"It's nice knowing that the same battery that powers my cordless drill will also work for my leaf blower or the inflator for my kid’s bike tires.” "This is one of my top choices for DIYers," says home improvement and lifestyle expert Kathryn Emery of Be The Best Home. (The brand's 18V ONE+ line has more than 280 products in all, and the 40V line has close to 100.) Our experts like the incredible breadth of Ryobi's battery platform, which allows the same battery pack to be used across multiple tools. Ryobi is one of two Home Depot–exclusive power tool brands, along with Ridgid. If you shop at Home Depot, you've probably seen this manufacturer's products, with their signature yellow-and-black branding. Once you've perused our picks, read on for more expert advice on shopping for power tools. We divided the list into brands geared toward DIYers and those aimed at professionals. For good measure, we also gathered insights from Roy Berendsohn, senior home editor at Popular Mechanics, our partner publication, as well as other experts in the field.īased on those inputs, below are the 10 brands to consider as you build out your arsenal of power tools. That raises the question: Which brand is right for you? Having tested hundreds of tools over the last decade from all the major players, our experts at the Good Housekeeping Institute's Home Improvement & Outdoor Lab are here to steer you in the right direction. No wonder home centers and hardware stores have aisle after aisle of power tools. And a capable circular saw is the only way to cut through large pieces of lumber, short of sweating for hours over a handsaw. A high-powered pressure washer can blast away stains from decks and driveways in a fraction of the time it takes to tackle them manually with a scrub brush and elbow grease. A trusty cordless drill will help you speed through a range of projects, from hanging shelves to assembling furniture. All of which means I’ll have to eventually spring for a FlexVolt charger once I expand my power tool menagerie.You don't need to be a remodeling contractor or professional woodworker to appreciate the many benefits of power tools. Of course, a pair of DeWalt’s non-FlexVolt 1.3Ah “20V Max” batteries came with my drill, and I can go buy larger capacity batteries (up to 12Ah) if I need them - but they won’t work on a 60V tool, just as a 60V battery won’t work in my 20V drill. And even if I stick with just 20V tools, the FlexVolt batteries can reportedly deliver longer runtimes in 20V than the regular 20V Max batteries can. This way, I just need one set of batteries and a single charger. With FlexVolt, all of the batteries are 60V max but their output can be stepped down to accommodate a 20V system. If I own a 20V drill and buy a 60V lawn mower, I’d normally be stuck buying separate 20V and 60V batteries, separate 20V and 60V chargers - basically doubling up because the two systems have incompatible power units. DeWalt makes a variety of power tools that largely work off 20V for light duty stuff like string trimmers, drills, circular saws and routers, and 60V for medium-duty gear like chainsaws, lawnmowers, grinders and impact drivers. Third, I really like DeWalt’s 20/60 FlexVolt battery system and it’s a big part of why I went with that brand. With it, I can just as easily screw a fire alarm bracket into drywall as I can bore holes through a pressure-treated 4x4. It outputs 300W (530 in-lbs torque), the two-speed transmission switches between 0 - 450 and 1,500 RPM while the 16-stop clutch lets me fine tune the amount of torque the drill exerts. My DCC771C2 weighs a little under four pounds, with most of the mass at the bottom of the unit where the battery sits. But in reality, I’m mostly installing banisters, building trellises and doing light handiwork, not installing siding or anchoring things into concrete, so a 60V rotary hammer would be overkill. Sure I could have opted for the heavy-duty DCD991P2 - probably even eventually convinced myself I had need for a commercial-duty DCH614X2. Second, it offered the features I needed with a 20V power level I could handle. You can also find them at Lowes, Ace stores and on Amazon. I bought mine during Home Depot’s Memorial Day sale along with a 16-piece screwdriver bit set for $120 out the door. The DCD771C2 comes bundled with a pair of 1.3Ah 20V batteries, charging base and storage case for $160 MSRP, though since April when I first started looking, I have yet to not see it on sale for under $100.
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