What happened to Hilti, why aren't they as goated as they were 15 years ago?
i just bought a hilti circ saw and it's pretty nice
>>2946355>why aren't they as goated as they were 15 years ago?the new meta is professionals using low wage immigrants to do labor with whatever they can afford to get the job done rather than having native born tradesman who spent money on nice tools as a status symbol and for their durability and performance
>>2946495So it's just a symptom of a wider societal trend?What I find interesting is that no other company decided to fill the gap, it's all prosumer trash from makita, bosch, milwaukee, metabo etc and no real high end easily serviceable and durable brand like hilti used to be.
>>2946495The native born tradesman has been victim to said nice tools he spent money on being stolen out of his work vehicle at night.
>>294649750 years ago all power tools were made in the US and Europe. 40 years ago companies started moving their simplest/cheapest/most dangerous/most environmentally unfriendly manufacturing overseas. 30 years ago they moved the manufacturing that was impractical to take to asia (e.g. making cars) and put it in mexico with NAFTA. 30 years ago is when cheap chinese crap started flooding the US market and it was notorious for being trash. Domestic industry still had production lines and the highest quality stuff was coming out of the US and Germany. Stuff was serviceable because everything used a brush motor or was pneumatic. 20 years ago major brands started fully transitioning to offshore production, due to the magic of the stock market most brands are now owned by a few parent companies. The amount of cheap chinese crap out there increased even more and the stuff in our lives became easier and cheaper to replace rather than try to repair it. Brushless motors start to become more common at this point and electric starts to take marketshare from pneumatic. 10 years ago the major brands started consolidating into their parent companies homeowner/tradesman/professional lineups. The way big box stores operate made it easy to swap out your tools if they broke and most tool repair shops went out of business because you just got a new one under warranty or bought a new one. There are still some domestic tool makers but 90% of the market is made in china. Today it's a continuation of the same trend. There is basically no american tool manufacturing industry. There is no demand for high quality industrial tools when the subcontractor is going to throw 15 immigrants with whatever tools they bring with them at the problem. The only trades that are still buying really nice stuff are concrete cutters and high end finish carpenters. The only high quality tools being made today are coming out of Germany which had the foresight to protect its industry.
>>2946508That a great answer. Thanks.
>>2946355Turns out, being the Cutco/PamperedChef/Kirby of the tool world wasnt a viable option when better, cheaper tools exist.
>>2946497Hilti was never actually better than the "prosumer" stuff like Dewalt and Milwaukee. They just had the equivalent of a SnapOn truck driver to come pick up broken shit, as opposed to you going to home depot.
>>2946596>>2946595Factually not true. Their demolition hammers were so industry gold standard and much better than that amerimutt garbage. Even AvE creamed his pants when he used to speak about old hilti. yellow and red are disposable tools made to be thrown into the garbage bin as soon as they stop working because they're designed and built to not be repaired and repair parts are either nonexistent, have to buy an entire assembly if you need a conrod or they charge you 70% of the tool price for a armature.
>>2946604>ave
>>2946508>Germany which had the foresight to protect its industry.Umm, about that...
>>2946604I see Milwaukee stuff get serviced regularly. I just brought my sawzall in recently and they fixed it up. My drunk ass helper left in a wheelbarrow over the weekend and it filled with rain.But I see tools go in and out as needed.
>>2946683Maybe it's different in the us and repair parts are cheaper and more widely available (although I really doubt with the struggle in that country to right to repair) but even then the way tools are designed they're not serviceable at all, like you need a switch well it comes with the led light and the controller, it will be 80% of the tool price plus tip. There's this Irish lad that works on a tool store and does repairs on youtube and when you see the diagram brake down of milwaukee/dewalt you realize how bad they're. Makita is hands down the best option since it allows you to by even fucking single bolts or springs.
>>2946642festoolmafellfeinmetabo (grinders only)germany got fucked by US foreign policy because we're run by an international clique who want us all dead. green movements to remove nuclear power in favor of natural gas? yeah i am so sure that was a totally organic movement. oh and then we blew up the pipeline that gave them cheap natural gas. lol. lmao.i hate the people who run this country (us)
>>2946683>I just brought my sawzall in recently and they fixed it upwhere did you bring it to get it fixed?
>>2946726Find a local hardware store that's a Milwaukee franchise (licensee?)and bring it in there.
>>2946761so you're making all this up
>>2946770Are you retarded?Have you literally never had any tool or electronic worked on before?Any licensed milwaukee dealer will send tools to licensed repair centers if you so choose to. If its under warranty they repair or replace, if its not you can pay for the repairs.This is how things have worked for 100 years. Hilti does the same exact thing, except they drive to your worksite in a Toyota pickup with a big Hilti sitcker and grab your tools there. You pay double for a middleman.
>>2946793>need tool for job>take tool to service center>no we don't actually repair them>tool sent away>30 days later you get your tool backnot too practical if you regularly need that tool for your job
>>2946355>15 years agoat my previous job me and a coworker was hired out to help out another company, the one where my coworker did his apprenticeship 15 years before that. on the first day there he recognized his old cabeled hilti masonry drill, his name etched into it and all. the melancholy ended quickly when he got to see how slow it drilled compared to his new 18v drill and how cumbersome it was to drag cords everyehere.thats their fault, they are too reliable. hard to tell your boss you need a new drill when its still working, he only see the cost of the drill he doesnt see that modern ones does 5x as many holes in the same time.its the tool for bridge and tower builders that get sprayed with salt rain and whats not where it takes a day to get down again to find a replacement. normal jobsdont require that, its cheaper to just get a new "insert common brand"and they somehow refuse to sell through normal over the counter distribution here, its only through business accounts.
>>2946794>need tool for job>hand tool to hilti truck>no we don't actually repair them>tool sent away>30 days later you get your tool backWhats not practical about it?Its reality, jobsites dont have a single tool they rely on they have a whole box full of tools.When shit breaks, it gets repaired until its cheaper to replace.
>>2946797>its only through business accounts.yeah because dealing with consumers is bullshit
>>2946798im not lending my tools to some asshole if his break
>>2946797>Durability is badkikes have mindbroken you.
>>2946887i guess they also took away your ability to read, so sad
>doing a repair run of everyone's tools at work>Take one guy's Hilti grinder in>"Well this model is too old to repair, we could do a trade in on a new one" >"What would the piece be?" >"Let me see... $319" >"Wow, well whats the price with the discount?" >"That is the discounted price">"Haha ok yeah, I don't think my boss is going to go for that"Note: this was just a plain as can be corded thumbswitch 4.5" grinder, literally nothing special at all, it was maybe 5 years old at most at the time, and this is in 2019-2020 dollars.
