Cordless Drills

[def90]

This urban legend that Home Depot gets inferior tools to supply houses is complete BS propagated by tool houses to keep them in business. I've talked to reps from Dewalt & Milwaukee who say that they cut NO corners in the tools they supply Home Depot with and don't even know what tools are going to what suppliers until long after they've been manufactured. I was actually told this by several reps both outside of as well as in actual supply houses where they're trying to push the very tools I'm questioning. I can't speak for others but it just doesn't seem to make sense to produce inferior products that could/will hurt your image/name and the added complexity for tracking and supply chain just wouldn't offset small savings from cheaper sourced parts.

When I bought my last DeWalt about a decade ago (I do low voltage work and do entire prewires of homes with my cordless) there was a difference. The Big Box store drills had plastic chucks and the versions from contractor supply shops had all steel chucks. Don't know if there is a difference these days or not, haven't looked for one for a while, I just replace batteries every couple years.

[Irving]

I was talking to a tv repairman once who said that manufactures will buy discounted small electronics parts in bulk and use them for Walmart product lines. So if you buy your tv at Walmart and it breaks, it may have different internals than the same part number tv bought some where else. There is no way I could verify if that were true or not, but the explanation seemed to make a little more sense than going out of the way to run a different product under the same name.

[Jer]

When I bought my last DeWalt about a decade ago (I do low voltage work and do entire prewires of homes with my cordless) there was a difference. The Big Box store drills had plastic chucks and the versions from contractor supply shops had all steel chucks. Don't know if there is a difference these days or not, haven't looked for one for a while, I just replace batteries every couple years.

My first-hand experience was within the last 5yrs or so and the numerous people I spoke with were very quick to discredit this theory and sure in their stance as well. I can't speak to a decade ago or more but the people I spoke with weren't green peas and made it sound like it's just how things always were. I don't know what model you're talking about or using but I asked specifically about the 12v, 18v and 20v lines. It could very well be that back in the day that's how things were done but I know that now it's not how things are done yet people still warn of buying from big box stores versus smaller ma & pa shops and supply houses that tend to charge more money. Common sense would tell you that it's a volume pricing thing which is harder to sell to the consumer when you're on the losing end of that but fear always works quite well and it's a believable story. lol

I was talking to a tv repairman once who said that manufactures will buy discounted small electronics parts in bulk and use them for Walmart product lines. So if you buy your tv at Walmart and it breaks, it may have different internals than the same part number tv bought some where else. There is no way I could verify if that were true or not, but the explanation seemed to make a little more sense than going out of the way to run a different product under the same name.

Not sure I would buy this either because 1) they still have to handle the warranty associated with this product and 2) from what I've seen the larger stores like Walmart tend to require different model numbers from manufacturers as it makes their false returns easier to handle and makes it easier for price guarantees, price matching and other marketing ploys. When you've got the power that that kind of volume brings you don't request inferior products.

[Erni]

I have Ryobi 18v tools. While they are not something I would use day in and out professionally, for a homeowner they are the cats meow. The battery pack is very heavy, but my tools are still going strong and I had to replace my battery packs after 10 years. For professional daily use my father swears by the small Makita drills with the red packs. They are simply indestructible, or used to be can't speak to new products. My dad also swears by the impact drill/hammer without the chuck. Uses it for screws, bolts and drilling daily.

[def90]

I was talking to a tv repairman once who said that manufactures will buy discounted small electronics parts in bulk and use them for Walmart product lines. So if you buy your tv at Walmart and it breaks, it may have different internals than the same part number tv bought some where else. There is no way I could verify if that were true or not, but the explanation seemed to make a little more sense than going out of the way to run a different product under the same name.

Vizio TVs are built this way. They do not offer repair service after the one year warranty is up.

[Trout Hunter]

I was talking to a tv repairman once who said that manufactures will buy discounted small electronics parts in bulk and use them for Walmart product lines. So if you buy your tv at Walmart and it breaks, it may have different internals than the same part number tv bought some where else. There is no way I could verify if that were true or not, but the explanation seemed to make a little more sense than going out of the way to run a different product under the same name.

Hadn't heard that but I do know that walmarts returned electronics that get fixed under warranty used to be sold at SAMs club. First job out of high school was the pick up n delivery guy / dish network installer for a tv/bcr/stereo repair shop. We would do warranty work for the box stores in town as it was a certified repair shop and almost every tv we fixed for SAMs club would have previous warranty work that had been performed and billed for.