if you ever find yourself craving for a tool from another brand it’s possible to have an adapter for the battery of other brands. Don’t ask me where to find them tho, I’ve just seen them in the wild here and there.
DeWalt. My father in law bought us some battery powered DeWalt tools as a house warming present, and I continued buying more DeWalt battery powered tools as I needed them since I already had the interchangeable batteries and charger. They’ve all worked well for me so far. When I eventually kill my drill bits I’ll get Milwaukee replacements.
For hammers, Estwing is the only option. My workhorse hammer is >40 years old and still in great working condition and I abuse the hell out of hammers.
Worked at depot until recently found out the only difference between your Ryobi rep and Milwaukee rep is a shirt. At least that’s how it was at my store.
I’ve got Ryobi battery tools and Bosch Professional corded tools (vacuum lock-in…). The Bosch tools are nice to have but at least for me Ryobi is good enough for most applications.
ozito is a local brand stocked at bunnings, i wouldnt rely on them to make a living with but they are more than good enough around the house and im so deep into the ecosystem at this point it makes no sense to change
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).
Recently inherited my dad’s collection. It’s a mix of ryobi, rigid, Milwaukee, and dewalt (along with a few miscellaneous brands I don’t remember). The Milwaukee tool cabinet and work bench are probably my favourite pieces (followed closely by the Ridgid radial arm saw)
RYOBI: Recommend You Other Brands Instead (especially applies their gas stuff which has high failure rates, the cordless handhelds are decent for household and even light commercial use though)
I picked up that same Ryobi starter kit when I bought my house. I know they aren’t the top of the line, but it’s served me well for light duty household projects.
My dad bought me a Kobalt Power drill that was on sale with a battery over a decade ago, and since I already had the battery I just kept buying Kobalt. Their power tools are solid but I’ve definitely busted a few bits
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.
