Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Power Tools). This thread is read-only.
So theres this guy at work who has been talkin smack about my DeWalt tools. He is an owner of m18 tools. He claims DeWalt’s are terrible and will break. Also he says their 2 year warranty is an indication that they wont last. He also praises his Milwaukee tools. He says they are amazing and nothing wrong with them. Says he has never had an m18 battery go bad. Also claims the 5 year warranty is an indication that his Milwaukee’s will last longer. Another thing he claims is his Milwaukee will outperform and is more powerful than any DeWalt cordless including the top of the line cordless because its a fuel. I compared specs of both top of the line 1/4″ hex chuck impact drivers and on paper DeWalt seemed like it had better numbers. Thats just on paper numbers and not real world numbers. I know Milwaukee’s are known for good batteries and DeWalt’s are not. I was unaware of DeWalt’s being prone to breakage after 2 years. Always thought they were a quality tool brand. I was just wanting to know about is DeWalt really terrible, poor performance, gonna break in 2 years, etc.? Also wanted to know is Milwaukee really as amazing as he praises it to be and last like he claims, better than DeWalt performance, etc.? I was hoping for and unbiased opinion about the matter. I just view the 2 companies as pretty equal and just say whether you get from DeWalt or Milwaukee is just personal preference.
I’m a Milwaukee guy but have no qualms about buying a Dewalt tool if I needed it. I have a few Dewalt 20v tools personally. Nope Milwaukee has bad tools and has had a few missteps with product releases the new Nailers are a good example they might have pushed them out a little too fast. You can’t go wrong with any mainstream cordless tool brand even Ryobi its really hard to find shitty cordless tools now unless you really go down market for the 29 dollar specials. No your guy at work is a super Milwaukee fan even more than me to be that positive about the brand every company has tools that end up breaking.
Any of the top tool brands are about the same. He’s just talking smack to justify his M18 tools. Dewalt cordless are definitely not particularly failure prone because I know people still using the old XRP line.
It’s like you said, both brands are pretty equal and it is a matter if personal choice or you go with one brand because they have the tools you need while the other does not.
I think for the most part you can’t really go terribly wrong buying Dewalt, Milwaukee, Bosch, Makita, Rigid, Metabo, Hilti or even Ryobi these days. It’s all good.
I think Milwaukee is a pretty easy choice because of the variety of the available tools, performance and warranty…but Dewalt is no slouch. I’m not a fan of their three-speed drills because of the switch issue and their composite handles but Dewalt’s impact driver is AMAZING. You can’t go wrong with either brand but Milwaukee’s lineup is hard to beat.
Also, for the record; Dewalt’s batteries use Panasonic cells, Milwaukee uses Samsung. Panasonic makes the best cells, period. That’s not to say that Samsung makes poor cells but Panasonic is the top dog.
New Dewalt looks awesome. We’ve had a ton of 20vMax at work that get abused and have held up fairly well. My personal stuff is Milwaukee. I wouldn’t worry about the smack talk from the guy with the red. Seems insecure. Dewalt has quality brushless tools that are competitive with top tools from other brands.
1: I love Milwaukee
2: I love Dewalt even though we are going through a divorce right not… i got to keep all the bits!!!
All seriousness weather your tool is red, yellow or even teal or that off color blue, great tools and offerings from any line up. Milwaukee has larger line of more job specific tools but dewalt has a soli line up getting better. Just buy the cordless table saw when it comes up and shove that massive flex volt battery up his ass. Now i decided to stick with my milwaukee tools and its great they had e a 5 year warranty, but all seriousness I’ve heard of more milwaukee issues than dewalt, but milwaukee is a breeze to get taken care of. I would give a slight edge to the gen 2 dewalt over the gen 2 milwaukee.
I’m a Milwaukee guy but not because of all these cordless tools that are available in their M12 and M18 lines but because I have been around power tools for many years and over these many years I have seen how Milwaukee just out lasted other brands. I have had Milwaukee tools before they were this mainstream… pretty hard to buy into brands these days because they are very close but for me Milwaukee has proven the time test……..
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You didn’t have to make up a story to ask us the question you had on your mind….
I don’t have strictly Milwaukee, although a majority of my tools are because of the trade specific cordless tools they offer. I wouldn’t mind owning any of the brands, but no one else makes the tools I use in my trade.
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I went from red to yellow after One Key issues and finally a dead Gen2 hammer drill.
I wouldn’t be swayed one bit by the warranty difference. I sold my 10 yr old Dewalt XRP tools that were still going strong.
Our own Sir Slice-a-Lot posted a fairly compelling shootout that has me scratching my head just a tad as to why he went for the Red! ??? 😛
wildroamer wrote:
I went from red to yellow after One Key issues and finally a dead Gen2 hammer drill.I wouldn’t be swayed one bit by the warranty difference. I sold my 10 yr old Dewalt XRP tools that were still going strong.
Our own Sir Slice-a-Lot posted a fairly compelling shootout that has me scratching my head just a tad as to why he went for the Red! ??? [emoji14]
They don’t make stuff like they used to!!!!
I like the offerings in red too and the ability to use the same existing battery I have right now on the new tools coming out next year, but hey man each their own, if one brand was the absolute best there wouldn’t be any competition right?
Jimbo
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I recently decided to jump in to one brand of cordless tools and was pretty much down to either DeWalt or Milwaukee. I ended up going Milwaukee because I felt they had a slight edge in quality, but maybe mostly because I don’t see them everywhere and I like having something different. I don’t think any of the major tool brands are making junk, so much of it comes down to how you take care of things.
Daniel Julian wrote:
I recently decided to jump in to one brand of cordless tools and was pretty much down to either DeWalt or Milwaukee. I ended up going Milwaukee because I felt they had a slight edge in quality, but maybe mostly because I don’t see them everywhere and I like having something different. I don’t think any of the major tool brands are making junk, so much of it comes down to how you take care of things.
Well… As long as the brand is a relative mainstream it’s not junk but there are some cheap brands out there that are junk
Jimbo
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I was working in power tools repair service and I think that Dewalt is stronger then Milwaukee. I think Milwaukee can give longer warranty because they are cheap chinese tools with popular name and big profit percentage. All tools can brake because in manufacturing (power tools, cars, furniture, food and etc) its no way to avoid mistakes in manufacturing… Now I’m selling tools in my own store and if customer telling me that him likes bosch I say that okay, if him likes milwaukee I will be angry, but I will say okay 🙂 I think we are big enought to make choises for ourself. Personaly I love Makita and Dewalt.
Well, since we are talking about publicly traded companies beholden to shareholders, and shareholders only care about dividends and consistency, tools of almost every color are cheap, cost of manufacturing and quality wise. Oh wait, except the half dozen or so Dewalt’s that are screwed together in USA out of cheap Chinese parts.
They all do some things better than others though. If they didn’t have a niche, they likely wouldn’t still be around.
Milwaukee finances Chinese interests at home and abroad. Dewalt burns people on sporadic battery platform changes, after trying to ride their 18v NiCad line way too long. Makita makes you question all your battery purchases because for a long time they were ticking time bombs waiting to fail you. Hilti and Festool want to be beneficiaries on your life insurance policy, after you remortgage the house to buy them in the first place. Bosch is excellent at making sure your toddler can handle your power tools by making sure adjustable parts are clearly marked in pylon orange (they’ve got your back
in case you’re stupid). Ridgid will service your tools for life, if you fill out the paperwork (and unlike Bosch, they *hope* you’re stupid).
See? They are all good at something. Every company has it’s niche and the market is happy.
Speaking of Dewalt burning guys on the 18v NiCad…Today I was in Lowe’s and found a brand new display for Dewalt, it’s graphic is for the new 20V adapter for those 18v NiCads but I didn’t see the adapter just a bunch of 18v NiCad batteries and chargers. So either they are old stock that Dewalt had pulled from the shelf or Dewalt reproduced them. Either way, that seems like a pretty poor way to do business, now it looks like Dewalt has 12v, 18v, 20v, 40v and 60/120v.
Looks that way because that’s the way it is. You can walk into home depot and if you’re not paying attention, or shopping on price point alone you’re walking out with Dewalt 18v garbage when you could have given SBD $20 extra and got a 20Max kit. Not to mention you don’t save $ buying the older style batteries over slide packs, especially productivity-wise. My employer learned that the hard way. Although, the upside to the 18v is it’s the 20v stuff that gets stolen. Our 18v stuff survived mass layoffs lol.
JimboS1ice wrote:
18 hours ago, JimboS1ice said:They don’t make stuff like they used to!!!!
I like the offerings in red too and the ability to use the same existing battery I have right now on the new tools coming out next year, but hey man each their own, if one brand was the absolute best there wouldn’t be any competition right?
Jimbo
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some brands survive because of die hard fan boys,
I wouldnt worry OP any of today’s tools are more or less on par with each other, knowing how many holes a drill can do over its competitor is nonsense etc how it preforms in the working world is whats important. Its also down to personal preference.
You can either be the guy with all the fancy tools and no knowledge or the guy with some tools and lots of knowledge.
picture it, late 70’s early 80’s I’m in my late teens…..working in a huge machine/fab shop with about 135 guys on the floor per shift 24 hours a day. there are about 65 guys grinding day in and day out. the grinders that are used are Makita, Milwaukee, and Porter Cable and Walter….. walk by the stores to get a new grinder because the one you were using just went up in smoke……..throw the dead grinder in the pile that are going out for repair and all you see are green and silver, no red…………that was my first introduction to power tools and how well different brands held up. After seeing this over and over I realized when I started to buy my own tools I would start buying the brand I seen last thru the paces of a hard core shop……..have things changed?…… sure they have….. all brands are making tools cheaper and cheaper to keep costs down….the result of this is you get a lower buying price but the longevity of the tool is compromised. When I started buying power tools they were a lot more money, now they are almost priced as throw away……..all brands included. your not gonna hear ” I have had that for almost 20 years” that just don’t happen anymore.
StrippedScrew wrote:
44 minutes ago, StrippedScrew said:
You can either be the guy with all the fancy tools and no knowledge or the guy with some tools and lots of knowledge.
just to clarify, I’m the guy with all the fancy tools and lots of knowledge……you left that option out…lol
comp56 wrote:
11 minutes ago, comp56 said:just to clarify, I’m the guy with all the fancy tools and lots of knowledge……you left that option out…lol
Figure of speech………………….Honest:D
Bremon wrote:
2 hours ago, Bremon said:Looks that way because that’s the way it is. You can walk into home depot and if you’re not paying attention, or shopping on price point alone you’re walking out with Dewalt 18v garbage when you could have given SBD $20 extra and got a 20Max kit. Not to mention you don’t save $ buying the older style batteries over slide packs, especially productivity-wise. My employer learned that the hard way. Although, the upside to the 18v is it’s the 20v stuff that gets stolen. Our 18v stuff survived mass layoffs lol.
Really? My HD doesn’t have any 18v, Sears does but they’re Sears. In fact, Lowe’s has all the batteries and chargers right now but no (Dewalt) 18v tools. Not sure if any are available online at those stores, I know CPO and a few others sell the remaining 18v stock.
Maybe they just ship all the garbage to us up here in Canada haha. Healthy supply of stem packs here for some reason.
Bremon wrote:
1 hour ago, Bremon said:Maybe they just ship all the garbage to us up here in Canada haha. Healthy supply of stem packs here for some reason.
There is going to be a healthy supply, they were the most numerous tools on construction sites for years. I think the number was almost 50% of the market for more than half a decade. Not stocking batteries for the most popular tools would be like tire dealers saying “All the new cars run 16 inch or bigger tires, so we aren’t going to stock 15 inchers any more.”
Yeah they had huge market share, hence the extra painful transition to better technology and dragging their feet to make the most out of the investment they’d already made.
Bremon wrote:
3 hours ago, Bremon said:Yeah they had huge market share, hence the extra painful transition to better technology and dragging their feet to make the most out of the investment they’d already made.
Dewalt not having a 20v max adapter was a huge fail. That defiantly motivated some people to try other tool brands. People might not like Milwaukee power tools but you have to admit they have grown the brand significantly the past 8 years or so with innovation and aggressive marketing and sales. Milwaukee always has some kind of free battery or tool promo going on.
I am a DeWALT guy, that being said……
Long live Millwaukee !!!
Long live DeWALT !!!!
no doubt they are both high quality brands with loyal followings. Each side will have shortcomings and high points.
I look at it this way …… It’s a Coke or Pepsi type scenario…As long as we have options we can always get the job done &
always be happy !! (relatively speaking of course)….
just imagine one day RED & YELLOW join forces to fight all the evil in the world ……..
Foneguy wrote:
I am a DeWALT guy, that being said……Long live Millwaukee !!!
Long live DeWALT !!!!
no doubt they are both high quality brands with loyal followings. Each side will have shortcomings and high points.
I look at it this way …… It’s a Coke or Pepsi type scenario…As long as we have options we can always get the job done &
always be happy !! (relatively speaking of course)….
just imagine one day RED & YELLOW join forces to fight all the evil in the world ……..
You’re evil. How dare you suggest they cooperate??!!! Haha I agree though, I’ve never been dead set on one brand, they are definitely great brands the both of them. Just have what I need with Milwaukee for the time being, and don’t see a reason to get into dewalt.
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KnarlyCarl wrote:
6 minutes ago, KnarlyCarl said:You’re evil. How dare you suggest they cooperate??!!! Haha I agree though, I’ve never been dead set on one brand, they are definitely great brands the both of them. Just have what I need with Milwaukee for the time being, and don’t see a reason to get into dewalt.
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Imagine the possibilities …
brushless brushes …..!!
cordless cords …..!!
“Buy what you need . Use what you want”
at the end of the day ……???????
Technology is a double edged sword. Some of these tools are far more advanced because of technology but in the same breathe the technology is also making the tools somewhat vulnerable to break downs. I myself dont think the 2 companies are on the same playing level bring them together one would benefit more than the other…
Milwaukee makes way more cordless tools specifically suited to my trade, so the choice was clear. Have a metric ton of them, and not a single problem with a one, in heavy daily use. As a pro working out of a truck, having more than one brand of cordless doesn’t make any sense for me.
When it came to corded stuff, always bought more on the features that the specific tool offered, not so much on the brand. All of the contractor-grade brands are pretty equal, quality-wise. Have never been into the Ford vs Chevy vs Dodge thing.