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No problem! I meant to specify that the ONLY FlexVolt miter saw on sale is the non-sliding version. I realized that after the fact and cancelled my order...thumbs up to Toolbarn for their excellent customer service. I'll probably wait until the holidays to take the plunge in the miter saw world. I'm sure my $229 DeWalt 745 table will suffice until then.

It sounds amazing but holy cow do I hate the layout, size, and interface. I understand it's meant to be used as part of the Tough System stacking layout but man, it'd be amazing if they were able to keep the sound while reducing the size and making it compatible with the FlexVolt batteries.

They have reduced prices on the other tools and batteries, too. Heck of a deal if you're on the fence. I just bought the 9.0 Milwaukee starter kit w/rapid charger and Fuel 7 1/4 circular saw at HD yesterday for $249. Don't have a use for the FlexVolt as of now but it's a great deal!

Just wanted to get some opinions on which way to go between the 12v brushless Fuel impact/hammer drill combo kit by Milwaukee and Makita's 18v brushless sub-compact drill/impact combo. Milwaukee has a sale at my Home Depot where the 12v Fuel is $169, while Makita's sub-compact kit comes with a free third battery for $229. I already have Milwaukee's surge/hammer drill 18v combo and a Fuel circ. saw, as well as Hitachi's Triple Hammer, so I'm not looking to expand much (if at all) in either the Milwaukee 12v or the Makita 18v (knock on wood). They both feel great ergonomically, and appear to have similar specs. I know Milwaukee's 12v Fuel has been out for 3-4 years, but they told me they don't have any plans to come out with newer versions of their Fuel fasteners. Both of these deals are limited time, so I'd greatly appreciate honest opinions. Thank you!

Hi everyone; I recently purchased a Surge/Hammer drill fuel combo kit for $322, and don't have a circular saw (corded or cordless). I'm not planning on expanding my selection of cordless outside of fasteners and possibly a circular saw. Home Depot is currently running a promotion on both their Fuel circular saw and Sawzall where you get one of either and a fast charger and 9.0 battery for $249. I'm currently more of a DIYer/Habitat for Humanity volunteer at this point but figure I'll get a lot of longevity either going corded or cordless, especially with the 9.0 battery. I know some people recommend both a corded and cordless circular saw. Is this a deal worth picking up? All input is appreciated. Thanks!

At $69 a pop? Bosch just should have designed them to stand up with the small packs. Milwaukee's 12v Fuel drill stands up with a small battery and it's 1/3 larger than the Bosch in length (at least).

Toolbarn has a special for those one their email list, the Surge with 2 5.0 batteries and charger for (IIRC) $249, and a combo kit with the Fuel 2nd Gen Hammer Drill, charger, 2 5.0 batteries, for $322. Just bought the combo kit as I don't have a powerful drill and this was two birds with one stone, not to mention the savings! Looking forward to trying out my first 18v red tools!

Lowe's and ToolBarn for me. Don't care for HD aside from Makita and Milwaukee (since they're the only local places that stock them) as their layouts tend to be all over the place. Lowe's has much better organization with isles for each cordless tool brand while they all seem cluttered together at HD.

Was going back and forth on whether to get a Milwaukee Surge/drill combo kit from the Tool Barn for $322...it would mostly be for the Surge, but I already have a Triple Hammer and that thing is a masterpiece, so I checked out eBay and bought Makita's sub-compact set brand new for $175 shipped. I also contacted Hitachi yesterday and learned they're working on a new and improved hydraulic impact, and if it's anything like the Triple Hammer it's going to be a killer. I know HD is running their free battery promo on the Makita set, but $175 was a steal and I can still theoretically buy another new battery for less than $54 and still save money on their promo. I'll be selling my Bosch 12v stuff and resetting to only Hitachi 18v as my main with the Makita 18v subs as my two battery platforms. Liked the Bosch but the Makita's are much better ergonomically with more power to boot, and yes, they can at least stand up with their batteries.

Thanks for the reassuring opinion. I was at the Rochester store and the 745 was sitting at the front of the store along with one 12" sliding DeWalt miter for $299, which is also a pretty good buy, but not as much of a no-brainer as the 745 was at $229. There was another guy looking at both boxes who arrived right after me, so I simply picked the table saw up and carried it over to the nearest cart. I got lucky; I was just killing time there waiting for my apartment to get plowed out!

Picked up a fresh, new DeWalt 745 table saw at Home Despot today for $229! I already have Kobalt's table saw with stand in the garage in the box that I bought on Black Friday for $179, but for that price (and it was the last one!) I couldn't say no. I'll part with one of the two, that's for sure, but I've heard nothing but awesome things about DeWalt's table saws.

Just purchased a Bosch 12v brushless impact driver to go with my PS42 brushless 12v drill, 12v radio and LBOXX. I love Bosch's 12v stuff.

I don't know about Hitachi's cordless rotary hammers but they're a perennially underrated brand. They have the best impact on the market in the Triple Hammer and it wouldn't surprise me to see more high-end tools follow suit in the near future.

Thank you for the feedback everyone. This might be a longshot, but has anyone used both these and the new 12v brushless line, and if so how do they compare in total weight/performance? Thanks again!

Hey everyone, I've been thinking about purchasing the 18v subcompact brushless combo kit with the free battery promo. I already own a few brushless 18v Hitachi tools but am looking for something smaller for lighter-medium duty applications. I considered going 12v but I'm intrigued by this set. Has anyone here used them, and if so would you recommend them? Thank you!

I don't know what the heck you're going on about. All I've been saying is that it's nice to have a review within a few MONTHS of release. Ever notice how the Milwaukee Surge had several reviews right around the time of release? And no, I don't want "a review or something after only a few days or hours upon run time." I expect it within a few thousandths of a second, of course.

TIA doesn't have any dedicated reviews of the 24v line. They had a behind-the-scenes special with the Kobalt team at NASCAR but never went anywhere else with reviewing their products. The workshop addict reviews only covered the impact and drill about 7 or 8 months after release; not exactly when the products came out. And I don't know who the reviewer is by name that did them, but he was awful and came off as not knowing what he was talking about or nervous (probably both). Among other things, he included the battery as the drill's total weight. Would the last reviewer you mentioned happen to be Real Tool Reviews? He just did one on the drill IIRC.

I like Kobalt's 24v line a good deal and owned the whole collection, but I worry about Lowe's supporting it long-term (see the Kobalt thread I just posted in). I ended up returning it since I already owned Hitachi's brushless 18v combo kit and the others in the collection tended to be better corded. Did you pay with cash or credit and do you have the receipts? The Kobalt line has a year-long money-back guarantee.

I think Kobalt's issue is that it's simply too little, too late. DeWalt and (sadly enough) Porter-Cable are their two biggest power-tool selections, and they already had smaller amounts of Hitachi, Bosch, and a lot of Black and Decker. The latter has their imprint all over Lowe's, which is fine for DeWalt but middling (IMHO) in the case of Porter-Cable and B&D stuff. One thing that hasn't been brought up as well is distribution for tool review sites. A lot of the popular YouTube tool channel reviewers receive lots of samples from major tool companies. You can usually find at least a few reviews of Milwaukee or DeWalt's newest offerings within a few days of release. Meanwhile, Kobalt's 24v line has been out for nearly 10 months and reviews are hard to come by. Again, I'll state that the quality of these tools overall are good, but longevity and long-term support are very much an issue. I'd love to see Lowe's get behind them as I think they could certainly compete with Ridgid from a specs POV. As cheap as the batteries are, a similar life-time warranty would make me dive right back in. With their second wave of tools already out, I'm not aware of a third wave (radio, jigsaw, and sander seem the obvious choices).

Even if, for whatever reason, you change your mind on going with Tough System, buy that radio. It's darn near Bose-quality with a ton of thump.

I feel like Makita's 12v brushless line is what DeWalt's would and should have been if they gave a toss about their platform. Really disappointed with DeWalt.

I'm surprised she told you so much information, especially Lowe's vs HD. FWIW I think the store layouts in general are much better at Lowe's. I like how their power tools are sorted by brand, as opposed to having all the tools bunched together by type. Makes things much quicker when I know who makes what and whether they have it or not. It's a bit claustrophobic going through power tools at HD. Not to go too far off-tangent but I wish Lowe's still had Makita and Milwaukee. In addition to having the most DeWalt stuff they'd have every brand aside from Ryobi and Ridgid well-represented. Conversely I wish HD had more Bosch and Hitachi (I believe you can only get Hitachi at Lowe's now).

They should have ponied up with the same warrantee that Ridgid provides if they really wanted to go after them. They also should have created their 24v stuff to be compatible with the older batteries, too.

I owned the entire Kobalt 24v line (former Lowe's employee, got them for 48% off at launch) and eventually returned them under the one-year-money-back guarantee. They performed fine, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that they'd be discontinued before the 5-year-warranty elapsed. I saw Kobalt discontinue their 12v line after about 2 years, their 18v/"20v" line after 4, and thought the way they transitioned from their old 18v to "new" 20v Max tools to be extremely dubious at best and outright BS at worst. I'm extremely happy with the Hitachi brushless stuff I already owned. That being said, the Kobalt circular is fantastic and the impact is great, but I think corded circs are better and my former Kobalt impact is dwarfed by my Triple Hammer.

If you're interested in doing a direct comparison, purchase the FlexVolt at Lowe's and the ToughSystem at HD as they're both stock items at each store, respectively. You could always return one or both if need be. Also, HD has a special where the TS radio is $25 off if you purchase it online, bringing it to $174. They also have the FlexVolt as an online-only item but it isn't eligible for the same discount. If I were only getting it for the sound quality, I think I'd give the TS the nod. It's also IP54 rated and slimmer if space is an issue. Everything else I'd give to the FV.