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.
Makita all the way. I was first introduced to it by a neighbor who had a Makita drill, and it was so much better than the generic one I had previously. Now I own a bunch of 18V Makita tools, from your standard power drill, an impact drill, air compressor, a lawnmower, weed trimmer, and hedge trimmer.
I’m locked into the brand now, but I have zero regrets as their tools are very high quality. Nope I wanna get some woodworking tools but don’t have the space for a proper workbench lol.
Milwaukee, because thats what was on clearance at Home Depot when I wad finally disgusted with the poor performance and junk batteries on my craftsman C3 stuff.
That’s how they got me as well. Lowest priced plus on sale. Reviews were mostly fine for the trimmer itself. Most people seemed to have more issues with the customer service, which, that’s pretty standard for many companies these days. I was tired of constantly having to fix the name brand gas weed eater I had, so I picked up one of the battery powered Ryobi models. It works…fine lol. Battery could last longer. Otherwise it does exactly what it says it does on the box. I’ve never had a problem with it. My other handful of Ryobi tools are in that camp. Kinda cheap feeling but seem to work as advertised.
The only one that was shit is the drill. I have a low-end black and decker drill that has lasted me about ten years. The Ryobi I got maybe hit three.
I’ll tell you though, the best tool I own is my Scott manual push mower. Picked it up for $99 and I’ve never had an issues and it still cuts like it did when I bought it four years ago. A little WD40 in the spring after pulling it out of shed hibernation and off to cut.
I always heard “buy a cheap tool and if it breaks buy better version” - haven’t really done enough to go thru any ryobis yet, except for leaving batteries out in the garage all winter.
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.
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.
