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Comment by muvlon

2 days ago

I've definitely realized this in a couple of markets: Buy cheap, get trash. Buy expensive, get expensive trash with better marketing. Working with power tools from various brands has made me realize they all cheap out in the same ways. Plastic gears where there used to be metal, undersized motor drivers that fry themselves under sustained load, trigger switches that start misbehaving or die completely after a few months.

Also, all of the brands (cheap or expensive) will sometimes mess up the cost-cutting and make something reliable by accident. Buying cheap gives me more chances to get lucky in this way.

Channels like project farm https://youtube.com/@projectfarm or other reviewers that are not sponsored are truly my main source of information in this age.

Some direct reviews between 2 and 4 stars are also sometimes useful. Always discard the 5 star ones...

This wasn't the case 20 years ago. There was actually a good article on HN a few months ago showing how most of the brands are owned by one company that has ruined them all. Still a few good brands. Need to research https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48147665

  • Don't know the HN article but here's my own list:

    AEG = TTI

    Black and Decker = Stanley (Stanley Black&Decker, SBD)

    Bosch = {}

    Craftsman = Stanley

    Dewalt = Stanley

    Hikoki = Hitachi

    Irwin = Stanley

    Kango = TTI

    Klein = {}

    Lenox = Stanley

    Makita = {}

    Metabo = Hitachi

    Milwaukee = TTI

    Porter-Cable = Stanley

    Ryobi = TTI

    The empty-set ownership symbol {} means not owned by anyone else.