Best cordless tool system - garden and DIY

Spiderroo

We’re buying a house and it needs a lot of work - nothing structural but redecorating from top to bottom. Our house also has a beautiful well maintained garden so we need to master that as well. 

It’s my birthday next week and I’ve asked for tools but I’ve been asked which ones. I want to choose a cordless tool system with a universal battery for them all. I’ve been looking at the Bosch 18v power for all system because of the range of tools available but the reviews online are really mixed. 

What do people recommend? I don’t want to choose badly and get locked in with a rubbish set. 

Ideally easy to use as both of us are completely new to this, having lived in flats that need no work before. My brother and stepdad are coming to help in the first few weeks so we’ve got experienced teachers to help us master using them! 

The tools we’ll definitely need are:
- detail/multi sander (every door, door frame and skirting board needs doing) 
- orbital sander (doors, wooden stairs, etc) 
- saw (cutting wood for projects like a bin store/bench/etc)
- drill 
- hedge strimmer (not huge thick hedges, mid size maybe?) 
- lawn cutter (probably handheld rather than a mower, our actual lawn is small) 

mrrightfirsttime

I would go for Einhell Tools, they have a full range of tools running off of one battery and are decent quality DIY tools. 

Mutton_Geoff

Mates in the trade laugh at my Dewalt loyalty and swear by Ryobi stuff. I'm currently married to the Dewalt 18v XR battery and have a drill, impact driver, leaf blower, strimmer and nailer. Dreading the day when the battery is changed and they slowly decay as old tech dies. Hopefully Dewalt will keep the same battery attachment and just improve battery tech.

Starting afresh, I'd look at Ryobi.

BUFF

As a DIYer rather than a professional I have a no. of the Bosch Power4All tools that have so far proved fine for my needs (& usually bought on offer). If you were a professional I would go for something heavier duty but that also means more expensive - it's finding the balance for your needs/pocket.
Be aware that there are different Ah batteries in the system - 1.5 Ah, 2.5Ah, 4Ah & 6Ah & now there is a new smaller. lighter Power Plus battery.
Obviously the beauty of the system is that it is used by multiple (7 atm iirc) manufacturers so you could have different products from different manufacturers but the 1 battery fit.

sk2402005

I have been using Ryobi for a good few years, all good quality, and they have used the same battery fitting for years.

Buy a decent multi starter set with batteries, and you can add bare tools for not a huge amount of money.

TELLIT01

I also use Ryobi and haven't experienced any problems with them.  The only one's I would avoid is those 'own brands' sold by DIY sheds.  They may be perfectly good pieces of kit but I'd be more concerned about them discontinuing and batteries etc not being available long term.

Eldi_Dos

For the garden I would not bother with power tools if its a medium hedge in good condition a set of garden shears and a file for keeping them sharp would do a better job and as it is a small lawn a push mower would do,especially if previous owner has left it in good order, all you would need to learn is setting the correct height of blades to suit conditions and time of the season.
If you use a strimmer to do the lawn you will create conditions that favour low growing weeds and moss at the expense of the grass.

travis-powers

Mutton_Geoff said:

Mates in the trade laugh at my Dewalt loyalty and swear by Ryobi stuff. I'm currently married to the Dewalt 18v XR battery and have a drill, impact driver, leaf blower, strimmer and nailer. Dreading the day when the battery is changed and they slowly decay as old tech dies. Hopefully Dewalt will keep the same battery attachment and just improve battery tech.

Starting afresh, I'd look at Ryobi.

Dewalt has done just that with power stack!
 I run Dewalt as a secondary platform and can’t find fault with them.

Alanp

I think most named brands would be ok, as said, avoid the diy sheds own brands, whilst they may be ok , they might not be future proof and you could be buying again in a few years, I have loads of corded power tools that I’ve built up over the years but I use ryobi now, I have a strimmer, drill, small leaf blower, and shear/scrubber tool, I’d really love a circular saw, and , more stuff if I’m honest, but I can’t justify spending on one as I rarely do diy projects now..

Gavin83

One of the best things about buying a project house was buying all the tools I needed, plus a few I probably didn’t! It’s even easy to justify as it’s still cheaper than hiring the trades.

I have a few corded tools. All of my cordless tools are Dewalt. I’ve certainly no complaints.

Spiderroo

Thank you so much for  all your recommendations, I’ve gone with Dewalt in the end. 

Had a long chat with my brother this morning and he said Dewalt is his favourite because you can drop it off scaffolding and it still works   no intention of doing that but it reassured me they would last. He’s also got spare batteries (works on sites so has loads of tools) so said he’ll give me a couple of his spares to start us off.