Mower: Toro 60V Leaf Blower: Toro 60V Hedge Clipper: Toro 60V I absolutely love all of the above, they work extremely well for my less than 1/5th acre of land. When it was time to replace my 16 year old Toro 6.5hp gas mower, I wanted a battery powered unit. Looking at Ego and the others, I went with Toro as it seems a lot better built. It also helps that in a distant past I worked for a company that provided Toro’s IT services, so I got to know the company.
String Trimmer: Black and Decker 20V (My first battery powered yard tool purchase and it’s been great. Will replace with a Toro 60v when it dies.)
Tools: All are Makita LXT powered Circular Saw Sawzall Drill
Its not like they are the exact same tool.
I have a ton of Ryobi tools and am perfectly fine with them, but they are not designed and built to the same standards of use and durability as Milwaukee. That’s why companies have multiple tiers to cover everyone from the occasional user to the professional. Some companies really go nuts with that and have seemingly a million brands (I’m looking at your SBD) but thinning out a company’s lineup of too many brands is sometimes very tough from a customer loyalty perspective.
Even so, it’s not about who owns them, it’s about their design, specifications and quality assurance. Milwaukee is head and shoulders above Ryobi in quality and durability (and cost).
Bosch because I got a stupidly low deal for a blue drill, two batteries and a fast charger (i still think it was a labelling mistake) and now everytime I look at tools I want the wireless version and since I already have batteries it just make more sense to stay with one system. It was a fantastic idea to vendor lock the clients.
Used to have cheapo 12v hitachi. Its poor little clutch didn’t fair well when I asked it to drive several 5 inch lags.
DeWalt what I use now. Received a 6ish tool kit as a present a while back. They all get light use but the sawzall is certainly the most used. Diablos 3tpi blade makes for a great and violent pruner.
No more cheap bits though. Driver or drill. (Sockets too.)The level of annoyed and frustrated cheap bits makes for just isn’t worth it. Drivers hold better, strip less, and last longer. Drills go through material faster, break less, hold an edge longer.
Started life as a Makita user for electric handhelds. Became a Milwaukee user after finding the magnificent beast that is their higher end impact lines. All hail the torque!
We’re a Makita home, but I wouldn’t mind other nice brushless based tools from other brands. I’ve considered custom printed battery adapters to be able to make other brands compatible with my Makita battery investment.
Still have a fairly well stocked of “still sears” craftsman gear, (not yet chinesey-um) including some old pneumatic impacts/etc, a few Matco/Cornwell tools mixed in there as well. Detailed for a lot of years and Makita made great (if not terribly impressive) stuff for rotary grinders/buffers.
Shit, my man, ever since Craftsman stopped really being Craftsman, all bets are off.
In case anyone is curious, the Lifetime Warranty on Craftsman hand tools is still in effect. You need to walk into a Lowe’s with your broken ratchet, now, but they’ll still swap you another one for free. It just hurts a little trading in your 20-year-old Craftsman ratchet, which is lighter, better built, and shows attention to detail, for a lump of Chinesium that’s just bluntly stamped also-ran stuff. Definitely a downgrade. But the warranty is still there, so that’s something.
Now, shit, who knows? My stuff is still mostly Craftsman, but stuff has been replaced with lesser brands as it fails or gets lost, it’s whatever, now, for hand tools.
I’ve heard good things about Makita, lately. Make sure you follow TorqueTestChannel on Youtube for the real man news, they’ve got a whole setup for testing power tools to see if they’re worth the price.
