rigid cordless lithium screw gun?

[fish2live]

i was looking at the 18 volt it says it has a lifetime warranty on both the screw gun it self and the batts. has anyone owned one? how do you like it? is it worth the money?

thanks

steve

[huntnfish]

I don't have any Rigid tools but everytime I go to Home Depot I check them out. They look to be great tools and the lifetime warranty makes them that much better.

[Orlip]

I just bought the 24volt lithium combo set for this very reason. Lifetime on everything. Had Milwaukee previously till the batts went to dump. So far I am very happy with them. Seem Like good quality and lots of power. I think you can get the combo set at home depot for $317.

[natebuddy]

Hey Guys,

I'm a Milwaukee Tool Rep. Milwaukee is owned by the same parent company as Rigid. Rigid is marketed as an industrial quality tool but in reality it is a heavy duty homeowner tool. Milwaukee is by far a better performing tool but with the relationship we have with Home Depot we are able to do a variety of things to offer a lifetime warranty on the Ridgid tools and batteries. As far as the rigid screwgun is concerned, it will depend what you are using it for. The Li-On batteries that are sold with the Rigid's are in no way comparable to the Milwaukee's which have the best runtime and warranty on the market.(Industrial Construction market excluding home depot deals)Milwaukee has a 5 year 2000 charge warranty on their batteries(Li-On batteries) which cannot be touched by DeWalt or Makita. If you are using the screwgun for gereral homeowner purposes or refinishing your basement it will do fine. However if your intention is to use it day in and day out all day it simply won't hold up. But with the Home Depot warranty it will be covered. But it is up to you if it is worth your time to be chasing to the Depot to get replacements.

[H20fowlr]

Wow! When did Emerson buy Milwaukee? I knew Black and Decker owned Dewalt, and Emerson owned Ridge, but I didn't know they owned Milwaukee. I guess i could check their HSOforum.

Either way both the Ridgid Brand and the Milwaukee are good quality tools. Can't beat the HD warrantyon the Rigid.

You'll be happy with either.

[natebuddy]

Actually Emerson doesn't own us either. Emerson is a sister company aslo. TTI is the owner of Milwaukee, Ridgid, Emerson, Dirt Devil, and various other companies.

[fish2live]

by the time i went back to home depot they were sold out they had them on clearence for 179.00. i should of bought it when i saw it but, 179.00 is alot of money this time of year for me.not getting the hours i do in the summer i'm sure i will find similar pricing this spring when the money is flowing again.

[Orlip]

Quote:

---

Hey Guys,

I'm a Milwaukee Tool Rep. Milwaukee is owned by the same parent company as Rigid. Rigid is marketed as an industrial quality tool but in reality it is a heavy duty homeowner tool. Milwaukee is by far a better performing tool but with the relationship we have with Home Depot we are able to do a variety of things to offer a lifetime warranty on the Ridgid tools and batteries. As far as the rigid screwgun is concerned, it will depend what you are using it for. The Li-On batteries that are sold with the Rigid's are in no way comparable to the Milwaukee's which have the best runtime and warranty on the market.(Industrial Construction market excluding home depot deals)Milwaukee has a 5 year 2000 charge warranty on their batteries(Li-On batteries) which cannot be touched by DeWalt or Makita. If you are using the screwgun for gereral homeowner purposes or refinishing your basement it will do fine. However if your intention is to use it day in and day out all day it simply won't hold up. But with the Home Depot warranty it will be covered. But it is up to you if it is worth your time to be chasing to the Depot to get replacements.

---

I have just have a couple of question comments;

How can you say Milwaukee has the best warrenty on the market for batteries? I think lifetime is probably the best unless you are just comparing Milwaukee, Makita, Dewalt lines.

I have noticed so far with my Ridgid set that the circle saw out performs the Milwaukee I had.(On run time) Now I am not comparing apples to apples because the Milwaukee was 18v nicd and the Ridgid is 24v li-on so dont punish me for making that observation.

One other thing I have never figured out is why Milwaukee has never built a charger into there radio like Dewalt.

I did like my Milwaukee set but 3 years and the batteries went junk. $80 a piece for new ones. $699 for the new LI-On set. That's why I went to Ridgid $317 for the combo set (24v li-on) and never having to buy batteries again and the repair program.

[natebuddy]

Quote:

---

I have just have a couple of question comments;

How can you say Milwaukee has the best warrenty on the market for batteries? I think lifetime is probably the best unless you are just comparing Milwaukee, Makita, Dewalt lines.

I have noticed so far with my Ridgid set that the circle saw out performs the Milwaukee I had.(On run time) Now I am not comparing apples to apples because the Milwaukee was 18v nicd and the Ridgid is 24v li-on so dont punish me for making that observation.

One other thing I have never figured out is why Milwaukee has never built a charger into there radio like Dewalt.

I did like my Milwaukee set but 3 years and the batteries went junk. $80 a piece for new ones. $699 for the new LI-On set. That's why I went to Ridgid $317 for the combo set (24v li-on) and never having to buy batteries again and the repair program.

---

First, Warranty. Home Depot has worked with TTI to offer a lifetime warranty on their Rigid Tools. If I were a homeowner or a guy who doesn't use the tools everyday, I would take advantage of this. I'm not sure if this warranty will be offered for too much longer. They have found that the battery exchanges are costing much more than initially anticipated. Another thing, Ridgid batteries will not have the Run time that the Milwaukee's will (Comparing Ni-Cd to Ni-Cd or Li-On to Li-On) The cells in the batteries are smaller in the Ridgids than the Milwaukee's which gives you your Amp Hours or Run time. When I was comparing Battery warranties, I was comparing industrial tools such as DeWalt and Makita. DeWalt and Makita only offer a 1 year warranty on their Li-On batteries, wheras we offer 5years or 2000 charges. Milwaukee's battery is a smart battery which when put on a reader will tell us # of charge cycles, first date it was charged along with various other things that in the future will help us develop even better batteries.

2nd, Runtime with Ridgid 24v Li-On VS. Milwaukee 18v Ni-Cd

This one is really not comparable. The 24V already shows you that it is a bigger battery, but the Lithium gives you the advantage of an even power curve. Notice how Ni-Cd batteries discharge? After using a while they lose the initial power that they started with. The Li-On batteries have a much flatter power curve, meaning that when the battery is half gone it performs almost as well as when it just came off the charger. The flat power curve gives you more runtime right there because the speed of the saw is still high, letting you cut through boards without having to slow your arm speed pushing the saw through the material. If you were to compare Milwaukee's 18V Li-On with Ridgid's you will definitely notice that the Milwaukee will outperform the ridgid.

3rd. Radio.

Couple reasons for this, 1st reason is that it was patented by Dewalt. We can get around this patent in various ways but charging a battery while the radio is playing causes so much interference that its pointless to even play the radio. Ask any Milwaukee/DeWalt dealer(One who carries both) if they have used them they will tell you that our radio gets much better reception and sounds much much better than the Dewalt. One thing we did with the radio, On the back of the radio we have a black fabric case, Remove that and you will see 2 screws that are not holding anything. Back out these screws and our chargers will mount right on the back of the radio. THe chargers have slots for these screws and will snap right on to the radio. We also put a piggy back plug on the radio so the charger can be plugged into that.

Last, your old set of Milwaukee tools.

You said you batteries went bad. That may be the case or it might not. You should never discharge your Ni-Cd batteries completely( the old wisdom was to put them on the flashlight and run it until the light shuts off to prevent them from getting a memory.) Ni-Cd batteries will not develop a memory! Discharging a battery that deeply will cause unrepairable harm to the cells inside. If you dry up one of the cells, you will never get it back. If your batteries wouldn't charge, it could be 1 of 2 things. 1st they went bad. 2nd, they were discharged below 3 volts. Our chargers(the red charger with the black base) will not read a battery that is below 3 volts. The multibay charger(the charger that can charge 3 batteries) will read at .7 volts and also recondition the cells and top them off. This charger is the best charger to prolong Ni-Cd battery life. There are a couple of ways to try and jump your old batteries to get them above 3 volts so you can put them on your charger and they will charge again. Hope this novel will answer some of your questions.

[DrKen]

Thanks for the novel and the time it took. Good solid info that answered a lot of questions I have had and I suspect others also. I use my tools constantly and this will make it much easier to make buying decisions in the future. Thanks again.

[buzbunni]

Thanks for the great post natebuddy. I'm sure to be buying your products (if I need them...heck, maybe even if I don't ) in the future.

[Bobby Bass]

Now that was an education and an expert opinion on a subject...

[natebuddy]

You're welcome guys. If you have any questions on any other power tools or accessories, let me know. I have sold Bosch,DeWalt,Makita and few others but obviously now I work for Milwaukee.

[delcecchi]

both my Milwaukee 14.4 nicads went bad in a couple of years. Not much use. Jumped one with 9v alkaline, charged it up. It was dead in a few days. New batteries about 60 bucks. Pretty disappointing.

[natebuddy]

One good rule of thumb for Ni-Cd batteries is to charge them immediately when you notice a significan decrease in performance. Another thing that not to many people know is that the cells in Dewalt and Milwaukee NiCD batteries are exactly the same made by the same company.

[H20fowlr]

Great Info. I did look up the ownership issue as I know Emerson quite well and seems we are both right. While TTI and Emerson are two different Companies, Emerson owning Ridge, and TTI Owning Milwaukee, the attached press release shows that TTI is making tools for Emerson under the Ridgid Brand.

http://www.gotoemerson.com/jsp/news/drelease.jsp?ReleaseID=2053

Thanks for the info.