TTI is owned by the banks and a few billionaires, just like everything else. Doesn’t make much difference which ones. JP Morgan isnt making power drills
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My point is that brand no longer determines who, where and to what quality standard built the equipment in question. It’s just there to give you the illusion of choice.
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Im with you on the choice part but I’m not totally with you on the quality part. TTI has a different strategy for each of its brands, thats why they dont just merged Ryobi, Rigid and Milwaukee into one.
It’s like how Volkswagen owns Audi and Lamborghini and Bentley and Porsche and 350 other companies (and then Porsche owns VW somehow). Yes they’re all the same company, they have cars based on the same platforms or with the same engines, etc. But they make sure they don’t release a VW that’s better than a Lamborghini, even though there’s nothing stopping them from rebadging the next Lamborghini flagship as the new VW Beetle.
And ya every now and then a model slips through the cracks and you can get a good discount on an Audi that probably could’ve been badged as a Bentley if they just used a bit more suede, but generally you can depend on there being a difference in quality between all the brands.
That’s what TTI does with Ryobi and Milwaukee.
Same thing with Black and Decker and DeWalt. The reason DeWalt exists in its current form today is because Black and Decker tried to release a line of higher quality tools than their standard ones, but nobody wanted to buy “Black and Decker Professional” tools until they put the name DeWalt on them.
Its definitely an illusion of choice, but it’s not like there isn’t a pattern with quality
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Fair point. Though it’s still market fragmentation that is entirely artificial, not a dozen companies each doing their best and actually competing.
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Ya, for sure. Either way the same few billionaires are getting your money.
Btw, did you know the billionaire guy that owns the most of TTI is a former Volkswagon engineer? I just found that out. VW really does own everything lol. And who started VW?..There’s definitely some conspiracy theory potential here lol
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Hitler. Look it up.
That was supposed to be rhetorical lol
Yup.
They’re built to different quality and testing standards, but often in the same or related factories, and of parts from the same manufacturers and contractors. Partly a question of QA, partly of how overbuilt and overspecced the components are, and partly just “ordering the slightly higher priced motor from the catalogue for the better brands”. Plus marketing, of course, the more expensive brands are more aggressively marketed. I guess because they know someone who spends $250 on a tool is more likely to buy multiple (and a $60 spare battery locks you into that system more than a $20 one, even if it is actually 2-3 times as good) than someone who spends $50 on something that’s still mostly capable of the same things.
It’s why if you’re not doing something particularly demanding and need a weird tool you won’t use much, the “Harbor Freight rule” exists: Buy the ultracheap one, and when it breaks, that means you use it enough that you can justify replacing it with a better one. e.g. my Harbor Freight power saw, gets maybe 2-4 uses/year, now like 5 years old and still works fine for the rare occasion actually use it.
For sure.
That’s why I don’t stick to one brand too. Doesn’t make sense to buy the most expensive version of everything. Just where it makes sense.
Besides QA and components and stuff like that there’s also sometimes design differences that would appeal to the target market but not the other. For example I’ve noticed all my ryobi batteries charge to around 4.1-4.15V/cell and all my Milwaukee batteries go a full 4.2V, sometimes a tiny bit higher. I don’t know if this is intentional or just a coincidence, but it makes sense for the target markets. Average homeowner might leave the ryobi on the charger for 8 months between uses. Average professional would would want the full 4.2V. Stuff like that
Ryobi
That’s where I started as a poor recent graduate when I needed a drill and decided cordless was cheap enough I’d go with the convenient option.
Because they maintained battery compatibility, it made sense to stick with them when they moved from NiCad to lithium, even if the form factor is a little odd these days. Had they not been compatible, I probably would have been tempted at that time to move up market.
I do a lot of pruning with an 18V reciprocating saw, but it was slow on the bigger stuff, so I started considering a battery-powered chainsaw as an alternative to fueling up my Stihl and draining it when done. I was just going to get an 18V tool, but then Ryobi had a “40V” (36V) model on closeout with a battery for only like $30 more than the 18V model I had been looking at.
So I guess I got pulled into Ryobi for cordless yard tools, as well. Which is fine. They’ve served me well at home.
At work, on the other hand, we tried Ryobi and found they wore out too fast in heavy use to be worth the price savings, much less the labor cost of dealing with broken tools. So we stuck with Dewalt for cordless tools, which we were already mostly standardized on when I started that job. We’d wear those out, too, but they lasted a lot longer, and frequently Dewalt could repair them for a reasonable price.
We had a wide variety of corded tools, since we didn’t need to share batteries, so I had the opportunity to try lots of different makes. When I bought a house that needed some work and went to buy a circular saw, I already knew I hated the Ryobi corded saws I had tried. The Dewalts were ok, and the Milwaukees were pretty good, but the Makitas were the clear winner for me due to how smooth they run. Similar experience with jigsaws led to me going with Bosch, and then with miter saws, Dewalt won out.
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Very interesting and useful observations. This from a casual Ryobi user. Thank you! 
I think the range of choice is pretty good. It’s just that there’s less competition than it seems like.
A few approximate competitors, although it would be fair to debate exactly which tier some of these go in:
Higher end: Milwaukee, Dewalt, Makita, Bosch
Mid level: Ridgid, Hitachi, and I’d even say some of the better Ryobi tools.
Entry level: Ryobi, Craftsman, Skil
There’s links between tiers in that list, but except for the fact that TTI has created a lot of overlap between Ryobi and Ridgid, and Black and Decker has overlap between Craftsman, Porter Cable, and Black and Decker, it’s pretty reasonable to pick a tier and have multiple options.
That about sums it up.
Although I find it amazing that Skill manufacturers crappy cordless tools yes the same company makes the best worm drive saw on the planet. I think they even imvented it.
Goes back to what I was saying, the corded and cordless divisions of these companies appear to be completely different entities.
Right, ya, that was kind of my point as well. Your money is just going to the same people is what I meant there
Its sort of like the corded tools stopped getting updated in the 90s and they’ve just stayed at that level while the cordless tools get more high tech every year. I wonder if that’s the case. It would make sense. All the R&D is probably going into cordless. Corded stuff hasn’t really changed in decades
As a user with casual needs, I found my sweet spot with Ridgid, when they’re on sale.
My entry point to cordless was a need for a recip saw, and a discounted older Octane model was better than what Ryobi offered, at a price much more palatable than a genuine Sawzall that would have sat unused most of the time.
Since then, I’ve plucked other Ridgid tools and batts on good discounts, and all qualify for the LSA.
It would be nice if TTi and Emerson gave us the more expansive AEG-branded selection that the rest of the world gets.
But that said, I hunt based on the tool in question before any sort of brand loyalty. If there is a better choice in a different system, I wouldn’t hesitate to stray from Ridgid.
Ridgid is excellent. Not by any means a compromise. Not to mention lifetime warranty, batteries included, if you buy from Home Depot.
My most recent previous lithium drill and impact driver were Makita, the black and white with 18v lithium from the 2010 range IIRC. I was kind of surprised, then, that the directions said soon as you feel the tool slowing stop, and recharge. I’d then noticed a Latin co worker draining his own Makita batteries, same as mine, and even newer, to tool stall dead, and promptly etched my initials into my own batteries.
Somewhere mid 2019 I noticed the severe degradation of capacity of my batteries. I’d did well to stop tool use when the Btteries were struggling, but when I just needed to sink the last screw another half inch, and both batteries were done, and I did not have charger handy and ready to go, I did what i had to do, because it let me. drained to tool stall.
The drill had issues, sometimes acting like the 1/2 speed switch was not fully engaged, when it was, and subsequent trigger pulls would rectify the issue. About a year ago the brushes in the drill were done, but so were the batteries. Could not drive a single 2 inch deck screw anymore.
I had hardwired an older 9.6v craftsman drill to a 12v 18 Ah AGM, and that thing would have extreme torque for hours, but this godawful stiff 10-2 landscape wire feeding it and an 11 or 14 lb lead acid AGM battery within 8 feet, but there was little chance of running out of power.
I had to move, and the Makitas, did not make it, with a bunch of other stuff.
I had to replace.
I went with Ridgid, the brushed drill and driver combo, with 2 2.0 ah batteries and ‘60 watt’ charger , for 130$ on one of HD’s ‘special buy’ dealz.
I really like the feel of the Ridgids, in my paw. The trigger on the drill still trips me out a little, even after 6 months of regukar use. Half the range is gone before it activates, and it does not appreciate unloaded juvenile ‘revving’. Some of the delY is one can activate the light, without spinning the motor, where the Makita woukd activate the drilk motor light within 1/32" of activating the light.
Whike I had to move to a much hotter location, it seems to me both the ridgid drill and the 1/4" impact driver’s heads, get way hotter than the older Makitas would, when their batteries were healthy. The impact drivers gearbox feels a bit gritty.
I was really contemplating returning them within the window, but…
I like that the small charge cradle has an external wall wart. It says 60 watts and 18v, but it basically 21.45v, and 2.0 amps max, so right around 43 watts max.
While I registered the tools and batteries, i did not register the charger. I’ve cut the power cord from wall wart to charge cradle, installed Anderson powerpoles, and can use one of my 8 AWG Inline Wattmeters.
I tried feeding charge with a DC VoltaGe booster set to 21.45, from a 12v agm battery.
It works, but can vastly exceed the rating of the internal 10 amp fuse, on a depleted battery, so i have to start with a voltage about 0.5 to 0.7v over battery voltage to keep it around 60 watts max charge rate.
The ability to recharge the Ridgid batteries, without having to use an inverter, from a 12vdc nominal system, is still important to me even after moving back onto the grid.
I had biought a 400 watt PSW inverter just for the Makita charger, but that inverter failed and was wasteful of my 12vdc charging system’s limitations.
HD emailed me a special buy, 2 4.0 ah Ridgid batteries and charger for 80$.
I waffled, and the deal was gone. A week later those, with 4.5 inch angle grinder was 135us$, and I snapped. They were delivered in 2 days.
I let dads longtime landscapers go and got a Makita mower, string trimmer, hedge clipper and blower, with 4 4.0 batteries and dual bay charger, which have already paid for themselves.
The Ridgid battery BMS cuts off in the 15v range.
I was surprised to find the Makita tripped at 13.3v.
Makitas warm off charger are 20.6 or 20.7v, the Ridgids 20.5 or 20.6v.
When the ridgid sbows 2 of 4 bars voltage is right around 18.
Ive had the makitas still show 4 bars at 18.3v.
More recently I got the 20v max Dewalt 8" pole saw.
its battery warm off charge is 20.6 to 20.7v, Ive not triggered it LVD yet.
I’ve got battery adapters, to run Ryobi from Ridgid batteries, Ridgid tools from Makita or Dewalt batteries, and Makita tools from Ridgid baTteries, and can stack the adaoters if needed, such as dewalt to ridgid, ridgid to Ryobi. The lossez are unideL, but acceptable.
I like having the options, as I try to keep stored batteries cool, in the 18 to 19.5v range, rather than at 20.5v. The mower takes 2 batteries for 36v and i always try to make sure they are both the same SOC when installed.
Im not married to any one power tool battery system, or tool brand.
If I had to pick one based on the battery/charger, Ridgid all the way.
I’ve not come across better deals with the other brands on batteries, but the other brands could use far better cells, and my Ridgid deals could be old, capacity compromised batteries. I do seem to only be able to stuff 3.39ah into the one 4.0ah battery from 15.3v cutout to 20.6v termination, and 3.22ah on the second.
The Dewalt polesaw deal was significantly cheaper than the Mikwaukee and Makita options I was considering. Ive nkt determined the LVD figure on the Dewalt baTtery yet
I kind of want a Milwaukee M18 tool and battery just to round out the gamut of availability of options. If a ‘tool only’ Milwaukee deal arises on a tool I want(and need), I’d order that, and a Ridgid to Mikwaukee adapter.
If I was aware of the battery adapters, Id likely have kept my older Makita drill and driver, ordered new brushes, and used adapters with new Ridgid batteries.
Hey, anyone ever use those finger-chopper “chainsaws” that are like 4" long?
Any reason to use one of those vs a sawzall-type doodad?
The sawzall with pruning blade can grab smaller branches, and just shake them.
The unidirectional chainsaw just pulls them against the stopper and shears them off.
I’m rather impressed with how quickly the 8" Dewalt polesaw cuts through 4" limbs. Having used a sawzall with new pruning blades extensively, before getting the polesaw, the sawzall takes about 10 times as long and often required the ladder