Milwaukee and Ryobi are owned by the same company.
Ryobi occupies the entry level/budget market, and Milwaukee is the upper tier/professional market.
I think Rigid is also owned by the same company and occupies the market between the two.
They also manufacturer tools for other companies, like I think Walmarts Hart brand.
There’s quite a few brands under Techtronic Industries (TTI):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techtronic_Industries
TTI’s brands include:
Milwaukee
AEG (Under license from Electrolux AB)
Ryobi (Under license from Ryobi Ltd)
Homelite
Empire Level
Imperial Blade
Stiletto
Hart
Hoover (In US)
Oreck
Vax (In UK and Australia)
Royal
DreBo
Dirt Devil
Would be cool if all their brands could use the same batteries…
But muh market segmentation!
something about capitalism breeding competition or whatever
Which is why there are a plethora of battery adapters out there to allow you to use almost whatever goddamn battery you want on any tool you want (in the same voltage group, at least), lol :D
I buy Makita battery tools because there are extremely good quality chinese clones available of the Makita batteries. I get the skin for dirt cheap, and then I get the largest capacity battery for dirt cheap.
It would be super cool if they made the battery interface universal so that buyers could base their decision on the quality of the actual tools but this is unchecked capitalism, baby!
So Stiletto is a Ryobi tool? ;)
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I believe that “Hart” at Wal Mart is also a TTI brand, roughly Ryobi quality but of course so many fewer offerings. I think Wally World got pissed that Stanley B&D wouldn’t do a DeWalt line for them and made a better deal with TTI.
They must be decent since Walmart still sells them and i’ve not seen much, if any, bad press about them.
Honestly debated picking up some Hart stuff at a couple points, but I’m a cheap miser who keeps falling back to using his something like 70 year old corded drill.
Keep using that glorious 70-year-old corded drill. So, long as it’s not a fire hazard, and it’s doing what you need, don’t let anyone convince you that your relationship with your drill is wrong. Either they don’t understand the love that you two share, or they’re jealous
Nah, its not that, just dealing with the extention cord gets old and tiresome, especially when its 90 degrees out and the heats making your temper flare:p
But on the plus side… Its a brushed motor, so every time i pull the trigger its like my own personal 4th of july, lol.
Sure, but if you get a cordless one, never let your old drill know. Just like that hand drill that sits in the box under your desk, wondering why you stopped needing to put holes in stuff so many years ago
This is correct. I almost worked for them. They also make (or at least did) make the pump/sprayer for swifter wet jets, Hoover and dirt devil vacuums, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some others. Their HQ is where I first saw a 3d printer like 15 years ago. It was a pretty interesting company.
Ryobi. It’s the cheapest way to collect tools I use once or twice a year when they go on sale at Home Depot or Direct Tools Outlet.
I follow the Adam Savage school of tool buying, if you are not sure you’re going to use the tool a lot buy a cheap one, by the time it finally “dies” you’ll know if it’s worth investing in better quality.
What about non-power tools? I always end up buying Ryobi for power tools and Husky for non-power tools. Those seem to always be the cheapest options whenever I have to buy something.
The best thing about Husky tools is their warranty process. If one breaks, you take it to Home Depot, you show the customer service person, they shrug, you go get one from the shelf, you show the customer service person you’re not screwing them, and then you leave. You are without your tool for about an hour while you make the trip, as Home Depots are abundant, and other tool brands with similar warranties are less so. Die Hard tools from Advanced Auto has similar advantages, however they also tend to be priced higher without a ton of advantages. So, either go Home Depot for the abundance of locations, Harbor Freight for having the cheapest entry into this warranty process, or whatever Home Depot, Advanced Auto, Harbor Freight, or Lowes is closest to you.
The biggest downside of this warranty process is that the tools are made cheap enough to be replaceable (or disposable) from the perspective of Home Depot et al. If you want to avoid this, I recommend the sorts of tools you can get at Grainger. SK is my favorite out of that tier of tools. These are generally about the same quality as tool truck tools, but at a lower cost since you’re not having a representative of the tool company come check once a week if you need any support. The warranty process though will be longer than the tool truck brands as those will usually see you out of hot water in a week, whereas the non-truck professional tools might be in the mail and back to the manufacturer for about a month or so. The mechanic I grew up seeing recommended non-professionals getting a set of tools from Harbor Freight for that they’re very cheap, fine enough, and most homeowners will never use any given hand tool enough to warrant taking it for warranty service. He himself had two sets of tools in his shop. There was the set of Snap-on tools he used day to day, and the set of Craftsman tools he used if the Snap-on tools died so that if the Craftsman tool broke while he was waiting on the Snap-on guy to come fix things up for him, he could just hop in his truck, go to Sears, and get the tool replaced and only ever lose an hour of work.
Finally, and this is what I most recommend, try looking for used professional tools from the “mail it back” warranty brands second hand. These companies generally don’t honor warranties for professionals buying these tools second hand as the warranty originally sold was for the lifetime of the original owner, but most of them are perfectly happy to provide warranty service for whatever random jackass bought an SK ratchet off a Harley-Davidson technician who was retiring. A lot of the time, the people working at that higher end market care more about maintaining brand reputation than they do losing a few nickels and dimes along the way. Further, they will often treat tools they receive back as R&D for what manufacturing flaws were missed along the way, and so a few tools from non-professional users that they can analyze will help them keep selling tools to professional users who will be very unhappy if their tool fails. The brands in this category to look out for are:
- SK Tools
- Williams
- Wright
- Wera
- Others that I haven’t thought of in a long time
Generally speaking, I do think Wera is a bit overrated, but if you’re in Europe they’re absolutely where I’d send you. The other thing I like about going second hand like this, is that what I don’t like about the cheap tools model of warranty is the wastefulness of not fixing tools. Extracting and refining metal takes resources and creates pollutants. I’d much rather take older tools and fix them
Woa cool, thanks for the tips. Yeah, looking for used professional tools sounds like the way to go. The tools will either be better from the start, or like you say, you can try mailing them back to see if they’ll throw you a bone on the original owner’s warranty.
I run Ryobi for battery tools and Harbor Freight stuff for most of the hand tools. I splurged a bit and went with Tekton for my wrenches. But really, harbor freight stuff has been absolutely fine for me, especially their new higher tier tools like Icon and Quinn.
Same, with one big caveat: I wont use HF for anything safety related. They’ve had recalls on their jackstands. If it can fail while I’m under it, I don’t go HF lol
I had the same reservation until recently. A few weeks back I bought a set of their 6t Daytona jackstands after inspecting the welds and safety pins and those things are damn solid. I probably wouldn’t use their much cheaper and smaller 3t models, but these 6t stands are great. I have a hunch they upped their QC and quality after all that bad jackstands press they got.
Good to know! It’s going to take me a while to trust them, but I’m glad they’re moving in the right direction!
I picked Ryobi for my 18V battery lock-in, and tend to get Harbor Freight for everything else. (That may also include corded power tools.)
Contractor here. DeWalt 20v is my main cordless brand. I’ve beat the shit out of them for years. Never have given me problems, plus I’ve moved over my lawn care tools to the 20v offerings because I’ve got more batteries than I know what to do with . I migrated over from the 18v post battery lineup, which was disappointing that DeWalt didn’t support their 18v line anymore. DeWalt 12v line is a major letdown; no real tools outside of a couple of drill/driver atomics. I do have a couple of 60v DeWalt tools, but we’ll see if DeWalt continues to support that class.
I did buy into the Milwaukee 12v setup, because sometimes I only need a light duty drill/impact and their 12v line has a lot of nice options for lighter duty cordless tools.
Corded, I have no brand loyalty and buy the best tool for the money (no festool because I don’t have a money tree in my backyard). Bosch, Makita, DeWalt, Milwaukee, etc… I do a little bit of research and buy the best rated tool. I never buy anything that has moving parts from harbor freight. Anything I do buy there I consider a ‘disposable’ tool and can’t depend on it to do it’s job.
My tools make me money, and I try to treat them well, so when I need them I can count on them to work.
+1 to dewalt. Stuff gets thrown around all the time, keeps right on going. More expensive than others but it just keeps working
I’m on the yellow ray-gun stuff too, I’ve only ever managed to burn a drill armature out (but then I was using a 20mm carbide hole saw on 10mm steel plate so it’s my own fault), found a replacement armature for £26 and it was easy to fit.
I also have the 9Ah monster dewalt battery and their usb topper, absolute life saver if you’re on a job site, or going camping.
I heard they’ve released an even bigger one which I’m yet to look at, and they have a power station thing that looks cool as hell.
Same to almost all of this. My 20v dewalt line has heald up quite well with some pretty heavy usage.
Air tools have been Bostich or porter cable though truth be told I’ve had issue with porter cable. My new framing gun is an off brand Fram Amazon. It was on Hella sale and I needed one quick. It replaced a porter cable and has surprisingly held up really well so far.
I also have a light line but unlike yours I’m in the Makita 12v camp. Have a of their lighter smaller 12v tools and love them. Truthfully I’d be tempted to go all Makita if I wasn’t so heavily invested in dewalt but I don’t really have any dewalt complaints.
You should know that both Milwaukee and Ryobi have the same parent company.
Ah, the illusion of competition, like half the products in the grocery store.
Its not like they are the exact same tool.
I have a ton of Ryobi tools and am perfectly fine with them, but they are not designed and built to the same standards of use and durability as Milwaukee. That’s why companies have multiple tiers to cover everyone from the occasional user to the professional. Some companies really go nuts with that and have seemingly a million brands (I’m looking at your SBD) but thinning out a company’s lineup of too many brands is sometimes very tough from a customer loyalty perspective.
Even so, it’s not about who owns them, it’s about their design, specifications and quality assurance. Milwaukee is head and shoulders above Ryobi in quality and durability (and cost).
That’s really interesting. I didn’t realize they make the Hart brand of tools sold at Walmart.
I believe Dremel and a bunch of other brands are tied into TTI as well.
Makita has worked well for my cordless needs. Corded, I’m mostly blue Bosch.
Shit, my man, ever since Craftsman stopped really being Craftsman, all bets are off.
In case anyone is curious, the Lifetime Warranty on Craftsman hand tools is still in effect. You need to walk into a Lowe’s with your broken ratchet, now, but they’ll still swap you another one for free. It just hurts a little trading in your 20-year-old Craftsman ratchet, which is lighter, better built, and shows attention to detail, for a lump of Chinesium that’s just bluntly stamped also-ran stuff. Definitely a downgrade. But the warranty is still there, so that’s something.
Now, shit, who knows? My stuff is still mostly Craftsman, but stuff has been replaced with lesser brands as it fails or gets lost, it’s whatever, now, for hand tools.
I’ve heard good things about Makita, lately. Make sure you follow TorqueTestChannel on Youtube for the real man news, they’ve got a whole setup for testing power tools to see if they’re worth the price.
+1 for Makita. I beat mine up and they are still kicking 8+ years.
Thanks to their test performance, I’m slowly saving up for a Makita electric impact I don’t need that badly, so hopefully the quality stays up. $5 in the piggy bank every couple weeks doesn’t buy impact wrenches very fast.
I feel like they do hit a sweet spot indeed.
Craftsman has brought back a lot of their manufacturing back to the USA: https://www.craftsman.com/pages/where-its-made
Husky tools were recommended to me by a diesel mechanic. Home Depot brand. The tools are pretty nice and warranty has been solid.
I use Ryobi for everything because they’re affordable, I already have the batteries, and I’m not a professional, so they don’t get used every day.
I think Ryobi is perfect for as an entry tool. If you break it from overuse, then buy a high quality product. But if it’s the first time buying a tool where you don’t know how often you will use it, Ryobi is perfectly fine to get started with and fmailiarize yourself with it.
I agree. to add both 18 and 40v are have high and low quality feeling devices. The high quality lawn mower and hand held yard tools are good enough. get big batteries. Have enough to keep going with an ulta fast charger. the hybrid 18v are my jam. Plastic weld is great for fixing their plastic. battery warranty is pretty good.
Yeah, they may not last my whole life but neither is anything else with a battery. I don’t put enough strain on the tools I use around the house to break them.
I’m a Makita-Fangirl. I know, there might be better brands and some tools just aren’t meant to be battery-driven.
But I would give my right arm for Makita-Chainsaw ;)
I mean… don’t literally cut your arm off with it 🫣
As of now I only have two drills and a measuring tape from them (I know Makita from working dry construction during college). I think it’s really hard to cut off an arm with those :D
I use Makita
decent quality, price and the color is nice
Makita all the way. I was first introduced to it by a neighbor who had a Makita drill, and it was so much better than the generic one I had previously. Now I own a bunch of 18V Makita tools, from your standard power drill, an impact drill, air compressor, a lawnmower, weed trimmer, and hedge trimmer.
I’m locked into the brand now, but I have zero regrets as their tools are very high quality. Nope I wanna get some woodworking tools but don’t have the space for a proper workbench lol.
I got a bunch of their tools and their small vaccum cleaner. That thing gets a lot of love.
Dewalt at home because when i started buying them they were the best.
Milwaukee m18 at work because they are the best quality and have the biggest selection.
Makita for the regular hard use stuff.
Ryobi for the lightweight, didn’t need but didn’t want to rent stuff. My landscape gear is one+ and works perfectly for my needs so having the battery platform makes things easier.
A lot of people are commenting about how Ryobi and Milwaukee are owned by the same parent company.
This is true, but in the same way Lexus and Toyota are the same company. Ryobi is intro level and Milwaukee is the professional focused brand. There’s nothing wrong with Ryobi, but Project Farm has repeatedly tested Milwaukee and Ryobi and Milwaukee consistently outperforms. It’s not a "badge engineering"situation.
Milwaukee & Ryobi - start with Ryobi unless it completely sucks then upgrade down the road if I use it alot or the Ryobi eats it
Makita for battery-powered tools.
Bought a few Ryobis things, now i have Ryobi batteries so i buy more Ryobi things. Working as intended for them I’m pretty sure xD
That’s how they got me as well. Lowest priced plus on sale. Reviews were mostly fine for the trimmer itself. Most people seemed to have more issues with the customer service, which, that’s pretty standard for many companies these days. I was tired of constantly having to fix the name brand gas weed eater I had, so I picked up one of the battery powered Ryobi models. It works…fine lol. Battery could last longer. Otherwise it does exactly what it says it does on the box. I’ve never had a problem with it. My other handful of Ryobi tools are in that camp. Kinda cheap feeling but seem to work as advertised.
The only one that was shit is the drill. I have a low-end black and decker drill that has lasted me about ten years. The Ryobi I got maybe hit three.
I’ll tell you though, the best tool I own is my Scott manual push mower. Picked it up for $99 and I’ve never had an issues and it still cuts like it did when I bought it four years ago. A little WD40 in the spring after pulling it out of shed hibernation and off to cut.
I always heard “buy a cheap tool and if it breaks buy better version” - haven’t really done enough to go thru any ryobis yet, except for leaving batteries out in the garage all winter.
