The argument this site is built on
We built a house together, and somewhere around the second month the tool conversation stopped being a conversation. Matt had bought into Makita. Joel had bought into Ryobi. Neither of us was going to change platforms with thousands of dollars already sunk into batteries, so we spent two and a half years arguing it every smoko instead. This page is the closest that argument has come to a written verdict.
The stakes, in one paragraph: cordless tools run on batteries, batteries only fit their own brand, and batteries cost serious money. By your third tool, switching brands means rebuying the whole battery collection — so the platform you pick this year is the platform you’ll still be buying in 2036. Three quick terms before the cases, because the tool aisle assumes you know them: a skin is the tool sold bare with no battery or charger (that’s why shelf prices look so low), a kit bundles battery and charger in, and Ah (amp-hours) is the battery’s fuel tank — a 4Ah pack runs about twice as long as a 2Ah.
Right. The case for each, hardest numbers first.
The case for Makita LXT — 9.1
Makita is what’s on actual job sites, and that’s the whole pitch: this gear survives tradies. The 18V LXT range runs past 300 products and it’s deep where the other two are thin — proper rotary hammers, full-size saws, the heavy gear a renovation eventually demands. It’s also the only platform here you can shop around on: authorised Makita dealers compete with each other, so genuine sales happen. And it’s the only one of the three with a real second-hand market — used LXT tools sell for proper money, so part of what you pay comes back if you ever exit.
Now the bill. The DHP484 drill — the platform’s default entry point — is $199–$219 as a skin. A genuine 5Ah battery is about $134, and a working shed wants two of them. Do that maths across five tools and the Makita premium isn’t a rounding error, it’s a second platform’s worth of money. The warranty is the shortest here — three years, and only if you register within 30 days — and the sharpest online prices are usually “plain packaging” parallel imports that may carry no Australian warranty at all. Check who’s selling before you click.
Where it falls down: if your tools come out one weekend a month, you’re paying for durability you’ll never spend. Matt’s answer is that he’d rather own one drill for fifteen years than two drills for seven. Matt also reuses zip-lock bags.
The case for Ryobi One+ — 8.6
Ryobi’s number is 300+ tools on one battery, and unlike Makita’s 300, the long tail is the point: glue guns, inflators, stick vacs, misting fans, a whole caravan-and-camping wing. The battery you bought for a drill ends up running half the garage — that’s the real economics of the green platform, and it’s why Joel’s shed looks the way it does. The warranty is the longest on this page at six years. And the compatibility record is genuinely unmatched in the industry: every One+ battery made since 1996 fits every One+ tool made since 1996. Thirty years of proof that your batteries won’t be orphaned.
The catches. That six-year warranty is really four plus two — you get the extra two only by registering online within 30 days, and the terms require the tool to have been bought at Bunnings, which is the platform’s official home in Australia. Genuine One+ batteries are effectively Bunnings-only too; the marketplace listings that look like Ryobi batteries are third-party clones. Pricing sits squarely between the other two: the R18PD3 percussion drill — the closest like-for-like to the Makita above — is about $98 as a skin, less than half the DHP484’s price, while the dearer end of the range climbs fast (the brushless blower we reviewed runs $229–$249). Mid-tier money for mid-tier gear with an exceptional ecosystem around it.
Where it falls down: at the hard end. Drive hundreds of batten screws into hardwood or cut sheet goods all day and the HP brushless line, good as it’s become, still isn’t trade gear. Joel’s answer is that he doesn’t do those things, and neither do you.
The case for Ozito PXC — 7.9
Ozito wins one argument outright, and it happens at the counter: the impact driver is about $109 as a skin, and the range starts under $100. Then it wins a second argument nobody expects — the warranty is the most generous of the three. Five years on every PXC tool, and it’s a replacement warranty with no registration: the tool dies in year four, you walk it back to Bunnings with the receipt, they hand you a new one. The cheapest platform on this page has the least homework and the best cover. Sit with that for a second, because the marketing of all three brands points the other way.
The catches are the boundaries. The 125+ tool range covers what households actually use — drill, driver, saws, garden gear — and thins out fast at the specialist end. The warranty needs a Bunnings register receipt, so buy it at Bunnings and photograph the docket (thermal paper fades to blank). Run it on clone batteries and the warranty is void — that’s in the terms, not folklore. Top-end grunt is a class below the other two, and resale is close to zero: nobody’s shopping for second-hand Ozito.
Where it falls down: ambition. The day you start framing a pergola is the day the platform’s ceiling stops being theoretical. Until that day — and for most households that day never comes — the dearer platforms are charging you for capability you won’t touch.
Money and fine print, all three
The battery maths is the part nobody prices at the counter, so price it now: a two-battery setup on Makita costs about as much as the tools it powers ($134 a battery), Ryobi and Ozito genuine packs are cheaper but Bunnings-only, and the clone batteries flooding online marketplaces are a trap on every platform — they void Ozito’s warranty outright and they’re the usual culprit when a “platform” tool dies young.
Warranties attach to where you buy. Official channel: full headline warranty. Third-party marketplace seller: your rights sit with that seller under Australian Consumer Law, and the Bunnings counter owes you nothing. A cheap listing with no claimable warranty and a dearer one with five years of replacement are different products wearing the same name — fold that into every price comparison you make.
And read range counts the way Matt does: all three numbers count every variant and kit combination a marketer could find. The question that matters is whether the tools on your next five jobs exist in the range. For most home DIYers all three pass — which is exactly why the decision comes down to the cases above.
The verdict
Tools come out occasionally — flat-packs, hooks, small repairs: Ozito PXC, 7.9. Cheapest entry by a distance, best warranty on the page, and the savings buy your second battery.
Regular DIY — projects most months, garden gear, a growing shed: Ryobi One+, 8.6. The biggest ecosystem, the longest warranty, thirty years of battery compatibility. The right answer for most people reading this, and Matt has agreed to let that sentence stand.
Building, renovating, or constitutionally incapable of buying twice: Makita LXT, 9.1. The best gear and the deepest serious range, scored knowing the batteries cost $134 a pop and the warranty is the shortest here. Joel would like it noted that the score gap is smaller than Matt’s smugness implies.
Whichever way you go, go once. All three are defensible choices. Owning two of them is the only genuinely expensive mistake on this page.