March 23, 2004
Ridgid has left the building
I'm sorry to say, Ridgid tools are now, officially, crappy. As you may know, there are two categories of handheld power tools: Good And Expensive (Porter-Cable, Dewalt, Milwaukee, Makita, etc) and Cheap And Crappy (Skil, Grizzly, Black & Decker). The only crossover to date is Ryobi, which is cheap and relatively good, or at least a good value for the money. Well, Ridgid just decided to cross over the other way. They are, officially, the first Expensive And Crappy tools. They're moving much of their manufacturing overseas, and chopped their warranty from lifetime (as it's been for ages) to 2-year. They're also supplying to lots of stores, not just Home Depot any more. And they're not lowering their prices. So why deal with that when a Dewalt is the same price? Beats me.
Steer clear of Ridgid in the future; they've gone to seed and there's better options for the same price. You'll thank me for it.
(I said handheld power tools. Grizzly's stationary tools are great, but their power tools bite the wax tadpole. They actually got consumer report's lowest rating--you know, the "will spontanously combust while molesting your cat" rating. I think they call it the Suzuki.)
Posted by danshapiro at March 23, 2004 01:03 AM | TrackBackYou are sadly mistaken on the Ridgid Power Tool program. Home Depot is still the only retail store you can purchase them in. As for the warranty, they are still the industries leader at 3 year service warranty - including the batteries. There is no one out there that can beat that. As for the prices, they are lower then Dewalt in many cases. You might want to check your facts again
Posted by: at September 20, 2004 09:08 PMI stand by my article as of the time we wrote it. Check out this, from woodworking.com:
http://www.woodworking.com/articles/index.cfm?fa=show&id=1092
Relevant points, from Jay Gatz, Ridgid brand manager:
"Initially, our tools will probably land with what's called STAFDA (Specialty Tool and Fastener Distributors of America) distribution. That's a distributor organization of companies that sell power tools and tool accessories. Period. We're also in negotiation with a number of other national tool houses." (you can buy Ridgid at a number of other sournces now, such as McMaster Carr)
"We had the largest manufacturing facility for power tools in the world, located in Paris, Tennessee. But then, as some of the categories like joiners and planers went offshore, so did we … to stay competitive. Over the years, our core competencies became design, research, and product development. And we turned to TTI, because they brought a core competency in manufacturing." TTI is located in Hong Kong, and is best known for their Ryobi brand of tools.
Also, as you can see here: http://www.ridgid.com/Manuals/RIDGID_Warranty_eng.pdf
they did indeed drop their lifetime warranty, although they backed off from 2-year and apparantly went with 3--about four months after I posted this.
http://www.ridgid.com/news/WarrantyFINAL.pdf
Finally, you may note that I never said that they were the most expensive; just that they are significantly more than the cheap vendors, like Ryobi... which is now made by the same company.
One last thing. it's fairly clear from your post that you're affiliated with Ridgid. Nobody outside the company would refer to it as the "power tool program", for example. That's wonderful and I'm flattered by the attention... but please post your affiliation or lack thereof. If you really think I'm misrepresenting Ridgid unfairly, please send me an email privately (dan~at~danshapiro.com) to discuss, and I'll post an updated article if the information warrants it.
Posted by: Dan at September 20, 2004 10:01 PM