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Ridgid R4331 or Dewalt DW735

3K views 17 replies 15 participants last post by  dbw 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Looking for feedback. Need a new planer, down to the Ridgid or DeWalt. Both available from Home Depot. The Ridgid is $459.00 and comes with a Lifetime Warranty. The DeWalt is $499.00 comes with a 3-year warranty, also comes with extended infeed and outfeed tables and extra set of knives. Which would you choose?
 
#2 ·
Hands down, the DeWalt. Excellent track record, built like a tank, super powerful built-in blower (though it sounds like a jet engine), dual speed control. Bottom line, it's the cream of the crop for lunchbox planers, and it'd be silly to pass it by for $40: especially considering the included tables and extra knives.
 
#5 ·
The DW735 is the better machine hands down from all the reviews I've found. The Ridgid warranty is by no means worthless though. In the early days I would agree with this. In the last couple years its been a flawless registration online and the few times I've had to take a tool in i just went to a Home Depot that has a tool rental department and they checked in it. One they fixed there and the other two they shipped off for me. The Ridgid warranty isn't lifetime like most ppl think though. Pretty much when parts supplies run low the warranty's life is over. Or it could be some random amount of time they choose to say its had a full life on to the next product series.

DeWalt will most likely require you to take the machine to one of their service centers or ship it in for a warranty claim as well. You do have the option to start the claim online and bring the claim number with you to the service center though.

Either way warranty claim is going to be headache no matter who you choose so I'd just go with the better machine which is the DeWalt.
 
#6 ·
Unfortunately I do have experience with the R4331. I bought one to save money over the dewalt and it died within 2 weeks. The replacement one lasted an hour. Got my money back and bought my 735. Have planed a ton of wood since. Only issue I had was the chain tensioner bent and the lift mechanism got stuck, which isn't uncommon. About 30 min to take it apart, bend it back in place, and then it's been working great ever since.
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
I have the Ridgid and it has worked great for me for the last couple years. I'm not sure what jmartel is doing to his bench top planers to break them both. A good point to add is that both have the built in blower (a very great to have in a planet) and generally good reviews across multiple sources.

That said, I would agree that the Dewalt 735 is the Cadillac of bench top planers. I chose the Ridgid because at the time, the 735 was about $150 more. That close of a price difference, go with the Dewalt. I've had bad luck with Dewalt tools and am not a huge fan in general, but in this instance, the 735 has been and remains the top choice.

Also, damn you for making me recommend Dewalt!
 
#9 ·
Just normal operation, taking 1/32" off at a time. Something internal got loose and the machine started eating itself. Both of them did it. Probably about 30 boardfeet through the first one, and the second one only made it through about 5.
 
#11 ·
Just normal operation, taking 1/32" off at a time. Something internal got loose and the machine started eating itself. Both of them did it. Probably about 30 boardfeet through the first one, and the second one only made it through about 5.

- jmartel
Wow. Hope that's not the luck with tools you always have! Sounds like two lemons (to a point). Glad the Dewalt was an easy fix!
 
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