My one red drill ate itself in under a year. That was that. I had one yellow drill die (I have two), but it dropped 20+ feet onto concrete. It ran, but barely. DeWalt fixed it, no charge. I actually have most all the tools and 10+ batteries now, and all the batteries seem as new. No complaints, and I have little tolerance.

But truth be known, DeWalt and Milwaukee are not anything close to their roots in corded tools.

hahah Yellow radio sucks!! I'll take me ccrane any day

EDIT: I also had a relatively newer Milwaukee corded 3/4" drill hardly last 3 years. THAT sucked. My dad gave me his a rarely used vintage Hole Hawg. That thing is a frigging beast!!

Neither brand actually manufactures anything. TTI (Techtronic Industries) manufactures Milwaukee, Ryobi, and uses the Rigid name under license to manufacture power tools found at Home Depot. Take a 12-volt Rigid battery and a Milwaukee M12 battery and hold them side by side or disassembled and you'll see they're largely identical. Dewalt is similarly owned and manufactured by a parent corporation that makes other stuff, and neither parent corporation makes a lot of the components they use. I suspect some specialty tools, like the Wirsbo/Uponor pex tools, are likely almost identical inside, save for the battery connections. In the plumbing industry, you will find mostly Milwaukee. In other trades, you'll find more Dewalt. Can't go wrong with either brand if you're a home-owner doing home-owner things. But I agree. They don't build 'em like they used to.

I switched over to all DeWalt a few years ago after testing one out... Torquey little buggers. It was much smaller, lighter and had quite a lot more power than my previous several sets.
I think I am into 20V max over $2k now.
Maybe not built like they used to be, but technology makes up for some of the engineering and manufacturing deficiencies.

Battery technology is improving a lot. I prefer Milwaukee myself, partly because I work for a dealer that sells primarily Milwaukee (we also sell Dewalt, but not in nearly the same volume. Milwaukee owns the plumbers) and get good pricing for personal tools (and sales incentives helps. My Coyote Asado makes taasty burgers taste gooder) but also because I like the batteries better than Dewalt. With their latest round of batteries and tools, Dewalt is going for high-voltage and lower amps. 20v/60v batteries operate at 9-amps and 3 amps, respectively, depending on the tool they are being put in. Milwaukee is going the other way, with lots of options for amperage, but all are 18 volts. Current options are 3.0A, 4.0A, 5.0A, 6.0A, 8.0A (newly released), 9.0A, and 12.0A. Just different ways to skin the cat, but lower voltage tends to run a little cooler, all other things being equal. Think bigger pipe with less pressure (Milwaukee) versus smaller pipe but higher pressure (Dewalt). When I'm wearing one of my other hats (water maintenence and EMS/Fire dept.) I use M18 standing lights at night when needed, but I wouldn't turn down a 20v dewalt tower light.

Thanks for the link. I'll have to figure out how to see prices.

I actually thought this was the better deal....
https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-18-Vo ... /203466936
All the tools I 'need' in one package for a good price.... then drop the $100 on the two 3Ahr batts and pick up the tool that you need with the freebie.... $300 all in for 2 small batts/ 2 big batts for the power hogs and seven tools --- hella deal there. I'd be all over it if I hadn't already picked up the drill/driver combo a couple of years ago....

Does that mean they are rugged and will last forever?