Quality-wise, Makita > DeWALT ≥ Milwaukee > Ryobi, at least, if you watch teardowns by guys like AvE.
Power tools are like cars; companies hold several brands and target them to different market segments, like Porsche and VW.
Ryobi is owned by the same company as Milwauki; it’s the budget line, Milwauki being their premium line.
DeWALT and Black & Decker are owned by the same company; DeWALT is their premium line.
The exception in this list is Makita, which is its own company. They’re also objectively more well-built than the others (here), and correspondingly usually more expensive.
The premium lines are better quality (not just more expensive) but also tend to have smaller battery-tool options. Despite being a budget line, I mostly own B&D because most of my tools these days are 24V and there are more tool options there. The few, select, DeWALT tools I have are noticably better quality.
I don’t use power tools enough to justify Makita, but also, their battery-powered line is comparatively tiny. As someone else said, there’s a lot of motivation to pick a (compatible) lane, whichever it is. For most home-gamers, the quality difference will probably not matter much. If I were made of money, though, I’d have everything Makita except for the things they don’t make.
I really like DeWALT. I think it’s a solid choice, and I doubt anyone who isn’t a professional will notice the difference in quality between those and Makita. Plus, they have some neat tools that have unusual features that make an unexpectedly large improvement in ease-of-use.
One of the things that convinced me to go Makita when choosing my “house” was that they don’t have separate high and low voltage battery systems. Dewalt, Ryobi, and the others have a 18v/20v system and a 36v/40v system. Makita has bigger tools that you plug two batteries into and by the power of math you have a 36v tool off two of regular batteries.
At least when I was looking that was a unique thing to them and seemed like a great idea.
Quality-wise, Makita > DeWALT ≥ Milwaukee > Ryobi, at least, if you watch teardowns by guys like AvE.
Power tools are like cars; companies hold several brands and target them to different market segments, like Porsche and VW.
Ryobi is owned by the same company as Milwauki; it’s the budget line, Milwauki being their premium line.
DeWALT and Black & Decker are owned by the same company; DeWALT is their premium line.
The exception in this list is Makita, which is its own company. They’re also objectively more well-built than the others (here), and correspondingly usually more expensive.
The premium lines are better quality (not just more expensive) but also tend to have smaller battery-tool options. Despite being a budget line, I mostly own B&D because most of my tools these days are 24V and there are more tool options there. The few, select, DeWALT tools I have are noticably better quality.
I don’t use power tools enough to justify Makita, but also, their battery-powered line is comparatively tiny. As someone else said, there’s a lot of motivation to pick a (compatible) lane, whichever it is. For most home-gamers, the quality difference will probably not matter much. If I were made of money, though, I’d have everything Makita except for the things they don’t make.
Ryobi is a distant fourth tbh. It’s basically harbor freight tools but, Home depot.
Yeah, this is like a game of, “one of these things is not like the other.” Ryobi is not in the same league as the others.
I could have been a member of house Makita, but house DeWalt was slightly closer and it was raining on the day I needed a drill.
I really like DeWALT. I think it’s a solid choice, and I doubt anyone who isn’t a professional will notice the difference in quality between those and Makita. Plus, they have some neat tools that have unusual features that make an unexpectedly large improvement in ease-of-use.
One of the things that convinced me to go Makita when choosing my “house” was that they don’t have separate high and low voltage battery systems. Dewalt, Ryobi, and the others have a 18v/20v system and a 36v/40v system. Makita has bigger tools that you plug two batteries into and by the power of math you have a 36v tool off two of regular batteries.
At least when I was looking that was a unique thing to them and seemed like a great idea.