Longevity of power tools, best brands for DIY?

[jaydee]

My little 100mm, 500w Ryobi angle grinder finally died yesterday.
I've had it for yonks, about 30 years easy.
It's done lots of work around the house/shed and lately a lot while doing rust repairs on the XC.
Can't complain about that.

So doing research for a new one and also want an impact driver.
Had a look in 2 pawn shops, they're forgetting they're a second hand shop, charging almost the price of a new one with several years warranty.

Bought another Ryobi 100mm grinder from Bunnings today, $50, 4 year warranty.
They also had an Ozito 18v impact driver, with battery and charger, $100,5 years warranty.
Now I know DeWalt etc are what the tradies use, but 4 times the price, I can't justify that sort of money for DIY.

Anyone else got a real good run out of a cheaper brand power tool?

[.:4:.]

Well, for diy, use the ozito warrenty. My brother inlaw does that all the time for diy. If its not an 8 hour thrash, they hold up. The warrenty does replacements. Battery equipment, well lithium atleast, you need to store the batteries not dead, otherwise after time they go bad.
I bought my brother an ozito drill and impact driver kit. Whilst im from a trade background and have to top end makita gear, the ozitos do pretty well for 8x less of the price. My brothers diy isnt like working on a construction site. Its belt in a screw here, drill a hole there, so its perfect for that. Just keep the receipt and warrenty card. They do honour it if something craps out.

[Citroënbender]

I once put a 50mm angled chisel on an Ozito rotary hammer, over a fortnight dug literally metres of pipe trench in hard shaly clay (restricted access, no room to swing a hand tool), punched through a bit of concrete footing and it was still in good working condition. Compared favourably with the hired (brand name) core drill that could barely chop out a Ø5” hole in extruded brick footings and tried to electrocute me in the process.

[Work Horse]

I recently realised I could no longer live without a compound mitre saw. Like you jaydee, just for home use so I could not justify paying for a trade quality one.

Friends have Ozito saws and claim they are great for the price and love the replacement warranty.

Just so we understand the Ozito business model, the tools are designed to be thrown away after the warranty period. Ozito do not make spare parts for their tools. If anything breaks on an Ozito tool it can not be repaired.

I could not justify buying a cheap tool that just adds to all the other land fill coming out of China.

I purchased a 15 year old second hand Japanese compound mitre saw for the same price as a new Ozito. I can still purchase any spare part I need from Hitachi and I would be confident I could sell it for what I paid. And it is 10 times the tool the cheap Chinese knock off tries to be.

[Citroënbender]

I’ve got an Hitachi drop saw too! About $1K when bought in 2001.

[Tonz]

as an amateur woodworker and happy doing stuff around home, I have all Ryobi cordless 18 volt.
120mm angle grinder
3 drills
1 impact driver
jigsaw
5 batteries and 1 charger

Happy as a pig in poo.

[Work Horse]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

I’ve got an Hitachi drop saw too! About $1K when bought in 2001.

And I bet you can still get spares for it and I bet it would have good resale value and I bet it still works well!

Sorry jaydee, I can rant a little about this topic

But everyone bemoans the demise of Australian manufacturing and how the Chinese have taken over all of it! We are handing it to them on a platter because we buy so much of their Kak Kak!

Disclaimer: There are several cheap Chinese tools in my shed..

[Citroënbender]

Mumme crow bar, though?

[tasdex]

Got given an xu1 drill and grinder arround 18 years ago , the grinder a champion ,,
The drill ,, the chuck moves in and out round 3/4 an inch ,, and be buggered if it still goes !

[aussiblue]

I use SP tools 12V cordless as my arthritis make heavy tool hard/painful to handle and they have these Ratchet wrenches useful for mechanical repairs: https://www.sptools.com/product-cata...eck-skin-only/ and https://www.sptools.com/product-cata...nch-skin-only/ They are cheaper on ebay from sellers like Sparebox and discount traders. I have their complete 12V cordless range except the torch and the have all been good. I do also have a range of 18V Makita for the drywall home renovations stuff as they are the only ones that do a ceiling drywall saw (this tool https://www.totaltools.com.au/18v-dr...cutter-dsd180z) and I needed to cut down some old water damaged ceilings and SP Tools don't do any drywall tools. So I also have a Makita Drywall Screwgun and reciprocating saw and a few of their other tools. The rubber nose on the Screwgun has had to be replaces few times but so far no other issues and I think they make the best stuff and have the widest range for drywalling. My wife uses a range of Ryobi One+ 18V rechargeable stuff for gardening and she loves them (and best of all it means she now mows the lawn and loves doing it) but they don't seem as robust as either the SP Tools or Makita but Bunnings always replace them under warranty when the die prematurely as a couple have.

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

BIL is an upholsterer, so tends to be a little hard on his tools, especially the (impact) drill. He's tried the more upmarket brands (Makita, etc) but has now settled on the Ryobi One+ range (both 18v and 36v) for all of his tools.

His experience is that, whilst they don't last quite as long as the more expensive brands, they are more cost effective because of the lower price. He's also had a few failures within the standard warranty period, and has had no problems getting them replaced at Bunnings. There have, however been times where he feels that he's used them too unfairly for them to be exchanged, but is confident that they would have been should he have taken them in.

The other advantage with the Ryobi One+ series is that there is a huge range of skins available in the range.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0

BIL is an upholsterer, so tends to be a little hard on his tools, especially the (impact) drill.

My ol man has been an Upholsterer all his life owning a couple of large furniture factories which I help in over time.
I can say I've never seen an impact drill used in this line of work.
Bench drill press maybe.

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

My ol man has been an Upholsterer all his life owning a couple of large furniture factories which I help in over time.
I can say I've never seen an impact drill used in this line of work.
Bench drill press maybe.

BIL also makes his own frames from time to time, and the impact driver makes the job easier, If he wasn't making his own frames the drill driver would probably suffice.

[.:4:.]

I swear blind by impact drivers for driving in screws. Even using a cordless drill with the clutch set down, the clutch on an impact is different. It will slow the screw, yet keep going and at the same time, not round out the head of the screw or anything like that. Yeah, depends to a degree of trigger happiness with new impacts, as they take a little bit to wear in to being awsome. But thrashing impacts 6 days a week for over a decade, hands down they beat a cordless drill when it comes to belting screws into wood, metal, villaboard or whatever you belt screws into.
Drills are for drilling holes and holesawing. On site, ive never seen a builder put a screw tip in a drill to put screws in anything.

[danzvtil]

I’ve got at least a dozen ozito power x change battery tools, very good for the money. I tried an ozito battery powered paint sprayer it got replaced 3 times under Bunnings warranty no questions asked.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0

BIL also makes his own frames from time to time, and the impact driver makes the job easier, If he wasn't making his own frames the drill driver would probably suffice.

Dads factories employed 40+ workers, we custom made frames all day, they still only uesd a drill presses to drill holes for bolting frames together. When I was a kid I would sometimes be there watching and fixing the spring packs onto the frames with brads but I see your point.

[hayseed]

A few years ago i was doing something on a Sunday & Burnt out My 4" Metabo Angle grinder.. Raced down to ALDI & bought a $29.95 Angle Grinder..

Try as I might I can't Kill the damn Thing..

[Citroënbender]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

I can say I've never seen an impact drill used in this line of work.

Gyprockers use impact drivers for pipes and wiring all the time.

[.:4:.]

I still reckon there's nothing wrong with ozito 18v gear for diy. I like the stuff i bought my brother, just the clutch on the impact need some more use to wear in a bit.
The reason my brother in law relys on the warrenty is the same reason I've seen people kill high end brands on site. If you go through a battery with constant use the tool gets warm, slap a fresh battery on and continue constant work and the tool gets hot, and when it gets hot enough it releases its life smoke. Everything electric runs on smoke, when it releases its life smoke, it dies. Its not hard to tell if its time to give a tool a rest. If the plastics around the motor are unpleasant to touch, its time for a rest. Just do something else for 10 minutes then get back on the power tool.
The biggest killer of drills etc at my old work was people who cannot run a site. You dont get someone to drill all the top plates of an interior fitout then drop cables. You get them to drill say 3 rooms, drop cables, then drill the next 3 rooms etc. A bit of sympathy towards power tools aids longevity. My 1st makita battery drill lasted me 11 years. The blokes who had no mechanical sympathy would get 6 months if they were lucky. That only changed when my old boss cracked a **** and said if a drill only lasts less then 12 months due to ill treatment, he wont pay for the replacement, it will be docked from their pay. That led to a lot of phone calls my way and myself having to be captain obvious...

[naddis01]

Hitachi for me. I started buying them 15-20 years ago. Still going strong except for one battery. Plus I blew a fuse in the charger once. Lucky I opened the charger up before I threw it out. It cost me 20c to repair.

I think they changed the name to Hikoki now though.

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by hayseed

A few years ago i was doing something on a Sunday & Burnt out My 4" Metabo Angle grinder.. Raced down to ALDI & bought a $29.95 Angle Grinder..

Try as I might I can't Kill the damn Thing..

I spotted an air powered cutting wheel in Aldi last year, about $20.
Hooked it up and tried cutting some panels on my car for rust work, it just stalled, not enough grunt.

[Citroënbender]

A part-time colleague bought the Aldi battery version of a Fein saw, he reckons it outdoes the air-powered Würth unit.

[prktkljokr]

I have the Ozito red battery powered tools, rattle gun is great, hammer drill is also good, tek gun I thrash, the only problem I have had is with the angle grinders I have 2, 1 I use with the grinding disk and the 2nd with a flappy disk, they cop a thrashing every weekend, I have changed the grinders 4 times now, and the warranty starts again each time you change them, the last time they didnt have any so they gave me my money back which was the current price, not what I paid for the first one 6 years ago, 6 years use and made a profit

I tried one of their jigsaws, I could have bashed a straighter line using a hammer, I took it back and they refunded me, so I would say for precision, you need to pay the extra.

[Jack91]

Buy once cry once.
The skins of dewault/milwaukee arent that expensive. Its only really the first 2 batteries and charger that hurts.

[jaydee]

Been looking at buying an impact driver for a few weeks, my Mrs just gave me one for my birthday, my daughters boyfriend helped her pick it out.
It's a Ryobi so I went looking on the box to see where it's made, expecting to see "Made in China", but no, "Made in the P.R.C."
I'm guessing the maker company for Oz and NZ trying to disguise it a bit.

[AlanD]

I've standardised on the Ryobi 1+ 18v Lion cordless tools.

Over the years I've managed to buy 15 of the things of various sorts. Out of the 15 I have only one has failed, the orbital sander, Contacted Ryobi - "Grab a copy of your registered receipt and take it back to Bunnings for exchange" Did so without a problem, except Bunnings wanted the dust bag too, which I didn't take with me ( I don't use the silly little thing as I've managed to make a flexible connection to the shop vac) they were happy to accept the new one from the replacement package.

Best part is that you get to register the replacement - if you want - Bunnings give you a new receipt and the warranty starts again with an extention over the standard period because you have registered.

Some of my stuff is pretty old and out of warranty, but if I get another failure I'll replace it with Ryobi - it's stood the time test pretty well so far.

Cheers

[Work Horse]

Originally Posted by jaydee

Been looking at buying an impact driver for a few weeks, my Mrs just gave me one for my birthday, my daughters boyfriend helped her pick it out.
It's a Ryobi so I went looking on the box to see where it's made, expecting to see "Made in China", but no, "Made in the P.R.C."
I'm guessing the maker company for Oz and NZ trying to disguise it a bit.

I paid about $500 for a Makita impact driver/drill combo several years ago. I am very happy with it, best drills I have ever owned and the build quality is great. They were made in China like so many quality brands are now. I wouldn't be worried too much that your Ryobi is made in China, the Chinese are capable of manufacturing quality stuff and Ryobi has a brand to protect.

Unfortunately there is a lot much rubbish coming out of China flooding the market with prices some can not resist.

I purchased a $95 chainsaw manufactured in China. I asked myself how bad could it be? It was so bad I would not give you 95cents for one....

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by AlanD

I've standardised on the Ryobi 1+ 18v Lion cordless tools.

Regardless of brand prefference, because skins (the bare tool, no battery or charger) are cheaper and if its something that sees little use, its better off to use the same batteries as the stuff you use frequently as to not have batteries go bad, or the clutter of different chargers etc. Thats why i stick with makita 18v gear. Granted, my drill and impact are the high end ones that aren't cheap, but they werent bought for DIY, but i have 3 batteries on rotation, so theyre always good for the non frequently used stuff like my tyre inflator. Its a pretty standard thing these days to have a single battery platform for multiple tools, which is good. Im a fan of makita drills and drivers, just not their rotary hammer drills, i like ramset for rotary hammer drills, however, due to not as constant use over time, even being periodically charged, the batteries failed, well 2 out of 3. And by then they were discontinued. Even bosch discontinued their batteries that were compatible. Ramset arent exactly the most mainstream brand, they arent multi platform for battery tools. Whilst their slogan is concrete results, and i agree, it renders a tool useless when you can no longer replace batteries.

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by jaydee

Been looking at buying an impact driver for a few weeks, my Mrs just gave me one for my birthday, my daughters boyfriend helped her pick it out.
It's a Ryobi so I went looking on the box to see where it's made, expecting to see "Made in China", but no, "Made in the P.R.C."
I'm guessing the maker company for Oz and NZ trying to disguise it a bit.

Forgot to mention, comes with a six year warranty, hard to argue with that.
Just got to remember in 6 years time where I kept the receipt.

[Citroënbender]

Forgot to mention, comes with a six year warranty, hard to argue with that.

Are they intended as wedding gifts?