Changing cordless power tool system: Milwaukee —>Ridgid...

I’ll skip the question about your sanity, but that’s exactly what I’m doing….moving from Milwaukee to Rigid. As a hobbyist, I’m not sure I need the extra expense of Milwaukee and the Rigid LSA really has some value (unless they screw it up).

-- Our village hasn't lost it's idiot, he was elected to congress.

You’ll get killed on resale. If it were me I’d swallow hard, accept that I over-bought, keep the Milwaukees, and keep an eye out for what you really want. Those Milwaukee tools will get used, just maybe not at your hobby.

-- - Crud. Go tell your mother that I need a Band-aid.

Personally I think I’d keep what you have, at least the 12volt stuff and go check out porter cable.
I know PC doesn’t get the respect that they deserve but I’ve been using them for almost 10 yeas now. The last 4 or 5 I’ve had their lithium set and hav used them at the house as well as in the woods a very long way from the nearest electric outlet. I think the bigger sets go on sale a lot and for the price I don’t think they can b beat. When I got my last set I talked to a guy at Lowe’s that working in the tools and asked him what the best tool set was and he said by far the porter cable was the best deal in the house

-- Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might

The only real benefit to moving to the Ridgid tools would be their Lifetime Service Agreement(LSA). I’ve used it many times for batteries and received close to $800 worth of replacement batteries for free. Unless i’m buying something that I rarely use on Craigslist, I try to buy Ridgid. I don’t like paying for a tool more than once. Even my son who’s a plumber buys Ridgid and his tools take a beating.

-- there's a solution to every problem.......you just have to be willing to find it.

I ll skip the question about your sanity,
- Fred Hargis

Oh, there is no question as to my in-sanity. The logical thing here would appear to be to just keep the tools I have and start buying Ridgid for the new tools I want that Milwaukee doesn’t make. But the two-battery-system issue is a kind of a deal-breaker for me.

You ll get killed on resale. If it were me I d swallow hard, accept that I over-bought, keep the Milwaukees, and keep an eye out for what you really want. Those Milwaukee tools will get used, just maybe not at your hobby.

- fuigb

I have a separate shop from the house, and I’ve considered putting the current Milwaukee stuff in the garage for household chores and buying all the Ridgid stuff for the shop. It’s not terribly convenient to go out to the shop to get a drill to hang something on the wall. No matter what I decide I’m at least getting a second set of 12v driver/drill to keep in the garage for household chores. My original plan was to get the new brushless Milwaukee 12v tools and move the non-brushless to the garage.

Personally I think I’d keep what you have, at least the 12volt stuff and go check out porter cable.
- JCamp

Like Milwaukee, they don’t make all the tools/tool-types I want.

-- www.facebook.com/therealbnrlabs

Milwaukee has been expanding their cordless lines, so may very well come out with the tools you want to add, just not in the near future. They’ve always targeted tradesmen (plumbers, electricians, etc.) more than woodworking, but have been expanding that direction recently as shown by the addition of the cordless table saw that will be out this year. Those announced additions don’t include a sander or router, however.

The market for used cordless is generally not very good, from what I’ve seen. Half of new is the high side of pricing, with most selling for even less.

Not sure why you would replace the M12 Milwaukee. Even if you replace the M18 with Ridgid, you are still going to have at least two systems no matter what (12V & 18V) Why spend the money to replace the M12 when the Ridgid tools that you want are all 18V? If you moved the current M12 to your garage for household and got M12 brushless for the shop, you’d keep the number of systems down and be able to share 12V batteries when needed.

If you go all Ridgid in the shop, you are now juggling three systems instead of two (12V Ridgid, 18V Ridgid and M12) If you are going to juggle three systems, might as well just add the 18V Ridgid router and sander and have M18, M12 & 18V Ridgid as the three.

My 2 cents and worth every bit of what you paid for the advice. Best of luck on your decision.

-- https://www.jtplaneworks.com - In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.

I got rid of my Ridgid 18V tools last year and went Bosch 12V. I never need the additional power of 18V tools in the shop or around the house, and every time I picked up a heavy 18V tool, or worked with it over my head, I felt those additional pounds. The brushless Bosch 12V (or Milwaukee, for that matter) are fantastic.

...

The logical thing here would appear to be to just keep the tools I have and start buying Ridgid for the new tools I want that Milwaukee doesn t make. But the two-battery-system issue is a kind of a deal-breaker for me.

...

- Rob_s

This interests me because it makes no sense to me but I’ve seen many people express this sentiment.

Why is having more than one type of battery a deal breaker?

I keep my tools and their chargers right next to each other. When I grab a tool, I also grab it’s battery. When I put the tool away, the battery goes back on it’s charger. If a battery dies while I’m using it, I swap it out with one on the charger. It makes absolutely no difference to me which charger it’s on. It takes less than a second to figure out which battery I need.

I rarely grab two tools and only a single battery to run them. Maybe I’m the insane one for preferring a battery per tool that I’m using.

-- Tony, SW Chicago Suburbs

I was in a similar boat when I started replacing my Dewalt 18V tools. I tested out some Makita tools but decided to have one brand and battery size. I packaged the Makita tools and sold them off and settled on the Dewalt 20V. Pick one brand and battery size for commonality, it sucks to grab a tool and have to search for the right voltage battery.

The Ridgid LSA can be a benefit but what is the hassle worth, check out Tyler Tool, Acme Tool and Toolup for deals. You can usually get a 10% sale and free shipping with no tax. just my $0.02

...

The logical thing here would appear to be to just keep the tools I have and start buying Ridgid for the new tools I want that Milwaukee doesn t make. But the two-battery-system issue is a kind of a deal-breaker for me.

...

- Rob_s

This interests me because it makes no sense to me but I ve seen many people express this sentiment.

Why is having more than one type of battery a deal breaker?

I keep my tools and their chargers right next to each other. When I grab a tool, I also grab it s battery. When I put the tool away, the battery goes back on it s charger. If a battery dies while I m using it, I swap it out with one on the charger. It makes absolutely no difference to me which charger it s on. It takes less than a second to figure out which battery I need.

I rarely grab two tools and only a single battery to run them. Maybe I m the insane one for preferring a battery per tool that I m using.

- Tony1212

i think it’s one of those situations where you’re in one camp or the other, and if you’re not in the same camp then you’re never going to understand the other guy.

what you just described above sounds like lunacy to me. ;)

-- www.facebook.com/therealbnrlabs

I got rid of my Ridgid 18V tools last year and went Bosch 12V. I never need the additional power of 18V tools in the shop or around the house, and every time I picked up a heavy 18V tool, or worked with it over my head, I felt those additional pounds. The brushless Bosch 12V (or Milwaukee, for that matter) are fantastic.

- jonah

I can recall many occasions where the 18v brushless did the job that the 12v non-brushless wouldn’t.

Also, in my case anyway, given that the 12v are the non-brushless the size and weight diferences are almost nil. Especially if I put a wimpy battery on the 18v to match the wimpy 12v battery.

-- www.facebook.com/therealbnrlabs

Not sure why you would replace the M12 Milwaukee. Even if you replace the M18 with Ridgid, you are still going to have at least two systems no matter what (12V & 18V) Why spend the money to replace the M12 when the Ridgid tools that you want are all 18V? If you moved the current M12 to your garage for household and got M12 brushless for the shop, you d keep the number of systems down and be able to share 12V batteries when needed.

If you go all Ridgid in the shop, you are now juggling three systems instead of two (12V Ridgid, 18V Ridgid and M12) If you are going to juggle three systems, might as well just add the 18V Ridgid router and sander and have M18, M12 & 18V Ridgid as the three.

My 2 cents and worth every bit of what you paid for the advice. Best of luck on your decision.

- JayT

Decent point. I have gotten very used to having two drivers and two drills, and initially bought one set of 12v and one set of 18v because the price for the 12v was lower and I thought they’d be more compact and lighter (given that the 18v I bought are brushless and the 12v aren’t, that didn’t prove true).

But, as you point out, if I keep all my 12v stuff Milwaukee and only change out the 18v stuff for Ridgid, it’s the same battery count either way.

-- www.facebook.com/therealbnrlabs

You will save more $$ keeping your existing Milwaukees and adding the Ridgid tools you want.
Although I understand the idea of wanting to have only one system, in some cases, like yours in fact, the idea is simply over rated.

Here’s are my own examples, for both work, and home;

For both around the house work, and in fact in our full time use every day scene shop I too chose Milwaukee, but in our case, the more hobby-centric (and much more affordable, and does go on super great sales) 12 volt system.
Sales, one of the primary reasons is sale prices. Fathers day and pre-Christmas one can get a drill, impact driver, charger and two batteries for $99.00. That’s about the price for two batteries normally.

Even in the shop, we find the 12 volt system is more than enough for 95% of what we do. (In the shop we also have ample power access so when more power is needed, plugging in is always an option.)

So I adopted this same system for my home shop. The 12 volt tools can be amazing, the new brushless circular saw for instance is outstanding!

That said, there are times that we need more powerful impact driver, and don’t even think of comparing Milwaukees 12v Sawzall or jig saw to the better 18/20v offerings.

I am now into a very large project in my falling down garage. No easy power source (100 foot of power cord is the only option) So I now have the DeWalt 20v brushless kit for the big jobs, including drill impact driver, Circular saw and Sawzall. At work we added these as well as the amazing 20v Jigsaw.

Having two systems has not been a burden in any way, and since we had a large established fleet of the 12v Milwaukee’s we didn’t lose any money swapping, but instead augmented.

-- Without the wood, it's just working

You will save more $$ keeping your existing Milwaukees and adding the Ridgid tools you want.
Although I understand the idea of wanting to have only one system, in some cases, like yours in fact, the idea is simply over rated.
- CyberDyneSystems

I find it interesting that folks are so quick to jump on the multi-battery-system issue based solely on their own experience with no knowledge of the other person’s prior experience…

I lived with two 18v systems already, and it sucked. and that was just having milwaukee drill and driver and a dewalt circular saw. I’d take the drill and the saw someplace on the property to work, one or the other would die, and I’d have to schlep back somewhere to get a different battery instead of just pulling it out of one tool and putting it into the other to finish up. Or, if I knew I’d be gone awhile, take one spare battery and be covered for either tool, when you’re on one system or have to take (or, more accurately, remember to take) two spares for two different brands.

-- www.facebook.com/therealbnrlabs

I’ll add that for the rare task where I’ve needed more power than a 12V brushless tool could deliver, I can just pick up one of two corded drills I have. They have more power than a cordless tool will ever deliver.