Dremel launched a line of Home Solutions tools in late-2020, starting with a cordless screwdriver and LED flashlight. Dremel expanded the lineup with a cordless hot glue pen approximately one year ago, and just recently came out with a new 3-in-1 laser distance measuring tool.
Most Dremel Home Solutions tools feature a built-in 4V battery and USB charging, except the laser which is powered by AAA batteries.
The Home Solutions branding is fairly self-explanatory, with the line seemingly being aimed at homeowners and everyday users.
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As some readers might already be aware, 3 out of 4 of the Dremel Home Solutions products are rebranded versions of tools that are sold under Bosch and Bosch DIY branding in Europe. It seems that only the 4V flashlight was developed fresh for the US market.
The Dremel Home Solutions collection was exclusive to Home Depot. Now, Dremel has brought the entire lineup to Amazon.
By no means is this major news, but it’s an interesting turn of events. Dremel seems to have strong relationships with their retail partners, and the Home Solutions line seemed like a perfect fit at Home Depot – especially during holiday shopping seasons when promotional sales displays fill the sales floor.
It is possible that this was always the plan, that Dremel and Home Depot’s Home Solutions partnership was set to end after a set period of time. Or, any number of other reasons could have led to Dremel to bring their Home Solutions tools to Amazon.
The newest edition to the lineup, the laser distance measurer, appeared on Amazon one week after it launched on Home Depot’s website earlier this month.
Curiously, Dremel does not use Home Solutions branding in any of their product listings on Amazon. Home Depot’s product listings
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For clarity, Dremel’s Amazon listings explicitly mention that the tools are sold by Amazon.com, as opposed to being listed by third party sellers.
It will be interesting to see where Dremel takes their Home Solutions line of tools from here.
Here are the Amazon Listings:
JoeM
*Shrug* Just more proof that Dremel never should have produced these products. They’re not in line with the Dremel name. If they get discontinued, fine. I doubt they’ll sell any better on Amazon than they did in stores.
That’ll teach them, hopefully, that their Heritage lines are where they should have their focus, not on people-pleasers. Better products are sold, with better features, and more reliable warranties, by other companies. Dremel is destroying their reputation with these children’s toys, when their main tools need their attention more.
If they end up in the dust bin? Good riddance. They’ve neglected the Heritage lines, and it serves them right for trying to enter a lane they were never qualified for. And that’s me talking as Major Dremel Fan. They’re supposed to be Dremel, not Bosch Lite.
Stuart
It’s better for Dremel to bring these types of products to the USA than not having them available at all.
Ordering the Bosch versions from overseas is a hassle.
JoeM
Which is irrelevant, since Bosch releases tools here under their own name, not imported. there’s absolutely no reason to make these Dremel, they can be Bosch and still make Bosch money. When Dremel makes money, it’s for Bosch.
But there are Legacy family tools that Dremel has utterly neglected. It has nothing to do with market share at this point, bringing out a MotoSaw that isn’t made so fragile, expanding the blade types so it’s worth using, and a whole host of other accessories it requires… They’ve never materialized… The MS20-01 is the only time they’ve ever released it in modern times, and it was a really awful immitation of the old 1950’s/60’s version. Magnesium Alloy, Plastic, and a whole lot of Failure went into it… it vibrates itself to pieces if you let it. They have never upgraded to a heavier arm, or more adapted blades, or improved anything at all. The pin-down shoe that holds your work doesn’t even hold, it just slides like it has no support.
These are the kinds of neglect that Dremel needs to address, as well as Logistics. They released the new Dremel 8260 Brushless Rotary Tool, but none arrived in Canada… and have yet to be restocked. They have work like that to do far more than diversification of the portfolio. None of that means anything if they can’t keep up Quality and Logistics for the products they already make.
If they lose market share because of Bosch wanting them to be Not-Dremel, then that’s something Bosch has to take on. Dremel is a historical brand that they’re forcing outside of their lane that they excel at. This, for most companies like Milwaukee or DeWALT, doesn’t make an impact on their bottom line so much, because they have established Quality Control, Logistics, Supply Chain, and Install Base that guarantees success or failure won’t change the company’s image.
Dremel, on the other hand, does one thing better than anyone else. Rotary Tools for the universal application fields. It innovated many times over its somewhere-near-century-long existence. Stuff that failed, didn’t hurt them. Stuff they excelled at, made them desirable enough to be bought by Bosch. But their own original patents for Rotary Tools, and the MotoSaw, the very things that survived through the purchase into the modern day, they’ve neglected. They’re underproduced, and quality control has gone down. So the worst enemy of Dremel, is their Parent Company not producing enough of what makes them guaranteed money, and too much spread out across this “Diversification” in the hopes that they capture new audiences. Without the old audience as a base, which their competitors have not neglected at all, Dremel could die a very cruel death due to mismanagement of resources.
As a long-time Dremel user… that upsets me quite a bit.
Bob
Dremel rotary tools, are really only for the hobbyist, intended for light duty. I have more than 3. Whatever. Yes, in an emergency, the rotary tool bailed me out. But, in rotary tools, there are more expensive, and most likely, better built, than Dremel.
Really have zero interest in the brand.
MM
I have zero interest in these new products personally but I think the idea makes sense for Dremel. These days more and more companies are making rotary tools so the more Dremel can do to diversify their product line makes sense. It wasn’t that long ago that Dremel was really the only rotary tool brand out there, unless you counted expensive professional tools or obscure Euro brands that the average North American DIYer wouldn’t know about. They had the vast majority of the NA DIY market. These days there are far more choices and some of them have the advantage of being on a major cordless platform like Milwaukee or Ryobi.
MT_Noob
I agree with MM , I’m guessing that not only has Dremel’s market share of rotary tools been chipped away by the competition, but also probably a big share of the accessories. There might be some people that buy name brand accessories from Dremel, but I’d imagine the vast majority of regular end users are buying their accessories in bulk on line. I’d bet that also hurts Dremel’s bottom line since people can get a pack of 36 rotary grinding bits for 12 bucks for the generic ones, or 3.50 for a single Dremel one. I’m not advocating one over the other, but I think that online shopping and cheap imports have really changed the market.
Rx9
The “cheap imports” thing is ironic as most of the accessories dremel sells are made in china anyway.
If whatever the main brand is hawking is made in the same Shenzhen factory, why not save a few bucks and cut out the middle man?
MM
There can be a huge difference depending on who the buyer is from that factory in China. Some buyers don’t care if the factory sends them crap quality tools, they will happily resell it anyway. Meanwhile big brands like Dremel, Dewalt, Milwaukee, etc, all have things made in China, yet they are big enough players that the factories know they can’t get away with substandard goods. I will put the quality of a Dremel-branded tool bit over a YZIGHY branded one, even if both were made in China.
I’ve bought my share of cheapo rotary tool bits over the years off Amazon and out of the old Enco and MSC flyers…they have universally been quite poor quality to Dremel branded bits. That’s not to say that Dremel is the end-all be-all though, I find many companies make far superior carbide burrs compared to Dremel. Proxxon’s bits are nice too.
fred
I too have succumbed to trying cheapo burrs – only to remember long-forgotten curse words as they failed.
Conversely – I have Kutzall and Foredom-Typhoon made in USA burrs that have set the bar for my expectations on cutting and longevity.
DRT42
Thanks for the burr suggestions, Fred. I will have to give those a try. I have been using Buckeye Carbide with pretty good success, but always open to try something different.
szymon
I have the screwdriver. (purchased from HD in Canada) and it has been great for what I used it for.
Disassembling screws from various equipment. Mounting monitors to mounts etc.
Only think think I wish was better is the bit holder.
I would prefer an impact style chuck vs a magnetic bit holder.
I wanted to purchase the Bosch version of it but I found it to be discontinued.
The rest of the stuff doesn’t really interest me.
Jared
I have it too. It’s not exactly a “XR Fuel Atomic HO” tool, but it’s not bad at turning screws. I’m not going to build a deck with it, but it can be handy to swap out an electrical outlet.
The construction feels good to me, not cheap. Variable speed would be cool, but then it starts to become a more sophisticated tool.
I got mine on clearance for $20 Canadian and I’m more than satisfied for the price.
Jared
BTW, the other stuff doesn’t interest me either – it’s really just the screwdriver I think is alright.
Flashlight? Just pick an Olight model and get something nicer.
Glue pen? If they had dressed the Bosch “Gluey” in Dremel guise it would be different enough to be interesting. Ryobi’s cordless mini glue gun is far more tempting than what they decided to release.
Measuring tool? It’s ok. It does have some unique features that might appeal to some users. Overall I’d rather grab a Bosch or Dewalt Atomic laser distance measurer.
Rx9
Dremel should be on the Bosch 12v system.
With that point out of the way, a 4v system should exist that just uses 18650 or 21700 cells.
There would be a huge demand for this even if the battery system isn’t proprietary.
That said, it just occurred to me why tool companies are reticent to do this. The whole crux of the problem is current draw.
The ability of lithium cells to run at a certain current without overheating varies wildly. Some cells can store more energy but run at a lower max current. These are used in low current applications like laptops and electronics. Power tools need a lot more current, so they run special high current draw cells with lower energy capacity (mAh rating).
The current capacity bottleneck can often be solved by running in parallel, which is why larger packs have often proportionally more capacity.
Getting back to the 4v system question, perhaps what’s needed is a semi proprietary 18650 or 21700 cell. They already make usb charger port tipped cells, so we know extra electronics can be built into these cells.
My idea is a standard size battery with a third contact, somewhere at the end. This contact would allow the tools to differentiate high draw from low draw cells, throttling current and preventing overheating. It would probably be ring shaped to prevent seating issues for the tool contact.
Marketing literature would have to make clear that although the tools could run on any standard battery, only the proprietary cells would unlock peak performance ( i.e. safe high current draw).
A whole slew of applications way beyond lightning could build a 4v system up including:
-thermal clothing and gear
-electronic test equipment, from simple voltmeters to oscilloscopes
– IR scanners/thermometers
-laser distance/leveling tools
– inspection cameras
– specialized test equipment like EM field meters or geiger counters
– engravers
– rotary tools
– screwdrivers
-soldering irons
– audio equipment
– detail – focused oscillating multi tool
– rotary cutter
– pin nailer
-stapler
and probably a few more…
Brian
Is it me or does $40 for a cheap chinese made 500 lumen flashlight seem excessive?
MM
It does. I can’t help but feel the same way about many of the fancier lights that are sold under big names like Dewalt, Milwaukee, Makita, etc. Many of these lights can cost well over $100…but really all that’s inside that housing is a little bit of wire and an LED. When you think that you can buy much more complex power tools that contain motors, gearboxes, chucks, etc. for the same or less money it really shows just how much profit is made on lighting. I’m not saying those lights can’t generate good value for money for a contractor or a mechanic, but the price paid for what is actually inside the tool seems out of whack a lot of the time, especially compared to other tools on the market. I’d bet that the manufacturer’s margin on a lighting product is many times higher than that on say, a drill or a saw.
Stacey Jones
Yep. Chinese tools at European prices. 😂😂😂