What's the best brand for swappable-battery cordless DIY products?

jamesbrownontheroad

Hello everyone. We're a pair of Brexiles living in northern Sweden. We've just bought a rural house with a large barn and mechanic's workshop (including a car lift, which is something I never thought I would own).

We are going to need to do a lot of renovations, and in the near future, I'm also going to want to be to able to do some work on the car. Since the law requires different tyres for winter and summer, my ex-demonstrator car was sold with two sets of wheels with different rubber, so I will want to save a few kronor by changing the wheels over myself.

We need to start investing in new tools, which means making a decision about which brand of power tools to commit to. We have some things in storage in Blighty, but present circumstances make it very unlikely we'll be able to retrieve them (and they've all got the wrong plugs anyway).

Based on your experiences, which brand and which family of batteries do you recommend? DeWalt? Ryobi? Bosch...? Most brands are available here, but it is possible to buy elsewhere in the EU to save a few kronor in VAT, which is quite high here. Sweden uses 230V/50Hz like the UK.

All tips and recommendations appreciated. 

John_

I like the Ryobi ones, I’ve a selection of their “One” range.

They’re definitely mid-range, rather than professional, but seem more than good enough for the home user.

ka7e

Makita seemed to be the brand of choice when I've had workmen in the house - power tools, garden tools and even a radio!

Murmansk

Yes I'd recommend Makita too - their brushless drills last for ages on a battery - especially a 5 amp hour one

Risteard

jamesbrownontheroad said:

Sweden uses 230V/50Hz like the UK.

All of Europe does. It's harmonised.

knightstyle

It really is an easy choice, either cheap Lidl tools or expensive Makita ones. The cheap ones will be fine but may not last as long as the Makita ones but will be 1/3 the price so you can get brand new with warranty and still save money.
Most important is not to buy expensive battery tools if you are only going to use once or twice a year as that will lead to battery failure and batteries are expensive to replace.
Before I retired I and my team used Makita and Bosch tools but now I only have one Makita one and a Lidl battery drill which is very good.

troffasky

Makita LXT vote here - decent enough quality and not as expensive as Bosch [they could use that as their tag line]. You don't have to bother with their branded batteries either, the clones are "good enough", although the branded ones are probably better.

Wheel nuts should be tightened to a specific torque figure, you're not going to be able to do that with an impact driver - buy a torque wrench for this specific task.

neilmcl

Agree with the above, invest in a suitable torque wrench to manually tighten your wheel nuts, don't use an impact driver for this.

Mutton_Geoff

troffasky said:

Wheel nuts should be tightened to a specific torque figure, you're not going to be able to do that with an impact driver - buy a torque wrench for this specific task.

Good advice. In fact, you shouldn't need any power tools to change wheels on a car. I do it regularly (so fussy, I remove alloy wheels to clean the insides when I do a thorough clean of my cars).

On my shortlist of "most useful tools" are a Halfords Advanced socket set, a Draper torque wrench, a breaker bar (to get the nuts off if they are stuck) and a decent trolley jack (I bought a Clarke CTJ2QLP from Machine Mart in the sale).

If your hoist can lift from the jacking points (ie not resting on wheels) then you could skip the trolley jack but everything else has been invaluable for car work. It's also surprising how negligent tyre places are with their impact tools, I always ask they use hand tools on the locking nut.

jamesbrownontheroad

troffasky said:

Wheel nuts should be tightened to a specific torque figure, you're not going to be able to do that with an impact driver - buy a torque wrench for this specific task.

neilmcl said:

Agree with the above, invest in a suitable torque wrench to manually tighten your wheel nuts, don't use an impact driver for this.

Mutton_Geoff said:
Good advice. In fact, you shouldn't need any power tools to change wheels on a car. I do it regularly (so fussy, I remove alloy wheels to clean the insides when I do a thorough clean of my cars).

All good tips, thank you.

Living in an urban apartment right now without any storage, my summer wheels have spent the last few months at a "tyre hotel" in town. The storage cost and labour to change the wheels over is a single fee. As soon as we have the house and garage I'll be able to store them at home.

As an interesting aside, here in suburbia there is a large discount supermarket with a big car market. Every autumn and spring, a gang of migrant workers arrive and set up shop in the car park with three shipping containers and a tent where they do relatively cheap wheel and tyre changes. I've been specifically warned off using them by locals, one of whom couldn't remove her wheels the following spring because they'd been (mechanically) tightened well in excess of the torque rating. 

frayedknot

Risteard said:

jamesbrownontheroad said:

Sweden uses 230V/50Hz like the UK.

All of Europe does. It's harmonised.

I thought we used 240V?

Have we had to lower our standards to please some Eurocrat?

I demand our extra 10V (rms) back.