DeWalt no more..

[GKQ]

I’ve always had hitachi, not cheap but of the few problems, they have always fixed it no questions asked, even supplied parts foc when I was years out of warrant.
interestingly my friend is rep for power tools here in NZ , ryobi, Mikita, Milwauke, AEG and Hilti are all the same company. I have a 10.8v Mikita drill and impact wrench and they have the same parts as the Milwaukee 12v ones.
More often than not the attitude of the reseller to problems is the biggest factor to customer service.
Graham

 

[hermetic]

Domdom That gives rise to the assumption that the chinese do not copy the best designs, that is exactly what they do. The USA and the UK do not have any exclusive secrets of good design that the chinese will not copy, they do not respect the laws of copyright or patent, and will copy and brand in anyway that they want. The Foreign design element of many chinese products goes as far as specifying what an item must achieve, and what facilities it must have, and what its minimum life must be, but how this is achieved is left to the manufacturer, as an example, Louis Rossman was talking on youtube about computer mother boards, and that, regardless of the name the board was made and marketed under, many of the peripheral services common to all motherboards, were in reality, identical. The reality is same internals, and any shape and colour you want, and any badge of your choice. The days of quality manufacture and customer service have long gone, the only driving force now is profit Dewalt were quality tools in the fifties and sixties, when Dewalt actually existed, but now they are just badged versions of a chinese tool, usually only the very top of the range have any quality about them, the rest are from chinese manufactrers, whose quality, it has to be said, is improving! Snap on stuff is expensive because it has to pay the wages of the franchisee, and run the orgasnisation as well, the quality used to be good, but no better tnan any other top drawer tool, although more expensive, and the lifetime warranty went out the window long ago. You used to be able to get any branded snap on tool replaced free of charge at any van or outlet, now you will only get a replacement if you have paperwork to prove you bought it new, and only from the guy you bought it from!
Phil

 

[Noods]

I’ve found the Erauber angle grinders to be good.. German allegedly .. about a third of the price of many.. too

 

[pedrobedro]

I’ve found the Erauber angle grinders to be good.. German allegedly .. about a third of the price of many.. too

Erbauer look good, I fancy their rechargeable drill now my old Makita nicad batteries are not holding charge. This lightweight Makita grinder I bought is spot on though and can be held in one hand so is ideal for what I need.

 

[badabec]

Ever since this site was originally post on the forum I've had good results (thanks to whoever posted it originally)
Write directly to the CEO of Black and Decker

Your visit to ceoemail.com

 

[tom 748]

makita all day long

 

[ronan]

I felt your pain a while back. Once B&D got their teeth into Dewalt the quality went down the tubes. I changed over to Makita which I get from a pal who owns a shop near my brother's place. Any better? Well yes, somewhat, but having the shop owner as a mate does several things for me. Warranty matters are dealt with by replacement which he is authorised by Makita to do, and the tools are trade price in the first place. Win Win.

The fact I now have 3 corded and one cordless grinders, 3 impact guns, an impact screwdriver, a cordless drill and a 9" grinder which are all makita pretty much says it all. If it were not for Makita and friends discounts I would probably buy Milwaukee.

Dewalt are now (IMHO) no better than cheapo far eastern junk, in which case just buy from Lidl or Aldi and save a ton of cash.

I have a lidl Parkside cordless drill and angle grinder and they have taken all sorts of use and abuse, come with a good warranty and cost very little. I was using the drill a few weeks ago to build a raised flowerbed and i gave the drill some stick, not a bother on it. I was looking at a special offer on a De walt driver and drill in screwfix recently. Very glad i didn't go for it.

 

[ronan]

I’ve always had hitachi, not cheap but of the few problems, they have always fixed it no questions asked, even supplied parts foc when I was years out of warrant.
interestingly my friend is rep for power tools here in NZ , ryobi, Mikita, Milwauke, AEG and Hilti are all the same company. I have a 10.8v Mikita drill and impact wrench and they have the same parts as the Milwaukee 12v ones.
More often than not the attitude of the reseller to problems is the biggest factor to customer service.
Graham

I have older Hitachi angle grinders and a whopper of a 110v drill, built like the proverbial tank. Don't know if they are still the same quality now.

 

[ronan]

Erbauer look good, I fancy their rechargeable drill now my old Makita nicad batteries are not holding charge. This lightweight Makita grinder I bought is spot on though and can be held in one hand so is ideal for what I need.

Don't Erbauer make Parkside as sold by lidl ?

 

[MetalMonkey]

Erbauer are a Screwfix own brand - nothing German about them as far as i'm aware.

All tool companies make rubbish products from time to time, you may have been unlucky. Sadly thesedays you have to look at each tool on its own merits rather than trust a brand.
That said I have never been particularly impressed with Dewalt since they became part of the Stanley empire.

I do like Hitachi/Hikoki the new stuff is quite innovative although not the same quality as the old made in Japan stuff.
Metabo for grinders.

 

[cianh91]

Dewalts quality is gone down massively everyone I know using it having problems with them especially the drills . They seem to be using terrible chucks and triggers . I took a disliking to Milwaukee over the last few years aar they seem to be focusing on battery ah more than quality . I use all makita for cordless and haven’t had any issues so far bar a drill that burnt out but it gave an almighty fight throughout a very hard and abusive life . Hitachi/hikoki seem to be very good anyone I know using them are very happy with them . Lidl/aldi are fine for diy but don’t hold a candle to the big brands on a job site in my opinion.

 

[Noods]

Nit picking i know as I’ve now a Mikita drill and impact driver but, the only thing i don’t like about the drill is, and it’s probably a good sign at that is, how it’s top heavy .. Stand it up and the slightest touch and it nose dives onto a small mm drill bit already in the chuck which then breaks.. I will have to learn to lay it on its side instead..

it’s top heavy because of its all steel chuck which as i say, ain’t a bad thing..

 

[northwest]

In defence of DeWalt:
I have had Dewalt gear for years, about three and a half years ago I gave all my "old" Dewalt gear to a friend who was emigrating (out into the Pampas) and bought new brushless DeWalt kit. I then set about changing and modifying a pretty big building turning it into a purpose built facility. All the while continuing with my home/diy.
For the record, my house was built in 1648 and from the stuff I have had to do to it (strip every room and I mean plaster off ceilings down) it seems like no work had ever been done.

Therefore the money I have spent on the tools is just a little part of the total cost. If I threw them all away today and bought replacements, they have given good value for money. All this talk of three year warranties and such is just not applicable when you are actually using this kit. Do you really expect a £25 angle grinder to last in a workshop environment for three years? Lucky if you get three months and the way a pal of mine goes through angle grinders it wouldn't be three weeks! He never has one out of his hand.

I do appreciate that the responses the OP has had from Dewalt are unacceptable and that needs remedial action but I believe I get value for money from my tools. It is true I have recently bought Milwaukee, but these are small 12volt tools that Dewalt do not make, besides, nice to have a mix of colours in the workshop :-)

 

[pcwizme]

So, I own mainly Hitachi (Now spun off as Hikoki) power tools, only killed my impact wrench... I dropped it off the landy roof! However I found this intresting post with the ownership bubbles....

Power Tool Manufacturers and Who Really Owns Them - 2024

It may surprise you that only a handful of larger companies own your favorite power tool manufacturers. Here's who owns who...with lists!

www.protoolreviews.com

Hitachi (KKR) also own Metabo... which is a good brand

 

[MetalMonkey]

So, I own mainly Hitachi (Now spun off as Hikoki) power tools, only killed my impact wrench... I dropped it off the landy roof! However I found this intresting post with the ownership bubbles....

Power Tool Manufacturers and Who Really Owns Them - 2024

It may surprise you that only a handful of larger companies own your favorite power tool manufacturers. Here's who owns who...with lists!

www.protoolreviews.com

Hitachi (KKR) also own Metabo... which is a good brand

Hitachi-Koki bought out Metabo back in 2016.

KKR are an investment firm which bought the power tool division from Hitachi in 2017 when they were diverging themselves of their non core assets - Hence the name change to HiKOKI (or just to add confusion Metabo HPT in the states), they weren't allowed to call themselves Hitachi.

Usually investment firms spell disaster in such cases, and I was almost convinced they were going to asset strip them and crash the brand - but to their credit they seemed to have suddenly upped their game with a massive amount of new products, so presumably Hitachi were holding them back somewhat.

KKR seems happy to keep Metabo and HiKOKI as separate entities at the moment, apart from the name confusion in the states which IIRC was a marketing issue as they didn’t like the name HiKoki and presumably couldn’t come up with anything better.
Doesn't look like there will be any crossover for the tools though, although perhaps some design knowledge is shared. Metabo are also part of the cordless-alliance program for cross brand battery compatibility, which is interesting.

Yes, I am sad.

 

[gaz1]

just so you know this post has issues with the recent post

https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/forum-rules-update-naming-and-shaming.113316/

 

[mike os]

This is nothing new with the yellow poo.... guys I used to get all my tools from were a repair centre but refused to sell there junk

 

[MattF]

All this talk of three year warranties and such is just not applicable when you are actually using this kit

True. I register all my Bosch gear, when I get it, but even with the relatively light, infrequent use it gets, I personally wouldn't be too put out if I had to replace something. Prices drop, improvements are made etc. If using constantly, they'd definitely be classed as consumables, for the most part.

 

[SAFC73]

When I worked at the cardboard box factory we used to make boxes for De Walt, they went to the same factory as the boxes we made for Black and Decker.

They are owned by Stanley Black and Decker

 

[grim_d]

had a lot of dewalt over the years, frankly never rated it... I know joiners all love them, but I'm not that impressed with it. The older grinders were ok, but the drills I always found lightweight. The 18V circular saw, would just about cope with thin stuff, but show it anything half decent, and it ran away and hid in the corner... The only dewalt kit I still rate and kept is a 24V SDS hammer drill, that's fine, light, but powerful.
Had Makita for donkeys, but changed over and been running milwaukee for the last couple of years, and to date, been fine...

I just recently got one of the cordless circulars, 18v, brushed, probably the lowest of the range.

It's an absolute cracker, chews through 6x2 without any issue what so ever (let's be honest...it's a trim saw after all) I was massively impressed by it when compared to the similar Makita, the flexvolt must be something else...

Guy I do a bit of work with now uses my DeWalt over his Makita every time.

I guess things move on....