Just How Bad Are Store-Brand Power Tools?

Torque Test Channel

They know what they are doing when they lay out parts store aisles: Temptation lurks down every path to pick up another few quarts of oil for that leaky project. The lure of new tools is always strong, and on every visit, you take few extra steps to see what’s new on the tool aisle. We can’t help but look, but then “rationality” creeps in: Who buys tools from the same place they get discounted water pumps and oil filters? There are better tools out there, why not buy those, right?

I came to realization I was looking down on tools I had never tried. The price alone can tell us some information about the tools inside the blister package, but until we actually hold the tools in question and put them to work any positive or negative thoughts are just that—thoughts, not even informed enough to be opinions. Rebranded tools or anything else that lacks the name of your favorite tool brand might not be total junk though, and our favorite tool tester on YouTube—Torque Test Channel—recently grabbed a handful and put them to the test so we wouldn’t have to.

The tools tested include a Summit branded impact, a Hercules model from Harbor Freight, Hyper Tough from Walmart, and the Avid Power from Amazon. To a trained eye these tools all look like second-tier products just by the fit and finish when compared to a name brand like Milwaukee, DeWalt, or Ryobi. The overall size is comparable between most of the house-brand models and mainstream brands, but the dynamometer that measures the torque output of each impact tells no lies and spits out numbers with no agenda.

And the test shows that while none of the tools were going to blow away the impact wrench king and its red glass-fiber-reinforced clamshell, they do work and put down numbers that would make a lot of automotive projects easier. Not everyone is doing the hardest jobs, and for the money these affordable tools can be a way to get started under the hood. After all, if you find yourself outgunned for your projects can upgrade later when it makes sense. Technically none of us need power tools, they are just luxuries we afford ourselves.

None have interchangeable batteries, and ultimately it was the batteries that made a big difference in how the tools performed. As an example, the Hyper Tough came as a kit with tool, battery, and charger together for a paltry $59. That kinda of price tag should raise your eyebrows if you’ve shopped power tools at all and it’s easy to see where the corners were cut. A slow charger, small battery, and tool that seemingly has a mind of its own during some of the testing make it clear this was built to a price. It did get the job done with just the one battery, though the testing also showed that springing for a larger 4 amp-hour battery boosted the tool’s output significantly, with one catch—it nearly doubled the purchase price.

Torque Test Channel cheap impact test
Torque Test Channel

And that is what this all boiled down to at the end. You get what you pay for, and if you don’t need the impact that can hit the hardest with no consideration to budget, it is hard to make fun of the budget brands. They might take a little longer to get the job done or be a little more frustrating, but if the work gets done, that is most of the battle. Turns out the budget options might not be deserving of our side-eye glances after all.

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Comments

    My son and I both have Bosch. Dewalt seems like a high end black and decker , which I consider garbage. Bosch has quality look and feel with a lot of power on tap. Price point not outrageous either

    DeWalt IS a high-end Black & Decker. AMT bought Dewalt in the early ’50s. B&D bought DeWalt in the mid 50’s. Back then, DeWalt just made only professional radial-arm saws. Fast-forward 15-20 years. B&D kept cost-cutting everywhere (including the low-end RASs). In the early ’70s, some “expert” they hired claimed that most of their tools were bought as Father’s Day gifts and saw perhaps 10 hours of use. So, B&D reduced the quality on their basic tools so that they would last only about 15 hours. The construction companies quit buying the basic tools and switched to the heavy duty line (I don’t remember exactly what it was called). Then some “expert” pointed out that everyone used these with extension cords, so B&D cut the cord length to about 6″. Most of the companies for which I worked at the time gave up on B&D.

    So, B&D surveyed the pros, asking which company had the best reputation. Many of them said “DeWalt.” B&D realized that they owned DeWalt, so they came up with an entire line of tools under that brand. Of course, they just HAD to cost the cost, so the quality of everything suffered, but the result (fortunately) was that the new DeWalt tools were essentially the same quality of the old B&D heavy duty tools before the cost-cutting expert destroyed them.

    As for the radial-arm saws that started the DeWalt line, they are now made by the Original Saw Company.

    Great His Story… The guy that brought DeWalt out of the ashes quit and went to Milwaukee. Wikipedia or ytube tells the story. I’m migrating to Milwaukee. My town of Rockford Illinois has a ReTool used tool store that has more inventory of used and new than all the retail stores COMBINED! Ya gotta’ see it ta believe it! I’m in there twice a month, and never leave without a WHACK to my CC!!!

    https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-tracfone-us-rvc3&sca_esv=6449538529ffda2f&sxsrf=ADLYWII2039ymsVqbEFBFhcGlFdjwiAWXg%3A1728135248531&kgmid=%2Fg%2F1tf58gpt&q=ReTool&shndl=30&source=sh%2Fx%2Floc%2Fact%2Fm4%2F2

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Electric_Tool

    Have a bench grinder that was a gift many years ago it came from a place called Harbor Freight when it was mail order only! Cordless tools are DeWalt and Ryobi that one plus system is very versatile.

    i started buying ryobi 18v+ tools in the late 90s. having the same battery configuration that’s shared by shop, house, & garden tools, being sold by thousands of hd stores, and getting great service out of all that i own are some of the reasons i’ve stayed with them. i bought a milwaukee m12 tool kit on sale mainly for the 3/8″ ratchet. that is by far my favorite cordless tool.

    on another subject: hoses & electrical cords. i’ll go further than an earlier commentor by saying i now get sooo upset when having to untangle cords, trip over them and air hoses, winding them up…sigh. unfortunately, the achilles heel is, batteries cannot be recycled. it’ll be a major breakthrough when they can.

    Batteries can be recycled in my county of New Jersey. Some retailers also provide this service. Check the web for places near you.

    hey george, sorry, i should’ve given more clarity. what i meant was these batteries currently cannot be reused or refurbished. they are currently hazardous waste. the best one can do at this time is ‘properly dispose’ of them. same thing with ev’s, only on a much larger scale.

    glad you have a source that excepts them. home depot will accept most types of batteries. there are ‘800’ numbers to call for your nearest dropoff. sorry, i don’t know of any but like you said, a simple internet search should come up with options.

    One doesn’t have to be very old to remember when Milwaukee Electric was considered an off brand tool. Thirty five years ago if it wasn’t Chicago Pneumatic then it was considered sub par. Times change and so do tool brands.

    I’ve used pneumatic impacts for over 40 years, both professionally and personally, but for the most part, I only had my own cars to deal with in later years. But still used them for many years.

    Later, I purchased a DeWalt 12V impact driver and that is now my go-to for many car projects. Very convenient. It turned out that this 12V unit, though small, can remove “tough” nuts and bolts that the 1/2″ impact couldn’t remove. But then, those pneumatics are over 40 years old.

    Although, the DeWalt batteries are no longer available, it’ll serve me well until the batteries no longer hold charge. Then, I may consider something else. Until then, I’m good.

    I’d say that the DeWalt would be about 15yrs old, now.

    Almost anything with a lithium-ion battery is at least “good”. I’ve got some old Black and Decker 18V ni-cad tools with an adapter for 20V lithium. They work fine. I’ve got several cheap HF plug-in tools. If you’re using your tools every day and have to count on them get good quality name brands. I’m a handyman and have DeWalt battery tools on my truck. But at home for yard work I have the Black and Decker stuff, and a few things that I only use occasionally are HF. I don’t use an angle grinder much and have a store brand. I had a $15 HF angle grinder that I used for 20 years before the switch broke. The cheap replacement cost me $25. It does the job. If I were using it a lot I’d have sprung for a higher priced one. The HF Bauer line is a real good value! Probably not as good as the top name brands, but it seems to be a bit better (at least on par with) than Ryobi.

    Problem with Lithium batteries is many times they can go dead. Why don’t they make a charger with a switch to just do a quick jump start to see if your battery can have a small charge so the charger can sense it and charge it again? The smart chargers seem designed to sell new batteries when a majority are likely still good.

    Cost to do this would more than pay for itself with the first battery that you saved.

    Batteries are the underwater part of the iceberg. I’ve committed to Makita partly because they are genuinely good and make everything under the sun in 18V LXT. and parlty because I was a Makita tech in the early 90s. FWIW Craftsman is OEMed by B&D so their 20V stuff is equivalent to DeWalt, although they tend to have lower amp batteries.

    The 20V to 18V thing is just marketing. They have the same number (5) of cells in series and one voltage is the max rating on the battery (times 5) and the other is average charge (times 5). Dewalt rebranded their tools 20V as a marketing gimmick because they were losing share to Milwaukee. Put a voltmeter on both their battery packs and you’ll see the 20V ones are really delivering 18V.

    Always have had Milwaukee M18 tools. They have been around 7 plus years. Even purchased a battery adapter to use M18 batteries on a Worx 20 volt grass trimmer. 2 volts less – no issues so far. One charger and one set of batteries.

    The 20V to 18V thing is just marketing. They have the same number (5) of cells in series and one voltage is the max rating on the battery (times 5) and the other is average charge (times 5). Dewalt rebranded their tools 20V as a marketing gimmick because they were losing share to Milwaukee. Put a voltmeter on both their battery packs and you’ll see the 20V ones are really delivering 18V.

    oops… meant to attach this to a different comment. That said, I help out my son in law who is a builder on his construction sites and they are all Dewalt. I use my Milwaukee M18 tools so they don’t get mixed in and I can keep them straight. I find that my Milwaukee tools are always being used by him and his team because they like the feel of them better. I have a worm drive rear handle circular saw that is WAY nicer than the Dewalt version… lots of little details that add up (sight lines are easier to see, far easier to change out batteries, better balanced, weighs less, etc). Pretty much all of them say that they’d switch to Milwaukee except that they are so heavily invested in the Dewalt eco system and you really can’t run two different brands simultaneously (two chargers on your generator for instance). I get away with it because I charge my batteries at night at home and bring loads to the job site but I understand why they are still running Dewalt. Yesterday, a Dewalt Nailing Gun, an impact driver and a light circular saw broke down. I’ve never had a failure of any of my Milwaukee tools except one drill that seized up on me after my other son-in-law dropped it into a swimming pool and just replaced it. I took it apart, cleaned it up, put it back together and I’m still using it 5 years later.

    The net is, if you think you will be using the tools for a long time, and you think you might buy more tools over time, pick a brand that will be around and if you are going to use them regularly or professionally, buy Milwaukee as they just work better.

    Not-so-interesting filler article that has no apparent purpose other than to defy its purpose. What testing was performed? Wheres the chart showing strength/weaknesses of EACH tool “reviewed”? The point of the article could have been dimmed up in this headline “store brand tools are cheap and work well but be sure to get the best battery possible when using them for the best performance”. Even a double price for batteries, my harbor Freight tools have never let me down compared to the name brands for hundreds more. Just saying…

    20 or so years ago, my Sears cordless drill had a little storage compartment on top. I hollowed out the little “fingers” meant to hold the bits, and was able to store several driver bits under the snap cover. Really handy when your up a ladder and you drop a bit! I’ve seen the magnetic bit wrist straps, but brush up against something and they all scatter. If I was really smart, I’d (spray) paint every single one of my tools with a fluorescent color, just the corner. That way no one will “mistakenly” take your tool

    When I started at Bankhead Welding in 1972, my benchmate advised me to paint my tools for that reason. The recessed letters on my wrenches and sockets got painted green.

    Back in the day, I’d add a 20′ cord to my power tools. No sharing of lead cords! And I’d cut the plug receptacle off my lead (extension) cord and add a 4″ square metal device box so 4 cords could be plugged in simultaneously. And the receptacle uses a “paperclip” to grab your power tool plug blades. Even the 12-2 top quality cords have this rinky dink receptacle. Take a peak inside yours. Disaster-waiting to burn up!

    On the J.A. Jones construction gangs in the ’70s, our electricians would replace the plugs on all of the tools and extension cords with the heavy-duty locking variety and replace the receptacles on the cords with the locking variety. This kept things connected and kept workers from stealing the tools.

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