I have been well served with a set of Dewalt 20V. I'm very happy with them, only other ones I'd consider would be Milwaukee. Lowe's has either impact driver, battery, charger (OR drill and batt and charger) on sale now for $99.

I went with the Milwaukee M12 line, picked up a bundle deal at Home Depot for 199.00. Went to Northern Tool and got the 3/8 impact for 109.00 when I applied for their credit card or 70.00 off the sale price. I really like the Milwaukee brand.

quote:

Originally posted by jed7s9b:
Buy once, cry once. Milwaukee 18 volt. Huge assortment of tools, a variety of combo packs, easy availability. There is a reason for all that. It works, and keeps on working.

+1

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:
For the ratchet it just seems a non-ideal design due to the form factor of the battery so I haven’t bought the tool.

Just an FYI on the ratchet design, the head rotates at 90 degree intervals making the battery interference less of an issue. It also includes a 3 inch extension that stores on the base for added clearance without needing to run back to the toolbox for one.

I have a Makita drill and impact combo in 18 volts.
I also have the Milwaukee combo in 18 volts.
The Makita is older and is much better than the Milwaukee, at least the drill. My Milwaukee drill works but I can tell it will be useless in 1 year.
To me its junk an I wasted money on it.

So look at the Makita line as well. The make a lot of tools for 18 volts.

Ridgid lifetime warranty on tools and batteries.

I’ve beaten the crap out of my DeWalt power tools. I’ve literally had the drill smoking drilling through railroad ties; it still works great.

I standardized on the Dewalt XR and non-XR brush-less.

quote:

Originally posted by Excam_Man:
Congratulations on the house!

12 volt Milwaukee, M12
and
20 volt DeWalt

I prefer the DeWalt 20 volt line over the 18 volt Milwaukee.
But the M12, 12 volt Milwaukee line has some speciality tools which DeWalt doesn't offer.

Exactly what I've got for the same reason.

I can't complain about either one. As you said, Milwaukee has some really innovative 12v tools. My DeWalt 20s get used a lot and have taken some nasty hits. The impact driver has taken several drops onto concrete from stepladder height and didn't even chip the plastic.

Add me to the 18V, Milwaukee Fuel crowd!

My shop guy could literally break an anvil, so he's my testing platform.

I was once a Milwaukee user, but it's hard to beat the Makita 18v LXT stuff, especially with brushless motors. In the past they were Japanese made, but pretty much anything you're looking at now-a-days will be Chinese made. My experience has been that Makita specs are a tad higher than most of the other brands and carry a 3 year warranty. Obviously not a lifetime warranty, but you're not paying for a lifetime warranty, either.

No matter whose stuff you buy, I always stick with the more expensive OEM batteries. They tend to last longer in runtime and charging cycles.

I use primarily DeWalt 20v and have generally been happy with them, this is home use, not professional. In looking at the various brands/line, I will admit to lusting after the Milwaukee Fuel stuff for their robust and solid builds. This comes with a price, both monetarily, and that they feel heavier and more awkward than the tools I am used to using, but if I were not so invested in DeWalt 20v batteries, I'd probably go that way.

That I got a very good deal on my first DeWalt bit driver locked me into the line, just what they intended. Now I have a dozen or so tools, the most recent purchase, a hand-held vacuum that the wife just loves for quick clean-ups.

I've got a number of 20V Dewalt tools that have been standing up well (drill, 1/4" impact, 1/2" impact, corner sander, blower, weed whacker...). I am happy with them and there are deals to be found - especially this time of the year (Home Depot, Lowes, Fleet Farm, Runnings, Amazon and Acme Tools would be the places I would look).


That said, if I were starting over from scratch today, I'd take a hard look at the Ridgid line to see if they had the tools I was interested in specifically because batteries included with tool purchases are covered under their lifetime warranty (batteries purchased separately are not).

We use the Milwaukee M18 at work. I’m not a big fan. I much prefer my older Makita at home.

Since you're not looking for top grade battery tools, like Milwaukee etc., if I were you I'd look at the Ridgid line of tools, Home Depot's house brand. I have one Ridged air tool (not battery), but I hear Ridgid seem to get universally good reviews. I have a couple Ryobi battery tools and I'm not really happy with them, but that's because my investment and constant use is with Milwaukee battery tools, and the comparison isn't fair by any means.

Top tools from box stores in no particular order:
Dewalt
Bosch
Milwaukee
Makita

Can’t go wrong with any of them. I’m partial to Dewalt.

Good enough:
Kobalt
Rigid
Ryobi

Don’t touch:
Craftsman
Harbor Freight

quote:

So look at the Makita line as well. The make a lot of tools for 18 volts.

I have a lot of Festool tools, but they are very expensive.

I find Makita to offer a huge range of tools especially in their XLT brushless dsigns; and many of the tools are ergonomically very good: I have their compact drill and driver, and recently added the XMT04ZB. This tool has extremely low vibration compared with my Festool and Fein oscillating tools.

I have found Ryobi tools in the past to be not very reliable and personally would not recommend them compared with Makita.

I got to the point that I had so many battery chargers and different batteries that I decided to reduce the clutter and buy a single line with common batteries. That lead me to Milwaukee. So far I have been impressed with the power available in the tools and have had no issues with anything. Also because the line is so large I have been able to replace both household tools and lawn tools all with common batteries.
An added bonus is that my wife likes the red tools in the garage and they are all a common color now rather than a patchwork.

Just got an email from Acme Tool and they have a holiday sale going on. I have dealt with them and had no issues.

Milwaukee is great. Even their 12v "Fuel" line is great, and was my pick for a "compact" tool kit.

The 18v "Fuel" brushless line is always in the top rankings by tool reviewers.

Annnd, I have a Paypal account in case karma needs to go around.