3 Month Review - Kobalt 24v MAX Brushless Tools

BIG FAILURE!... I have had my Kobalt 24v MAX Brushless tools for a little over three months now and while I liuke tyhem, I have already had a major failure. Today I am taking my cordless drill back to Lowes to find out how easy (or difficult) returning a broken/defective Kobalt cordless tool really is.

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We hope you enjoyed this video and will keep in mind that all information included is intended to be purely academic and in fact is only the opinion of D&E. We are not professionals, nor are we qualified to knight you a professional. D&E want to ensure that anyone modify or fixing their own vehicle does so in a safe manner which leaves the vehicle in a legal, roadworthy state. In short, DON'T BE A MONKEY WITH A TOOL BOX! If you don't know what you are doing, leave it the professionals!

[badatbass]

As someone who works at Lowes, I can say Kobalt has a Lifetime Hassle Free Guarantee. If the tool breaks at any point due to a malfunction, you can take it to a Lowes and they have to give you a new one, even if it's past the warranty. In your case, it was a malfunction. You could have sat on that tool for like ten years and exchanged it lol. If you had busted it though through malpractice, it might have been a different story.

[alanhuerta]

I have the kobalt 24v Max and some XTR for home use.... I also have Milwaukee M12 and M18 for work as a heavy equipment apprentice mechanic... They are both awesome.... I started with kobalt and had absolutely no complaints on the tools themselves they performed just as good as any other cordless tool my boss had.... However the only reason I made the switch to Milwaukee was the wider range of tools they offer... If kobalt started releasing a wider range of cordless tools i would have stayed with them without any doubts or Kobalt is the best bang for the buck hands down... quality, performance, affordability and a great warranty. I have no regrets purchasing my kobalt tools. I would recommend them to everyone for home use and depending on your trade for professional use as well...just check the tool line up and if every tool you're going to need for your career is there, buy it 👍

[gryffydd]

I’ve had the 1/2” impact for a year; and it’s been solid. Got the 90 degree 3/8 impact and it’s been great for hard to get to bolts/nuts. Friend borrowed both to work on his 1967 c10 based bus RV and has loved them. Just got the baby 3/8 and it’s been great so far. Have the drill, but not needed it much, so still forming opinion.

[davidcederquist]

Well, this might throw you for a loop, I used to be a Milwaukee fan boy, all kinds of Milwaukee tools, power, hand, and toolbox. I sold all of it and switched to Kobalt because of the quality, power, and cost value compared to Big Red. I couldn't be happier with my choice to switch. What most people don't know is Kobalt is made by the same company that makes Ego yard tools and flex tools. Kobalt is the best value diamond hiding in plain sight... Every tool company will have a defective tool from time to time, the biggest difference is how the warranty is handled. Lowe's again beats Home Depot and Milwaukee hands down. I now have all Kobalt tools, hand tools, power tools, toolbox, lawn equipment and yard hand tools. I have not set foot in a Home Depot for over a year. Lowe's has better customer service, pricing and just makes me feel like a valued customer more then Home Depot and Milwaukee ever did.
This is coming from a maintenance technician at an apartment complex...
Kobalt is awesome!

[tangoindiamike]

I started with the same Kobalt kit. After a couple of years, my driver started behaving the same way. I took it back to Lowe's. They said I had to exchange the entire kit. I ended up getting a whole new kit. The 5 year guarantee date starts all over again. At first they tried to give me the same schtick about 90 day return and then the warranty. I told them, "the box says 5 year guarantee. A warranty is for repair. A guarantee is for replacement". They replaced it. I now have about 16 different Kobalt tools and about 13 chargers and batteries. I'm very pleased with my Kobalt decision.

[timadams]

When the LED blinks and the battery needs to be removed/reinstalled to use the tool again, it’s an issue in the trigger switch not being fully released, and the electric brake doesn’t engage, and it then throws a fault code. To fix this….. fully squeeze the trigger, and then slide your finger quickly off of the trigger and just let the trigger ‘snap’ back into place. Problem should be resolved the first time, but it might take a time or two to get the trigger to ‘reseat’ and clear the issue.

[leemassey]

I have every single kobalt power tool. No issues and have been using them for 6 years heavily. I'm a professional home renovator and am very pleased with the brand. Plus I like blue and black more than yellow and black. Their batteries are also better than dewalt and much cheaper.

[theyodaman]

I'm a semi mechanic and I have just about every Kobalt power tool that I can benefit from (witch is a lot) and I have never had any issue with any of them. I've had them all for about 2 years now and the impacts are still powerful and the batteries are still holding strong. I also use harbor freights Hercules 12 volt line and have no issues with them either. I use them mostly for interior work. To be fair I do have a snap on CT9080 1/2 inch battery impact and a snap on CT9100 3/4 inch battery impact for the really nasty tight stuff. The two snap on tools cost me more than all the Kobalt and Hercules tools combined. Love the Kobalt stuff.

[kiddyolead]

I use the kolbalt 24 volt max for my job I jave the drill, impact, palm sander, router, small reciprocating saw, skill saw, multi cutter, vacuum, leaf blower, mini saw, and the grinder. The only issue I have had in about three years since making the switch was during mixing concrete with the drill. I guess it got too hot and just needed to cool down. Everything is still trucking like a champ. Its well worth the money I love them. P.S. original battery is still fully operational after 3 years.

[iamlou]

I bought into kobalt couple years ago and have loved every one of them with no problems and issues in fact I work at a car dealer ended up with two other drills through different deals I took one to work and told the guys to use it in abusing I want to see how good of a product it is in three years later like I said in a car dealer everyone uses it over top of the Milwaukee love Cobalt

[matthewtwright]

I worked at Lowes 15 years, used battery powered tools there everyday, we used DeWalt there and I have DeWalt at the house now. Not saying the kobalt isn't good. I had a kobalt air compressor that broke at like 4 months of not even being used much. My own experiences and seeing the revolving door of returns kinda turned me off on kobalt powered stuff.

[timothygolden]

I have the 24V brushless impact driver; had one fail and had a horrible time getting it replaced, but finally after much finger pointing back and forth between the factory and the Lowe's people, a manager walked me back and got me a new box. It was traumatically painful however getting them to honor their stinking warranty. So I have mixed feelings. Thanks for doing this review.

[JamieNelsonthedeadcat]

My whole business is blue wall to wall. Cordless, corded, toolboxes, tool belts … everything in my truck and in my shop is Kobalt. And I love them all.

[mos]

i have used and broken almost every tool ive used, incl ones my work owned, very rarely was it due to abuse, mainly hard use day in day out for months. Longevity and Reliability are far more important than ft lbs and lights and so on, its why every const site has some sort of SKIL worm drive like the MAG77, a dewalt comp. sliding db miter saw, milwaukee sawzall, etc. they DONT have a cordless/corded metabo hpt 36v hammer drill.. or the Bosch Surgeon, etc. ...YET....

[ozarklanding]

I too decided to go with Kobalt a few years ago. No issues to date for me and I’ve added a number of tools since. They’re getting used quite a bit now as I’m finishing my house build. Thanks for doing this…

[saudk]

I have had Kobalt for around 4 years now.. they original drill and impact wrench work great..although I am in no way a weekly user of these tools.. but they have never let me down unless I was asking to much of the tool (like using the impact wrench to open lug nuts). I also have the impact driver for it. and it opens the lug nuts all day every day.. so I am impressed with the quality.

[macsloan]

I own Dewalt almost exclusively. I needed a battery powered sprayer and bought the Kobalt 24 v. 2 gallon Tank sprayer. It crapped out almost immediately. I took it back for an exchange and Lowe’s gladly exchanged for a new one. So far, the second one is okay.

[justinpaone]

I bought rigid tools from home Depot 7 years ago and have had zero issues. The original battery still work good. DeWalt batteries are dead by now. Ridgid also warranties those batteries for life. I have bought several Mill walkie since then but I'm still a huge fan of rigid.

[j.r.]

When I worked for my Uncles construction company we used a ton of Dewalt, Makita and Milwaukee tools and always had really good luck with them but none of them were cordless tools though due to this being in the 90’s and early 2000’s.

In 2003 we moved to a small, rural town and it got its first Home Depot maybe 10 years ago. But Lowe’s is still over and hour to an hour and a half away. If we had a closer Lowe’s, I would love to try out some of their Kobalt tools because I have heard pretty good things about them.

[bluesky-udwg]

That is a huge +++, going to the store and not having an issue when the manager got involved. That's is how it should be, no hassle