u/TazerDlaze

I am a diy user that has a fair bit of hand tools and a small set of Milwaukee m12 brushed tools and when I need anything more powerful I just borrow from family as I have quite a few family members with large selections of tools I can borrow. However, I am wanting to build out my own tools so I can do less borrowing, but I’ve had some issues with my Milwaukee m12 batteries that I’ve only had a for a few years and now I am contemplating whether or not I want to stay with Milwaukee and buy new batteries or switch. This led me to ryobi because I am just a diy user.

Anyway, I am debating switching while I still haven’t invested too much into one platform and I am looking at the HP lineup since I’d rather buy higher quality stuff from the get go, but I am not seeing many deals on HP stuff and in some cases the HP tools don’t seem to be that much cheaper if not the same price as dewalt and Milwaukee m18 comparable’s.

So, my question is why jump to ryobi if the tools are somewhat similar price? (Talking about the HP lineup). My main reason in switching is that ryobi is generally known to be a lot cheaper and have better deals, but that doesn’t seem to be the case on the HP tools in particular. I will say the batteries do seem to have much better pricing, but I was just curious why make the switch then?

Also, what Is the best way to buy into the platform if I’m wanting to get mostly HP tools? Bundles? Wait for deals? local used stuff?

Thanks

I am a DIY home user that recently had a project and threw a couple of m12 batteries on the charger while I took the other two to do some cuts with the m12 multi tool and when both of those ran out of juice and I went to swap them out and found those two batteries in the charger to be flashing red/green. So, I swapped the two dead batteries with the ones flashing on the charger and these two also flashed red and green! I tried a different charger, tried taking them off and back on the charger with more force, but alas nothing.

I purchased a couple of starter kits about 3 years ago and these batteries are already toast? I tried calling Milwaukee customer support and while nice, the support agent didn’t really help give me an idea of what’s going on, if I have a warranty, or how to check. They just told me I could pay to send them in and potentially be fixed. I figured even if I was outside of the warranty they might be more helpful given every single battery is having this issue, but what do I know.

Are these m12 batteries known to have issues? I was looking at buying more tools in the Milwaukee ecosystem as I only have a few basic things and am wanting to stop borrowing tools from family, but since I only have a little bit of money invested in m12 non fuel tools I am considering switching ecosystems while I can. And I will say, I know batteries age no matter the brand and I’m not complaining about that. I am more so irritated that at just over 3 years and not much use, they are all toast…? I’ve never heard of something like this happening before. I have a lot of family I borrow tools from here and there and they’ve never had anything like this happen (Ryobi and Dewalt). in fact I borrow ryobi tools from my uncle and he has batteries that still work that are almost 15 years old (albeit they don’t hold a ton of charge).