Good morning bit-tech. What's people's view of Li-on battery cordless power tool ecosystem? It seems like this is the way different brands try to get brand loyalty. Therefore, which brand seems to offer best value for money across their ecosystem? battery and tool itself. I'm looking to buy a nice combi drill for my Dad's birthday. He's retired, he likes to DIY and fix everything. He's been using a really old corded one and sometimes borrows my 10+ yr old not-Li-on battery Makita drill. My not-Li-on drill battery no longer holds a charge, luckily there's 2 so just need to constantly change battery, no problem for little things I do. I also have a relatively cheap Spear & Jackson Li-on battery cordless hedge trimmer. Apart from those, we do not own any other Li-on battery power tools.
I'm deep in the Ryobi One+ ecosystem. It straddles the line between cheap crap and entry-grade pro stuff, and it's all a little plasticky, but it works fine for me.
I brought into the Dewalt ecosystem. As I sell the big 3 (Dewalt,Milwaukee and Makita) I will say it’s mainly down to preference. They all have there ups and down. Stick with one of these brands and you can’t go wrong.
Another Ryobi user here. Like @Gareth Halfacree states if you’re not using it every day it’s of sufficient quality in my view to get a good result but cheap enough you can buy lots of tools without breaking the bank. Some things in the range are just **** other are very good. Battery wise there is lots of options and I tend to use large capacity knock-off batteries for outdoor tasks like strimmer / hedge cutting and the official battery’s for high draw stuff requiring the circular saw or chainsaw.
I suppose I should ask about power tools he's likely to get in addition to the combi drill. Then consider their quality for different brands. For combi drill that does both hard work hammer drilling and light screw driving, what size Li-on battery is preferred? I'm seeing everything between large 5 Ah and smaller 2 Ah. Obviously bigger ones last longer at cost of weight.
5ah is probably a good bet. I have a couple of 2ah but they are used for little fast jobs. If you start going with accessories like circular saws you’ll need 5ah minimum. The 2ah will struggle to cut
Speaking of knock-off battery, is there any brands that actively tries to combat it? (and I shall avoid those brands)
Listening intently here as whilst we've recently got a corded circular saw which I was fine with as didn't think I'd need to be dragging it around that much, want to go cordless for the drill we intend to get soon but unsure how much to spend/which team to join
My most used Ryobi tool is the impact driver. I really appreciate having both a drill and a driver in seperate tools. I love the flexibility of having the drill for making the mess, whacking the fixing in, then using the driver to get screwing. Before I had this setup and used a combi drill and I failed to appreciate how quick this makes jobs without having to contantly change the bits over. In my experiance 2Ah battery is perfectly fine for both drill and drivers. Edit: Incidentally, I also have the SDS drill too, which is amazing for drilling old concrete or using for breaking concrete with the chisel fittings.
Funny you mentioned impact driver and drill. I came across this 2 drill package. Seems good deal? https://www.diy.com/departments/ryo...-2-0ah-kit-r18ddid-220s-/4892210155887_BQ.prd I'm seeing 6 Ah or even 8 Ah knock off batteries for all brands. So I guess could always get those afterwards.
I agree with the Dewalt / Makita/ Ryobi suggestions, all are good and competent. We have Makita at work and ended up with combi drills in 3 sizes for different jobs and ageing parent... All have big and impressive ecosystems, and as you said, see what you need. The range of gardening kit is impressive too, a power tool driven lawn mower is a great option for a small lawn and a light mower. Be aware that Makita 18v system batteries don't vary in size with Ah capacity.... I was going to buy a light and 'small' pack but they don't exist. A couple of friends have Ryobi systems and are devoted to them. I got to use the cordless pressure washers last year, which were really good for a remote location.
That Ryobi from B&Q went out of stock when I came to order it. So I looked around and ordered this DeWalt drill + driver 2x3Ah kit for £180: https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-d...-li-ion-xr-brushless-cordless-twin-pack/337kv The drills looks all much same-ness. This particular kit seems to offer best torque for money. Hopefully DeWalt ecosystem are not too expensive. I see compatible off-brand batteries are readily available.
I started with a Dewalt combi drill as a present from my parents I think. I've just bought body only as I've needed them and reused the battery. Now I've 3 tools, I think the next thing I buy will come with a battery and charger to allow me to use multiples at the same time.
Makita in this household - Drill, Strimmer, Mower, Multitool, and its all rock solid. Need to get my hands on 2x5Ah batteries as the 2x3Ah only just run the mower for long enough (but one is plenty for a drill) but the cost is nearly as much as tools!
I'm eyeballs deep in Makita, and bought into Makita LXT for reasons weighted roughly: 10% - I liked the flexibility of 2x18v for high power tools vs having a different battery form factor 10% - The breadth of their LXT range is verging on ridiculous and I could never imagine needing a tool they they don't do, and almost every type of tool in the range has high and low end models (and all in between) that let me get good ones for tools I'll use all the time and cheaper once for tools I may only use a couple of times 80% - I had Makita (NiCd) tools before, and I had those because I used Makita tools when I worked in construction for a couple summers at Uni So mainly brand loyalty, but also I've not had any reasons not to be loyal.
Hum.... I should have gone for Makita LXT? I like the idea that high power tools can use 2x the battery. I also read Makita seems to offer more choices in garden tools than DeWalt. Is that true? The Makita NiCd battery drill I currently have is still rock solid after so many years.
^ Exactly this. We had old NiCd Makita drills and went 18v mostly brushless tools. 2x 18v is a great idea, we are running 5Ah packs mainly as they are no bulkier than 4s. The mower takes 4x 18v batteries in 2 banks with a switch over control to maximise mowing time. There are lots of interesting and unusual options as @Mister_Tad says. I don't drink coffee, but see there is a battery coffee machine, grass trimmers and powered caulking gun!
Regarding garden kit I doubt there's much in it, they both do the big stuff and quite a bit of the weird stuff, unless there's something particularly niche (DeWalt 18v secateurs anyone?) it won't matter. Makita dual battery kit is a bit funny, it's a good idea but it's not much better than the standard stuff and it's nowhere near what FlexVolt can do, so it's not clear who would want to shell out for the extra power without shelling out for the considerably more powerful alternative?
Take this with a grain of salt, because I've never really looked in too much detail at any other manufacturer. When it came the time to move to Li-Ion I looked at the LXT range and first to validate my choice and then no further. Th 2x18v is great though IMO - the 36v circular saw is a nice to have and I would have made do with 18v if it meant a new battery form factor. I'm sure for pros its neither here nor there having a 36/40v range separate from the 18/20v tools, but for home use when perhaps you just have one or two where you want the extra juice it sure is nice. The FlexVolt stuff seems like a nice idea too, it wasn't a thing when I bought into LXT and unlikely it would have swayed me anyway. And with the garden tools, I find there's a lot of flexibility with positioning within the range. I don't expect there's any tool that Makita do that's totally unique, but there always seems to be at least 5 different models of any given tool type from cheap & cheerful DIY grade to the big-boi model. (Of course none of that is to say say return your DeWalt, at all)
