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Power Tools Suggestions?

B

Ban Bot

Senior member
We recently purchased a home and I need more tools. I own a 13 year old DeWalt 12V cordless drill and some loose ends (oscillating tool from Harbor Freight, no-name small screw driver, etc.) but the remainder of my tools are all manual.

Alas the day has come and I have a “list” of tools I need to make various repairs. I intend on getting a wired circular saw so brand/ecosystem is less vital than quality and performance but I also need a Reciprocating Saw to, among other things, replace our front and back doors and cut through some roots on a couple large rhodedenrums over our leaky water line.

Poking around I realize that (a) I should be mindful of the “ecosystem” I buy into and (b) a ton of review sites are really just affiliate driven wages as referral fees on power tools are quite nice. So I turn to the sages of ATOT!

The uses will be home improvement projects. The drill gets regular use but most of the other tools would get used a handful of times. My biggest problem with the drill is, before home ownership, there were times it wasn’t used for a year so the batteries are shot. Keeping the same battery system for all devices + owning a home will remedy that.

# New Homer Owner (lots of projects; we keep tools in good shape and want tools to last 10+ years)
# Light Use (home improvement; no plans for demos, remodels, or new additions)
# Not invested in a current brand ecosystem
# Want a “platform” with longevity (i.e. want something I can add pieces in 4 or 5 years and not be forced onto their new battery systems)


Not sure if I should be looking at 12V, 18V, 20V, etc. or how stable the various brands are. Thanks!
 
Theres no difference between 18v and 20v, the 20v is actually labelled 20v max since it simply peaks at 20v, even the 18v ones peak at 20v.

Im sure you'll need an impact driver eventually, ridgid has lifetime warranty on those including the battery.

Platform with longevity? Perhaps the new milwaukee fuel series, they have new a completely new line with brushless motors, but its far from cheap.
 
I'd say Ryobi has the most longevity given you can use Li-ion batteries on some of the old Nicad tools. Plus, it definitely qualifies as homeowner grade for light use.
 
My co is a dewalt house. While Milwaukee had changed battery styles 4 or 5 times, dewalt kept the same style. Now, after years of compatibility, they have finally changed, and I'm banking on another decade+ of no changes. A few of my guys and I have just bought new 20vmax kits, top end brushless drill (dc995, not the mostly useless compact) and impacts.
All I can say is that they perform amazingly. There is a design flaw in the 995 though, I'm about to start a post with pics.
Power is insane, battery life is amazing with the 4ah batteries, plus they're very light, much lighter than the older dcs950/970 models we all still have.
 
I'm really liking my Lithium Makita set. They have a couple different grades, I have the larger set (the teal/black tools) as I need the extra power or capability of them every so often with projects I work on, but they have a little smaller white/black set of lithium tools that don't cost quite as much but would do just fine for everyday stuff. If I wasn't drilling holes in concrete, or using 1" auger bits through studs and joists regularly, then I may have just gone with that instead.

Whatever you do, I would highly recommend going lithium. NiCad just sucks in comparison with the always dead batteries.
 
Light use: Ryobi or Dewalt

Heavy use: Milwaukee Fuel and maybe Makita

Professional: Hilti and Festool
 
Thanks for all the feedback, especially advice on the Lithium batteries. Didn't realize Ryobi and Ridged have a number of "kits" that are reasonably priced.
 
edro said:
Eh, I put Dewalt in the heavy use category. I think more professionals use Dewalt than any other brand.
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I still have the general impression from my contractor brother-in-law that DeWalt cordless will probably get the job done and won't hurt too much if it's stolen....but there are better tools (performance and ergonomics) out there if you are not worried about it getting stolen before it wears out.
 
edro said:
Eh, I put Dewalt in the heavy use category. I think more professionals use Dewalt than any other brand.
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I guess Dewalt can move up but I would have to move the Milwaukee fuel up to pro then cause sorry but Dewalt doesn't even get close to the Mulwaukee.
 
TheSlamma said:
I guess Dewalt can move up but I would have to move the Milwaukee fuel up to pro then cause sorry but Dewalt doesn't even get close to the Mulwaukee.
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So wrong it hurts. Have you used both? Don't get me wrong, the fuels are good, but they're 6 years old now. The only cordless tool with more power than dewalt now is the giant makita with over 1000in-lbs of torque. The fuel is rated 17 in-lbs higher than dewalt, but chuck to chuck torque tests shed light on that error.
 
TheSlamma said:
Light use: Ryobi or Dewalt

Heavy use: Milwaukee Fuel and maybe Makita

Professional: Hilti and Festool
Click to expand...

Totally disagree.
I stopped buying Milwaukee tools a few years back because their quality went down hill. They may or may not be better now, I don't know. DeWalt has been a solid performer, they make a superb impact driver and their roto hammers are second to none, I can't imagine why you would even compare them to Roiby, totally different class of tools.
Festool is good quality, but not good enough to justify the premium price they want. I have a Festool rail saw, and it's a very nice tool, but it's all plastic and feels cheap in your hand. Hilti is much the same as festool, a high price not justified by the quality of the equipment. I have both Hilti and DeWalt electric jack hammers, the Dewalt works every bit as well as the Hilti, and was $800 less money.
Makita, like DeWalt, is always a solid tool, though they don't seem to update them very often.
 
Ridgid (Home Depot) for anything without batteries - lifetime warranty. The battery powered Ridgids are also warranted for life, including their batteries. I don't know what they're like now, but the batteries used to have lower capacities.
 
Greenman said:
Totally disagree.
I stopped buying Milwaukee tools a few years back because their quality went down hill. They may or may not be better now, I don't know. DeWalt has been a solid performer, they make a superb impact driver and their roto hammers are second to none, I can't imagine why you would even compare them to Roiby, totally different class of tools.
Festool is good quality, but not good enough to justify the premium price they want. I have a Festool rail saw, and it's a very nice tool, but it's all plastic and feels cheap in your hand. Hilti is much the same as festool, a high price not justified by the quality of the equipment. I have both Hilti and DeWalt electric jack hammers, the Dewalt works every bit as well as the Hilti, and was $800 less money.
Makita, like DeWalt, is always a solid tool, though they don't seem to update them very often.
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Google: Dewalt Wobble and see the slew of comments on the same problem I found with them.

Hilti is used by pros cause when your tool breaks they will come out to the jobsite and either replace it or give you a loaner. Dewalt will not do that, I'm glad to hear you are having a good experience with your dewalt tools as I just simply have not.
 
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stormkroe said:
So wrong it hurts. Have you used both? Don't get me wrong, the fuels are good, but they're 6 years old now. The only cordless tool with more power than dewalt now is the giant makita with over 1000in-lbs of torque. The fuel is rated 17 in-lbs higher than dewalt, but chuck to chuck torque tests shed light on that error.
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The Milwaukee 18v Li-ion fuels came out in 2012 and yes I have used both. I returned 2 Dewalts recently before getting my Milwaukees because of chuck wobble and will never go back, my Milwaukees while I have only had them a short while now have not had a single issue. Of course time will tell how it is in the long run but the dewalts were out of the box crap for me and clearly through not even that much internet research it wasn't just me having those exact issues.

I had Dewalt years ago before that and I found it was fine until my battery melted and fused into the charger one day. so yes, 3 burns from Dewalt in an 8 year period, I file them down with the never again brands for me. I like Makita but I found their batteries simply don't last, when they are charged though I love them.

But honestly if I'm going to be that tied to power I will just pull out my corded equipment especially if I'm really needing that kind of torque. I've watched many cordless hammer drills burn up going into foundations even at only 1/2 inch. My 1970's AEG I can put a 2" bit on it and drive through anything and that same drill I now have has been doing that for decades as my dad was using it up till 10 years ago when he sold his sprinkler company then handed it down to me. And yes I've experienced the limited Makita battery life first hand when I was replacing the porch supports on my last house I used a Makita set and could not keep the 6 1/2 saw alive to save my life. (my brother in law borrowed and has yet to return my 1980's skill saw.)
 
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I have a couple rigid drivers with lithium batteries. They hold a charge for months unlike the old ones that had to be on the charger constantly. And, the battery packs are warranteed for life so if one dies, I just open a claim and get a new one. Their drivers are really really good and I use the clutch settings constantly when driving screws into wood or drywall or whatever.
 
TheSlamma said:
Google: Dewalt Wobble and see the slew of comments on the same problem I found with them.

Hilti is used by pros cause when your tool breaks they will come out to the jobsite and either replace it or give you a loaner. Dewalt will not do that, I'm glad to hear you are having a good experience with your dewalt tools as I just simply have not.
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Their warranty says nothing about drop off and pickup for service, or loaner tools. The free repairs are for the first six months of ownership, then no repair will cost over 30% of the tools retail value. They do promise a 5 day turn around. It's a good warranty, but not great.
 
Greenman said:
Their warranty says nothing about drop off and pickup for service, or loaner tools. The free repairs are for the first six months of ownership, then no repair will cost over 30% of the tools retail value. They do promise a 5 day turn around. It's a good warranty, but not great.
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I was never referring to consumer use, pro use was all I was talking about, you will not find consumer use in any of my posts when I referred to Hilti.

https://www.us.hilti.com/benefits-for-fleet-customers
 
TheSlamma said:
The Milwaukee 18v Li-ion fuels came out in 2012 and yes I have used both. I returned 2 Dewalts recently before getting my Milwaukees because of chuck wobble and will never go back, my Milwaukees while I have only had them a short while now have not had a single issue. Of course time will tell how it is in the long run but the dewalts were out of the box crap for me and clearly through not even that much internet research it wasn't just me having those exact issues.
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While it sucks that you had bad luck, none of us have ever had this issue with the chucks (we currently have 8 dcd950s, and 3 dc995s going on jobsites), just change the brand name in your google search. Every brand has reports of chuck wobble. I have a 14 year old dw988 that finally gave out (replacement trigger costs more than the drill is worth) that had a perfectly true chuck until the day it died. We drill thousands of 1 inch holes in dimensional lumber on every job, the only repairs I've ever done was 1 set of brushes ($19 from Dewalt) and one clamshell (also $19 from Dewalt) that I melted from drilling multiple 5" holes in steel service cabinets in the summer. We're switching over to brushless to defeat both of these weaknesses. Corded tools are great, and I RARELY tackle concrete with cordless, but for what we do (electrical) it's just impractical to run cords through multi story buildings that are 400+ feet long.
I think everyone should use what they like, but too often a brand is villainized unfairly.
 
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