Makita vs Milwaukee

[Mike007]

I was buying 3rd party NiCd batteries from that big auction site for my V18 and Makita 12V tools for way less than OEM and the quality seemed to be comparable. Same country of manufacture compared to OEM.

I tried that route and got burned. I bought 3 batteries on Amazon that got glowing reviews and they were absolutely useless. Really my own fault, I needed batteries so I tried to get by with them. I should have sent them back.

 

[danski0224]

Mine seemed to be just fine. There is one seller with lots of feedback, and that's who I went with. I am more leery of 3rd party sellers on Amazon, probably not too logical though

 

[wagon]

is it brushless tho?

 

[BlueSander]

Hi guys,

Thank you so much for all the inputs. I finally made my decision and went with Makita.

Much to my surprise, this decision was easier than what I thought at first. The main reason was because the local Home Depot had a pair of Makita 4.0 batteries on sale for $99 and the brushless set, which was $399, being marked down to $329. Imagine what I ended up paying for both after the $150 discount going right now. It was super cheap and I couldn't pass that on.

As I mentioned earlier, I also placed an order online for the Milwaukee set when I first joined this forums & went through many pages of "Milwaukee addition" thread. It finally arrived and I was able to compare Makita brushless vs Milwaukee M18 2nd gen side by side. Comfort wise, if someone was comparing between the two and wondering which feel better, you can pick either one as they both are excellent. I'm 5'10, 170lbs so I consider myself right under the average height and weight for most people working on construction that I have seen and I couldn't tell the differences in weight (on paper, Milwaukee set was supposed to be a hair lighter). Power wise, I think Milwaukee is way way better. I used the impact tool 90% of the time and Milwaukee's impact tool is prob the most powerful in the market right now. They are ahead of everybody else by a mile. However, given the price that I was able to get the Makita set for, I just can't pass it on. I still have the Milwaukee set and on the fence about returning it. Half of me is thinking that I can make use of the impact tool occasionally and maybe buy their LED lights. The other half me is knowing for sure that I prob would never need that kind of power, especially in residential remodeling/maintenance work.

Anyhow, I just want to say Thank you everyone for their inputs.

 

[ProCharger]

Hi guys,

Thank you so much for all the inputs. I finally made my decision and went with Makita.

Much to my surprise, this decision was easier than what I thought at first. The main reason was because the local Home Depot had a pair of Makita 4.0 batteries on sale for $99 and the brushless set, which was $399, being marked down to $329. Imagine what I ended up paying for both after the $150 discount going right now. It was super cheap and I couldn't pass that on.

As I mentioned earlier, I also placed an order online for the Milwaukee set when I first joined this forums & went through many pages of "Milwaukee addition" thread. It finally arrived and I was able to compare Makita brushless vs Milwaukee M18 2nd gen side by side. Comfort wise, if someone was comparing between the two and wondering which feel better, you can pick either one as they both are excellent. I'm 5'10, 170lbs so I consider myself right under the average height and weight for most people working on construction that I have seen and I couldn't tell the differences in weight (on paper, Milwaukee set was supposed to be a hair lighter). Power wise, I think Milwaukee is way way better. I used the impact tool 90% of the time and Milwaukee's impact tool is prob the most powerful in the market right now. They are ahead of everybody else by a mile. However, given the price that I was able to get the Makita set for, I just can't pass it on. I still have the Milwaukee set and on the fence about returning it. Half of me is thinking that I can make use of the impact tool occasionally and maybe buy their LED lights. The other half me is knowing for sure that I prob would never need that kind of power, especially in residential remodeling/maintenance work.

Anyhow, I just want to say Thank you everyone for their inputs.

The new ridgid gen5x line on paper outperforms the current and the new not yet released 1/4 impact drivers from Milwaukee by 450 inch pounds. 1800 vs. 2250. The only reason I have not dropped my Makita set for the new gen5x is the lack of tools available. If they release a 1/2" impact it will be a no brainer for me.