How to Analyze Cordless Power Tool Deals

I have been analyzing cordless power tool deals for a very long time now, and found that it can be quick and easy, or frustratingly difficult.

Judging from the many questions I’ve fielded or seen online, a lot of people don’t know where to begin.

The quality of the answers you might get from strangers on the internet or social media can vary greatly. Making matters worse, inexperienced “shopping experts” on mass media sites regularly dole out bad advice in the pursuit of affiliate commission payments.

If you frequent online forums, social media, or Reddit, you might see questions like: Is this a good deal?

Almost every time I see that question, it’s for tool deals or promos that are fairly easy to analyze in a couple of minutes.

Questions to Ask and Consider

When analyzing tool deals, here are some questions to ask, followed by a couple of case studies.

What’s the TRUE value? How much would it cost to buy the same tools right NOW?

Are there better values? Will I save more money by waiting?

You can ask others for opinions, but be prepared for mixed helpfulness. While most people mean well, “I bought that for $XYZ 8 years ago” shouldn’t impact your decision if the price went up 5 years ago and hasn’t changed since then.

Case Study: Milwaukee M12 Fuel Installation Drill

A lot of people have increasingly been judging deals by their markdown value. That’s of course why consumer products often have “list prices” that are much higher than their everyday retail prices.

This Milwaukee M12 Fuel installation drill/driver is $179 at Home Depot right now, and is listed as a “special buy.”

If someone asks “is it a good deal,” some of the replies might focus on the 10% discount from the $199 list price. You might see comments such as I’d wait for at least a 25% discount.

However, from what I have seen, you are not going to see a 25% discount on that kit. That’s not how Milwaukee does things.

They could of course deviate from the norm, as they sometimes do, but we can only go by historical pricing.

To be fair, it takes experience and familiarity with pricing trends to know which tools are likely to be discounted, and which aren’t. But if you suggest that someone waits for a 25% discount on a tool that’s never discounted beyond a specific “special buy” price, they’ll be waiting a very long time.

If you want to spend less than $179 on that kit, you’re going to have to wait for coupon or “buy more, save more” offers and hope that the kit doesn’t revert to its list price of $199.

This happens a lot, where promotionally-priced tools are rarely eligible for other discounts or promos, although there are some exceptions to this.

The M12 Fuel installation drill/driver set is consistently on sale for $179, and when it does go “on sale,” the promo usually involves a bonus battery. Last fall there was a deal where you bought the kit for $199 and got a bonus M12 tool.

Is $179 a good price for that kit? Yes, and no. Yes, it’s the typical price, no it’s not the best deal. If you wait a little, you might be able to spend the same money and get a bonus battery or similar at no extra cost.

This will come to light with a bit of research. Grab the model number, “2505-22” and search blogs, deal forums, Reddit, or similar. You should be able to piece together a rough price history, even if you only look at Black Friday deal coverage.

Case Study: Milwaukee M18 Compact Brushless Drill Kit

This Milwaukee M18 compact brushless drill kit is on sale for $99 at Home Depot. (The “on sale” part is tricky, as it’s more accurate to describe this as a “special buy” for $99 at Home Depot.)

Home Depot says you “save $100.00 (50%)” compared to the strikethrough price of $199.00.

Someone online will ask “is this a good deal,” and there will always be someone that says “yes – you’re saving 50%!”

This kit is very aggressively priced, but I don’t consider this to be a 50% discount. The 1-battery promo kit is the same $99 price maybe 6 months out of the year, if not more.

I suspect this is a loss leader for Milwaukee, but we’re not talking about value here, we’re talking about the retail price.

The drill and impact driver combo kit is a $189 special buy at Home Depot and elsewhere right now, which is typical during promo seasons.

The 2-tool combo does not sell for less, but you can find it at its off-season price of $239 at some retailers. Should you buy it for that price? Of course not.

Home Depot has the 2-battery drill kit for $199. DO NOT BUY THIS KIT.

If I was looking at the drill and 2-battery kit, I would instead buy the 2-tool combo kit for $189, and get everything you see here plus an impact driver. Or, I could buy two of the 1-battery kit for $198 and get an extra drill, charger, and tool bag. The 2-battery kit is not a good value when you can get a lot more for the same money.

So while the 1-battery kit is a great value at $99, you’re not saving $100. Is the 1-battery kit ever valued at $199 when the 2-battery kit is sold for that price year-round?

Is the 1-battery cordless drill kit a good deal? ABSOLUTELY, even though you’re rarely going to see it budge from its $99 price.

I tend to observe the M12 compact brushless drill and impact driver 1-battery kits in two different states – in-stock at $99, or out of stock.

Case Study: Dewalt Miter Saw

Corded power tools tend to be much easier to analyze than cordless power tools.

Is the Dewalt DWS779 12″ sliding miter saw a good buy at $399? Yes, that’s its typical seasonal price these days.

For something like this, grab the model number and look up prior season’s Black Friday sales flyers.

Can you do better than $399? Yes. Easily? No.

I don’t always report on recurring seasonal pricing, but you’ll hear from me when I find better than usual pricing. For instance, Dewalt’s flagship sliding miter saw went on sale for $424 last September – Hot Deal: Dewalt 12″ Sliding Miter Saw is on Sale with Stacked Savings. Or rather, it went on sale for $499 and was also eligible for a coupon offer.

Case Study: Bosch 18V Drill and Impact Driver Combo

Lowe’s has a Bosch 18V 2-tool combo kit for $159.

I’m not familiar with these tools, making this combo kit suitable for a deal analysis example.

They’re advertising it as a $555 value if purchased separately. You’ll find similar marketing nonsense on a lot of cordless power tool combos these days. Just ignore that part; even if technically accurate, such valuations are unrealistic.

I think that many people will use such claims to make purchasing decisions, which is why brands and retailers still do it.

With this Bosch 18V 2-tool combo kit, the first thing I notice is the Bluetooth module on the side of the impact driver. Bosch’s budget-focused tools don’t usually have that. The impact also looks to have speed control settings on its base. Again, combo kits in this price range do not typically have premium impact driver features like that.

This is what piqued my interest about this particular Bosch 18V tool kit, after discussing it yesterday in a post about Lowe’s new marketing tactic.

I grabbed the model number (GXL18V-27B22) to look it up elsewhere.

Amazon also has this 2-tool combo kit at $159. The strikethrough price is also $199, and Amazon labels it as a “limited time deal.”

$159 seems to be the going price at authorized dealers right now.

The specs are average – 400 in-lbs torque for the drill, 1800 in-lbs for the impact. The drill tops out at 1900 RPM. The model numbers are GSR18V-400 for the drill, and GDR18V-1800 for the impact.

It’s time to find an approximate value for the set – one that’s more realistic than Bosch’s claim of $555.

The 1-battery drill kit is $95 via a 3rd party listing on Amazon. The 2-battery kit is $179 on Amazon, and eligible for a “clickable” $20 coupon, bringing it down to $159. Lowe’s has the 1-battery drill kit for $99.

Acme has the 1-battery kit for $99. Add at least $1 of eligible products (they have a bunch of power tool accessories at ~$2 and up), and you save $20.

Basically, this is Bosch’s entry-priced cordless drill. I’m considering its purchase value to be $99, but it might be as low as $79. Bosch has offered cordless drill kits at $79 before.

Amazon has the 1-battery impact driver as a limited time deal for $119. Acme also has it for $119, and it’s not eligible for their current Bosch savings coupon promo.

Lowe’s makes you add it to your cart to reveal the price of $141.20.

The 1-battery drill kit is $99, and the 1-battery impact driver kit is $119. The 2-tool combo kit is $159.

(I’m not considering the drill kit as $79 because it would normally be excluded from added coupon savings, and I think Acme’s inclusion might have been a slip-up.)

It looks like everything is the same, except buying both 1-battery kits gives you an extra charger.

For context, Milwaukee’s M18 compact brushless kits are $99 each, and the 2-tool combo is $189. You save $9 unless you want another charger.

Dewalt’s 20V Max Atomic drill kit is $99 at Home Depot, and so is their Atomic Series impact driver. The 2-tool combo is $169, saving you $29 over buying the separate 1-battery kits.

As an aside, I feel that the Atomic series kits and combo are a better value than in previous years, now that the updated models are paired with a single 2Ah battery instead of 1.3Ah batteries.

Bosch’s impact kit might be $99 at other times (I didn’t check), but right now its lowest price is $119 for the 1-battery kit.

All that said, the Bosch combo seems decent at $159. I wouldn’t say it’s a great deal, but this appears to be a reasonable seasonal “special buy” price and a good bargain for what you get.

I don’t know it’s history, but I determined its approximate value. I would alternatively have to spend $198 to $218 right now, to get the same tools, although that sum would get me an extra charger and tool bag. That’s quite a bit far off from the “$555 value” claim.

With Bosch or Dewalt, I’d more closely consider the 2-tool combo kits, due to the monetary savings. With Milwaukee, I’d more closely consider getting separate 1-battery kits if I wanted the extra charger and bag for $9 more.

HOWEVER, I just noticed something.

As mentioned above, the Bosch’s combo combo kit image shows their more premium 18V brushless impact driver.

From the image, that’s the Bosch GDR18V-1800C impact that launched in 2019.

However, I just realized that the model number that’s listed as an inclusion, and shown in subsequent product images, is for a different tool.

Bosch’s main image for the combo shows the GDR18V-1800C impact. Other images and the description say it’s the GDR18V-1800 impact. These are different tools.

Look at the charger in the 2-tool combo kit – it’s not the same as Bosch’s premium charger. That’s not unexpected for entry-priced and seasonal “special buy” cordless power tool combo kits. The kit is also bundled with Bosch’s entry-priced drill.

There are times when an entry-priced drill is bundled with a premium impact driver. This apparently is not one such case.

The impact in the main product image – shown here on the left with the other kit inclusions cropped out – clearly has a Bluetooth module socket cap on the side of the handle, with its coin slot for convenient opening, and also a button at the base for speed and torque selection. On the right is an image of the impact that you actually get with the 2-tool combo kit.

This is the 1-battery promo kit for the tool listed as GDR18V-1800.

The main image for the Bosch 18V GXL18V-27B22 2-tool combo kit, as shown in Amazon and Lowe’s listings, as well as Bosch’s website, shows the GDR18V-1800C impact driver, with Bluetooth module socket and 3 speed/torque settings. But what you get is the single speed GDR18V-1800 that lacks those features.

The tools are similar, but not the same.

Someone at Bosch made a mistake.

This is unfortunate, but it’s not uncommon. There are sometimes discrepancies between what is shown in product images, and what you get. This is especially true every holiday season.

The inaccurate image doesn’t change my analysis of the deal. $159 still seems alright for what you get, but in my mind, that’s just a combination of the $99 drill kit and a $99 impact driver kit, seeing as how you don’t get the premium version of the impact.

Given that you don’t get the better impact, the Bosch 2-tool deal is far less interesting.

It adds new context to the standalone impact driver kit, which I’d now consider a bad value at its current price of $119 – or $141 and change at Lowe’s – considering what competing tool brands are selling for less.

This serves as a good reminder that you need to look at the images, title, model number, and description. If something doesn’t agree, you have to make a judgement call to determine what you’re actually getting.

Case Study: Dewalt Atomic Bundle

Poking around Home Depot’s website, I came across this Dewalt 20V Max Atomic 2-tool cordless combo kit, with a drill, reciprocating saw, compact charger, 2x 2Ah batteries, and bag.

I’ve never seen this combo kit before.

They have the online price at $299, and it’s supposedly on clearance at my local store for $159.

The drill with battery and a different charger is $99. I bought the tool-only reciprocating saw for $129 when it first came out, and it’s regularly the same price despite a higher list price. This kit also has a second 2Ah battery. $159 seems like an excellent price.

Acme Tools has the same kit for $199 right now. Is that the everyday “special buy” price? Maybe. $99 for the drill kit + $129 for the tool-only saw at its current “special buy” price… yeah, $199 seems reasonable.

Acme also says that this kit is 33% off its $299 price, with $100 savings. I was thinking $228 ($99 + $129) was a fairer value estimation, but the kit has 2x batteries, not just 1x as would be included in the Atomic $99 kit.

What value do we give a 2Ah battery? Seeing as how Lowe’s has a Dewalt 20V Max battery 4-pack for $149 right now, and Home Depot has a 3Ah battery 2-pack for $99, we can’t take its $99 retail price (via Home Depot) at face value, or even its $149 price for two.

So let’s say… $30?

Thus, Acme’s price is $199 for what I’d consider to be a value of $258. That’s pretty good, and even better than what I first considered.

$159 on clearance at local stores? Even better.

I don’t think that my local store had any deals on this kit recently. A search for the model number (DCK208D2) doesn’t turn up many results. There are few online reviews and they only go back a month or two.

That’s really strange. How is it that a combo kit I never saw or heard of is already on clearance? Maybe it appeared for “Spring Black Friday” sales. Was $199 its special buy price, and $159 now its clearance price?

Deal analysis isn’t black and white.

In this example, I know the Dewalt Atomic drill kit is promotionally priced at $99, and I know the average cost of the rarely-discounted reciprocating saw. There are promos on occasion, where you might get a free battery, or you might get the saw for free with a battery or starter kit purchase, but it’s not like it will ever sell for $79 via authorized dealers.

Let’s say that we took Home Depot’s “online price” of $299 at face value. Is that a good price?

Dewalt’s Atomic drill and impact driver combo kit is $169 right now, and the reciprocating saw is $129. At today’s pricing, you can get the same drill, saw, and batteries, a different charger, and an impact driver, for $1 less. $299 might be the off-season list price, but it’s not a good value.

If Home Depot didn’t mention their in-store clearance price of $159, and Acme didn’t have it listed at $199, I’d say that $299 was not a good value since you could spend the same and get more.

Now that we have a historical price point for this Dewalt DCK208D2 kit, we can analyze future deals or promotions. We know that $199 seems to be the seasonal price, and Home Depot had it on in-store clearance for $159.

Should I Wait?

Let’s say you’re in the market for the Dewalt drill and reciprocating saw deal, but miss the sale and clearance price.

Should you wait for another deal? What’s on the horizon?

Dewalt tends to have similar holiday deals every year, where you buy a 2-battery starter kit for $199 and get a free tool. Last year’s selection didn’t have the one-handed Atomic reciprocating saw, but they did have the other compact brushless model.

So with the best deals of the year, you could get a brushless reciprocating saw, 2x batteries, charger, and then a separate Atomic drill kit with 2Ah battery and charger. The total would be $298, compared to $299 for the 2-tool Atomic bundle at Home Depot right now.

The $199 starter kit plus a free bonus tool or battery deal is a good benchmark. This deal, and others like it, changes slightly year to year, every holiday season.

They had another deal where you buy a Dewalt XR brushless hammer drill and premium Atomic impact driver, kitted with 2x 4Ah batteries, and get a free tool, for $299.

So that would be a better drill, fantastic flagship Atomic Series impact, higher capacity batteries, and pricier brushless reciprocating saw. $299 buys you a lot during the holiday season.

The higher tier promotions are much more likely to change year to year, making them less reliable as recurring benchmarks.

Predicting Future Deals

A lot of people will talk about past deals, and there’s definitely value in doing so, but only if similar pricing can be realistically expected to be repeated. Holiday promotions change, but “bonus buy” deals look to be a permanent holiday season fixture.

What about other kinds of predictions?

Thanks to a reader (thanks Big Richard!), we know that Dewalt has a new next-gen 8Ah battery on the way.

Dewalt ran aggressive promos for their PowerStack battery. We know that another new Milwaukee Forge battery is on the way. Milwaukee hasn’t pushed the Forge 6Ah battery very strongly in the year since it was announced.

I think that Dewalt is going to be very vocal about their new battery next month, just as Milwaukee starts talking about their new Forge 12Ah battery.

Both companies are likely to have marketing budgets to promote their next-gen batteries, knowing that this could influence tool users’ purchasing decisions.

I would bet we’re going to see heavy promotions on both sides. Dewalt might also promote their compact and 5Ah PowerStack batteries alongside the new higher capacity next-gen batteries.

Are we going to see new promotions on say the Milwaukee M18 Fuel Hackzall reciprocating saw? Probably not. Might we see a bunch of “buy this get a free battery/starter kit” type deals for Dewalt? I think so, but it’s not guaranteed.

The holiday shopping season is a little over 5 months away. There’s plenty of time for new deals before that, aside from typical Memorial Day, July 4th, and July Prime Day sales events.

Some promotions are highly predictable. Others are not.

When analyzing tool deals, I consider prior promotions and current next-best prices to determine value. I might consider future deals, but I try to avoid focusing too heavily on hypotheticals.

For example, I’m going to try to visit my local Home Depot store tomorrow, to see if I can snag the Dewalt Atomic 2-tool (drill and recip) set at the $159 clearance price. My wife’s uncle’s stepson is getting married and moving out, and I was asked to put together a first tool kit for him. The Atomic drill kit was already on my shortlist, and $60 more for a compact recip saw and extra battery seems great.

The Atomic reciprocating saw doesn’t have as deep a promotional history or as predictable a promotional future as the 1-battery drill kit. Add in some “maybe…” hypotheticals, and I might be waiting for deals that never materialize.

If I miss the Dewalt deal, such as if my Home Depot sold out or can’t find them, I won’t wait to see if there will be a similar or better promo at a later time, as it might never come. What I’d do is look for an alternate deal or two. Father’s Day deal inventory should be hitting stores soon, if it’s not out already, giving us a good look at the bulk of the next month of “special buy” promos.

Final Case Study: Bosch 12V Screwdriver Kit

I am a big fan of cordless screwdrivers.

This Bosch 12V Max brushless screwdriver kit, GSR12V-300HXB22, is on sale at Amazon for $129.

Is it a good deal?

I can analyze it for you, but… the 12V Max FlexiClick drill/driver is also $129 as a limited time deal on Amazon.

The long-in-the-tooth brushed motor screwdriver kit is $89.

If you’re specifically looking at Bosch’s 12V Max platform, I’d say get the brushless multi-head drill/driver, which is nearly identical to the brushless screwdriver when equipped with the quick-release bit chuck, or save money and go with the brushed motor cordless screwdriver.

Someone else might have strong preferences or justification for the standalone brushless screwdriver kit, but at the same price the brushless FlexiClick has a screwdriver head and delivers very similar functionality and performance, and also comes with other attachments that might come in handy someday.

There are a lot of deals where analysis involves looking at other products. This is where asking for others’ opinions and input might be beneficial.

Questions?

There are so many nuances, trends, and patterns, and also non-cyclic randomness to cordless power tool promotions.