The last couple posts in the Angle grinder question thread discussed tool quality/reputation. Rather than sidetrack that thread, I wanted to throw it open to the Dope as a whole—how do various brands (generally) compare?
Here are the major brands I can think of off the top of my head. I know there are some house brands in there, and have a good notion that Chicago Electric (Harbor Freight brand) is near the bottom for most things power tool, but other than the obvious (or, seemingly obvious), my main familiarity comes via their marketing departments.
Speaking very generally, how would you categorize these brands into three or four tiers? Did I miss any mainstream brands? Are some brands stronger in one set of tools but weaker in others?
[ul]
[li]Bosch[/li][li]Chicago Electric [/li][li]Craftsman[/li][li]Delta[/li][li]DeWalt[/li][li]Grizzly[/li][li]Hitachi[/li][li]Jet [/li][li]Kobalt[/li][li]Makita[/li][li]Porter and Cable [/li][li]Rockwell[/li][li]Ryobi [/li][li]Shop Fox[/li][li]Skill[/li][li]Stanley[/li][li]Wen[/li][li]Woodtek[/li][/ul]
Serendipitous. Our little town council just bought a big ol’ power tool. It was either an angle grinder or an impact drill – or maybe both. It’s going to be used to remove rusted bolts from street signs.
After a long discussion that only happens when men talk about their tools, they agreed on a deWalt.
The mayor and 4/5ths of the council have jobs that involve heavy use of small and large power tools, and they think DeWalt is the best. They had a second choice but I’ve forgotten what it was, and the other names on your list don’t ring any bells.
Hilti Blows them all out of the water. Festool is another premium brand. I’d opt for their tools over anything on the market. Problem being if I have to pay for them I’d pass and because you can buy 2 top end brands for the same price.
For brands readily available in major retailers around me
Your top end are:
Bosch
Dewalt
Milwauki
Mikita
Mid grade:
Ridgid
Craftsman
Porter Cable
Kobalt
Lower end:
Ryobi
Skill
Hitachi
Some of you brands I don’t think can be compared well with the above as their specialties are stationary equipment. Where as the others have stronger focus in their portables. I stuck to my thoughts on portables as I know that market better.
I would mostly agree with this list, but would move Craftsman down a tier. Kobalt may be somewhere between the low- and mid-grade.
But of course it really comes down to how you’re going to use them. For the run-of-the-mill homeowner, it doesn’t really matter much. Buy whatever’s affordable to you. For heavy duty, all-day-everyday use OTOH, you’ll want to invest in a higher end brand (and don’t skimp on blades and bits!), unless you have a thing for buying replacement tools every other week.
I think Chicago Electric is the Harbor Freight house brand. I reserver HF tools for non-archival tools – if I need a tool for a one-time project or for tasks I do very rarely, I’d consider a CE tool just to save money. But you get what you pay for.
Cordless drills, Milwaukee, DeWalt or Panasonic. With cordless drills, it also matters what you’re doing with it. Driving screws or drilling? Do you need an 18v big guy, which gets really heavy after a long day, for drilling holes, or can you get away with a 10v Li-ion drill-driver?
Reciprocating saws-Milwaukee. For routers, I like Bosch.
My Festool saw was probably the best $500 I’ve spent. Almost don’t need a table saw with that.
If you’e got compressed air, get some Bostich staplers and nail guns. And a Dynabrade sander. Way better than any electric palm sander.
Jet is, in general, larger stationary tools. Grizzly is a good, slightly cheaper comp.
Today’s Craftsman power tools are probably in the low middle to lower grade range as they’re built to hit a price point, rather than built to last. Same goes for the mass-market store brands like Lowes’ Kobalt and Home Depot’s Ridgid.
To add a wrinkle - age. The brands your grandfather knew like Milwaukee and Ridgid have seen a decline in quality as well - they’re often being built “good enough” for the usual handyman now, rather than bulletproof for hard daily use. Apples to bananas, obviously, but a 30-year old Ridgid pipe threader was built to a much higher standard than today’s Ridgid cordless drill. Same goes for Porter-Cable and Rockwell. They used to be premium brands, but not so much today. Porter-Cable actually died off in 1960 when they were sold to Rockwell. What you see sold now is just “badge engineering” of tools made in Mexico or China by Stanley Black & Decker as SB&D bought the names nearly ten years ago.
Several of the brands on the OP’s list are more of the stationary woodworking variety - Jet, Grizzly and Shop Fox make things like table saws and would deserve their own comparisons.
Overall, I agree with boytyperanma that Hilti and Festool are making some of the best tools now, but with prices to match. You could buy ten “big box” brand slide miter saws for the price of one Festool slite miter saw, for example.
Makita can be hit/miss, I’d probably move them down one. Used a couple Makita tools that felt like toy junk. The rest of the top tier are uniformly good quality, though for some reason the bright yellow DeWalt doesn’t “feel” as solid as a Milwaukee or Bosch.
Milwaukee is kind of the gold standard for recip saws, DeWalt for cordless, and I feel like Bosch is good for rotary tools. *Looks like I independently agree with what Paintcharge said, on review, an ditto Bostich for smaller air fasteners. Except for framing nailers, when I’d get Paslode.
It’s not on your list, but Black & Decker branded stuff isn’t much better. In a peculiar twist of fate though, DeWalt is another brand of the same company, so they’re clearly capable of making good stuff.
Hilti is extremely good as well, as are Milwaukee and Makita. I’d put Porter-Cable and Bosch one step down, with Ridgid, Craftsman and Kobalt.
Everything else is sort of crappy… and I’ll bet that unless you’re a professional, you wouldn’t be able work the tools hard enough/be able to tell the difference between a Ridgid and a Hilti.
Another thing to consider is that many of the higher-end lines have followed the Echo/Stihl/Husqvarna route and have big-box versions of their tools and the “pro” model of their tools, with similar quality differences. Makita is probably the easiest to spot- they have different colored lines, with the black and white ones being the lower-end versions and the classic turquoise/red being the pro grade stuff.
Is the branded stuff sold in Home Depot and Lowe’s the same quality as you’d get at a professional store? Or do brands like DeWalt have a low-end line they sell in the big-box stores, and a better line to professionals?
The OP had Shop Fox on his list; they’re hit or miss. Jet makes some decent band saws. I’m a fan of DeWalt corded tools, and also their heavier battery drills. Hilti has been the king of both corded and battery drills for a long time; I was using their tools in the 80s. I have a Milwaukee corded hammer-drill that kicks ass.
I’ll likely never buy another Skil or Craftsman power tool. Skil, in particular, makes the worst battery tools I’ve seen, and I really don’t like Kobalt.
I think Stanley is on the road back, at least for their hand tools. I bought a Stanley block plane that does a nice job.
But like most products, every brand has its gems and its lemons, so research and reviews are important prior to buying.
I love how everyone thinks B&D is junk, when DeWalt was branded as such for years. They just changed the color and the name of B&D’s commercial line, literally overnight. Contractors who had called the orange tools junk the day before suddenly raved about the new brand.
I wish when people respond in these threads that they would explain WHY a certain brand is better than others. Exactly why is a DeWalt cordless drill better quality than a Ryobi?
I’ve seen good youtube videos going into detail explaining why certain gas grills are better than others, but in forums, everyone tends to just throw out a name brand and leave it at that.
I’ve neer used a Ryobi, but I have used plenty of DeWalt. I can attest to having dropped cordless DeWalt drivers onto concrete from ladders or roofs, and I don’t recall ever cracking the case of one.
The poster who mentioned Hilti is spot on, definitely the best.
I too am amused that Dewalt is rated so highly - as a contractor/jobber you are looking for power tools that are a balance between durability and cost - if it is cheap enough such as a Clarke or Sealey and lasts for one contract of six months, it may well be better value than a much more expensive item that perhaps lasts two or three contracts - plus, if you have ever been on site, nice tools tend to go walkabout and never come back - or some idiot borrows it for a quick task and returns it damaged.
DeWalt is simply too costly for what it is. I would prefer a Makita or Kamasa, these things seem to have a definite life span - you can baby them or abuse them - they last for the same amount of work either way.
Bosch seems to have status bestowed upon it by the German sounding name - its ok stuff but not startling.
Elu used to be pretty good stuff but seems to have disappeared
Kango was a pretty good alternative to Hilti - seems they belong to Milwaukee nowadays
Wolf also used to be a reasonable make - dunno what happened to them
Sealey - I haven’t seen these mentioned, they are fairly cheap - I have a heat gun, ok for home use but I don’t really think its up to proper hard work - except they are cheap enough to leave behind after finishing a job
You need to pick the tool for the job and then decide on the make, for instance Stihl make some decent stuff if power is not available - especially on chainsaws, ground augurs etc but then you really are getting into small industrial plant stuff
If its compressed air tools than you would need to look at Ingersoll-Rand
Oh… something I forgot. With the higher-end brands and their commercial models, you can actually buy replacement parts for things as mundane as a cordless drill.
The keyless chuck broke on my Makita 12v drill a few years back, so I bought another one for $20, and installed it, and used it for another couple of years until the battery and motor started to go at the same time.
Had it been a consumer brand or a consumer-level model, the whole tool would have been done-for, but since it was a commercial model, replacement parts are readily available- motors, screws, chucks, etc…
Like many tool lines, the quality goes up and down over the years. Manufacturers start relying on the name recognition for sales and let the actual product turn into a piece of shit. This is what has happened to Craftsman of late. I have two DeWalt power tools and a DeWalt battery drill. All three are top performers for home use and purchased within the past three years, so I recommend them.
Stanley used to be THE carpenter and woodworker’s tools of choice years ago, but they decided to ship production overseas and the vaunted wood planes and chisels went to shit fairly quickly. The newer line of Sweetheart planes is actually quite good, and I have a set of Stanley wood chisels that, while not near the quality of Lee Nielsen, are certainly serviceable.