Home Depot Purchased Power Tools...

2ndGen

Curious, how many of you have purchased power tools at Home Depot
that have failed from normally great manufacturers
(Bosch, DeWalt, Makita, Milwaukee, Skill, Hilti, etc...)?

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2ndGen

I'll go first:
DeWalt Compressor. Garbage.

(Meanwhile, DeWalt stuff purchased at other stores, worked fine)

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Winchester

Dewalt Recip Saw

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Ryan

Inner10

I think I've had just as many powertools fail from tool stores as I have had from the depot....I think I've had just as good service from the depot too...sad eh?

MAD Renovations

Ditto

Meetre

That depends, was the service good? then, good for you. If not, yes, that would be sad.

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2ndGen

Great Service at HD, but I''d rather have tools that I DIDN'T "have to" return.

Keep the service (and the down production time, and the travel back and forth from the store, and the waiting time to have my tool back, etc..) and give me the reliable tool that requires nothing but an outlet or a charged battery and the flip of an on/off switch to get it going.



I don't expect every tool to function perfectly, but I also don't expect every tool (even from different manufacturers) to malfunction 100% of the time from a particular store.

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Inner10

Gen, I agree.

But my last 2 broken tools I've had a freaking battle trying to get them fixed properly and ended up calling the manufacturer and having to get the Rep involved.

At the depot its always been a case of "uhhh, this broke I bought it xx/xx/xx"...ok do you have your receipt? "no..." did you buy it here "I think so...or maby another home depot" Ok heres a new one next time hang on to your receipt.

Gen, are you saying that tools from the depot are built cheaper then tools sold elsewhere with the same model #? Like what Wal-Mart tries to do?

I see no correlation between stuff that breaks from the depot and stuff that breaks from other stores.

Everyone wants something to never break, but that is unrealistic, therefore good companies really shine when it comes to service time, thats why I have alot of Hilti gear they have sweeeeeet service. A big tool store in Ottawa took a long time to repair one of my tools and I was a little upset and said "sorry I'm just use to a 4 day turnover from Hilti...his response was "no one can ever compete with their service".

PrecisionFloors

I guess I have either been lucky or I take good care of my tools....from what I see out in the field, a LOT of guys leave their stuff out in the elements, never maintain anything, and just throw 'em in the truck at the end of the day. Then get pissed when they don't work.

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Renegade 1 LI

I just picked up that small 1 gal DeWalt compressor for 119$. I ran the break in like it stated in the om, I just haven't had a chance to try it out yet. Has anyone else picked up one of these? If so how do you like it?

Inner10

I got the little one with the nailgun for 180.

I have it in my basement hooked up to a 6 gallon tank to operate air tools occasionally. Ok so I'm very abusive to it and it just won't quit!

...Takes along time to bring the big tank up to pressure!

2ndGen

Yes. They are built cheaper by manufacturers of HD's choosing, outside of the normal source of the manufacturer.



I've never had problems with stuff I've bought at other stores.
Only products from HD (I'm talking power tools).
It's not just coincidence because other's have experienced similar issues.




I've never heard of Hilti stuff breaking down (outside of normal wear and tear). They definitely build great products. Now that HD has started to sell them, let's see what happens.

I'd rather pay a few dollars more and have the best product that a manufacturer can produce. It's a lot cheaper than production down time.

I "don't" expect Bosch products to fail prematurely.
But the one time something did, I had a "no questions asked" response.
I love that. That's why I have no problem in paying extra for a Bosch product.

I "used to" pay extra for DeWalt.
But I've been burned too many times.
New line introduction lemon problems I could deal with.
But again, it was their customer service (or lack thereof) that has turned me away from DeWalt no matter how great their future products will be.
I do have a romantic attachment to them (I love their old drills and 18V group). For that, I hope they can turn their company around.

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BKFranks

I have the 2 gallon that is pretty much the same and haven't had any problems with it over the past year. I saw some cabinet guys on a job last year using that 1 gallon and I was surprised how quiet it was.

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piercekiltoff

I know that the pumps a homeowner can buy from HD are made by the same guys who make the pumps I buy from wholesalers. However, the HD pumps are definitely cheapened - they seem to last about 5 years, then they're toast one way or another. Of course, I might also chalk this up to bad installation practices of the home owners, but you can visually see the difference in materials.

On the tool side of things - I've made a habit of buying the big box's own brand, and that's worked out well for me. For example, a service truck I own has a lot of Ryobi items in it. However, I don't use this stuff on a 10 hour a day basis. For things like wire crimpers/cutters, pipe wrenches, pvc shears, etc - I go to my wholesaler and buy Rigid and other high end lines. I could buy cheap pipe wrenches at HD, but I could also buy Craftsman instead of Snapon.

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2ndGen

A good example is of DeWalt's 3100 Pressure Washer.

Non-Home Depot models have CAT pumps (excellent pumps).

Home Depot models have generic DeWalt "branded" pumps which (I've heard) suck.

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Inner10

They break, like everything, but get serviced FAST.

Around here Hilti is only sold right from the manufacturer, and they track all serial numbers of everything to reduce theft.

I heard that the Hilti outlets inside the Home Depots wern't doing so well, but that was hear-say.

To answer your original question, I have not noticed any difference between HD products and thoes sold at other tool stores...but then again I never looked that closely.

That being said we are in different industries and mostlikely use/abuse different tools in different ways.

Pierce, if you don't mind me asking whats so great about the ridgid pipe wrenches? Is it just the hardness of the steel jaws? I've only used a pipe wrench about 5 times in my entire life and it seems like one of the simplest tools knows to man. How does a ridgid ($120) compare to a SuperEgo ($60) to a no name ($15)?

jeffaah

I've never had an abnormal problem with power tools bought from HD. I hear the rumor alot but I don't think manufacturers are going to make a "cheaper" product then the normal line just for HD.

The misconseption about quality comes from volume. When a manufacturer sells at HD they sell 10x more units then before the sold at HD. It stands to reason that if total sales increase 10x then the amount of defective tools will increase proportionally. Since people will always complain about the negative more then they praise the positive...we see proportionally more complaints.

I have bought alot of stuff from HD. Corded drills, battery tools, mixing drills, miter saws, table saws, circ. saws, flush cut saws, abrasive saws, grinders, 5" and 6" orbitals, routers, etc. I've never had an issue with any of it that wasn't operator error.

Warren

I haven't really noticed any difference, except for the fact that many of the HD tools are not the same model numbers as some of the other stores. Dewalt makes a ton of different 18v drills. hammer, 2 speed, 3 speed, etc. Many of the ones at the depot are the cheaper models. The cost also reflects this. Usually the only tools I get from the depot and lowes are on the clearance rack, so I take my chances for half price. I purchase a lot of tools from Ebay now. Especially blades and bits.

jeffaah

Correct....this does happen. But no one is hiding anything. the consumer must make sure they are buying the correct product by checking model numbers. HD sells several Dewalt drill kits that come with standard batteries....NOT the XRP batteries. The package doesn not say "XRP" but I'm sure a customer bought the kit expecting something else. Is that Dewalts fault....I don't think so.

In my experience....if model numbers are the same store to store, then the product will be the same.

Plus, HD gets cheaper prices because of the sheer volume they buy from manufacturers. If someone was going to buy 1000 widgits from me for full price, i'd sell to them. If HD was going to buy 50,000 widgets for a reduced price...i'd sell to them too. Obviously HD can transfer that reduced price to the consumer and hopefully draw in customers and sell all the widgets

WarnerConstInc.

A Festool is a Festool, no matter where you go.

The last big tool purchase at hd was a 10" makita slider. The top, from rail connection up, fell off the base in less than a month. All the castings broke.

F##k cheap tools. I don't have time for them.

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