1. Milwaukee 2626-20 — the most tool for the money
This is the one we’d point most renovators at — the most capable tool here for the money. It runs from 11,000 up to 18,000 OPM (oscillations per minute, how fast the blade flicks side to side) across twelve speed steps: ease it down for metal and fine detail, wind it up for clean timber, and back off again around embedded nails so you don’t cook the blade. The gear case is metal where budget tools use plastic, so it takes the knocks of living in the bottom of a bag. A head LED lights the cut line, and it ships with woodcutting blades and a sanding pad to get you started. For the everyday reno list — trimming architraves, plunging cutouts, cutting out old sealant — it has more range than you’ll usually reach for.
The one mark against it is the motor: it’s brushed, where the dearer Makita runs a brushless one (we lay out what that buys you in the brushless guide). For a tool you’ll pick up a few weekends a month that matters less than it sounds — brushed motors have cut timber for decades. What pulls it clear is the platform: M18 is the deepest pro battery range going, so one pack runs a drill, a circ saw and a hundred other tools as you grow. (Neither of us is on M18 — Matt’s on Makita, Joel’s on Ryobi — so there’s no home-team bias here; it’s the most tool for the outlay.)
2. Bosch AdvancedMulti 18 — the cheap way into cordless
If the multi-tool is an occasional job and you don’t want to spend up, the Bosch is the value entry — the cheapest skin here and the easiest to live with. Its best trick is the blade change: the AutoClic system pops a blade on or off in about three seconds, no key, which counts when a reno job has you swapping saw blade to sanding pad to scraper and back. A wide light band spreads light right across the cut. It takes Bosch’s Starlock accessories, a big, well-stocked blade range — and it lands with a starter set in the box (two blades, a sanding plate and sheets, a depth stop), more than the Makita includes, so you can cut on day one.
It sits on Bosch’s green Power for All batteries — the home-and-garden line, a step below the blue trade platform — and that’s the catch: the green range is shallower than M18 or LXT, so it’s a fine buy as a one-off and a stretch if you want to build a big kit around it. The battery and charger are sold on their own and easy to get here. For a bathroom refresh, a bit of trim work or clearing grout, it does what the dearer tools do for less. (Joel: this is the one that fits how I shop — the tool that clears Saturday’s job, and the spec sheet can wait.)
3. Makita DTM52ZX3 — the nicest one to use, for a price
The Makita is the most refined tool of the three, and if your work leans fine and fussy it’s worth a look. It’s brushless, and it runs a counterbalance system — a weight that offsets the blade’s buzz so less of it reaches your hands. On long flush cuts and delicate trimming, the counterbalance is designed to keep the tool steadier and cut the vibration you’d feel over a long session, say clearing grout. A speed dial on the body lets you set the pace and leave it. The refinement is what you’re paying for here.
It sits third on price alone. It’s the priciest skin in this group by a fair way, and for occasional DIY that’s a lot to pay for refinement you’ll feel but may not need. It drops onto Makita’s LXT range, which — like M18 — is deep enough that the battery outlives the tool. If you’re already on LXT, or you do enough close finish work that low vibration earns its keep, it’s the pick. (Matt: I run LXT and I’ll own the bias, but I’d still stop most people at the Milwaukee — this is the tool you buy once you know you’ll use it, not to find out whether you will.)
Blades, batteries and the warranty catch
The blade decides the cut as much as the tool does. Fit a blunt or wrong blade and any of these three feels gutless; fit the right one and the cheapest tool here will get through a reno list. The Milwaukee takes the common universal-fit (OIS) blades, but the Bosch and Makita both use the Starlock family — the Makita’s is StarlockMax — so a flat universal blade won’t clip onto either of them; check the mount before you stock up. Which blade suits which material, and what fits what, is its own question: we work through it in the multi-tool blade guide.
None of these prices includes a battery. A skin is the tool on its own, so a battery and charger go on top before it’ll run — and that add-on is where a cheap tool on a platform you don’t own can land dearer than a pricier tool on one you do. Cost it on the battery family you plan to keep, which is the whole argument of the platform comparison.
The warranties are worth reading for where you buy as much as how long they last. Milwaukee’s registered cover is the longest on paper, but Milwaukee AU is also clear that its manufacturer warranty doesn’t apply to marketplace or other non-authorised-retailer sales — so on the listing we link, that cover may not attach at all. Makita runs up to five years on the skin when you register with MyMakita inside 30 days, three if you skip it, with the battery at two — but only on locally supplied stock through an authorised dealer; an import or plain-packaged unit can carry no warranty at all. Bosch’s green tools sit at up to three years with registration, two without. The safe read on any of them: treat the maker’s warranty as a maybe on a marketplace buy, and know that Australian Consumer Law may still entitle you to a repair, replacement or refund if the tool turns out faulty, whoever sold it.
The verdict
You want the most tool for the money, or a platform to grow into: the Milwaukee 2626-20. Twelve speeds up to 18,000 OPM and an all-metal gearbox make it the most capable here for the everyday reno list, and M18 is the deepest range to build a cordless kit around. The brushed motor is the one compromise, and for weekend-and-a-bit use it’s a fair one.
The multi-tool’s an occasional job and you don’t want to spend up: the Bosch AdvancedMulti 18. Three-second blade changes, a proper light band and the cheapest skin here, on Bosch’s green batteries — enough tool for trim work, a bathroom refresh or clearing grout, for less than the other two. The shallower green range is the trade-off, and for a standalone buy it barely bites.
You do fine, fiddly work, or you’re already on LXT: the Makita DTM52ZX3. Brushless and counterbalanced so less buzz reaches your hands — that refinement is the draw. It’s the dearest by a way and more than casual DIY needs, which is all that holds it at third.
All three will get into the corners nothing else reaches. Work out how much cutting you’ll really do and which battery you’re happy to keep feeding, and any of them earns its spot in the shed.
