BMack37 Posted December 19, 2016 Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 Aren't the new Kobalt tools made by Chervon(Which make Ego)? I don't think there is any doubt that they are good tools...and the battery pricing is cheap as hell but you have to wonder how long they'll support the tools. Lowe's has a history of killing product lines and changing them for something cheaper if it isn't profitable quickly enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conductor562 Posted December 19, 2016 Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 I've posted about it many times before, but I pretty much wrote Kobalt off as an option in the middle 2000's. I really bought into the original Williams/Snap-On hand tool line from 1998-2002. They were fantastic tools at good prices. Then around 2003 they moved the line to Danaher and it became barely distinguishable from the Craftsman tools of the time. That wasn't a huge deal at first, but they were constantly changing everything, always for the worse, and as time went on the tools got shittier and shittier until eventually they just weren't even worth considering anymore. Then they phased out Klein in favor of Greenlee, then phased out Greenlee in favor of Southwire. About the same time, they phased out Knipex and all but the most basic Channellock offerings, and the list goes on and on. In each instance they replaced them with a cheap ass Asian alternatives. As others have said, Lowe's has ruined their credibility with me. They have a history of leaving their customers out on their ass and I expect this to be no different. The tools may end up being great. Chervon knows what they're doing, hell, they made a lot of the power tools for Snap-On, but don't count on Lowe's to back them up, even if they're fantastic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimboS1ice Posted December 20, 2016 Report Share Posted December 20, 2016 I've posted about it many times before, but I pretty much wrote Kobalt off as an option in the middle 2000's. I really bought into the original Williams/Snap-On hand tool line from 1998-2002. They were fantastic tools at good prices. Then around 2003 they moved the line to Danaher and it became barely distinguishable from the Craftsman tools of the time. That wasn't a huge deal at first, but they were constantly changing everything, always for the worse, and as time went on the tools got shittier and shittier until eventually they just weren't even worth considering anymore. Then they phased out Klein in favor of Greenlee, then phased out Greenlee in favor of Southwire. About the same time, they phased out Knipex and all but the most basic Channellock offerings, and the list goes on and on. In each instance they replaced them with a cheap ass Asian alternatives. As others have said, Lowe's has ruined their credibility with me. They have a history of leaving their customers out on their ass and I expect this to be no different. The tools may end up being great. Chervon knows what they're doing, hell, they made a lot of the power tools for Snap-On, but don't count on Lowe's to back them up, even if they're fantastic.They don't have a decent hand tool in stock aside from maybe 5 facings of channelocks, everything is irwins, which aren't bad but are Chinese, or Stanley has taken them over. I picked a pair of kobalt pliers up and was disgusted just by the metal fragments falling off the pliers, pretty pitiful if you ask me.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conductor562 Posted December 20, 2016 Report Share Posted December 20, 2016 3 minutes ago, JimboS1ice said: They don't have a decent hand tool in stock aside from maybe 5 facings of channelocks, everything is irwins, which aren't bad but are Chinese, or Stanley has taken them over. I picked a pair of kobalt pliers up and was disgusted just by the metal fragments falling off the pliers, pretty pitiful if you ask me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Agree 100%. I don't even remember the last hand tool I bought from Lowe's. They run their tool business like a hedge fund. Build up brand recognition and and consumer loyalty, then cut costs, cut quality, and milk the brand. Bait and switch. I'm not crazy about Husky either, but at least HD typically carries premium alternatives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimboS1ice Posted December 20, 2016 Report Share Posted December 20, 2016 Agree 100%. I don't even remember the last hand tool I bought from Lowe's. They run their tool business like a hedge fund. Build up brand recognition and and consumer loyalty, then cut costs, cut quality, and milk the brand. Bait and switch. I'm not crazy about Husky either, but at least HD typically carries premium alternatives. They have a nice selection of hammers, plus you can't beat the quality and bargain on the husky bags and beltsSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aabee Posted December 20, 2016 Report Share Posted December 20, 2016 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. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR99 Posted December 20, 2016 Report Share Posted December 20, 2016 Yea, Kobalt does not have exude the same longevity that Ridgid has with powertools Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aabee Posted December 21, 2016 Report Share Posted December 21, 2016 2 hours ago, DR99 said: Yea, Kobalt does not have exude the same longevity that Ridgid has with powertools 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd the Tinkerer Posted January 3, 2017 Report Share Posted January 3, 2017 So I met one of the big dogs in lows marking department that helps decide how the stores need to be set up. She said the Kobalts are made by hitachi. I bought a set of the new 24v drill and impact and I am very pleased with them. I'm a machine builder and 99% use them working with different metals. I will say they are not the Milwaukee fuels, but they are not supposed to at less then half the price. I will say they are better then the regular m18 that I used on a daily basis. They seem like a legit attempt at a good tool. Keep in mind I paid $169 for my combo and paid $50 for a 4ah battery. How they will hold up, time will tell, but for the money they are worth looking into. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR99 Posted January 3, 2017 Report Share Posted January 3, 2017 The lady was wrong about the Kobalt 24v tools being made by Hitach. They are made by Chervon a big tool oem company they are the brains behind Ego they are also buying out SKill from Bosch 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd the Tinkerer Posted January 3, 2017 Report Share Posted January 3, 2017 The lady was wrong about the Kobalt 24v tools being made by Hitach. They are made by Chervon a big tool oem company they are the brains behind Ego they are also buying out SKill from BoschThere is a surprise, a person in an office that has no idea about what's going on. She did give me some insight into why Lowes is set up the way it is. She told me that Home Depot is geared more for contractors and Lowes is more focused on the home owner/do it yourselfer.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR99 Posted January 3, 2017 Report Share Posted January 3, 2017 You can defiantly see that Lowes carries more interior decorating stuff that is trendy compared to HD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aabee Posted January 5, 2017 Report Share Posted January 5, 2017 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). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd the Tinkerer Posted January 5, 2017 Report Share Posted January 5, 2017 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).She was really cool. My wife and I met her and her husband at a bar in Savanna. She was probing me for as much information as I was from her. I wish both stores had bigger tool selections, both hand and power. I am not a fan of buying most tools online. I would rather be able to touch them and play with them beforehand. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rrich1 Posted January 5, 2017 Report Share Posted January 5, 2017 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).Menards sells both Bosch and Hitachi.Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd the Tinkerer Posted January 7, 2017 Report Share Posted January 7, 2017 It would be nice to see them heavily invest in the brand and expand it. I would like to see them push to have a ton of tools like makita and ridged do. I think that with the new battery technology that is on the market across the board you can pretty much put a battery on anything, and it seems like some companies are understanding that. The more competition that there is in the market the better it is for all of us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted January 7, 2017 Report Share Posted January 7, 2017 I'm new here but this thread reaffirms that signing up was a great idea. You guys have a lot of knowledge not only on how well the tools from different brands are made, but how the companies behind them are running things. This is all great info. Thanks for a great site! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aabee Posted January 8, 2017 Report Share Posted January 8, 2017 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). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd the Tinkerer Posted January 8, 2017 Report Share Posted January 8, 2017 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).I agree completely. Ridgid has put an 18v battery on almost everything. If lows wants to compete then they need to get tool out and quickly. Plus they need to generate some buzz and they are not. My 24v tools are sweet and I think they can definitely compete if lows let them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimboS1ice Posted January 9, 2017 Report Share Posted January 9, 2017 I agree completely. Ridgid has put an 18v battery on almost everything. If lows wants to compete then they need to get tool out and quickly. Plus they need to generate some buzz and they are not. My 24v tools are sweet and I think they can definitely compete if lows let them. Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkBetween ryobi and Ridgid at home depot you can get anything at a budgetJimbosent from tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMack37 Posted January 9, 2017 Report Share Posted January 9, 2017 On 1/7/2017 at 8:39 PM, aabee said: 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). TIA, WA and "Mr Explain everything and say nothing" all reviewed the 24v when they came out...and I'm sure plenty others did as well. All that I recall were on Youtube. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aabee Posted January 9, 2017 Report Share Posted January 9, 2017 14 hours ago, BMack37 said: TIA, WA and "Mr Explain everything and say nothing" all reviewed the 24v when they came out...and I'm sure plenty others did as well. All that I recall were on Youtube. 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KobaltFan1 Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 Look at RIDGID, their impact boasts over 2200 in pounds of torque and I see a lot more red than orange, just remember paper stats can be bloated until the tool hits a workload and it can't even finish a days job. I have no experience with kobalt so I'm not knocking the tool, but to add to what comp said how are these going to hold up, just buyer beware.What's their warranty like?JimboSent from my iPad using TapatalkI have the new Kobalt Brushless circular saw, impact and flash light. So far it has out performed my 18v Milwaukee Brushless system 3 to 1. My recommendation is make sure if you are operating the circular saw to have the 4.0 battery because if not the battery will shut off on you to prevent damage to the battery and possibly the tool it's self. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conductor562 Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 1 hour ago, KobaltFan1 said: I have the new Kobalt Brushless circular saw, impact and flash light. So far it has out performed my 18v Milwaukee Brushless system 3 to 1. My recommendation is make sure if you are operating the circular saw to have the 4.0 battery because if not the battery will shut off on you to prevent damage to the battery and possibly the tool it's self. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Hogwash! Please explain how you arrived at this statement? Is "3 to 1" used simply as an expression, or is there some mathematical substance to it? What Milwaukee models are you comparing them to? To say these Kobalt tools are 3 times the tools the very solid Milwaukee offerings are is quite a bold statement. I haven't used the new Kobalt stuff, but I put as much stock in this statement as I would a headline in the National Inquirer that Kim Jong Un and Kate Upton have a baby together. Then again, I haven't seen Ms. Upton's lady parts lately either ? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimboS1ice Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 Send me a kobalt saw I'll pace it against my Milwaukees, not knocking kobalt but that is rather bold for a store brand toolSent from my iPad using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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