Yeah, they may not last my whole life but neither is anything else with a battery. I don’t put enough strain on the tools I use around the house to break them.
I think Ryobi is perfect for as an entry tool. If you break it from overuse, then buy a high quality product. But if it’s the first time buying a tool where you don’t know how often you will use it, Ryobi is perfectly fine to get started with and fmailiarize yourself with it.
I agree. to add both 18 and 40v are have high and low quality feeling devices. The high quality lawn mower and hand held yard tools are good enough. get big batteries. Have enough to keep going with an ulta fast charger. the hybrid 18v are my jam. Plastic weld is great for fixing their plastic. battery warranty is pretty good.
Hitachi/Makita/Metabo (Metabo is Hitachi) Some bosch sometimes. I think the saw stop is nice for table saws after using it in a hackerspace, saw it save enough people from losing fingers it seems like a good idea. For woodworking and gardening I mostly use cheap (but not knockoffs from amazon) japanese tools, as long as you clean the blades and keep them sharp they are a really good value.
Thought I’d be alone to admitting using Hitachi/Metabo HPT. They kinda suck but get light duty stuff done and they don’t cost much, especially if you buy gray market versions.
Metabo HPT is called Hikoki outside of USA afaik. Only seen them at hardware stores but I remember the DV18DD being remarkably quiet for an 18V brushless drill driver, even compared to the competitors’ smaller models. In what way do they suck? At least here they are in the same price range as Makita and Dewalt.
Contractor here. DeWalt 20v is my main cordless brand. I’ve beat the shit out of them for years. Never have given me problems, plus I’ve moved over my lawn care tools to the 20v offerings because I’ve got more batteries than I know what to do with . I migrated over from the 18v post battery lineup, which was disappointing that DeWalt didn’t support their 18v line anymore. DeWalt 12v line is a major letdown; no real tools outside of a couple of drill/driver atomics. I do have a couple of 60v DeWalt tools, but we’ll see if DeWalt continues to support that class.
I did buy into the Milwaukee 12v setup, because sometimes I only need a light duty drill/impact and their 12v line has a lot of nice options for lighter duty cordless tools.
Corded, I have no brand loyalty and buy the best tool for the money (no festool because I don’t have a money tree in my backyard). Bosch, Makita, DeWalt, Milwaukee, etc… I do a little bit of research and buy the best rated tool. I never buy anything that has moving parts from harbor freight. Anything I do buy there I consider a ‘disposable’ tool and can’t depend on it to do it’s job.
My tools make me money, and I try to treat them well, so when I need them I can count on them to work.
I’m on the yellow ray-gun stuff too, I’ve only ever managed to burn a drill armature out (but then I was using a 20mm carbide hole saw on 10mm steel plate so it’s my own fault), found a replacement armature for £26 and it was easy to fit.
I also have the 9Ah monster dewalt battery and their usb topper, absolute life saver if you’re on a job site, or going camping.
I heard they’ve released an even bigger one which I’m yet to look at, and they have a power station thing that looks cool as hell.
Same to almost all of this. My 20v dewalt line has heald up quite well with some pretty heavy usage.
Air tools have been Bostich or porter cable though truth be told I’ve had issue with porter cable. My new framing gun is an off brand Fram Amazon. It was on Hella sale and I needed one quick. It replaced a porter cable and has surprisingly held up really well so far.
I also have a light line but unlike yours I’m in the Makita 12v camp. Have a of their lighter smaller 12v tools and love them. Truthfully I’d be tempted to go all Makita if I wasn’t so heavily invested in dewalt but I don’t really have any dewalt complaints.
Have a few Rigid tools (cordless drill, impact driver, router, contractor table saw, orbital sander). Originally started buying Rigid for their “lifetime warranties,” but after using their registration process, it appears they’re doing everything they can to make people give up, so I don’t buy this brand any more. The contractor table saw is great, regardless.
I now buy Dewalt cordless tools. Good quality, but battery prices are ridiculous.
For tools I don’t need to use very often, I buy from Harbor Freight. Some tools are barely usable, some of their hand tools are superior to other store brands from other stores.
Harbor Freight is a lifesaver brand, by that I mean if you have very little cash but you REALLY need something to finish the job, they’ll do that one job and you’d still have a tool you can use ocasionally
There have only been a handful of times where going with a cheapo HF tool was the correct answer in the long run. HF’s higher end tools are not bad, but then again they are priced at a similar level to “real” brands, so why go with HF? Their lower end tools are mostly throw-away and something that you will need to replace - the old adage of “buy once, cry once” applies. Now I am not saying ALL HF stuff is garbage (their car jacks are good), but it’s just not worth it to me. Other’s can buy what they want.
The icon line is supposed to be comparable to the tool trucks and I have some of them and so far, I’d agree and it’s about 1/5th of the cost. I’ve been beating the hell out of the 3/8 impact swivel sockets and haven’t broken one yet. They’re still tight.
I have a healthy mix. Hitachi table saw and miter saw, Makita framing nailer, Bostitch trim nailer and roofing nailer, and a Bosch corded circular saw. All my cordless tools are Milwaukee though, since I’m standardized on the M18 battery. Have a cordless drill and impact, jigsaw, hackzall, a bunch of lights, and a circular saw.
Milwaukee. I bought early into the launch of the brushless fuel line when they were clearly above the rest, and now I’m in their ecosystem. Anything corded or doesn’t have it’s own battery I’ll use whatever I meets my needs best though.
My cordless tools do get used professionally though. I might add some Ryobi to my kit for some of the odd ball items that only exist in their ecosystem like the extended power brush.
Same. I bought an electric impact and used it for working on cars for something like three years. I think that was like six or seven years ago and it’s still going strong.
Absolutely agreed that the battery situation is stupid and creating a lot of waste. Unfortunately I don’t think these companies are going to willingly give up the cash-cow that is proprietary batteries and chargers, along with the sunk-cost customer base they maintain with it, unless they’re forced to. It’s a shame other countries don’t protect consumers with as much vigor as the EU.
A lot of people are commenting about how Ryobi and Milwaukee are owned by the same parent company.
This is true, but in the same way Lexus and Toyota are the same company. Ryobi is intro level and Milwaukee is the professional focused brand. There’s nothing wrong with Ryobi, but Project Farm has repeatedly tested Milwaukee and Ryobi and Milwaukee consistently outperforms. It’s not a "badge engineering"situation.
Milwaukee 12v is the bomb for most drill/driving/ratchet. Super compact, ergonomic, well built, and the same power as “20v” equivalent twice their size. It would be my number one choice for anything except larger impact wrenches.
The shop I work at decided that we would get Milwaukee for most of our cordless tools, so that’s what I have for the convenience of being able to share batteries. We even have a 3/4" and 1" impact from Milwaukee, both work great. The 3/4" sees use every day removing 500ft/lbs lugnuts off of heavy trucks.
Yeah, unfortunately the beastly impacts are M18 so different batteries than the smaller M12 tools. They do make an awesome M12 3/8" Stubby Impact. Anything bigger you need to bump up to the M18 line.
I’m not paid to shill for the tool company I buy my kit from. They all use the same battery, so it’s cheaper to not mix and match.
I would probably only recommend my Bosch sliding compound mitre saw of all the tools I’ve owned - my only complaint about it is that the laser is not adjustable enough, but cuts are quality, angles are repeatable and I’m broadly very happy with it.
Anything else is much the same as every other tool on the market.
Companies with an advertising budget larger than all the currency that will come through me in a lifetime, especially as they’re all owned by more or less the same parent corporations totally eliminating competition or variance, don’t need my voice.
I have the EGO mower and Weed whacker. They have been fantastic. Not having to deal with gas and oil and a fucking ripcord is a godsend.
Side note: Originally didn’t think I needed the blower. Now I can’t stop thinking about getting one. The girlfriend still mocks me whenever I use the push broom to clean up the driveway and sidewalk.
I have the blower and I guess you cant win either way. I like the mini EGO blower i got but I still feel a little silly trying to blow all the debris back onto my lawn instead of into the street or into my neighbors lawns, but it feels silly because often it seems like Im just blasting stuff into the air to get blown back onto me lol. So either youre sweeping manually or blowing shit all over the place lol
