18v Cordless Powertools - Opinions

[MarkVS]

Guy across the road owns a large roofing business.....they only use Milwaukee... I bought some new tools recently and based on his recommendation, bought the same, but I am no heavy duty user....

[whitedg]

Milwaukee for me too.

Get the brushless if you can - heaps better on battery life.

Once setup with the batt's and charger, you get get the skin only version of the tools for much cheaper.

Cheers
whitedg

[peanut2]

Well looks like Milwaukee will be the go.  Definately buying brushless tools. Thanks heaps for all the replies. 


Peanut

[green troll]

Good choice. Yep the fuel range is insanely better. Few more dollars but heaps more grunt.

[Jasman]

I'm not a tradie but I do like my tools and AEG 18v gear won me.  The main reason is the warranty, 6yr trade use warranty and 3yrs on the batteries - any company prepared to offer such a long trade warranty must have a lot of faith in their product. I have a bunch of different skins but love my favourite is the hammer drill and probably the rattle gun for quickly knocking wheels off.

From what I've been told I think they are a very similar tool to the Milwaukee, same parent company but the AEG is a Bunnings exclusive.

[Rokcam]

Milwaukee for me. The fuel impact driver does up to 203nm which will do wheel bolts/nuts, not sure any of the other I pact drivers come close for a 1/4 in bit tool.

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[kylarama]

Found another camping related use for the 18v Makita set.

Kids had friends staying over, so the queen airbed was required. Battery air pump was flat and the neighbors borrowed the compressor to paint a car.

Small 18v leaf/air blower, removed the pipe and jammed in the fittings from the battery pump.



Queen sized air bed flat to full in 30 seconds!


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[Dilligara]

Milwaukee for me. The fuel impact driver does up to 203nm which will do wheel bolts/nuts, not sure any of the other I pact drivers come close for a 1/4 in bit tool.

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I know I will get pooh poohed but I have a lot of Ryobi Plus One gear, very low rate user, except forthe Rattle Gun which cops an absolute flogging changing wheels on a rally car, I have done 12 on the same battery.

[tedota]

What's the best battery operated hedge trimmer around while on the cordless subject.

[kylarama]

What's the best battery operated hedge trimmer around while on the cordless subject.

Do you own any cordless tools? If so stick to that brand if they have a trimmer.

FIL has the Makita hedge trimmer.  Works great, heaps of power and light. Having said that, it's the only hedge trimmer I've ever used.

Makita do have a pretty decent range of 18v and 36v (2x 18v batts) garden equipment.

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[tedota]

I have hitachi gear. Haven't seen any trimmers etc in their range. I'm getting sick of using the old shears so time for an upgrade.

[noel_w]

I know I will get pooh poohed but I have a lot of Ryobi Plus One gear, very low rate user, except forthe Rattle Gun which cops an absolute flogging changing wheels on a rally car, I have done 12 on the same battery.

I have been using the Ryobi gear for quite a while. My drill (about 5 yrs old now) has copped a flogging and still goes like a champion. Unless you are a full time tradie I think the Ryobi stuff gives good bang for buck. My oldest battery is now about 5yrs old and is still good to go.
Good thing also is I have a few of their torches and lights and they use the same batteries. Great for camping. Also the 12V charger will be permanently mounted in the truck to keep them going.

[GBC]

I have been using the Ryobi gear for quite a while. My drill (about 5 yrs old now) has copped a flogging and still goes like a champion. Unless you are a full time tradie I think the Ryobi stuff gives good bang for buck. My oldest battery is now about 5yrs old and is still good to go.
Good thing also is I have a few of their torches and lights and they use the same batteries. Great for camping. Also the 12V charger will be permanently mounted in the truck to keep them going.

Yep, us too. Just replaced a grinder that has done more work industrially than any home use tool will ever get - $120 well spent. The cost benefit has been done for us many times over. We own a truckload of the stuff.
I gave up on Panasonic when they changed the battery pin layout and nothing else a few years back. We also have Milwaukee, bosch blue, Makita (not so much - don't rate it for its cost any more). All of which is a grade or two up from Ryobi, but is 5 grades more expensive - doesn't add up unless you are working remote - even then the Ryobi stuff just isn't letting us down.

[Mitch92]

Makita for me.

Im a leccy by trade, work in industrial site (power station) and it is what we have at work.

Also got my own stuff at home. Love their range. They also now do 6.0Ah batteries

[toglhot]

I'm bought a Milwaukee M18 hammer drill with two 3 amp batteries for $250 a while back, I was so impressed with it I've since bought an M12 drill, hackzall, Blower, die grinder and jigsaw.   Milwaukee also produce a 9 amp battery now.   The M18 drill has loads of torque, so much so I bought the M12 drill which I mostly use now as I have trouble holding on to the M18 due to RA in my hands/arms.   The M12 isn't easy for me to hang on to either, loads of torque.   I've now got my eye on a circular saw and possibly their bandsaw, great power tools, I've thrown away my Makita and Hitachis.   Check out 'Product Review', there are plenty of owner reviews on all the brands, that's what I based my Milwaukee purchase on.

[prodigyrf]

Depending on your budget, milwaukee is on par to the others mentioned if not a tad better these days but my choice is always hilti. If your dropping tools at 3m+ (im clumsy) and want perfection that last Hilti is the go but pricey.... imho.

Agreed. Once you've used Hilti gear as a tradey you'll never go back to anything else but the home/casual user couldn't justify investing in Hilti like the sparky lad can. Whatever you choose among the other brands mentioned, you need the higher AH rating batteries and be aware they all self-discharge over time so you need to keep them charged up say 6-12 times a year. That's the biggest downfall for intermittent home users and it's a good idea to grab the torch with your particular selection as using it reminds you to keep the batteries charged up.

[prodigyrf]

toglhot raises a good point between 12V and 18V tools. You need to appreciate that DC tools have plenty of torque but applying that comes down to the quality of the clutch and its various settings. That's where Hilti gear shines and I've got the lad's 14.4V hand me downs while he's upgraded to 22V gear. That doesn't mean his 22V drill and impact driver noticeably perform better than the 14.4V, just that he'll get longer useage time between fast charges. In that regard trade cordless batteries charge quickly and don't taper off like cheap handyman stuff does. ie with Hilti it goes and goes until a certain voltage level is reached and then shuts down. Hence the need for fast charge and usually 3 batteries when you're really belting the tools. For the handyman he only wants 2 reasonable quality batteries and given they're relatively expensive as a separate buy, he'll usually chuck the lot when the 2 batteries expire as a whole new kit will be the most economic replacement purchase.

[prodigyrf]

Mind you I notice if you're talking Milwaukee 18V their One-Key Fuel gear is no doubt right up there with Hilti in price, clutch newton metre rating, reliability, etc as Hilti only make top trade stuff to give tradeys a 2 year no cost warranty but perhaps when you're haggling with Milwaukee trade reps like you do with Hiltis they'll throw in the iPhone-
https://www.milwaukeetools.com.au/one-key

 

[kylarama]

Mind you I notice if you're talking Milwaukee 18V their One-Key Fuel gear is no doubt right up there with Hilti in price, clutch newton metre rating, reliability, etc as Hilti only make top trade stuff to give tradeys a 2 year no cost warranty but perhaps when you're haggling with Milwaukee trade reps like you do with Hiltis they'll throw in the iPhone-
https://www.milwaukeetools.com.au/one-key

Milwaukee is 5 year trade warranty on tools and 2 on the battery. 
Hopefully the Hilti lithium stuff is a massive step up from their NiMH range back in mid 00's. Batteries were junk.
No question on their rotary hammers, lasers, explosive and gas guns.  We've got a tool store full of the stuff. Awesome gear.

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[prodigyrf]

Don't know about Hilti NiMH batteries as I first used their 15.6V NiCad hammer drill and you can't beat NiCads for longevity and robustness although they're heavier and not suitable for intermittent users. The lad kicked off with Makita but after a couple of trigger switches and a new clutch while my older Hilti soldiered on without a murmur he switched to the 14.4V Hilti lithium drill and driver and being suitably impressed then imported the TE7A 36V lithium rotary hammer/chisel and that is some weapon. Bear in mind Adelaide has lots of solid masonry homes so drilling and chiselling out wall boxes for power points is par for the course and naturally sparkies have the 240V off more often than not.

I onsold my NiCad and took over his 14.4V driver and drill and imported the torch for it to boot when he spent $6500 on new 22V and 36V Hilti gear including this weapon to keep the doctor's wives happy and scroll down for those list prices-
https://www.hilti.com.au/cordless-systems/cordless-vacuum-cleaners/r51321
Even I blanched at that price but seeing it in action with his wall chaser, etc I could understand why, although when you're spending that sort of dough Hilti come to the party somewhat.

Also bear in mind with warranty under Australian Consumer Law, that doesn't apply to business buyers and Milwaukee keep mentioning 'consumer'-
https://www.milwaukeetools.com.au/service/warranty
whereas Hilti warranty definitely covers allcomers-
https://www.us.hilti.com/content/hilti/W1/US/en/services/tool-services0/tool-warranty.html