Makita vs Milwaukee

[VolvoRyan]

I had a stickler of an infographics teacher. He did tons of stuff for Net Geo, and one of his peeves was area of bubbles like this. I see bad math calculating the area of these circles. The area of the $5bn circle is 6x that of the $1bn.

-Ryan

 

[jhendric]

It'll be interesting to see what the quality delta may be over the next 10 years and X jobs. The Makita batts seem exceptionally well protected thermally as they should be for the money, but no doubt they are overpriced.

Which Makita battery change up are you referring to? Could you not get batteries?
I can still get batteries for my old 9.6, I cant bear to throw it away as it still works perfectly.

There hast been a decent cordless tool line I'm aware of that hasn't had a series of battery upgrades over the decades.

The Makita drill I had was top of the line back in 1996. At that time the battery slid up into the handle of the drill, smaller, slim battery.

One thing I do have massive respect for Makita is that their heavy tool like chainsaws just require multiple batteries of the same config versus a 40v or some other thing.

 

[Davegvg]

The Makita drill I had was top of the line back in 1996. At that time the battery slid up into the handle of the drill, smaller, slim battery.

One thing I do have massive respect for Makita is that their heavy tool like chainsaws just require multiple batteries of the same config versus a 40v or some other thing.

The 18V x 2 scheme has allowed me to extend my platform use considerably to lawn tools while retaining the ability to use a light single battery tool for overhead work.

Although single 18 volt battery lawn tools exists they lack the run time and "grunt" for my use.

The latest 18x 2 tool I acquired was an earth auger and the wife unit put over 100 plants in the ground this summer/ fall using it.

 

[timgunn1962]

There really isn't a single "best-across-the-board" cordless tool manufacturer. Different manufacturers target different trades and have certain specific tools that are either "better" than the opposition, or only available from the one manufacturer. If you have an application that really needs one of those tools, you do the math and decide whether it's worth investing in it. Obviously the buy-in is cheapest if you already have the batteries and chargers.

I am quite heavily invested in 18V Makita stuff. There are a few tools in the Milwaukee and/or DeWalt lineups that Makita don't offer and are tempting, particularly the Milwaukee 18V magdrill.

 

[Dakotadadv8]

I would stay with Milwaukee, maybe buy a Makita cordless tool if you are curious. Home Depot has good deals on Makita impact driver, battery, and case. I started with Makita cordless drill that is great, and was curious about Dewalt, bought their impact driver and impact wrench, very happy with the tool. I have an itch for Milwaukee, may pickup in 2024 their cordless reciprocal saw and impact driver. Will have 3 battery platforms.

 

[Steve_P]

So is Tesla. But Elon owns most of the stock.

He owns 21% of TSLA. Maybe the majority shareholder, I won't look it up, but he doesn't own the majority of the stock.

 

[IndyGarage]

If you already have one of the brands, there's no reason to switch. Bosch, Milwaukee, Dewalt and Makita all have comparable offerings for many users. Makita extends further into lawn and garden. Milwaukee has better lighting options. They all work comparably. I personally don't think one brand is better than the other.

I'm happy with my Makita, but I could be happy with the others as well. I do very much like the 18V x 2 Makita stuff. I think I have 7-8 of those tools and on the higher power stuff it works great .

 

[BrandonV]

Slightly off topic but does anyone know when Makita stopped making table saws? I can't find a 10" Makita saw.

 

[unixxx]

I'm somewhere in the middle between Milwaukee and Makita. I use Makita for my impact drivers, drills, saws, oscillating tools, grinders, etc and they are my most commonly used tools. With that said, I also have a pretty extensive set of Milwaukee M28, M18 and M12 tools as there are quite a few tools, especially in the electrical trade, that Makita just doesn't have or are better suited for the trade then Makita.

By far, my impact drivers and 1/2" drills take the most abuse and I'm pretty happy if I get 2~3 years out of them, but I still have all of the batteries I got when I returned to the trades almost a decade ago.

Battery upkeep is by far the most critical part of maintaining the life of my tools. I routinely cycle batteries, make sure I always charge them at the end of the day, always store them overnight in a heated environment and NEVER let my batteries get stored longer term without a full charge.

Lithium batteries can put up with a LOT of abuse, but extreme cold and letting batteries drain below their charge threshold is a sure way to kill them quickly.

Just my two cents.

Good plan. It's even better to store them with partial charge. I don't charge them until they go down to 1 bar and always use the fully charged batteries first.

 

[Hohn]

deleted

 

[Hohn]

Time to pony up for true American company USA made Snap On power tools!

PFFT, someone tell him where the batteries in his Snap On tools came from.

 

[duneslider]

Slightly off topic but does anyone know when Makita stopped making table saws? I can't find a 10" Makita saw.

Are you talking battery powered? I have never seen a battery powered makita table saw? I see a bunch of google hits for 10" corded table saws. I used to have a small jobsite one but it wasn't really any better than any other brand, frankly just a couple notches better than a ryobi I also had.

 

[Hohn]

Time to pony up for true American company USA made Snap On power tools!

PFFT, someone tell him where the batteries in his Snap On tools came from.

There really isn't a single "best-across-the-board" cordless tool manufacturer. Different manufacturers target different trades and have certain specific tools that are either "better" than the opposition, or only available from the one manufacturer. If you have an application that really needs one of those tools, you do the math and decide whether it's worth investing in it. Obviously the buy-in is cheapest if you already have the batteries and chargers.

I am quite heavily invested in 18V Makita stuff. There are a few tools in the Milwaukee and/or DeWalt lineups that Makita don't offer and are tempting, particularly the Milwaukee 18V magdrill.

Well said. I personally have only Makita cordless but if I had a particular tool in mind that they didn't have, I'd absolutely consider a non-SBD brand.


Honestly, if I were buying a new cordless sytem today, I'd look VERY strongly at a brand using CAS batteries-- Cordless Alliance System batteries get rid of the proprietary battery and assure widespread interchangeability going forward.

Based on the beastly performance of the metabo cordless grinders, these CAS batteries are absolutely not giving up any performance to the proprietary batteries of others.

 

[j3rf]

Just going to edit my post since it's clearly not coming through strong enough.

Time to pony up for true American company USA made Snap On power tools!

Edit: Please take this post with a HEAVY dose of sarcasm.