Dewalt vs Ryobi

There comes a time in every man’s life when he has to buy an impact driver...

So the ryobi is 40 bucks
The dewalt is 99

I’m not sure if I’d be paying for the name or if the quality will actually make a difference.

Thoughts, gentlemen?

 

dewalt is pretty solid I have their 1/4 inch impact and a drill. 5+ years never really had any issues except a bad battery. Ide go with Milwaukee if I had to replace it though.

 

Do you have any other Dewalt or Ryobi battery powered tools? If so I would stick with the same brand since the chargers are usually good across different kinds of tools of the same brand.

That said I have a few Ryobi power tools and they've never let me down, no experience with Dewalt though

 

@eon_blue No i dont, i’d been borrowing my father’s power tools until i recently moved cross country so all ive had the past few months are my hand tools.

I know in terms of quality it probably goes
1)Milwaukee
2) Dewalt (heard they fell off like Craftsman)
3)Ryobi

I just need it for simple mods, im not a driveway mechanic. Thinking i might do ryobi and put the 60 bucks i save toward something else like quality sockets

 

TBH I buy a lot of my tools from Harbor Freight *gasp* -- I'm just a weekend/hobbyist DIY'er and I really don't need high end tools like a professional might require. And I've never had any issues with anything I've bought, power tools-wise...though there are some things from HF that I would advise people to avoid. But their power tools have not let me down when I need to use them a few times a month.

Milwaukee does indeed make some nice stuff. I am tempted to get their Fuel line impact wrench.

 

Ingersoll Rand air impact

 

Ryobi is made in China, by the same company that makes Milwaukee. Dewalt is made in the USA. I would not consider the two comparable. I've been standardizing all my portable power tools to the Dewalt line.

 

If your just doing basic work in your driveway I would get Ryobi, I have used some Ryobi tools before and they did the job. If you are going to use them heavily more then say four times a month I would get something nicer though. I am now a full time mechanic and all I have is Milwaukee and I do believe they are the best. Personally I like Milwaukee over Dewalt since Dewalt changed the battery a few years ago so my older tools/batteries were not compatible if I bought newer stuff. Also Dewalt only has a three year warranty but Milwaukee is five years and it's not priced much higher if I recall. I have been tempted to get a set of Ryobi power tools for the truck since they are drastically cheaper and I wouldnt use them nearly as much as my Milwaukee stuff.
Some people have had luck with harbor freight cordless tools, the few I have used that belonged to a friend were very unimpressive and had I lived closer to him I would have gone home to get my own tools.

 

I have a lot of the Dewalt line and love them but if you are just a weekend warrior I'd still go Ryobi as they are cheaper, have many more tools to choose from, and pretty much will do the job the same.

If you use your tools a lot though the Dewalts are pretty great and frankly I love my brushless impact driver, it's my most used tool. The differences to me going from a Craftsman impact to this Dewalt is that the Craftsman would drive plenty of bolts/screws in but it was not a very fine tool so I had to hand tighten or back out screws that I drove through. The Dewalt has several settings and is very precise where I can lag in a long deck screw like a brute but then switch it to "1" and gently snug a screw on my kids toy RC remote.

Anywhere I would have used a screwdriver I pretty much use this thing now.

BTW most new Dewalts are Chinese made too. Only a few are still US made (assembled really). You can buy the impacts and keep looking for the US batch (Mine was US made)

 

I’m happy with my Dewalt cordless/battery tools. I don’t have any experience with Ryobi tools though.

Good luck.

 

The Ryobi should be fine for anything short of professional use. I actually used Ryobi power tools for work until a few years ago, and the only problem I had was with the regular drill. The impact was actually really nice!

Now I have a ridiculous amount of Milwaukee tools

EDIT: Nothing wrong with Dewalt, either. But, you might as well save some money, or put it towards more tools

 

I thought that was the case of Dewalt being China made but I know I've seen some with a made/assembled in USA sticker so I wasn't quite sure. It's interesting they still make some here.

Hell yeah, love my Milwaukee stuff.

 

All mine are USA made, and I've only started standardizing to Dewalt within the last year to replace a variety of brands all with different batteries and chargers. Now I have one brand that all utilize the same battery architecture and charger.

Where are you seeing they are moving to China-made versions? I'm sure there are some tools, but the majority of the main power tools line is made in the USA and they have been expanding USA production.

Dewalt made today in the USA:
https://www.dewalt.com/products/power-tools/products-made-in-the-usa

Tool bloggers article (a few years old) about Dewalt manufacturing in the USA:
https://toolguyd.com/dewalt-cordless-tools-built-in-the-usa/

 

Me, too!

I've added a bunch of stuff since I took this picture

 

My dad got a Dewalt maybe 4 years ago, I’m not sure witch model it is. I don’t think it’s that good. I’m not sure if the newer ones are any better.

 

I probably have 10+ Dewalt tools on my work truck and have had many over the years. I like Dewalt tools but I also have the system (batteries / chargers) in place.

 

I have the M18 1/2” impact gun, grease gun, also a M18 work light that came with the impact gun.

 

I am a big fan of Ridgid

 

Just picked this up, same price as dewalt

 

We use Milwaukee at work and I must say they have the best warranty program hands down. They fix or replace if not more than five years old no questions ask and pay shipping both ways. Having said that I invested in all Ridgid tools from Home Depot for my garage and have never regretted my decision.