It is whatever you buy a battery and charger for first. Then you are unwilling to forfeit that battery to just buy another tool. So you get another tool of the same brand, even if you aren’t happy with the previous. Then at that point, you’ve gone to far. You’ve got several hundred dollars in batteries you would have to give up just to switch. It is the most blatant example of the sunken cost fallacy.
Ryobi, specifically has entry level tools (a basic drill) that come with a charger and battery for cheaper than you can even buy a battery by itself. When you’re young and broke and all you need to do is hang some curtains or something you get it. But really, it is just a seed for your future “house” that you belong to.
Would there be a way to 3D print plastic part of a battery and just fill it with standard battery types (cylindrical batteries) and make them swapable? Because as far as i know there isn’t really any electronics in batteries, just different voltages based on number of batteries in series and different mounting mechanism. It just seems like a silly vendor lock-in.
I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop and for a Belgian or something to drop in here to say that they’ve had fully interchangeable batteries for the last twenty years, and then make fun of us for building houses out of wood because we didn’t clear cut our continent.
Looking for this comment, I’m still running my craftsman 19.2 volt tools, but with a 20v DeWalt adapter, saved my from throwing away 1 reciprocating saw, 1 light, 1 1/4" impact, 2 drills, 1 90° drill, and a circular saw.
Fucking Ridgid got me, because on paper, they have lifetime warranties on their batteries. But after buying an expensive combo, they made it an absolute hassle to register my tools, so I kinda doubt they’ll honor their warranty. Now I’m Ridgid + Dewalt. My corded tools and hand tools are whatever brand; harbor freight or walmart if not used often, Milwaukee, DeWalt, etc if I expect to use them often.
I actually did a lot of research on this when I bought my first battery tools, knowing this would be the case, and decided they had a decent range of everything I’d likely need.
I’m not hauling my portable compressor into my attic, nor do I have an extension cord that can reach the end of my yard. It stays in my garage. Even then I prefer battery tools because of the noise when the compressor kicks on.
I have a 100’ air hose that reaches anywhere in the house. I often run it outside and back in a window somewhere so it doesn’t end up in the way of family. I also have a small compressor for airbrushing rather than running permanent air lines from the garage to my basement workshop. You’ll still want cordless convenience for a drill and some other small tools though.
I used to be ride or die for Makita as an electrician, but they’ve gone downhill lately and their battery prices are insane! Used to be a Makita could fall off a ladder onto the chuck and bounce. Last year my crew had two drills newly bought that year CATCH FIRE and one strip the gearbox. Embarassing performance.
I’ve pivoted to Ridgid with their dirt cheap batteries with lifetime warranty. And I have a couple Ridgid->Makita adapters to use my new collection of Ridgid batteries with my tough old Makita tools. Battery adapters will free you from that lock-in.
Honestly I’ve been impressed with the Ridgid tools though, same manufacturer as Milwaukee and Ridgid has always been a big brand with plumbers. The brushless tools I’ve bought have been powerful and robust so far. No regrets
So TTI manufactures Milwaukee, Ryobi, and Ridgid power tools. I didn’t know they did Ridgid too. I wonder how many manufacturers there really are for the plethora of power tool brands. I’m gonna guess like three.
In 10 years you will have thousands of dollars in makita tools because hey, that hammer drill you needed was only $110, better get another battery too, your old ones are getting tired. 🤷♂️ and you will always have makita tools, forever. Even if you hate them.
Yeah Ryobi is dirt cheap and good enough for most things. When you need to add another tool, choosing between the one that doesn’t have a battery and the one that does but is twice the price has a big influence on your decision.
Also, I’m not a contractor, so I only use certain tools once every six months. Have yet to have anything fail on me. If it does, maybe I’ll upgrade. Certain tools have already paid for themselves in that they saved me from needing to hire someone else. Just getting a pole saw and hedge trimmer alone saved me probably $700.
I do have a few of the other brands, but they were damn pricey and I don’t use them enough to justify it.
I really dislike Home Depot after a series of huge customer service mishaps with me last year, and actively avoid going there now.
Which is a shame because I have a lot of Ryobi One tools. They are perfectly positioned for weekend warriors…huge tool library, good batteries, affordable and of fairly decent quality (certainly well above “junk” and a good value for the money).
Shame that is a store-exclusive brand.
The worst part is I’ve bought into most of the cordless tools I’d really need. The day might come where I want a larger circular saw (mines only 5.5 and it is prone to binding if your technique isn’t perfect, and even then…) or find that some of the tools that I’m okay with having corded (like a jigsaw or an angle grinder) I now need a cordless replacement. At that point I’ll likely find myself buying into a better and more expensive battery system and, for quite a while, only having the one seldom-used tool for it.
Now I’ve got a dead 4Ah battery and I’m on the fence as to rebuild it, buy a new one, or take it as an opportunity to start going into a new battery system.
Do Bosch tools not exist outside of Germany? Here the professional (blue) line is pretty much on par with hilti and Makita in terms of quality if not better depending on the type of tool
Bosch doesnt really enter the chat in a lot of places because their range of (excellent) tools just isnt that big.
If you’re looking to enter a dad dick measuring contest with your tool collection Bosch isnt going to win, I swear Ryobi is about 3 seconds from bringing out a battery powered battery.
So basically, Bosh is Bosh-batons Academy of Magic.
Mastercraft/Amazon Basic brand over here for us squibs too.
Stanley is the dark arts. They own DeWalt, we all pretend DeWalt isn’t just a front for Stanley, but we all know they are sus. Users of Stanley tools are known as Deck Eaters.
Bosch os common throughout Europe. In the US it probably suffers from the not invented here syndrome. Or maybe just heavy taxes, or they don’t think blue is manly enough. Who can tell?
I don’t know how it is in Europe, but Bosch tools here are incredibly hit-or-miss between products. A driver might last five years but a jigsaw only a few weeks. I don’t know of they contract out more work than other cordless makers, but I’ve never known a major brand to have as big of a quality gradient as them.
I have a metaboHPT Brad nailer and it was absolutely the most affordable I could find outside of harbor freight level, and at the same time one of my highest quality tools. Truly a joy to use.
Dewalt is still that well regarded? My dad fucking hates them lol we used to have a good amount of their stuff and then tool after tool broke on him and he won’t buy them unless he doesn’t have a better option (he and my brother are HVAC/plumbers). He likes Milwaukee but thinks they’re overpriced, and has a decent amount of Ryobi stuff now, along with Bosch. My grandpa was the Makita man.
I have a lot of Ryobi and Makita hand-me-downs as a result, haven’t really had to buy much of my own yet, but that’s changing.
Makita is honestly the way to go if you really work in the trades. The extreme top-range specs of DeWalt or Milwaukee’s tools could (and should, IMO) be easily surpassed with a cheap corded tool.
DeWalt: high quality and good pedigree but overpriced = Slytherin
Milwaukee: basically the same as DeWalt, but less pretentious. Thinks they’re better and tougher though = Gryffindor
Makita: the smart choice for value, also best colors = Ravenclaw
Ryobi: I know it will break, but they’re just tools and I’m not serious about this anyway. I would rather spend more money on my family or other hobbies = Hufflepuff
Honorable mentions of other “houses” and schools in the thread.
Black and Decker/Craftsman/whatever. Used to be very impressive, but completely corrupted. Probably evil = Durmstrang (Russian school)
Festool: Beautiful, absolutely dripping with wealth signals. Still pretty amazing at what they do, but you might not want them on a job site = Beauxbatons (super wealthy French school)
Harbor freight: Simple, potentially the most powerful but also likely to break. Can probably accomplish what you need by using a wrench as a hammer, but you wouldn’t want to do anything delicate with it. Actually the biggest group of dad-wizards = Uagadou (the school in Uganda where magic was invented but they don’t use wands)
I don’t know where you shop but DeWalt is cheaper than Milwaukee and Makita. Project Farm tests show Milwaukee as usually best but trades wins against Makita.
So no, DeWalt isn’t overpriced. It’s cheaper and less quality. Neither is Milwaukee equivalent to DeWalt. Milwaukee/Makita are better, sometimes incredibly better than DeWalt but at a much higher price.
I want to see model numbers on those prices you’re comparing.
Anything I go to an actual store, DeWalt is more then Milwaukee. I never look at Ryobi or Makita because they are not good professional tools and break much faster then DeWalt or Milwaukee
Those are hard to compare, especially at Home Depot. They are always having combo deals. Those are also the cheaper lines, the MAX XR and M18 FUEL are where the prices separate. That’s the top of the line of each brand.
Could be, but there are also like 80 different impact drivers in each brand, so tough to compare apples to apples. I also bought all my power tools years and years ago, so just going off what I remember when I was doing my research. I actually own mostly DeWalt and some Makita and Harbor Freight, and my router stuff is all Bosch. The only Milwaukee stuff I own is their M18 yard tools stuff and it’s really shoddily built and quite shit, though it did look the best compared to the alternatives - so probably just a function of compromising on a multi tool. But hey, I’m just one dad.
The one thing I know for sure is there’s a silly amount of brand loyalty and sweeping generalizations (like the ones I made!), and it’s tough to cut through any of it since tool review websites and videos are probably the worst example of AI generated blogspam I experience in my daily life. Unless someone’s a professional tradesman, they probably don’t get to use tools enough to have well-informed opinions, and then their needs don’t even really match harry homeowner in the first place!
It’s probably best to just do blind tribalism and give us something to make fun of other dads for. What I’m trying to say is your response is exactly what someone in House Milwaukee would say.
We’ve reached the ends of my knowledge of both tool brands and Harry Potter unfortunately. Hilti I’ve got no idea - I only feel bad about leaving out Bosch.
Depending on what you’re doing, you absolutely want Festool on a job site. A Rotex sander is fantastic for doing the edges when you’re refinishing hardwood floors, for instance. (Goddamn incompatible sanding discs though… You have to buy the Festool discs if you want the dust management.) For some jobs, there really aren’t any viable alternatives to Festool; no one else makes a domino joiner, which is somewhere between a plate joiner and a mortise and tenon joint. (You can get close by using a precision doweling jig, but the domino joiner is fast. Mortise and tenons are fantastic joints, but a mortising machine isn’t terribly portable, and cutting one by hand is far, far more skill than I have.)
I’m familiar, but does a domino go to a job site? Or does it stay in a dedicated shop full of fancy/specialized tools?
Also we should probably remember we’re talking dads getting sorted, not actual professionals, so if I’m wrong in industry - it’s because I’m coming from hobbyist dad-land. I don’t even know anyone with anything festool. At best I’m going off of forums and YouTube and guessing at what fancy dads want…though I wouldn’t mind a domino of someone else is paying!
A domino joiner on a job site would be good for things like putting together pieces or a banister (railing) where you needed both the strength or something like a doweled joint as well as the alignment capability of a biscuit joiner. It’s going to add strength to any kind of mitered joint that would be glued/where you don’t want to see nails. Most of the uses are going to be in cabinetry or furniture rather than in general carpentry and contracting, but it definitely has a few very specialized uses on a job site.
I am not a contractor, but I did it for a very brief period of time (until the business owner stiffed me of about a thousand in pay, and I realized it wasn’t a good side gig).
That drill needs batteries before long and needs to have an assortment of bits to use with it, those companies often sell all the bits or own the company that does
Dewalt has the juice to get it done but lacking g in specialty tools and their tough system sucks compared to Milwaukee. Coming from a guy with several grand of dewalt. Kind of wish I went Milwaukee but I’m in too deep…
They’re getting better on specialty tools the last year or 2.
The 12 volt line has expanded as well. I Didn’t need the 12v drill driver combo but wanted the 12v rachet they had as a free tool ona sale.
I rarely grab the 20v drill or driver unless the 12 just can’t get it done.
The tough system stuff is finally starting to catch up a bit. I will admit it pisses me off to no end that so many items that come in clam shell cases aren’t compatible or the tough system boxes could be designed with those items in mind as well.
Milwaukee is still winning that one but I couldn’t justify the price.
Interestingly I have a first generation Bosch Uneo (green consumer device, non changeable battery). Uneo is a consumer level cordless screwdriver and pneumatic hammer drill hybrid, it will easily put up to four to six holes into concrete walls (enough for home use when hanging something, but afterwards it’s empty and needs to be recharged)
The Uneo is one of my most useful tools for occasional use, and I know of no other brand which offers a similar tool which fulfills those roles in a non-craftsman home.
If you regularly build stuff its battery is too weak, but I use it a few times a year. Hang a picture, lamp or a wall cupboard in my apartment (which partly has concrete walls in this high-rise building) - not a problem.
Well, yes, but they serve drastically different markets, and the ownership structure is different. Ryobi is for the home owner that occasionally uses tools, and is licensed by a Japanese company to allow TTI to produce the brand. Milwaukee is for heavy daily use, and is wholly owned by TTI.
Its also worth mentioning that adapters are available to convert between battery systems. If you’re on Milwaukee and want to buy a DeWalt palm router (which is superior IMO) then you can just get a converter to use it with a Milwaukee battery. You can keep the converter in the tool itself, and most tools don’t mind this.
The exception is Ryobi. Converters only exist one-way, since Ryobi still uses “stick” type batteries for low voltage stuff. The opposite converter could theoretically exist (say, to use a Ryobi battery with a DeWalt router) but it would be very large and bulky and so nobody really makes them.
Ryobi batteries in general are very bulky. That 12 AH is like strapping a boot to your tools. It’s also seemingly their weak spot, as all I read is people complaining about their batteries.
My construction companion runs Milwaukee. As I stated in a different comment, he’s had several drills and batteries blow in about three years. This isn’t to say they’re not a great brand, but that’s too many lemons for the premium they charge for my taste. seems like their biggest downfall is the plastic shells they use, especially on batteries. Those little power check buttons break right quick, and the rubber over moulding doesn’t deal with grease well.
I run Metabo HPT, and I abuse the hell out of them. Drilling inch holes 12" deep in concrete for garage anchors, running all the batteries in sub zero and 100+ temps, notching studs until the multi tool is too hot to hold. Never had a failure in 6 years. Even my original batteries still work as well as the new. A slick bonus I found out being a compulsive tinkerer, the batteries that they sell as 18v 3ah are actually 24v 5ah. I always wondered why they lasted so long before I ripped a few apart. Samsung cells as well.
I was browsing the tool section at a Home Depot once a couple of years ago when a very attractive young woman came up to me and started asking me about my project. I’m not so dense that I thought she was hitting on me, but I couldn’t figure out her angle and I thought maybe she was a prostitute or something. Turns out she was a Milwaukee sales rep and she was trying to encourage people (men, rather) to buy some Milwaukee cordless tools.
Any exchange of labour for money under an indentured system where you are under constant violent threat of homelessness, destitution, starvation, and even death if you don’t work, is a certain type of prostitution born of desperation.
TL;DR: most of us whose paycheques are signed by someone else are labour prostitutes.
While I agree with you on most accounts, Milwaukee drills have cheap switches on them, they’re usually the first to hang to go. The chucks seem kinda cheap too, but honestly that’s not enough for me to switch teams, I’m married to Milwaukee, and the divorce would just be too damn expensive at this point.
In my experience, Dewalt has been the best in terms of balance between reliability, flexibility, and cost. Milwaukee is probably the most reliable but also the most limited. Ryobi are cheap junk. Makita tools I haven’t used but I’ve been told repeatedly that they used to be awesome but are now cheap junk.
All of these companies have at least a few items that are cheap junk (like most of the bluetooth speaker stuff…wtf?) but some are worse than others.
Ryobi is great if you’re like me and just need the occasional tool to do a small project around the house and then gets put away for a few months. I’ve got a Ryobi portable vacuum at work that does great, gets used daily.
While I acknowledge that Ryobi is at the bottom of the barrel, my experience with them has been really good. I’ve been using the same drill/driver for 20 years, and have gotten lots of use out of their other tools.
What does bottom of the barrel mean in context though?
I have Ryobi and they’ve all been great, but I’m not a builder, I’m a homeowner who has occasional projects and small fixit/replace jobs around the house.
My brother was gifted a Ryobi set decades ago by my parents, it’s what my dad used, but has since replaced it with DeWalt. However, he has a wood shop in his garage, has added a deck, built multiple retaining walls, a shed and all sorts of stuff in the ~15 years they’ve owned their house.
I feel like how and how often you use the tools plays a big role. I usually get a new tool from Harbor Freight, unless I know it’s something I’ll use a lot. Then if I end up using it enough for it to break/fail I go buy the nicer version.
With my dewalt oscillating saw I can swap a blade or change the angle of the blade in 1 second because you just push down a lever. On the ryobi, you have to break out an allen wrench (which is stored in the tool) and loosen a bolt.
Someone that might use the saw once every blue moon might not care that much, but someone who uses it every day it is a big deal.
Also quality, Ryobi tools just feel cheaper.
I buy important tools in dewalt and less important tools in Ryobi. Like my small leaf blower is Ryobi. No need to pay extra for the dewalt one because it’s just for quickly blowing off my walkway or front porch steps. If I need to move a lot of stuff I use my gas backpack blower, which is also Ryobi. Only problem I’ve ever had with it is the cord snapped a couple times, I think it has to do with how it rubs the grommet. Replaced the last time with a more heavy duty cord and haven’t had a problem since. Always starts in less than 3 pulls and very powerful.
There are cons to Ryobi tools, but when looking at the top of the barrel tools the only con is usually the price.
So Ryobi is just fine. With the context you provide if you’re a heavier user who needs the features then you can spend more? If you need a quality tool that will get the job done without frills then Ryobi is great?
Internet likes to put down Ryobi but it’s not as bad as they make it out to be.
My first power drill was Ryobi like 10+ years ago and still works to this day. I prefer using my Dewalt drill, it’s less clunky.
No one wants to be a “Ryobi Guy”. Especially behind a screen where you can say you have any tool you want.
Bosch makes my favorite hammer drill. My Makita sander works like a champ. I enjoy my Milwaukee packout toolbox.
People get stuck on brands. And while with tools there are differences, Ryobi works just fine.
I did burn out my Ryobi oscillating saw. But that’s the only Ryobi tool that has failed me and I have like a dozen of them. I really like my ryobi finish nailer.
Bosch makes a solid hammer drill…I once drilled into a steel reinforcement in concrete and it melted the bit red hot into a tear drop, and it didn’t even stutter
But my Ryobi bits snapped multiple times the first time I used them (I used a center punch and proper form, they just snapped like glass the second I used carbide bits on a freaking aluminum alloy). Their power tools aren’t quite as bad, but they’re not noticeably better than harbor freight stuff. I genuinely believe black and Decker is better
Granted, I think Ryobi used to be way better…I think they got bought out used for the name a while back
Same… I simply don’t use the tools enough to justify buying the expensive model. If a certain tool fails, maybe I’ll buy the higher quality model, but so far nothing has failed and they do the job. Don’t care too much about having the right brand.
Haven't used makita bt. Have 20+ other makita going back 15yrs to brand new ones. All have worked perfectly with incredible power. Same batteries work on all of them. Have had some chargers fail but not a single tool. They get used and abused daily with no issues. Granted this is anecdote evidence.
Curious if the brand new ones will last then. I’ve had a few friends say that the new ones break more easily than their old ones but that is also anecdotal.
Depends on which line of Makita you buy into I think. I have a right angle drill and the “good” angle grinder from them (not that xlock bullshit) and both get moderate use. Both are 5-ish years old and still work great.
I’ve got all Dewalt for the stuff that needs to last (circular saw, reciprocating saw, drills, etc), but for some things I get the cheap garbage because the cost difference is so extreme and I know I’m just going to replace them every couple years anyway.
Most of my yard equipment is ryobi. All of the stuff with massive batteries is just so stupidly expensive from Dewalt and Milwaukee. I don’t expect an outdoor lithium ion battery to last more than 5 years anyway, so instead of getting the high quality version, I got the shit one and had money to spare on extra batteries.
DeWalt ftw. Granted, I keep getting told to wait for Christmas and getting black and Decker as gifts… It’s good enough to manage for my needs, but very noticeably worse
IME, Milwaukee is noticeably more hardy in cold temperatures, Ryobi is absolute garbage, and Makita is pretty good for hobbyist level
But I worked construction during college, and DeWalt was great, and Milwaukee was almost as good. The other two don’t deserve to be in the same list
I dropped my locking, variable speed, single direction, corded drill with the chuck key electrical taped to the cracked plastic cord on a board and the hole I needed formed naturally out of fear.
You remember how Harry chose the house he wanted to be in, and it’s canon, that the sorting hat ward isn’t definite? When I was buying my first tool, I wanted a Ryobi. But they didn’t have it in stock and they did have Makita on sale and the sales guy told me that would be much better for the same price. So after that I’m buying only Makita, to fit the rest.
Quality-wise, Makita > DeWALT ≥ Milwaukee > Ryobi, at least, if you watch teardowns by guys like AvE.
Power tools are like cars; companies hold several brands and target them to different market segments, like Porsche and VW.
Ryobi is owned by the same company as Milwauki; it’s the budget line, Milwauki being their premium line.
DeWALT and Black & Decker are owned by the same company; DeWALT is their premium line.
The exception in this list is Makita, which is its own company. They’re also objectively more well-built than the others (here), and correspondingly usually more expensive.
The premium lines are better quality (not just more expensive) but also tend to have smaller battery-tool options. Despite being a budget line, I mostly own B&D because most of my tools these days are 24V and there are more tool options there. The few, select, DeWALT tools I have are noticably better quality.
I don’t use power tools enough to justify Makita, but also, their battery-powered line is comparatively tiny. As someone else said, there’s a lot of motivation to pick a (compatible) lane, whichever it is. For most home-gamers, the quality difference will probably not matter much. If I were made of money, though, I’d have everything Makita except for the things they don’t make.
I really like DeWALT. I think it’s a solid choice, and I doubt anyone who isn’t a professional will notice the difference in quality between those and Makita. Plus, they have some neat tools that have unusual features that make an unexpectedly large improvement in ease-of-use.
It drives me nuts that Milwaukee used to be the best line about 10 years ago. They sold out their good name and started selling shitty tools after I bought into their battery system. Grrr.
My tool experience is limited, but with Makita you seem to be describing the same anachronism principle you find in espresso machines.
Arguably the best espresso machines in a class are reminescent of the same model you found 40+ years ago. If you’re looking for the B+ range, everything worth buying has a big metal E61 grouphead with manual levers. In the S-class range, you tend to have more manual levers as often as bells or whistles. My new machine that cost more than I deserve (wife bought it) is basically an oldschool machine with nothing modern in it but a PID controller. Legend has it, it will be passed down in my family for generations to come (exaggeration, but not much).
Hmmm. You may be right. I have owned no Makitas. I’m going by tear-down videos. AvE may have gone a bit off the rails, but he’s done some really good tear-downs of different tools, and looked at the quality of the materials, the casting, the motors, switches, and so on. He consistently was impressed by Makita’s build quality… but all of those videos are, like, 6 years old, or older.
It’d be too bad if even the “good” makers like Makita went the quantity-over-quality commercial route.
One of the things that convinced me to go Makita when choosing my “house” was that they don’t have separate high and low voltage battery systems. Dewalt, Ryobi, and the others have a 18v/20v system and a 36v/40v system. Makita has bigger tools that you plug two batteries into and by the power of math you have a 36v tool off two of regular batteries.
At least when I was looking that was a unique thing to them and seemed like a great idea.
I’m in that fifth house that no-one ever seems to talk about: BOSCH.
J/K, I’m mostly Bosch, but I look towards whichever manufacturer makes the best version of a tool I currently need. For example, my chainsaws and yard/orchard power tools are Stihl, my lawnmower is Husqvarna, my circular saw, worm drive saw and abrasion/steel cutoff saw are all Skilsaw (not Skil!), and my oscillating multi tool is Fein.
Plus, many of the domestics are vintage, from before production was outsourced out of America, which makes them much more reliable and robust than modern tools. Even some of the other tools are vintage – my Stihl 076 Super can cut through a 60cm log like a hot knife through butter. And I have both 36″ and 72″ bars to go with it.
I always lean towards Bosch where possible, mainly because of their charitable work. The founder set things up so that it’s perpetually funded from the company profits. That just appeals to me as the tiebreaker when deciding between a bunch of similarly priced tools that will otherwise do the job well enough.
That said, I tend to go for corded options where practical. I have some corded tools that I’ve owned for over thirty years now that still get occasional use. Battery tools are convenient for their portability, but they do have a limit to their useful life.
That would put me in the Sixth House (seems like we’ve jumped ship from the Potterverse to the Locked Tomb series now?) as a Metabo HPT user – at least for battery-operated tools. I’ve got no allegiances when it comes to corded power tools, though – got everything from Harbor Freight only-need-it-for-one-job specials to DeWalt saws and routers, and a big ol’ Craftsman drill press I inherited from my grandfather.
Corded can be great! I have corded Bosch for anything in my workshop - why would I need batteries for a location with dozens of sockets? - and use batteries mainly in the field or where cords would start to get impractical. Plus, where the manufacturer only makes a battery version of the tool. The Bosch PROFACTOR GDS18V-740N, for example, only comes in a battery version. No corded version exists.
But when it comes to battery power tools, you have to pick a brand and stick with it, unless you’re John D Rockefeller with 6 types of charger and a billion battery packs.
Even within a brand, you usually contend with at least two different battery packs - 12v and higher - and even more if you keep your tools in good condition and their connection types are obsoleted before you buy more tools.
Makita dude is ripped, but funny that he’s holding a DeWalt-looking…thing.
never ceases to amaze me that AI has such a hard time with basic text, but IMO that’s probably not something they want to be refined. Too much liability in churning out fake imagery with actual copyrighted/trademarked brands and the like.
On top of Ryobi tools, when my Dyson cordless vac battery stopped holding a charge, I bought a Ryobi -> Dyson adapter, and now my Dyson vacuum also uses Ryobi batteries. Wife was really impressed with it because you can just swap out a new battery and keep on vacuuming. Also the vacuum actually make use of that battery way more than any of the actual power tools I have.
I’ve found that any project my Ryobi isn’t suited for is a project I would have opted to hire a professional anyway. 99% of people can get away with Ryobi 99% of the time. That remaining 1% really isn’t worth the increased price from brands like Dewalt.
Maybe I am a gorilla but every time I buy Ryobi - it breaks before the first job is done.
I got a Ryobi pressure washer and not even 2 hours into washing - it exploded like a fuckin bomb. Home Depot gave me a refund for the pressure washer but not my pants.
Same… it’s hard to justify getting the most expensive tools when I only use them once every 3-6 months. If other people want to spend their money keeping up with tool brands that’s a competition I’ll gladly lose. Got better things to spend my money on.
They are fine for anything which doesn’t require precision. I have a Ryobi bench sander and it’s a complete waste of time. Same with the chop saw I unused to have. It was basically impossible to get flush miters from it no matter how much you adjusted it - the tolerances were just too low. My DeWalt table saw and Chop saw don’t have the same issues. They cut sub-mm precision on day one and still do years later. The table saw in particular is technically a worksite saw, buy you can use it to build cabinets with the right blade.
This was me, with my few random ryobi tools, until I needed something new and saw one of those big combos of several tools from DeWalt was half price. So I lucked out being in the right place at the right time and got the best of both worlds.
Fortunately I already have like 4 DeWalt batteries. Somebody gave me a couple as a gift some time after I got the tool set. We definitely still have a Ryobi battery or two around as well!
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