Tools: Milwaukee or Rigid?

Milwaukee for me. Their cordless wet vac is awesome. If you want budget, I would think Ryobi is your best bet.

 

I knew you would clear up my confusion. This is why I am horrible at comparison shopping.

 

Honesly there are certain upsides to your top few brands depending on the specific tool or usage for the tool. But overall you'll be fine with any or every higher end brand tool that you can find. I've always like Makita tools vs other top brands but would never sit and say that there's no way I could have gotten the same jobs done with other brands. I have, often.

A better question would be asking about specific tools, one at a time, and describing your specific usage for them.

If you were to ask about a certain job you need to do and which tool to get you'd get more specific answers about what's best over brand loyalty.

Makita is like Toyota. I like reliable Japanese tools. But I've owned a few other car brands when they fit the bill for what I needed better. GL

 

Buy once, cry once. I'm a DeWalt fan, but Milwaukee is what my guys at work like. Don't buy cheap, you'll regret it in the long run.

(My story. I needed a 1/2" drill for 6 holes. I couldn't justify a "good" drill, so I bought a Harbor Freight cheepy, because only "6 holes". Fast forward, that cheap harbor freight drill is being used all the time. One day the trigger sticks and I'm almost seriously injured when the drill runs away. I end up replacing it with the "expensive" DeWalt drill for $150 plus the $30 for the harbor freight junk, so the nice DeWalt drill ended up costing me $180. The DeWalt is an absolute joy to use and every time I get it out I know it will do the job without fuss or muss.)

 

Milwaukee all day -- buy once cry once.

 

Correct. Dewalt doesn't make any new 18v tools, but they still support the platform.

 

Yea I’m just saying that it’s kinda pointless to bring it up for this comparison because the OP is t going to be able to walk into Home Depot and buy old DW 18v tools from a decade ago.

My opinion is that you need to decide which platform you wanna be on. If you want 12v, the best choice is Milwaukee. If you want 18v/20v, I’d go with Dewalt because then you have access to Flexvolt tools too.

 

I quoted my self, but that’s more or less what I need (or want). It’s a mix of 12 and 18V. It’s for automotive work.. engine rebuild, brake jobs, suspension work. some fab work, Etc. I find my self doing it a lot more lately. So I’m really not sure which direction. So far I’m still with Milwaukee as my top pick but Dewalt has some nice options too.

 

I use Dewalt stuff assembling at Deere

Very durable, we beat them to hell and back

 

Even though I want a more compact impact, some of these deals make this a touch choice. https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-...X-Battery-3-0Ah-Charger-DCF894B230C/306163940

 

Milwaukee has just come out with their MX battery line, and I look for them to add more tools quickly. Milwaukee also has several tools that take 2 of their M18 XC batteries, which rival Dewalt's Flexvolt line.

I do want to point out that Dewalt's regular 20v line of tools cannot take a Flexvolt battery. You have to have a Flexvolt tool. You can however, use a regular 20v battery on a Flexvolt tool.

See above.

 

You're mixing things up and causing confusion by not accurately stating facts. Dewalt's regular 20v line CAN use Flexvolt batteries. That's what so convenient about it.

Yes, but it's not in anyway backwards compatible with the 18v tools the way that Dewalt Flexvolt batteries are.

Yes, they do. But it's imperfect solution. Also, Dewalt is updating all of their Flexvolt tools and Milwaukee is going to have a hard time keeping up. Which is why they came out with MX, because they needed a high voltage battery. But it's not interchangeable with their other tools so you end up needing more batteries than you would on the Dewalt platform.

 

I went with Ridgid because of their lifetime warranty. I have no issues with Milwaukee or Makita. Can't go wrong with any of those brands, IMO.

 

I'm starting to get the idea that many associate Rigid tools with Harbor Freight tools. Rigid has a great warranty, and will fulfill a buyer's needs for a lifetime...as will almost all of the "name" tools discussed above.

Harbor Freight, on the other hand, are considered "one time use" tools. If they last beyond a single use, the buyer definitely got their money out of it.

 

yeah I burned my angle grinder, can’t say I expected much from $10 angle grinder though lol.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/dewalt-vs-ryobi.633439/

 

All of my cordless tools are Dewalt 20V/Flexvolt with the exception of a Milwaukee M12 ratchet and I've been really happy with all of them so far. I will probably build out my M12 tool selection in the future but so far the ratchet is the only tool I really wanted/needed.

 

That and the stubby, those two are what really make me want the Milwaukee lineup. I’ve been looking at Dewalt and they have a small “stubby-like” 20v impact. Just no ratchet, I think if Dewalt had the ratchet id end up in that direction.

 

I'm getting the idea that there are a lot of tool fanboies out there. I think the most important thing someone should look at is the entire breadth of the tools offered. Batteries are stupid expensive so it makes sense to buy into a brand and stay there so you can share the batteries between the tools. When I was assigned to manage two different installation crews they had a complete mishmash of yellow and red tools. Many times they didn't have the right battery and work ground to a halt while the right battery or charger was found. I asked them to pick a color and get rid of the others. They went with Milwaukee because they preferred the smaller M12 tools.

 

like anything, there will always be a fanboy crowd. The battery situation is what lead to this thread because I’m looking at this as a long term investment. Last thing I wanna do is have 2 different brands with 20 different batteries and chargers lol.