Greenworks has emailed me a lot over the past year or so, trying to enlist me/ToolGuyd as a reviewer, affiliate, and even as a brand “ambassador.”
So far, I’ve declined. Greenworks’ hyped-up 24V Max cordless drill and impact driver kit seemed very underwhelming on paper, and while they sort of explained it, they never got back to me on other questions.
I did express interest in a particular Greenworks 60V tool, but I have been repeatedly rebuffed. No, no, no, 24V!!!
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But, I’ve still been curious. So, when I came across a Greenworks sponsored listing on Amazon today, I clicked and took a look.
The marketing images seemed mostly straightforward, or at least unsurprising, until I got to the one shown above.
What’s going on here?
Tool photos are often staged to highlight certain features, but most brands make an effort at realism.
Here, there’s a hole in the wall with wire connections coming out of it. And the user is… drilling into the wall or electrical box with a very large hammer drill bit? Is that even a hammer drill bit, or an SDS bit for rotary hammer?
This doesn’t even appear to be a single photo – it seems to be a Photoshopped image of a drill and a rotary hammer drill bit sticking out of the wall.
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Nobody at Greenworks had any issue with this image? Nobody said “wait a moment, what is being depicted here?”
OR, is it just me? The wall looks to be drywall, but there could be block behind it. Even so, the image looks as if they took an electrical fixture off the wall, dangled the wiring, and stuck an SDS bit into the wall.
Am I wrong to raise an eyebrow at this?
Here’s another image where the drill and drill bit don’t line up. Or is the drill bit simply crooked in the chuck?
They also claim the included 4Ah battery can double as a 30,000 mAh power bank.
Let’s do some math. 24V Max means 6 cells (3.6V/4V Max). The drill comes with a 4.0Ah battery.
I don’t agree with the methodology, but I would assume they’re adding up the charge capacity of all the cells together as power bank manufacturers often do. 6 cells x 4.0Ah = 24Ah, or 24,000 mAh. So where does the 30,000 mAh claim come from, the difference is way too great to be a rounding error.
I’m guessing that they did the math for an optional 5Ah battery and mistakenly used this for tools bundled with 4Ah batteries. That’s still a rather amateurish error.
Greenworks is still pressing their “2X More Torque” claims for their “brussless” motor.
The drill also features a built-in LED light, and going by the product image, there are no shadows because apparently the light can pass through the solid chuck.
Hold on, I noticed one more thing.
What’s going on with the gear shift lever? Granted this is a rendering meant to highlight the motor, but someone should have caught this.
Spelling errors and rendering mishaps are one thing – no one is immune from making mistakes – but some of the other errors and depictions are less excusable.
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Jared
I have no faith in Greenworks at all. Their tool specs are often completely unbelievable. Their marketing – nuts.
Jared
BTW, that masonary bit in the electrical box photo made me actually laugh out loud.
It makes me wonder – what’s going on with Greenworks? I presume they are just contracting out tool production and in that sense are mostly a marketing company. If that’s not the case, how do you mess up this badly if you understand how tools work?
On the other hand, who is doing the marketing? There’s no proofreading going on obviously.
JH
A marketing company wouldn’t spell that poorly.
Tom Johnson
Have NO FAITH??? WHAT??? YOU MEAN TO TELL ME, That you Don’t really think that a “Miss-Chucked up 7/8 masonry bit –> Can’t Bore a 2 1/4 hole into Drywall, thus exposing a computer’s power supply wiring that was “In the Wall”, already, and not even nicking a slight one of them mind you, While the operator’s hand grasps and loosens the chuck while during operation? Common Man – This totally could happen! LOL I mean look at the next pic, doesn’t it prove that This Drill was Made to handle a Crookedly chucked bit”…? I mean Can’t you even see that the wabbling bit will easily hog out a super nasty hole? LOL For me I am tired of seeing Company Staged Proof picks – it’s so much more natural to see the kinds of things one is very likely to run into when operating a drill such as this with such magnificence…
Adam
I thought the bit was crooked in the first picture, so maybe this crooked chuck thing is a feature of theirs.
Daniel
On the other hand… if you install the bit crooked, it will wobble and therefore cut a bigger hole, right? 🤣
Scott K
That’s a pretty clean hole- might be cheaper than a full set of hole saws…
Davethetool
It always the tool to drill around corners!…lol
Davethetool
Oops….”allows”
Nathan
Their OPE has some merits – who is the actual company behind Greenworks.
Otherwise yes those pictures bother me greatly and I could almost see wanting to run a hammer drill in a hole in dry wall into say brick outside. Ie I need to pass this telco or other cable and might as well use this drywall hole as my location. But still that looks wrong.
Steve
Ok Greenworks, say “we’re not a serious tool company” in pictures without actually saying “we’re not a serious tool company”, GO!
Kingsley
If I see a hole with wires hanging out of it, then my first thought is always to run and grab 12mm drill bit and start mashing those wires right up!
The more power and the more mashed up they get the better!
Steve
I don’t know about you guys, but I always like to wrap my index finger around the chuck when I’m hammer drilling with an SDS bit that’s not chucked into the chuck to drill into electrical boxes in my walls. Doesn’t everybody?
Mac
If you shave the side of your finger off and lube it up with the fresh blood, it’ll fit into smaller areas. However, if it just burns and blisters it’s now larger than it started. Both cases though, it gets a little tender and you kinda want to just go home. Do not recommend.
Side note: Did anyone else notice, in the photo with the crooked drill bit (drill set to low torque driver mode, because of course it is) that will definitely snap off, the cut glove on the drill hand and what looks to just be soft cloth the hand holding the workpiece? Priorities are questionable. These are like those old picture games of ‘spot what’s wrong/doesn’t belong’. Thanks Stuart.
Blythe
Definitely an sds bit, and it’s clearly not centered in the chuck. I can’t tell if it’s a bad photoshop or the guy is using his left hand to hold the bit next to the drill
Scott K
The blurring makes it look like the drill was added after the fact. It’s a really interesting shot to photoshop because it means someone really thought about putting these pieces together.
garrett
Wow. Truly hysterical. Needed a good laugh today. Not sure, but maybe from looking at the first pic, they have some proprietary flex/gimballing chuck thing. This should have been an April Fool’s post. Thanks again!
Mike
If they’re trying to pull in their OPE base to power tools, then fair enough. But for the rest of us – they’re wasting their time.
MFC
This is great. Should make a video about this.
Adam
Definitely an SDS bit. Greenworks needs to have someone who’s actually used tools look at these pictures before they send them out.
John S.
Ok so I bought the greenworks “48v “ 17” mower AND their 24v brushless drill, with two 4.0 batteries and a charger for $108 plus tax on Amazon last week. (Ridiculous sale price) Thinking I might use the mower to do trimming around the house (already have a riding mower) will probably sell the driver- any questions let me know, it’s due to arrive today.
Robert
Why would Greenworks jump into the saturated and highly competitive cordless drill field? Seems their management resources would be much better spent in OPE, where they are well situated. California mandating electric OPE gives a profit window for half a decade at least.
Hector
Hmm, looks like the lad in the photo simply wants to turn his 24v drill into an exciting 120v brick
flychinook
I’m for the most part happy with their OPE, but damn Greenworks is one confused company. In OPE alone they have two 24v lines, at least two 40v lines, an 80v “pro” line, and a 60v line. Why?
Doug N
Plus 82v “commercial”. Ridiculous.
MarylandUSA
Also 48V commercial.
Also, Greenworks Pro’s XRange products, including 5AH and 8AH XRange Bluetooth batteries, are derived from Greenworks Commercial’s 82V products; they use more-premium materials and they’re weatherproof-rated to IPX4 or IPX5. But the XRange mowers lack the newer features, like the Turbo button, hidden wires, lever-based bales, and LED headlights.
Davethetool
In the first Pict drilling with the SDS bit, the user isn’t wearing safety goggles!
John Fleisher
I still love this marketing image fail…
https://makezine.com/2016/03/08/beautiful-woman-soldering-stock-photo-wrong/
Franck B.
That’s the kind of woman you hold on to!
Stuart
You didn’t read the article or look closely at the image, did you?
She’s holding a soldering iron by the hot end. That’s like holding a chef’s knife by the blade.
Franck B.
My point was that if she can hold a soldering iron like that, you need her.
Stuart
Oh.
I don’t get it.
I thought someone who knew how to properly hold a soldering iron would be more desirable.
eddie sky
I don’t get it? That she has a ring on, no static mat or strap, and yellow shooter’s glasses, or that the iron she has no clue to holding a soldering iron? Perhaps the photographer had no idea. But that is NOT the way to hold an iron.
Ok, she’s got short fingernails which means she works with her hands. But that is just a bad image…
Actually, that is a demeaning photo to women in the tech industry.
JB
Greenworks OPE is appealing, but then I see stuff like this and think “nah, I’ll just stick with EGO.” Sloppy marketing like this taints the whole brand – it’s worse than doing nothing.
Nathan
agreed.
It’s sort of odd too because there is a whole greenworks Pro line of OPE that is decently regarded.
PETE
If this came out on april fools- no one would question it…. And i think thats their problem lol
Ball_bearing
Great idea! you let the wires twist around the drill bit, and yank them out of the wall or break your wrists in the process…
The picture looks like someone took an sds drill bit, and stuck it in a regular chuck, but let the shank slide between the jaws, instead of centering it.
Steven L
Please let them know the next promo should have the Easter Bunny using their drill.
MrR
The masonary drill bit are offset with the drill..it’s a photoshoped image!
Jim Felt
Having shot a few (thousand) national ads I’d say this is textbook wrong on every imaginable marketing level.
Unless. Hmm. It’s an IQ test of American consumer ignorance? And there we go!
tyler
So what’s the chance they’re just another importer of no qc Chinese tools?
These look like AliExpress Photoshop jobs
Jon
Tool Blasphemy!
JoeM
I may not agree that you should raise an eyebrow in this case… But if you razed the company to ashes for deceiving customers, improper reporting, and false advertizing as a whole, for severely inferior products? I’d testify on your behalf at the trial. Character Witness, Impeccable Judgement, not to be questioned for motive. Actions more likely heroic than malicious, one may say.
There’s only so much one can tolerate from this kind of brand. And the shady “Used Car Salesman” vibe they give off here… if anything, I think what should be raised, is a case for their patents and business licenses to be revoked on the grounds that they have crossed the line between marketing, and cheating. But, that’s just a theory in this case. I honestly don’t know what to think here. I see that first picture and I wonder why anyone would be drilling something that big, into a circular (obviously EU/UK outlet based) hole in the drywall, while the power connectors appear to already contain multiple splices, using non-standard lever nuts to cross wire connections together… Some of said wire connections appear to look like Moldex connectors from old IDE hard drive power connectors, or Motherboard power connectors… Which you absolutely would not find coming out of a wall… Or at least, I would hope you wouldn’t… The place on Earth where the Walls have PC power connectors in them, is a place I absolutely do not want to be. No matter how you try to examine what is happening in these two images… you’re looking into the face of insanity. Either they’ve photoshopped their new products over already-existing images of other tools in use, or they’re using a composite image system that is woefully misused by whoever is in their marketing division, assigned to put these images together…
Raised Eyebrow Stuart? Wouldn’t that require you to recover from rolling your eyes at this company so intensely, that you must first recover an eyeball from somewhere in Orbit?
JoeM
*Molex Connectors… My apologies… Finger twitched… out came a typo… My bad. I’m sorry.
eddie sky
WAGO connectors. 🙂
JoeM
I know that’s what they are, eddie. I’m just saying some look like Molex power connectors. Plus correcting my spelling when I called them “Moldex” connectors.
eddie sky
While I am content with Greenworks for my lawn tools, I would replace them with EGO brand the moment they break. And that they do. I had a polesaw that cutting small oak branches. No more than 3/8 thick. And the saw bound. And then a noise. Now Greenworks sent a replacement at no cost. But when I took apart the mechanism, it was poor design with sintered metal housing. You can’t do that with the torque needed for a saw! Cost cutting in materials, and again, cheap, bad design.
That photo- looks like a green version of the Dewalt. Except for the Hilti bit photoshop into some outlet box with WAGO connectors hanging out. WTF?
Jp
All yall can be quiet. I’m about to the envy of toolguyd with my new brussless tool. And stop hating, the angle between the chuck and the bit was engineered to be there. We call it cambering. It’s normally done for car tires but here we’re adding vehicle technology into tools for space age performance.
Jp
And don’t hate on our photoshopping either. Brussless tools rotate so fast there’s gonna be blurred photos unlike your your big red and big yellow garbage.
James
Greenworks is a factory brand from the Globe Group in China.
They’re primarily a manufacturer rather than a ‘brand’, so their marketing ability is pretty poor, especially when marketing to western markets.
I believe that their Greenworks brand is relatively strong in China and emerging markets.
MarylandUSA
Greenworks OPE is designed and engineered in North Carolina. In summer 2022, they’ll be opening a new facility there to research and manufacture lithium-ion batteries. The company makes outdoor power equipment sold under at least five other brands: Cramer (German), Kobalt, Masterforce, PowerWorks, and Snapper.
Earlier products were subpar, but their latest generation of OPE can compete with anything from Ego and Snapper–especially Greenworks’ consumer 60V OPE and commercial 82V OPE. For 2022, their new, green-deck 82V 21-inch mower has a 2,000-watt motor; everyone else’s is 1500 watts or less.
Brian M
The weirdest part of the first pic is that the bit isn’t even straight, that was the first thing I noticed, it starts to curve downward just before the background transitions.
I don’t know who’s doing their marketing but it’s clearly not going well, probably good enough.
I have several pieces of Greenworks 60V Pro OPE and it’s fantastic. It’s on par with the EGO stuff I have, though I like my EGO trimmer better because of the EGO feed system.
JoeG
The marketing team behind these images may have seemingly failed in many ways, but not completely: this ad got the attention of everyone here and put the brand name into our heads, for better or worse.
I know this post is super old, but I don’t care.