Ridgid Brand Tools

[CNC Dan]

I just went to Home Depot and bought her a new $70 battery... she is 12 years old.

There are places that will replace the NiCad cells in the pack for about half the cost of a new pack. And the cells are better quality too.

 

[3930dave]

There are some good nicd rebuilders around, and they usually have upgrade options for capacity.

I'd have concerns with rebuilt Lithium packs, as the safety protection is much more critical.

Rgds, D.

 

[mikehaugen]

I hate to be a downer, but I am not to happy with the Ridgid warranty. I bought a Ridgid shop vac from HD. A few weeks later, it quit. HD will not take it back. The local warranty center for Ridgid is not authorized to fix it. About the only thing they will fix is the drills. He doesn't have any ability to get Ridgid to do anything, in fact he asked me to do whatever I could to make noise there, as he had other customers that couldn't get different tools fixed. The shop does warranty work for all the brands. I tried to call the 1-800 number, but I just get referred to the local guy, who tells me he can't do anything. I threw the vac in the trash, I simply don't buy ridgid stuff anymore. I think HF has a better warranty, at least you can take stuff back to their store, and get it exchanged or money back. Any warranty that requires you to go to a 3rd party, IMHO, worthless.

I had good luck with their warranty about six years ago. I bought a new-looking stainless tub shop vac from a garage sale. The guy didn't even clean it out and their was pretty hair still in it. I imagine urine as well because the bottom of the tub had holes corroded in it. I emailed ridgid about the warranty since on their parts website they wanted as much for the tub as a new vacuum. Obviously didn't have it registered or have a receipt, just gave them model and serial number and I had a new tub on my porch in about 4 days. Things could have changed since then of course.

 

[CNC Dan]

There are some good nicd rebuilders around, and they usually have upgrade options for capacity.

I'd have concerns with rebuilt Lithium packs, as the safety protection is much more critical.

Rgds, D.

That's very true. I didn't realize that they were Li batteries.

 

[tamu94]

I hate to be a downer, but I am not to happy with the Ridgid warranty. I bought a Ridgid shop vac from HD. A few weeks later, it quit. HD will not take it back. The local warranty center for Ridgid is not authorized to fix it. About the only thing they will fix is the drills. He doesn't have any ability to get Ridgid to do anything, in fact he asked me to do whatever I could to make noise there, as he had other customers that couldn't get different tools fixed. The shop does warranty work for all the brands. I tried to call the 1-800 number, but I just get referred to the local guy, who tells me he can't do anything. I threw the vac in the trash, I simply don't buy ridgid stuff anymore. I think HF has a better warranty, at least you can take stuff back to their store, and get it exchanged or money back. Any warranty that requires you to go to a 3rd party, IMHO, worthless.

They changed filter size a few years ago and mine required an adapter. I called Ridgid and they answered right away. I had the adapter for free that week in the mail.

Make sure you register your tools or you will not get the Ridgid lifetime warranty.

All of my hand held power tools are Ridgid. They get a lot of use and I have not had any problems.

 

[3930dave]

That's very true. I didn't realize that they were Li batteries.

Just guessing that a recent Milwaukee combo set would be Li, would have to check with UR.

I liked NiCd for it's stable chemistry, sort of old-tractor like. Li is half way into super-car territory, in comparison.

Rgds, D.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yes... Lithium for the Milwaukee set I gave my niece...

 

[3930dave]

Yes... Lithium for the Milwaukee set I gave my niece...

Around 3-4 years ago, the Li packs in the Ridgid 18v tools were known to die early - both mine and my buddy's were replaced under warranty around the same time. As per a recent post, Ridgid and Milwaukee are under the same conglomerate..... quite possibly both types of tools were rolling out of the same complex in China, or at least using the same battery supplier at the time.

While Milwaukee is already perceived as a "name" brand, it is possible that the Ridgid warranty support was better (on nominally the same batteries), as the corp has a priority on building that brand name ?

It is often interesting (and valuable) to discern a products family tree. A Camry used to be one of the best deals going, (Eng. vs. $ wise) as that platform was just a de-contented Lexus. Contrasted with say.... what GM did with a Cimarron....

If I could get close to Milwaukee's (perceived) quality, at a Ridgid price, that fits my budget/needs well - and has, with a drill and impact driver.

Rgds, D.

 

[flusher]

My Rigid floor type drill press has been spinning bits for the past 8 years without a hiccup.

 

[ultrarunner]

It was one of the 18v battery packs...