/2" just doesn't have the torque to pop off lug nuts.  If I went Milwaukee, it'd be a third battery system with the M18, so I'm thinking about the HF stuff just because it's so much cheaper for similar power. 

-Rob

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

Keith Tanner 

Any tool that does real work around here either has a cord or an air chuck on it, though :)

Yes this is my thoughts as well. As a homeowner I'm cool dragging a cord around.  I use these tools maybe once a month.
 

But it sure seems like everyone with the red or yellow boxes spends a lot of time justifying their purchase r/tools I'm looking at you. 
 

For me, it's the complete opposite- I'd rather have cordless tools at home when doing quick jobs. I don't mind plugging in or grabbing air working in the garage on a big project. But for a small job out in the yard or across the house, I could have been done by the time I deal with extension cords or powering up the compressor. Last year my wife bought me a Milwaukee leaf blower. I appreciated the thought, but I didn't need it. I already had a corded one, that I rarely used. Then I tried it, and had an epiphany. I rarely used the corded one because of the cord. I use the cordless one all the time. I just bought the M18 hedge trimmer. It will probably pay for itself in extension cords over it's life, and my yard will look nicer. 
 

I don't get the yellow/red hate, or why you would think anyone has to justify buying them. They are a bit more expensive, but they are also contractor grade tools. Tools are consumables to many contractors, and these are made to deal with the abuse. Treat your tools nicely and don't use them 8 hrs a day, 5 days a week, and the other brands should serve you well. It's nice to have choices. 
 

One of my new favorite cordless tools is my M18 shop vac. Rarely do I need the capacity of my large corded vac, and I just need to clean up a quick mess or vacuum out the car. This thing is awesome...

In reply to Boost_Crazy :

my words were a little impercise. I was trying to have a fun commentary on Reddit.com/r/tools.   Geez. Those guys. 
 

but buy whatever you want man. I wanted the red tools but man just can't justify having that much money tied up in inventory that I don't use more than once or twice a month.  I'd rather have the cash earning interest. 

It bears repeating, cordless vacuums are so freaking handy. The Milwaukee one is pretty nice because of the flat top, I love my Makita, I bought my father a Ryobi one for XMas and it worked very well, even WalMart has one that performed as well as the others. 

The hart tools are basically ryobi.  I really wanted to get that set. My 10% employee discount also was pushing me that way, but the lifetime service agreement of rigid made the move. 

The Makita 18v drill I bought finally died after 20 years of hard abuse.  The other 20+ Makita 18v tools I own are all working like brand new, and every battery I've ever bought still works.  Don't know that I could give a stronger testimonial than that.  

How do we feel about the cheaper dewalt line? Any first hand experience here? I dont use many cordless tools so I'm not too concerned about how extensive the tool catalog is, I just want a new drill and maybe an impact driver, and dont want to pay Milwaukee prices.

Makita 18V fan here.  Have 10+ different tools and many batteries.  The trick is to find their special package around the holidays with 4 5A  batteries and a tool for $250 ish - batteries alone are worth more than that along with the double charger. 

I even converted by Toro electric mower to 36V (two Makita 18V) batteries using 3D printed adapters when the mowers batteries died.  

kellym said:

Makita 18V fan here.  Have 10+ different tools and many batteries.  The trick is to find their special package around the holidays with 4 5A  batteries and a tool for $250 ish - batteries alone are worth more than that along with the double charger. 

I even converted by Toro electric mower to 36V (two Makita 18V) batteries using 3D printed adapters when the mowers batteries died.  

 

I've never seen this package with the 4 batteries, and I can't find it listed anywhere.  Do you know the part number?  The 5.0 mAh batteries have gotten crazy expensive since I've been in their tool ecosystem, that's for sure.

In reply to Boost_Crazy :

Agreed. I no longer see any value in air or corded tools outside of a professional shop. I sold my compressor and bought some batteries with the cash.

Last 3 tools i Bought were from DeWALT and I really like them too. But regardless of what brand you prefer dont ever buy fake batteries its just not worth it. I've bought this battery 3 years ago and it's still working perfectly before that had fake one and it was just terrible.

lucasbrown9 said:

Last 3 tools i Bought were from DeWALT and I really like them too. But regardless of what brand you prefer dont ever buy fake batteries its just not worth it. I've bought this battery 3 years ago and it's still working perfectly before that had fake one and it was just terrible.

That's another reason I went with Ryobi. The OEM batteries are cheap enough that it's not even worth trying the Chinese knockoffs.

The company is still using Ridgid tools. They just keep working. I guess it's going on 11 years now and we finally had a couple of the original batteries get to the point they were no longer usable. The drills are lasting 2-3 years and since the batteries are outlasting the drills I technically can't send them back. The guarantee is only for the life of the tool. Still, at 10 years out of a battery, I'll keep using them. 

At home, I'm still using Milwaukee. I have mostly 12v stuff but I picked up a M18 drill and impact set on black Friday for $129. That led to buying a 4.5" grinder and the shop vac. Great tools. I'll keep using them. 

As somebody who works on his own house, his own cars, and builds boats as a hobby, I took up the DeWalt 20v line years ago and never looked back. The only cordless tool I own that is not DeWalt is the "mouse" sander from Black and Decker. I love that little sander, it does everything I ask of it in a small form factor and can get places no tool from DeWalt can.

Time to update this. 

I have been buying Ridgid battery drills for a long time. We usually get 2-3 years of daily use out of them before they die. As hard as we are on drills, I just write them off as the cost of doing business and keep a spare on the shelf in the shop. Until now.

In the last 6 months, I've replaced 3 drills. No big surprise, as I said we are hard on them. The surprising part is, of those 3 drills, all 3 have failed in less than 6 months. Two of them went up in smoke today. One lasted 3 weeks.  I've got two guys standing around because of burned-up drills and another guy taking a drill to them so they can finish their job which is going to leave him without a drill. I've got another set of doors to install 2 hours out of town tomorrow. We'll keep the rest of the Ridgid tools but it's time to find another drill. For the interested, Northern Tool had as good a price as the online shops and they had 3 in stock. 

I went Dewalt a couple of years back and have amassed quite a collection of 20V tools.  The only one I've had any trouble at all with is their damned berking chainsaw.  I got it and immediately loaned it to a friend who returned it with a dull chain.  Come to find out the oiler didn't work.  No problem, probably just plugged up.  It wasn't.  Took it all apart and found that my saw, unlike all those on the Internet, had been design changed and used a worm gear style pump instead of the common cam type.  I COULD NOT find a new pump for several months.  Then, I learned a neat trick one day.  If you set your language preference on Amazon to Spanish, and I assume it works for other languages as well, it changes what it finds in the search.  Y en español, there it was!  Worm drive Dewalt pump shipping out of Salt Lake City.  I ordered one, took it all apart again, and low and behold that berker didn't work either!  
 

Try the language trick in Amazon if you can't find what you're looking for.  I've used it successfully since and it's the only good thing that came out of that chainsaw fiasco.

I spent last night perusing the Milwaukee site looking at the M12-system. I like the compactness of those designs and while I'm happy with the general performance of my 18v Ryobi system...grass is always greener, right?

But by the time I calculated the cost to replace my tools to give me similar versatility to what I currently have on my shelf and adding in the fact that there is no 4.5" Angle grinder or weed eater available. I realized it was not going to work out for me. I could probably make the die grinder work work for me in place of an angle grinder. But the lack of a weed eater and other outdoor tools limits the utility. And I refuse to have more than a single battery system on hand. Maybe in the future they'll come out with more outdoor tools. 

Which reminds me of a minor 'rant' I recognize that tool companies sell tells to make money, therefore it isn't in their best interest to do 'smart' things. But to me, the smarter thing isn't making a larger voltage ecosystem, like 40v, but instead to simply make a double battery ecosystem. So, I could use two 18v batteries to run a lawn mower or two 12v batteries to run a weedeater. 

Now that I think about it, someone probably makes some kind of double-battery attachment...

I went Makita when I crossed that bridge.  Their reputation seemed to be equal to the Milwaukees and Dewalts...but with far fewer users/knowledge about them.  Figured that would make them less likely to be stolen because batteries and badge.  I'm in far too deep now to ever change!

DocRob said:

Which reminds me of a minor 'rant' I recognize that tool companies sell tells to make money, therefore it isn't in their best interest to do 'smart' things. But to me, the smarter thing isn't making a larger voltage ecosystem, like 40v, but instead to simply make a double battery ecosystem. So, I could use two 18v batteries to run a lawn mower or two 12v batteries to run a weedeater. 

uhhhh... Milwaukee, Dewalt, Makita, Ryobi and others are doing exactly that.  Each of those brands have a 2x18V mower. We are starting to see that on circular saws, shop vacuums and leaf blowers as well.

The only problem with the 2 battery tools is now you need 4 expensive batteries to have spares.  I got into Milwaukee for there 12 volt ratchets, now I feel like it is an addiction.  Due to battery costs I try to buy tools that come with free batteries on sale, last year I got a hammer drill with 3 5 ah batteries for around $250.  I don't need a hammer drill much, but have used it, the 5 ah batteries are around $170 each not on sale.

I'm hoping to build a battery pack for all my 20v tools soon; I've acquired a handful of random ones from plenty of brands and they all seem to only have connections for the positive and negative. I just wonder if I can drive them slightly higher at ~24v so I can also use it for an inverter?

RacetruckRon said:

DocRob said:

Which reminds me of a minor 'rant' I recognize that tool companies sell tells to make money, therefore it isn't in their best interest to do 'smart' things. But to me, the smarter thing isn't making a larger voltage ecosystem, like 40v, but instead to simply make a double battery ecosystem. So, I could use two 18v batteries to run a lawn mower or two 12v batteries to run a weedeater. 

uhhhh... Milwaukee, Dewalt, Makita, Ryobi and others are doing exactly that.  Each of those brands have a 2x18V mower. We are starting to see that on circular saws, shop vacuums and leaf blowers as well.

Hell even the OEMs are doing that for electric cars- through wiring, The Hummer charges it's batteries at 800v for efficiency but drives it's motors at 400v for twice the amperage.

If anyone cares , Home Depot has had Ryobi days sale  the last couple weeks at Home Depot , 

$99 gets you 2 x 4ah batteries , a charger and a tool ,  dozens of tools are included.