Preferred Cordless Brand(s)?

[fm2176]

Multiple choice poll: what's your favorite cordless tool brand?  I think I hit most of the more common brands here, though I left off niche ones like Bostitch and Dremel.  Please feel free to select multiple answers if you want, and leave a comment as to why your preferred brand is the best for your needs/wants.

 

I'll take the safe path and choose four:

 

DeWalt - it's what I grew up seeing and I love their quality and versatility

Milwaukee - powerful and innovative but just slightly below DeWalt in my eyes

Ridgid - the LSA has me hooked, though they are definitely the mid-tier between Milwaukee and Ryobi in terms of features and price

Ryobi - inexpensive, innovative, and offering what others simply choose not to

[Eric - TIA]

That's a hard question.  There are so many reasons and great brands

 

• Milwaukee - It's a great brand because the line up is huge and you can get so many tools on one battery platform
• Bosch - Dependable
• Hilti - Dependable
• Ryobi - The price point

 

[Der_Dachs]

Yeah, tough call.  I personally think almost everything is great and would serve any homeowner well for years and year.  Ive got DeWalt, Craftsman, Milwaukee and Ryobi and its all great stuff.  

I love my DeWalt Xtreme 12v screw driver.  Its great for doing lighter duty stuff around the house.  I love my Craftsman jigsaw and circular saw.

I also love my Milwaukee M12 Fuel hammer drill.  Last weekend I mounted a couple flag holders on my house and had to drill 6 holes into brick and that thing drilled those holes like you wouldn't believe.  For just a 12v drill, its impressive.  I also have a Milwaukee M12 lantern that I really like.  I recently had to cut the powe to my basement to move some light switches so that I could remove an unneccesary part of a wall and it worked great.

All of my lawn and garden equipment is Ryobi.  Ive got a cheap Ryobi 18v leaf blower and trimmer and for blowing grass/leaves off of the sidewalk, driveway and patio is great.  The trimmer is just a cheap one too but all I use it for is edging the sideway and cutting grass where my mower wont reach and its great for that.  Speaking of my mower, Ive got a Ryobi 36v.  It does a great job of mowing my smallish yard (takes me about 30 minutes to mow it all) and I love that I can use the same batteries in my mower, leaf blower, trimmer and the Ryobi sander that my wife uses.  Speaking of the sander, my wife recently bought a Ryobi One+ sander.  She is restoring some vintage furniture that she bought and it works great for light sanding.  She actually almost bought a Craftsman one, until I pointed out to her that she could save a bit of money buying the tool only version of the Ryobi and that sanders go through batteries like crazy, so itd be better to buy the Ryobi because I have like 6 of the One+ batteries and the 6-battery charger.  As much as I love Craftsman, she would have spent $120 for the same thing in Craftsman and would have only had 1 battery for it.

If I did it all over again, Id probably go DeWalt and Craftsman.  Id buy another DeWalt Xtreme 12v driver, a Craftsman V20 hammer drill for bigger stuff, Craftsman V20 brushless leaf blower and V20 trimmer and for the mower Id either go Kobalt or Greenworks.

Most brands are great though.  Ive got a cowokers who has all Ridgid and likes it, I know people who swear by Milwaukee, Makita is great, Bosch is great, etc, etc, etc.  For the average person who only uses a tool occasionally, just about anything is fine.

[Jronman]

I prefer anything that is considered a high end professional brand. Anything that could be considered midrange or homeowner I did not pick.

[ToolBane]

I think Metachi needed to be a choice in here. They’ve quietly introduced a number of solid innovations over the last few years and are solidly “on the map” as a prosumer-grade tool platform. Their multivolt format is more compact than Flexvolt and therefore can be utilized on more tools. They have the only 10” cordless table saw on the market. Their triple-hammer impact driver performs great. Their new-ish nailers are extremely competitive. They meet IP-56 standards. And pretty much everything can be run hybrid should the occasion arise...that all stacks up to a pretty solid lineup I have to say.

 

For myself I’m already on my two preferred platforms: Makita for the important stuff whenever possible and Ryobi to fill in the gaps or for tools I simply use less often. I’m not a trades person, so having a half-dozen platforms is point blank unappealing to me. These are two of the largest platforms available and for my purposes cover more than any other combination of two companies.

 

Although beyond that I have to say I easily prefer the ergonomics of Makita over all the other mainstream/contractor brands. They are accurate and smooth running tools, the chargers are quick, everything has good fit, and I just plain love the feel of them as I run them through projects. They are not Mafell or Festool but they get close enough for my purposes at far more reasonable prices. The 36V X2 format is an efficient and powerful solution that doesn’t force me to buy additional oversized batteries that can’t also be used on smaller tools. There aren’t a whole lot of duds in their lineup. Even the few tools that lag in absolute performance relative to certain offerings from Milwaukee and Dewalt will generally feature ergonomic considerations that give them advantages in niche applications. The only major thing Makita lacks in my opinion are 8-9Ah batteries for some of their more high-drain non-36V tools...as has been quipped about here by many.

 

Ryobi has a number of offerings no one else has. The cordless soldering station is fantastic and probably my favorite Ryobi tool. Only Milwaukee has any comparable product and surprisingly I think the Ryobi is the better solution. The heat gun is essentially the same as the Milwaukee, another offering almost no one else has. Their trim nailers are actually great...debatably among the best on the market. Which is funny because they’ve been available for years while most of the competition’s nailers until only very recently languished in comparison while being far more expensive. Plus Ryobi has all those other oddball tools that are actually really useful like the glue gun and mini-blower. Their brushless tools are clearly not in the same league as the “Big 3” but they make up a lot of ground compared to their older brushed tools. Like Makita their OPE selection is pretty broad, but at prices that are easy for basic homeowner use. And they have 9Ah batteries to power them all with.

 

Another company I think deserves more attention than they get is Kobalt. I admit I haven’t bought into them and frankly am unlikely to.  But they have a number of tools that seem to acquit themselves well, they’re basically all brushless, while they seem to be emulating Ryobi in terms of trying to offer a broadening selection of “oddball” tools expanding their general utility as a battery platform. If I was a bit less of a stickler about certain things, I think I easily could have picked them up for my general woodworking and been pretty happy. 

[aessu]

Hitachi/Hikoki/Metabo HPT should definitely be on the list. Hikoki (Nailers, and some multivolt tools like recip and 9" grinder) and Makita (everything else) is what I run.

[Eric - TIA]

Good call, I forgot about that brand and didn't notice it.  Yes, your right about Metabo HPT, I am liking their stuff.  They have a new compressor out called the Tank and it's awesome.

[fm2176]

On 11/11/2020 at 12:24 AM, ToolBane said:

I think Metachi needed to be a choice in here. They’ve quietly introduced a number of solid innovations over the last few years and are solidly “on the map” as a prosumer-grade tool platform. Their multivolt format is more compact than Flexvolt and therefore can be utilized on more tools. They have the only 10” cordless table saw on the market. Their triple-hammer impact driver performs great. Their new-ish nailers are extremely competitive. They meet IP-56 standards. And pretty much everything can be run hybrid should the occasion arise...that all stacks up to a pretty solid lineup I have to say.

 

I included MetaboHPT initially, but forgot to add them back as I was trying to put the brands in alphabetical order.  They've been added now.  I found a triple hammer on clearance a while back but passed on it, and I owned an older brushed (pre-Metabo) impact driver that worked well.  I also found a bunch of pre-merger Metabo tools on clearance at Lowe's four years ago but passed on those as well.  Thanks for the suggestion, and if anyone else thinks of a popular brand I overlooked in the poll, I'll add it as well.

On 11/11/2020 at 12:24 AM, ToolBane said:

 

For myself I’m already on my two preferred platforms: Makita for the important stuff whenever possible and Ryobi to fill in the gaps or for tools I simply use less often. I’m not a trades person, so having a half-dozen platforms is point blank unappealing to me. These are two of the largest platforms available and for my purposes cover more than any other combination of two companies.

 

My wife teases me about not owning Makita, since I have basically every other brand Home Depot sells.  I hear great things about the brand, and have found many great deals at 50% or more off, but simply can't pull the trigger.  I know myself too well: if I give in and get a single Makita deal, I'll start buying the rest.  The half-dozen platform thing can be a pain, but it's nice having a choice of brands: I have DeWalt 12v Max, 20v Max, and FlexVolt; Milwaukee M12 and M18, Ridgid 18v, Ryovi 18v, and EGO OPE...🙃

 

As for Ryobi, they have some great stuff, and I own quite a few of their tools.

On 11/11/2020 at 12:24 AM, ToolBane said:

 

Although beyond that I have to say I easily prefer the ergonomics of Makita over all the other mainstream/contractor brands. They are accurate and smooth running tools, the chargers are quick, everything has good fit, and I just plain love the feel of them as I run them through projects. They are not Mafell or Festool but they get close enough for my purposes at far more reasonable prices. The 36V X2 format is an efficient and powerful solution that doesn’t force me to buy additional oversized batteries that can’t also be used on smaller tools. There aren’t a whole lot of duds in their lineup. Even the few tools that lag in absolute performance relative to certain offerings from Milwaukee and Dewalt will generally feature ergonomic considerations that give them advantages in niche applications. The only major thing Makita lacks in my opinion are 8-9Ah batteries for some of their more high-drain non-36V tools...as has been quipped about here by many.

 

The lack of larger batteries is an issue, but I'm sure Makita is (slowly) working towards developing/releasing them.  As I stated above, I can't consider investing in Makita unless I really want to end up in debtor's prison.

On 11/11/2020 at 12:24 AM, ToolBane said:

 

Ryobi has a number of offerings no one else has. The cordless soldering station is fantastic and probably my favorite Ryobi tool. Only Milwaukee has any comparable product and surprisingly I think the Ryobi is the better solution. The heat gun is essentially the same as the Milwaukee, another offering almost no one else has. Their trim nailers are actually great...debatably among the best on the market. Which is funny because they’ve been available for years while most of the competition’s nailers until only very recently languished in comparison while being far more expensive. Plus Ryobi has all those other oddball tools that are actually really useful like the glue gun and mini-blower. Their brushless tools are clearly not in the same league as the “Big 3” but they make up a lot of ground compared to their older brushed tools. Like Makita their OPE selection is pretty broad, but at prices that are easy for basic homeowner use. And they have 9Ah batteries to power them all with.

 

Ryobi's chief appeal (to me) is that they cater to the homeowner/DIY'er, while offering stuff that even pros can use.  As you state, they offer what other brands don't, and the pro who buys into Ryobi is investing in a great system that can serve equally as well around the house.  I use my 6-gallon vacuum quite a bit, the Devour sweeper regularly, and the Score speaker system gets used for entertainment.  No other brand offers the latter two, and the fact that Ryobi continues to utilize the established One+ battery system speaks volumes about their dedication to supporting their tools.  I have a 15-ish year old drill inherited from my father-in-law that works well even with the newest batteries.  I can't think of another brand that allows you to buy a new tool kit and use the battery with a drill made over two decades ago.  

On 11/11/2020 at 12:24 AM, ToolBane said:

 

Another company I think deserves more attention than they get is Kobalt. I admit I haven’t bought into them and frankly am unlikely to.  But they have a number of tools that seem to acquit themselves well, they’re basically all brushless, while they seem to be emulating Ryobi in terms of trying to offer a broadening selection of “oddball” tools expanding their general utility as a battery platform. If I was a bit less of a stickler about certain things, I think I easily could have picked them up for my general woodworking and been pretty happy. 

 

I had a Kobalt 20v Max impact wrench which was very nice (since gifted to my brother).  The only bad thing I could say is that Kobalt has switched systems fairly often.  Their 18v stuff was replaced by 20v Max, with the batteries being interchangeable.  IIRC, it was essentially Kobalt's way of jumping on the "high capacity" bandwagon, with 18v offering 1.5Ah/3.0Ah and 20v offering the then-new 2.0Ah/4.0Ah batteries.  24v Max seems to be even better than the older system, and so long as Kobalt sticks to it, I can't see why it shouldn't remain competitive with the SBD and TTI brands.

[Eric - TIA]

Awesome stuff