Bosch: never the best choice, but always a good one.
I made this decision when I purchased a house… Or rather, the bank purchased it, I just live here and pay them instead of a landlord.
I went with DeWalt and I don’t really have any regrets. I had one of the really basic 12v drills from them for like 10+ years. It mostly rattled around my car’s trunk during that time. I’ve purchased two additional batteries for it, one was shortly after I bought it, so I’d always have a charged battery on hand, the other to keep on the drill. When I needed to swap, I’d just take the dead battery into my home at the end of the day and charge it overnight, then dump it back in the car the next day.
I used it mainly for computer stuff, since I work in that industry… Racking equipment in server racks, opening computers, etc. Rarely did I need to actually make holes or anything with it… The third battery was purchased when the original battery that came with it, stopped working. The drill and two remaining batteries still work fine, though I don’t really need/use them anymore.
I might “donate” it to a young relative someday, for now it collects dust in my basement.
When I replaced it, I got all 20v DeWalt everything. I bought a pack of tools that came with a couple of fairly basic battery chargers, a couple batteries, a hammer drill, impact driver, reciprocating saw, oscillating tool, a circular saw, and a portable light… It even came with a carry bag, which was promptly tossed in a corner and hasn’t been touched since, except to kick it further into the corner.
After a short while of owning the house, we added a small (additional) set of batteries… I think 3 more? And picked up lawn equipment that’s also 20v from DeWalt. A string trimmer (aka a “whipper snipper”), and a hedge trimmer. I feel like I’m forgetting something… Oh well.
The odd man out, so to speak, is the lawnmower, we ended up picking up a DeWalt mower, but it’s 20v/60v, so it will take either pack. We had all 20v so we just stuck with that.
Then, I think last year? DeWalt released a snowblower, but it’s 60v only. So we had to get specific batteries just for that. The 60v ones are compatible with the 20v tools, but the blower will only take the 60v packs, so we have two 60v packs for it (and the lawnmower, I suppose, since they can take advantage of the extra juice), and 20v packs for everything else.
Everything is cross compatible, with the one exception of the snowblower, so we’re all set.
My experience with the 12v drill heavily biased me towards sticking with DeWalt.
I won’t tell anyone to buy DeWalt or Milwaukee, or any other brand. You’ll have to make that decision got yourself. I don’t have any strong feelings about other brands because I simply don’t have the experience with them to have an opinion… Except Ryobi. Fuck Ryobi. My brother used Ryobi for a long time, and he had nothing good to say about them besides the fact that their tools are cheap. They’re cheap in every way. You’ll spend more trying to keep them working than you’ll spend simply by buying better tools. Don’t do it.
You can buy a Snap-On hat even if you don’t own any of their tools
I used to live next to a guy who did site visits for snap-on. I’ve got a bunch of swag, and I didn’t pay for it, and I don’t own any of their tools!
It’s not even illegal?
I’m sorry, I thought this was America
This is missing at least Bosch, probably some other brands I can’t remember right now. That would ruin the 4 houses association though…
I’m in House Ryobi; while it does the job, I needed to borrow a tool I didn’t have from our neighbour (wife’s rule; I can only buy one if I need to borrow it 3 times)… he had a set of Bosch Professionals - holy moly, those things are on a whole other level!
My wife
hashad the same rule, then we moved, now I’m the lender, not the borrower. This means I have an excuse for buying new tools. That and my current job and side jobs are requiring some specific tools that I don’t already own.S Tier:
- Milwaukee
- Bosch
- Makita
A Tier:
- DeWalt
- Porter Cable
B Tier:
- Ryobi
- Rigid
C Tier:
- Black & Decker
- Craftsman
- Master craft
- Skil
- Other store brands
All of them will get you a passing grade, C Tier feels a little flimsy like it might let you down, B Tier works perfectly fine and feels normal, A Tier feels like it could take one extra hard drop, and S Tier is noticeably rock solid and nice in every way.
Atleast, this is ballpark what I remember from when I was contracting…
Big difference between the pro and consumer versions though. Which ones are you referring to?
Do what I do with every aspect in life. Mix and match. Brand loyalty is for the 50s and should remain there. When brands are not loyal to their customers, their customers should not be loyal to the brands. Plus, you get better tools for cheaper, overall. Though, this works less with power tools due to the proprietary batteries…
For cordless power tools, look at the overall range and pick the one that has all the tools you want. Some of them run everything from circular saws to lawnmowers on the same batteries.
For hand tools and corded power tools, go out into the woods and beat your ability to be brand loyal to death with a shovel.
Fwiw i have adapters that allow the use of dewalt batteries with nondewalt tools
You can print adapters for all brands while filling your lunds with some more plastic vapours
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I went with Ryobi under the rubric of “if you use it enough to break it then buy a good one”. I have a wall of green tools because most of them are used only occasionally. My hammer drill is the one that is gonna go. And yeah. I will buy something f’in awesome. Because using an underpowered hammer drill sucked.
Yeah I’ve got DeWalt drills and Ryobi everything else
After three and a half years of semi professional use, my ryobi impact driver has a lot of play in the shaft making it rather difficult to use and it can no longer do heavy jobs. But for the price, 3.5 years was worth it.
Plus I like obnoxious green as a color.
Hilti. Or Duss.
Makita. Best tools that aren’t stupid expensive.
In Europe, LIDL’s Parkside lineup is fantastic. The battery lineup is a system, with two battery types, a 12V and a 20V. Their battery and charger lineup is great, cheap and reliable. A 2Ah is 20€, and an 8Ah for 50€. The 8Ah has bluetooth (I thought it was a gimmick, but is surprisingly useful!). Oh, BTW, the 8Ah is about the size of a regular 4Ah!
The range is astounding, having tools that no major brand has. I have a convertible saw that can be a sawzall or a jigsaw, that has no right to work so well as it does in both modes, an air pump set, with a high pressure for tires and stuff, and a high volume pump that inflates OR deflates my 3.5m dinghy in under 3min, or a tiny rotary drill, smaller than a full size battery hammer drill that is a little beast.
I used to own a sign shop so I kind of know a bit about these tools. Sign shops work with almost all materials, from metal to wood to plastics, to concrete and masonry, so the range of power tools we had was bewildering. My shop was team yellow with the odd Hitachi, now Hikoki. When I closed the shop I kept some of them. DeWalt is very, very good, but for DIY purposes, LIDL’s Parkside is my go to now.
I would place much, but not all, the lineup at prosumer level, with features like all-metal one-hand-locking chucks, metal gearcases, brushless versions, and more.
EDIT: I just watched a video where they show how a rotary drill works. They cut open that little drill I mentioned above to show how they work. All inners, including gearing is metal. Maybe not the best alloy, but very decent in my experience.
Parkside’s value-for-money quality has been astonishing these past few years. I took the risk with them maybe 4-5 years ago and not one power tool from their lineup has had any problems yet. Today I just set up their quiet compressor at my garage, and the damn thing really is so silent that you can even have a discussion using your normal voice when it’s running.
No matter what level of effort you’ll be using… don’t get the Walmart brand. Yeah, they’re good for beginners and can handle the occasional weekend project. But even you don’t use them enough to wear them out, the other dads/men will make fun of you for having the hardware equivalent of velcro shoes from the dollar store.
Honest answer: I started with DeWalt. Had issues. Went to Milwaukee. Never regretted it.
We have those walmart brand equivalents in Germany, from supermarkets like Lidl, Norma and co…
In my world, people who come to the task with a brand new, expensive Makita drill deserve way more mockery than people who come with a cheap, well used Lidl drill.
It depends on what you’re doing. Metabo makes the best angle grinders. DeWalt makes the most reliable hand drills. Milwaukee is affordable. Imo best bang for your buck is good used tools. S&K made the best rachet set in the world for a time. Starrett and Mitutoyo stuff used to be practically bulletproof. Most modern brands don’t hold a candle to the quality of tools made 40-50 years ago
Milwaukee is affordable?
Compared to which brand?
They were the “still cheap but not horrendous trash” option compared to husky at the local home despot last time I looked, which admittedly was a few years back.
I’ve been an electrician for a decade and milwaukee has always made great tools and were never “cheap” as long as I’ve been in the trade
I hate this so much that because of their proprietary battery slots you have to stick with one brand. And I can’t understand how this is even legal in UE when they spend so much time and resources to push usb-c as a standard and even made Apple bend. Why would you allow this, it’s much worse than a cable on ecological level
(I’m not saying that usb-c was a bad thing, far from it!)
You can buy adaptors to put bosh batteries in devalt tools.
I agree, but in the mean time you can buy adapters that allow us to use mix-and-match batteries with other brands. Just search aliexpress for strings like "Makita or (insert brand here) battery adapter.
I’m ordering a LIDL parkside battery to DeWalt XRP adapter. There are compatible batteries for around 20€, but I have a few LIDL Parkside tools now, and only a couple of Dewalts.
Most consumer tools are made by like 2 or 3 companies, they all have different colors but are largely the same guts within a parent company’s holdings.
Direct tools factory outlet is run by TTI. Milwaukee, Rigid, Ryobi are all made by TTI. Stanley Black and Decker owns Dewalt, Black and Decker (duh), Craftsman, MAC Tools and Porter cable.
Bauer and Hercules are doin their own thing but the batteries are pretty decent.
https://www.protoolreviews.com/power-tool-manufacturers-who-owns-them/
Looks like Makita also does its own thing.
