Who made the best Ni-Cad tools?

[DR99]

My problem is these trees should have never been planted. The previous person planted them right on the property line. They should really be taken down, but they are now at that level where they are too big to do it by yourself. We have small lots here.

[Conductor562]

By the mid 90's everyone around here was either running Dewalt or Makita with Dewalt being a strong majority.

These days it's much more diverse. Dewalt and Milwaukee are most common with Ridgid, Bosch, and Makita popping up here and there.

Despite the rise of internet retail, it still appears to me that both the brands and market share found on most job site are a direct reflection of the brick & mortar offerings in a given area.

[DR99]

When it comes to power tools a lot of people are still old fashioned and want to see it before they buy it. It's changing quickly but depending on the person some people are just not comfortable with technology they like to do things the old fashioned way. I still say that the heated gear should have at least a display at the stores. A lot of people still don't know it exists.

[Conductor562]

That and the fact that a lot of crews end up in a situation where they need it immediately and go to the nearest store and grab it

[Brien]

It's funny you bring up the try it before you buy it mentality. That is how I stumbled across TIA a few years ago. I knew I wasn't going to be able to 'try it' so I found these two clowns on the internet 'trying' it for me.

And my local Depot has a display of Milwaukee heated sweat shirts!

[astroboy]

My head carpenter used his milwaukee 18V drill/driver for about 12 years before the batteries finally died out on him. Pretty heavy use, too.

[Highdesert Splintermaker]

Never got into DeWalt tools. My only experience was with B&D drills with the 18v NiCad slide on batteries. Today when a drill goes south it's still cheaper to go out and buy a whole new set that includes 2 new batteries than it is to try and separately replace either the drill alone or a battery alone.  The B&D 18v slide on NiCads seem to last forever. Again it is a pity they, B&D, never came out with an impact driver that would share that same 18v NiCad battery.  

[keslogan]

In my opinion makita makes the best nicd tools on the market. I have a drill and the original batteries that are over 25 years old and still run like new. The batteries hold a charge longer than the dewalt ones i had that are only 7 years old.

[Big_D]

When I first started out in the trades 35 years ago, there was only corded tools and most were Milwaukee, Hilti or Skil. So the beginings of my tool collection were those. I still have them and they still work as well today as they did then.

 

Fast forward to the 90's and Dewalt ruled the cordless market although as others have said Makita made great cordless as well. I bought a 4 piece set of Dewalts in the mid 90's and added an impact years later. I used them professionally and personally and again I still have them and they work great but they weren't used as hard as the corded as they were mostly used for IT installs and light construction projects.

 

In the last 2 years I've revamped my whole tool lineup and I'm back to Milwaukee with a bunch of M12's for work and a mixture of M12 & M18 for personal use. It started when I needed a cordless multi tool for a side job I was doing and I just fell in love with thing and since then have been adding steadily to the collection.

 

That's right your question was about the best NiCd. I think early on Makita had the best NiCd tools but Dewalt came on strong later and had a better lineup than Makita. It's a toss up really, both were great!!

[redmed]

Had Skil, Craftsman and a real cheap Black & Decker Drill I got for free after a rebate.  The Skil & Craftsman are dead but the B&D is still going even though it takes 12 hours to charge and I have forgot and left it charging for 2+ days more than once. 

[Samuel L.]

In Canada Dewalt 18 volt XRP is still alive and well you can find it at any Home Depot, Lowe's, Rona, Sears, brand new, you can buy the bare tools, batteries and chargers, and kits. My theory is that unlike lithium, a NiCd tool wont be effected by extreme colds because here in Canada every year where I live we have a week long cold snap where it hits -40F/C. So lithium is not an option for about 2 months of the year and not suggested for 4-7 months unless you have a heated garage. 

[Fish30114]

I've found the various comments on NiCad tools interesting. I was formerly a Sales Engineer at SANYO (USA corp) and up until LiIon went wide---mainstream-- there were only two manufacturers making 95% of the NiCad batteries in the world--SANYO and Panasonic. SANYO had by far the recognized best NiCad battery in the world at that time--their battery and the way it was made allowed it to withstand a higher drain rate (commonly encountered in power tool applications)  than did Panasonics battery technology at the time. Interestingly Makita specified and purchased a higher ampere hour battery than did other power tool mfgs. at the time. Dewalt and B&D and Bosch power tool also bought their NiCad batteries from SANYO. The few mfgs. that didn't buy their power tool batteries from SANYO were using Pana's and they were by all rights (proven many times over in laboratory testing) inferior. I could go on and on about battery tech and who used what, but until LiIon came to the market, NiCad was the dominate battery technology, with a brief period of use by some of NiMH before the whole market shifted to LiIon. And due to the fact that Makita spec'd a battery that had a higher MAH rating, I would say that they had the 'best' batteries of the NiCad era