Black n Decker

[Stabber]

They are actually made by Dewalt

[Mr.LaBella]

I knew that!

[Clydetz]

I didn't know that!

[El Gringo]

I may have heard that before, but I'm not sure.

[waterdogs]

Unfortunately, names don`t always guarantee a certain level of quality like they did in decades past. Nowadays, just about *everything* is built to meet a marketing pricepoint. The products sold in "Big Box Stores" (Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) are often made specifically for those stores, and don`t always measure up to the expected standard of quality. I first noticed this trend around 15 years ago, when my mother was doing a bit of home-shopping on the giant QVC network. She purchased a Fuji camera from them, and out of curiosity, I looked it up (I know a few things about cameras), and could not find it *anywhere*. It didn`t exist anywhere other than in QVC`s inventory.

[begreen61]

Black and Decker, actually bought Dewalt in 1960 for heavy duty work,and just took off ,Both are still owned buy the same company..and in 2004 Black in decker bought Porter cable

[Komitadjie]

Just know I had THREE DeWalt cordless drills croak on me within a month a couple years ago, swapped over to Milwaukee and haven't looked back.

[waterdogs]

Just know I had THREE DeWalt cordless drills croak on me within a month a couple years ago, swapped over to Milwaukee and haven't looked back.

Milwaukee ain`t cheap, but quality-wise, they take a smokin` dump on all those other brands.

[Stabber]

You must have bought them from Home depo.
The make the companies use cheaper parts in their tool. This is how they can sell so cheap
I bought a new Ryobi weed wacker, mixed the gas and couldn't get it started. Brought it to my friend the fixes and rents tools, He told me about the cheap parts. I returned it

[GEEZER]

Cough up some coin and buy Hilti.
I can destroy a Dewalt cordless drill in an afternoon, (you mean you shouldn't use a 5 inch hole saw on crs).
My Hilti cordless 12 volt Li-ion have been great.

[waterdogs]

You must have bought them from Home depo.
The make the companies use cheaper parts in their tool. This is how they can sell so cheap

This is a sad truth. I was recently shopping for a new garden tractor after my old 1988 White spit it`s transaxle all over the place. I was looking at Home Depot, where they carry John Deere, Cub Cadet, and Husqvarna. After taking some notes on a couple of models which looked like possible contenders, I went home to Google them, and see what the reviews looked like. Given the name brands involved, I was kind of shocked at the reviews. While none of them were "cheap" (we`re talking $1500-$2000 here), they were all pretty much in the "entry-level" category. A disturbing but recurring theme developed as I read the reviews....while noobs seemed pretty happy with their brand-new machines, a *large* percentage of owners bitched about engines blowing up soon after the warranty expired, leaving them with a large ($600+) repair bill. This was a common denominator with *all three* brands, and almost every affected engine was a Briggs & Stratton (which *used* to be a good brand). Of course, if your wallet could take the hit, you could always upgrade to a Kawasaki or Kohler engine, but that option added another $500 onto the price.
The prevailing thought among many reviewers was that the Home Depot-specific machines were built to a lower standard of quality, and I would tend to believe that.

I wound up buying a 3-year-old Scott`s (built by John Deere), with a 25 HP Kohler Command engine, Hydrostatic trans, with a 54-inch cut.
Seems that Scott`s gave Deere a contract to build tractors, but one of the stipulations was that it would have to be assembled *only* from USA-made parts, and none of the cheap-shit import parts that were going into the Home Depot & Lowe`s machines.

[TPyke]

Milwaukee was actually bought out by the same company that makes Ryobi a few years ago and there definately has been has change in quality. But then again maybe tht is a buying from a big name store problem...

I've had alot of good experience with Bosch's and Hitachi's line of tools so far

[englishmark]

I bought a Ryobi petrol strimmer and just out of warranty the fuel pipes had just eroded, piss poor.

I have a Makita drill that has served me well for 22 years.

[Komitadjie]

Ok, I do have to say that my Milwaukee is now ~8 years old, so it might not be the current owners. It's the older battery style, although I upgraded it a bit ago to use the LiIon batteries when the stock NiCads finally gave out. I was EXTREMELY pleased to see that they actually offered a backwards-compatible upgrade to the batteries at a reasonable price instead of trying to just say "Well, you're screwed, buy a new one!" like so many of the other companies do *coughCraftsmancough*

Bosch makes some good stuff, I have one of their jigsaws and one of their rotary hammers and I've been quite impressed. The jigsaw, especially. I've beat the SHIT out of that thing, and it still runs like new. I actually bought it to use cutting out stair stringers from 2x12s, since I hate doing that with a circular saw. With one of their "progressor" variable-pitch blades and with the orbit cranked up, that thing just WALKED through the pressure-treated 2x12s, wasn't even struggling. Wasn't a CHEAP jigsaw by any means, but darn if it doesn't work nice! Used it for the bulk of the detail cutting on a house-full of laminate flooring as well, including some ripping where the table saw wouldn't handle the taper. Worked great there as well.

[50calmike]

The products sold in "Big Box Stores" (Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) are often made specifically for those stores, and don`t always measure up to the expected standard of quality.

BULLSHIT!This is a flat out lie. The only difference EVER is in cosmetics only.The big tool stores that are not depot, Lowes, etc...Charge you a ton more money for the same exact tools. Think about this for just one minute, have you ever checked the model # of any of your power tools? Have you tried to order parts for your box store tools vs "legitimate" tool stores? If you have then you will notice a trend, the parts are exactly the same. PERIOD.The thing that sucks is that you can expect the same diminishing too!l quality across the board, Hilti excluded.