I am the caretaker of a bunch of Ridgid tools. I have my own set for home use. I am also the custodian of 3 more drill/impact driver sets, plus recip saw, circular, light, and cordless vac in my workplace.
Performance-wise, they are fine. Don't buy just for the LSA. They make it difficult. There are rules that don't always make sense, but if you follow them, you will generally be OK. I say generally because I've had two experiences that give me pause.
1. I took my recip saw to HD rental counter to be shipped out for LSA service because it stopped working. The guy at the counter gave me a brand new recip saw off the shelf and told me it would be fine. I called the next day to register it (it wouldn't let me do it online because it was a replacement) and was told there was no way, no how, I could register that new tool for LSA because I didn't purchase it. I either needed to get my old tool back or I needed a receipt, even for $0.01 for the new tool. I called HD immediately to try to get it sorted out with no success. I stopped by on my way home and we got it sorted out, but had I not been proactive, I'd have been out of my LSA on that tool.
2. The cordless vac is super handy, although it ***** down batteries pretty fast. I took that in to the HD rental counter (different HD). They shipped it off. They called me a couple weeks later saying it was back. I went to retrieve it. They finally found it and decided it wasn't repaired. The reason is because the place they shipped it to doesn't repair those. Those vacs are just replaced by Ridgid after you email pictures of the vac from certain angles. I guess they try to determine if it was somehow abused based on the pic. When you ship off a tool through HD, they charge you ~$20, to cover their costs in case it's not covered under LSA. You get it refunded when you pick up the tool...in this case, they didn't want to refund it because it wasn't repaired under LSA. I'm not the expert on what tools should be shipped back. I did finally get it refunded, but it's not a pleasant experience.
I've since found a local lawn mower repair shop who is an authorized Ridgid LSA service center. I took an impact driver to him. He replaced the motor and called me the next day to retrieve it. That was lucky because he happened to have a motor on the shelf. I know it won't always be that fast, but still...that's awesome.
If I was starting fresh, I would look at Ryobi. They have a much wider variety of power tools and outdoor tools available.
