Yeah, but aren’t they replacing them with the new, inferior stuff?

I run Ryobi for battery tools and Harbor Freight stuff for most of the hand tools. I splurged a bit and went with Tekton for my wrenches. But really, harbor freight stuff has been absolutely fine for me, especially their new higher tier tools like Icon and Quinn.

I picked Ryobi for my 18V battery lock-in, and tend to get Harbor Freight for everything else. (That may also include corded power tools.)

The best thing about Husky tools is their warranty process. If one breaks, you take it to Home Depot, you show the customer service person, they shrug, you go get one from the shelf, you show the customer service person you’re not screwing them, and then you leave. You are without your tool for about an hour while you make the trip, as Home Depots are abundant, and other tool brands with similar warranties are less so. Die Hard tools from Advanced Auto has similar advantages, however they also tend to be priced higher without a ton of advantages. So, either go Home Depot for the abundance of locations, Harbor Freight for having the cheapest entry into this warranty process, or whatever Home Depot, Advanced Auto, Harbor Freight, or Lowes is closest to you.

The biggest downside of this warranty process is that the tools are made cheap enough to be replaceable (or disposable) from the perspective of Home Depot et al. If you want to avoid this, I recommend the sorts of tools you can get at Grainger. SK is my favorite out of that tier of tools. These are generally about the same quality as tool truck tools, but at a lower cost since you’re not having a representative of the tool company come check once a week if you need any support. The warranty process though will be longer than the tool truck brands as those will usually see you out of hot water in a week, whereas the non-truck professional tools might be in the mail and back to the manufacturer for about a month or so. The mechanic I grew up seeing recommended non-professionals getting a set of tools from Harbor Freight for that they’re very cheap, fine enough, and most homeowners will never use any given hand tool enough to warrant taking it for warranty service. He himself had two sets of tools in his shop. There was the set of Snap-on tools he used day to day, and the set of Craftsman tools he used if the Snap-on tools died so that if the Craftsman tool broke while he was waiting on the Snap-on guy to come fix things up for him, he could just hop in his truck, go to Sears, and get the tool replaced and only ever lose an hour of work.

Finally, and this is what I most recommend, try looking for used professional tools from the “mail it back” warranty brands second hand. These companies generally don’t honor warranties for professionals buying these tools second hand as the warranty originally sold was for the lifetime of the original owner, but most of them are perfectly happy to provide warranty service for whatever random jackass bought an SK ratchet off a Harley-Davidson technician who was retiring. A lot of the time, the people working at that higher end market care more about maintaining brand reputation than they do losing a few nickels and dimes along the way. Further, they will often treat tools they receive back as R&D for what manufacturing flaws were missed along the way, and so a few tools from non-professional users that they can analyze will help them keep selling tools to professional users who will be very unhappy if their tool fails. The brands in this category to look out for are:

• SK Tools
• Williams
• Wright
• Wera
• Others that I haven’t thought of in a long time

Generally speaking, I do think Wera is a bit overrated, but if you’re in Europe they’re absolutely where I’d send you. The other thing I like about going second hand like this, is that what I don’t like about the cheap tools model of warranty is the wastefulness of not fixing tools. Extracting and refining metal takes resources and creates pollutants. I’d much rather take older tools and fix them

I had a terrible experience with a sander. Never buying them again.

I actually use mine for work, but I’m not using most of them daily. For me I needed variety (the right tool for the job) and them all to be on the same battery ecosystem. They’ve also got some great “widgets”, the 1-gal battery shop vac is around $60-70 IIRC and is an amazing little bit of kit. It’s like a suitcase of clean. The power caulker isn’t a technical marvel but has absolutely saved my wrist on a few jobs. I was on the fence about the power brush but use it a TON around the house. The battery hot glue gun is also more useful than I thought it would be.

I made a 10 amp 18v corded adapter I can use with all the tools when power is available and I don’t want to fry the battery. I also made an adapter so I can USB charge off my batteries if the power goes out or something (they make those but I had the parts).

But I’ve never had issues. It is worth researching each tool though. They tend to have tiers even within the brand (18v vs the HP+ line). The sawzall in that starter kit is… cute. It “works” in the strictest sense of the word. The little circular saw is similar, but there’s a lot more use cases for a lightweight, low-profile circ saw; I love mine. The impact drivers/drills always did right by me. The battery powered chop saw is pretty great (I love that I can just slap a battery on it for a few cuts or use my adapter).

All in all, from what I’ve heard the issue isn’t usually performance it’s durability. That being said, it’s not like I baby my tools, I just don’t use the same tool everyday like a contractor might. IMO it’s a great brand for a ton of people. I think they’re fine for home improvement, just maybe not building a house.

They’re Home Depot exclusive in a lot of markets.

I had all Dewalt for a number of years went from their 18v to 20v line. But i kept wanting a few tools they did not make so i purchased the Ryobi versions. I was so happy with the price, capability, and mostly variety of tools. I switched completely over to Ryobi. Sold all my old Dewalt 18v stuff. I now have prob 35 different Ryobi products and 5-6 Dewalt. I even have Ryobi’s 40v trimmer, chainsaw, leaf blower, pole saw. I simply love that Ryobi has pretty much any freaking power tool you can think of, and more.

Is Ryobi the best…No. Does Ryobi have a heck of a selection at really good prices…Yes. Is Ryobi perfectly fine for Home\hobbiest use…Absolutely! If i was in the trades and used these tools daily would i choose Ryobi…Probably not, I would prob go with Milwaukee.

It wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t hold up more than a couple years if you were using them 40+ hours a week on commercial jobs for years on end, but for weekend home use? I’ve had my basic drill for like idk 10 years now and it still works as good as the day I bought it. I have a handful of Ryobi tools and recently picked up the bottom tier Ryobi 40v mower and have been nothing but impressed. I’ve done a lot of mowing of tall, wet grass the last few weeks and the thing just works.

I’ve smoked tools from all of the major brands at work and I prefer the stink of Makita electronics over all of the others, so generally thats what I’ll gravitate towards at the tool store. That said, the stuff we’ve got at home for projects around the house is all ryobi green. Sure they feel kinda cheap, sure they aren’t as powerful, but for around the house stuff they do just fine, just don’t beat on them like I do mine.

I’ve always thought of Rigid as being the TTI prosumer brand and Milwaukee being more contractor-level, though their M12 line kinda bumps into the homeowner target market now where for most uses 12V gets the job done. Either way, both definitely have their places. Ryobi is great for homeowners who need the tool but won’t use it often enough to justify the price of the Milwaukee durability.

So Stiletto is a Ryobi tool? ;)

But muh market segmentation!

They must be decent since Walmart still sells them and i’ve not seen much, if any, bad press about them.

Honestly debated picking up some Hart stuff at a couple points, but I’m a cheap miser who keeps falling back to using his something like 70 year old corded drill.