Which power tool ecosystem for a DIYer?

[RizzoTheRat]

My ageing 18V drill driver started smoking the other day so a replacement may be needed soon. These days it seems sensible to go for something that's part of a wider ecosystem so I can in the future buy other tools with the same battery.

At the moment I only need a relatively basic drill/driver, At some point I may want to add a heavier duty SDS drill, impact driver, etc... I don't need profession grade kit, but are more basic ones any good?

The Bosch Easy Impact 18V-40 looks reasonably as a kit with a selection of drill and driver bits (I have several old sets of bits but manmaths...), and they do an SDS, impact driver, etc in the same range. Is a Makita at twice the price twice as good?

[Panamax]

I've been more than pleased with my relatively basic Makita. Excellent bit of kit.

[Rampant Golf]

You'll get every answer under the sun asking for recommendations but You'll find that most common brands (makita, milwawkee, dewalt etc) are all much of a muchness. You're doing the right thing though thinking about 1 brand and committing - ive done this with makita and find their tools to be fine for a diy'er. In fact, the joiners who did my house extension had makita too they must be good enough for a professional too.

Do any of your friends, family or neighbours have tools? Might be worth buying the same as them so you can share tools if needs be. Keeps the cost down for tools you might use once in a blue moon.

Oh, my favourite is the impact driver. Once you have used one to drive home screws you'll never use a drill again.

[kambites]

Regarding the last question, I would say the answer depends on how you're going to use it. A Makita (or similar) will potentially take more than twice the abuse before it gives up, but if you're never going to use it hard enough to break it the Makita wont actually drill holes any better.

Also, Makita have about 10 different combi-drills and they are all different than each-other in both quality and price. The bottom end ones are very much DIY grade (albeit quite good by DIY standards) the top of the range ones are aimed squarely at professionals and basically last forever.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 30th April 14:58

[Mr Pointy]

There are varying levels of quality even withn the same brand so just because it's Makita or a DeWalt doesn't mean it's better than a Ryobi or a Einhell. Personally I'm Team Lime (Ryobi) as the slightly cheaper tools mean I can buy more of them & they have a wide range of different products. I think they are fine for DIY use.

[illmonkey]

When I bought my 1st set my mate had Makita, so went with them to share tools. I've since made others buy Makita so I can pinch their tools too!

[RizzoTheRat]

kambites said:

Also, Makita have about 10 different combi-drills and they are all different than each-other in both quality and price. The bottom end ones are very much DIY grade (albeit quite good by DIY standards) the top of the range ones are aimed squarely at professionals and basically last forever.

Yeah I'm struggling to compare with their range.

I think at the moment I just want a relatively basic light-ish drill driver to use as a screwdriver and occasional drill up to probably 6-7mm holes in plaster and breezeblock. I will want an SDS at some point as well as it's only way to drill in to my reinforced concrete ceilings, so don't need the basic drill to be too heavy duty.


No thoughts on Bosch then? Their range seems a lot simpler with green (DIY) or blue ("professional") as the only options.

My local DIY place stocks Bosch and Makita which is why I've only really looked at those two so far, I need to have a brows around a few other places too.

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Thursday 30th April 15:12

[RizzoTheRat]

Rampant Golf said:

Do any of your friends, family or neighbours have tools? Might be worth buying the same as them so you can share tools if needs be. Keeps the cost down for tools you might use once in a blue moon.

I did wonder about this, but if I'm borrowing a tool it'll come with a battery and charger anyway so I'm not convinced there's much benefit in having the same stuff.

[markiii]

started out with makita

these days i use the makita batteries either natively or via adaptors, so i have a mix of Makita, Milwaukee, Ryobi and Parkside depending on my needs

[Mr Pointy]

RizzoTheRat said:

I think at the moment I just want a relatively basic light-ish drill driver to use as a screwdriver and occasional drill up to probably 6-7mm holes in plaster and breezeblock. I will want an SDS at some point as well as it's only way to drill in to my reinforced concrete ceilings, so don't need the basic drill to be too heavy duty.

For SDS go corded, not battery; you can save a lot of money towards other more useful tools. For most DIYers an SDS is used once a year so spend £90 on a Titan from Screwfix & it will last you forever & blast through any concrete in your house.

https://www.screwfix.com/c/tools/sds-drills/cat830...

[-Cappo-]

I’ve defaulted to Erbauer, as a DIYer. They seem to me to be very good at their price point. I’ve got maybe half a dozen tools, the drill and driver get loads of use and are a good few years old, nothing has failed yet.

[WH16]

Bosch do a good range of professional and DIY tools, so you can alter your budget depending on how much use a particular tool is likely to get.

They are also still family owned, and much of their production is still EU based.

Ryobi, Milwuakee and AEG are the same company, as are Black and Decker and Dewalt.

Personally, and I know this will trigger a lot of people, but I have no particular loyalty, and have a mix of brands. I also prefer corded for workshop use anyway, so I don't stress too much about battery compatibility. But all of my go-to dailies (angle grinder, impact gun, drill, etc) are Bosch.

In reality, for DIY they are all much of a muchness - what's your favourite colour?

[RizzoTheRat]

Mr Pointy said:

For SDS go corded, not battery; you can save a lot of money towards other more useful tools. For most DIYers an SDS is used once a year so spend £90 on a Titan from Screwfix & it will last you forever & blast through any concrete in your house.

https://www.screwfix.com/c/tools/sds-drills/cat830...

Corded for power or price? This is why I'm thinking one battery ecosystem as the Bosch SDS drill without a battery is the same price as that corded Titan, but I'm guessing not as powerful.

[Griffith4ever]

No real need to be tied to one brand on the basis of batteries and chargers (both which can be had very cheap aftermarket).

I find that Dewalt is excellent value for tools that have to do tough jobs, but
Milwaukee do a fabulous 12v small-as-possible range of tools that Dewalt don't, and
Ryobi garden tools are a fraction of the price of Dewalts, with a much bigger range.

Aftermarket batteries are the secret, so you are not tied to one brand.

[Simpo Two]

Rampant Golf said:

Oh, my favourite is the impact driver. Once you have used one to drive home screws you'll never use a drill again.

It's also a very bad way to put in screws. OK for housebuilding I guess, when you have to put in lots of screws quickly with no finesse.

I use Bosch 14.4 and 18V tools, but mains for SDS.

[JimM169]

Griffith4ever said:

No real need to be tied to one brand on the basis of batteries and chargers (both which can be had very cheap aftermarket).
.

Aftermarket batteries are the secret, so you are not tied to one brand.

You may have had better luck than me but aftermarket batteries have been pretty crap in my experience


All I will offer as to which brand to buy is that Milwaukee appear to be particularly good with the automotive type tool offerings (it's definitley the preferred brand in our workshop) and my chippie mate rates Makita.
Personally I have Milwaukee both M18 and M12 and a few bits of Ryobi - both brands have been faultless

[No ideas for a name]

RizzoTheRat said:

No thoughts on Bosch then? Their range seems a lot simpler with green (DIY) or blue ("professional") as the only options.

I used to use Bosch (blue) semi-professionally. Very very pleased with it.

However, mainly due to availability of various types of tools across the range, I am slowly switching to Milwaukee.
Bosch L-Boxx system is good and resonably compact, Milwaukee Packout is eternally large and internally small if you see what I mean.

Milwaukee seems to be "tradesman's jewlery" at the moment, lots of people I know swapped as it looked better if the van was kitted out with Packout.

As someone else said, Ryobi are the same people... I think a similar range of tool types, good quality and a bit cheaper.

If on a budget, I would go with Ryobi, if you want to spend a bit more then Milwaukee.

Nothing at all wrong with several of the other big brands... but you will want to choose a 'system' and stick to it so you can share batteries and chargers.
My express recomendation - that I know some won't agree with - is, don't use third party cheap batteries. It isn't worth the risk of failure/fire etc.

[Black_S3]

The green bosch range is the entry range and not really up to much. Bosch professional range is blue and a completely different price range.

I think best value for money when it comes to buying tools bare seems to be Makita... The initial investment on a couple of 4-5ah batteries and a charger is a bit pricier than the DIY brands once you've got them you can pick up their bare tools for comparible prices to erbauer/blackanddecker/stanley.

18v impact £45

https://dvspowertools.co.uk/shop/power-tools/drill...

18v combi drill £50

https://www.toolden.co.uk/power-tools/makita-dhp48...

18v sds £90
https://www.powertoolworld.co.uk/makita-dhr202z-18...

18v lawnmower £130

https://www.powertoolworld.co.uk/makita-dlm330z-18...

Multi tool £70

https://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-tm30dz-12v-li-io...


Some of the dewalt and milwaukee bare tools can be quite a bit more than Makita so probably no sense going that route for DIY even if their entry level combi & impact kits look appealing as it will start to add up as you build the full kit.

[Mr Pointy]

RizzoTheRat said:

Mr Pointy said:

For SDS go corded, not battery; you can save a lot of money towards other more useful tools. For most DIYers an SDS is used once a year so spend £90 on a Titan from Screwfix & it will last you forever & blast through any concrete in your house.

https://www.screwfix.com/c/tools/sds-drills/cat830...

Corded for power or price? This is why I'm thinking one battery ecosystem as the Bosch SDS drill without a battery is the same price as that corded Titan, but I'm guessing not as powerful.

Well I don't know which Bosch drill you are looking at but the green 18V one looks to be only one quarter as powerful as the Titan. Generally an SDS is where you want to go big so you aren't wasting money on a drill that turns out to be too weedy the one time you want to use it. It's different if you are a trade - it's probably well worth a sparky paying £300 for a small battery SDS that will speed up drilling into most of the walls he is going to meet.

I'd look at Makita, Bosch Blue or Ryobi & start out with a combi drill & impact driver: if nothing else having a driver means you don't have to keep swapping bits. The 12v Makita stuff is nice & light & useable but when you start expanding into garden tools & the like then you need the 18V batteries at least.

[craig1912]

-Cappo- said:

I ve defaulted to Erbauer, as a DIYer. They seem to me to be very good at their price point. I ve got maybe half a dozen tools, the drill and driver get loads of use and are a good few years old, nothing has failed yet.

Me too. Can’t fault them.