We recently posted about the new Dewalt Atomic cordless drill and impact driver, and then followed up with coverage of Dewalt’s announcement of the 6-tool launch schedule.
Dewalt says that their new Atomic Compact Series cordless power tools are smaller than select existing models, while being more powerful. That’s in regard to the new brushless drill and impact driver. Full details about the “coming soon” saws and oscillating tool are not yet available.
Advertisement
I wrote to my [awesome and patient] Dewalt contact a couple of days ago, asking about whether the new Atomic cordless power tools would be available at Dewalt dealers. They said that the Dewalt Atomic cordless power tools would be available at “Home Depot and independent channels.” I asked whether this means Home Depot, Lowes, Amazon, Acme Tools, and other typical Dewalt-carrying retailers, but have not heard back yet.
Now, a banner appeared on Home Depot’s website, describing the new tools as “exclusive.”
Well, isn’t this interesting.
The Home Depot marketing banner says:
New Exclusive Dewalt Atomic Compact Series, The quality of 20-Volt MAX in more compact, more powerful designs.
Advertisement
“Exclusive?” That’s a very important word.
A few months ago, Stanley and FatMax signed an agreement with Home Depot, making the retailer the exclusive online and in-store home improvement retailer for these tool brands.
At this time, Stanley Black & Decker is doing a whole lot of promotion at Lowes, tied to their new Craftsman hand tools, tool storage products, and cordless power tool lines. Amazon has finally started carrying some of the new Craftsman outdoor power tools, but their selection is dwarfed by what’s happening at Lowes.
Starting a few months ago, some readers heard that Lowes would be phasing out Kobalt tools, replacing them with Craftsman offerings. I expressed disbelief about this, and while I have yet to see it in person (I’ll check again today), I have not yet seen any such Craftsman-replacing-Kobalt changes at my local Lowes stores.
There are pieces missing to this puzzle. I quite frankly still do not understand what Dewalt is going after with their Atomic Compact Series of 20V Max cordless power tools. What we know so far about the tools is conflicting. There are indicators that it’s an entry-priced tool line, based on the early tools’ on-paper specs as well as the marketing language and comparisons, but there are also factors supporting the claim of the tools being compact.
The new Dewalt Atomic circular saw and reciprocating saws, for instance, could potentially be of strong interest to general users. But for the drill and impact driver options, the pricing doesn’t agree with what you get, or the tools that they’re being compared to in Dewalt and Home Depot marketing.
This Home Depot promotional banner might not be a big piece to the puzzle, but it potentially provides much-needed background context. It also introduces another big question:
What does this mean?
I have learned enough about the tool industry over the years to know that this is important, but there are insufficient details to fully understand the big picture. So, let’s discuss.
You might also be asking why is this important? That one’s a little easier. The cordless power tool industry is big, and Home Depot is a major player. This new release didn’t happen in a vacuum, and Home Depot describing and potentially carrying the Atomic line as an exclusive could have influence on other tool brands such as Milwaukee and Makita, or retailers such as Lowes.
As of the time of this posting, Home Depot is the only source for Dewalt’s Atomic cordless drill and impact driver. No other Dewalt dealer, distributor, retailer, or source appears to have them listed, let alone in stock.
Aaron
So Home Depot has exclusivity to both FlexVolt and Atomic? Considering Lowe’s has historically over-relied on Dewalt to carry their power tool load, this is significant, even if the Atomic line seems like a joke.
Brian M
Just to clarify, FlexVolt is no exclusive it’s just that it’s not at certain retailers (Specifically Lowe’s).
I’m not really sure about this line but I can see why HD is asking(and paying) for exclusives to give them a little more SBD since Lowe’s is soo heavily SBD…FatMax being the bigger deal in this. Lowe’s kinda has to go with it because they’re at the mercy of SBD, I bet they were not happy at losing their FatMax tape measures for shelves full of Craftsman.
Matt
I picked up the Craftsman 25ft magnetic pro-x tape and the lady who checked me out said they sell a ton of them. I’m not sure if she was referring to Craftsman tapes in general or the pro-x magnetic one (CMHT37925). But mine was $30 and there were only 2 left in the box display left. Possibly the sold more fat max stuff? I have no idea, but they’re definitely selling the Craftsman’s too. The tape itself is one of my personal favorites.
jason gloekler
Ill just continue to wait for stuff to hit Ebay, and buy them at a discount, or slightly preowned.
skfarmer
joke? that is a pretty strong word when nobody has seen or laid hands on them yet.
my take? i think this is more of a line to replace the 12 volt lineup. i bet if you compare this to dewalt’s 12 volt lineup they are very similar in size and price. i could never quite see the appeal of most brands 12v stuff when the compact 18 and 20 volt compact lines offer better performance and features in a similar sized package.
Adam
Look on YouTube, it was reviewed last week. Compared to an existing Milwaukee of similar size, the DeWalt looked way over hyped. Im a Milwaukee guy, but id be looking at Makita for sub-compact size.
I think HD should have passed on the exclusivity if they paid for it. I’d rather see a new Flexvolt tool than seeing R&D wasted on these.
Hoser
They are not at all sized like the 12V tools. They are a slightly smaller 20V drill and impact, and honestly I don’t feel the impact is even that “compact”, and it certainly doesn’t feel like a premium tool. And the impact is barely faster than my quite old DCF885 brushed impact. I honestly prefer the 885 and usually grab it over this new impact.
Brian A
Now it makes even less sense. So its a Dewalt brand to compete with the budget homeowners/pros who normally buy Ryobi & Rigid then?
Stuart
That’s the confusing part. The drill and driver seem to be entry-priced, even if not in price right now, then in essence. But the saws will be kitted with 5.0Ah batteries, and are new designs rather than being “higher value” versions of full-line tools. That makes it very difficult for any generalizations to hold weight, at least until more details become known.
Also, remember – Home Depot is Dewalt’s customer, and we’re the end users. This line could have come from Home Depot potentially saying “this is what we want, can you do this?” In that case, Home Depot is not going to invite more competition against their house brands. They’re going to want to give customers more reasons to buy tools from them, rather than competitors such as Lowes. They might see online retailers as competition also.
I’d say that every Dewalt retailer now sells their entry-priced brushless drill, impact driver, and combo kits every winter holiday and Father’s Day shopping seasons. This line gives Home Depot something different that can also be marketed as being better. The saws and multi-tool will likely stand on their own as new innovation offerings.
Hoser
Home Depot does not tell DeWalt “this is what we want” in power tools.
Stuart
The tools are not replacing the DCD777 and DCF787.
If the new models were not to be Home Depot exclusives, would they exist?
I was told that insufficient retail orders meant the cancellation of new hand tools a few years ago. https://toolguyd.com/dewalt-locking-pliers/
That was right before Milwaukee locking pliers came out. So, the logical explanation was that Home Depot went with Milwaukee, and Dewalt cancelled their plans.
Home Depot has incredible buying power.
It could have went “hey, we’re doing all these things with Lowes now, how about some exclusives for you?. “
Hoser
Yes they would still exist. I saw the 3D printed prototype well over a year ago, and had preproduction units many months ago. These models came about from pro user feedback. I’m not saying that HD doesn’t have ANY say in these matters, but this line has been in the works for almost two years, maybe longer.
Stuart
Thanks for the insights!
I take it you mean the circular saw and reciprocating saw, and not the drill and impact driver? Or all of the tools?
I’m used to there being different levels of cordless power tools. Craftsman launched their V20 line with 4 different drills. https://toolguyd.com/first-thoughts-on-the-new-craftsman-v20-cordless-drills-and-drivers/
Metabo is launching their 12V lineup with 4 drills and 2 hammer drills. https://toolguyd.com/metabo-12v-cordless-power-tools-brushless-drills-impact-drivers-more/
Maybe I’m just being stubborn in trying to rationalize something that should just be taken at face value, and there’s actually nothing to understand, but I find it confusing that the Atomic drill and impact are not replacing the two existing tools they very strong resemble. Sometimes brands will just do that. Much more often than not, there are reasons for it, but maybe this is one of those times when there’s nothing to understand.
Jim Felt
Ain’t marketing fascinating?
To me at least this is all I see here. Nothing new or of any interest otherwise. Zero innovation.
Nathan
I’m starting to wonder if this is also meant to be Home Depot’s version of Craftsman
The capacities are similar – feature sets are similar. while still selling the real dewalt line.
seems a touch odd – might as well have kept Porter Cable around.
Bob
I get the feeling Stanley Black and Decker is further diluting their respective brands by adding an additional sub brand to DeWalt? I hope this is realy an attempt to replace the 12 V line with compact 20v tools. If that’s what they’re trying to do their marketing isn’t very clear. *Hint* SBD fix that!
ITTI has a better strategy with Milwaukee/Ryobi. One for pros and one for everybody else.
SBD has 3 levels of DeWalt now: 60v, 20v and atomic. I’ll give them a pass on the 60V I actually think it makes sense with current battery tech. Craftsman, Porta cable, Black & Decker, Bostich, Fat max (am I missing any others) all compete for the everybody else/Ryobi customer base.
I get they use different brands in different retail and regional segments and they bought some brands just so overseas commpetitors would not have a foothold in an established brand. But I say keep Dewalt 60V and 20V as top-tier market Atomic as 12V replacement and pick ONE other brand to go head to head with Ryobi/cobalt/herculease /etc. If you still want to make tools in multiple colors make one battery platform compatible with all but DeWalt. The one other brand probably should be SBD Craftsman as it probably has the best name recognition despite Sears royally screwing everything up.
SBD feel free to reach out to me directly. I’ll be happy to give you more information to effectively dominate TTI. I’ll even commute to your headquarters in Connecticut.
In all seriousness I think this ship has already sailed. They need all these brands to fit into all the different retail segments And for fill all the necessary exclusive agreement. Ace,Lowe’s, Home Depot etc all have limited shelf space and using a different brand all owned by the same company can increase your revenue. You just have to be careful you don’t dilute your brand too much and all compete in the same price segments. GM is the classic example. Chevy, GMC, Oldsmobile, Caddilac, Saturn, Pontiac, Sabb all made Similar cars at similar price points with similar features. In the end they were competing with them selves and the competition. Add in the extra R&D and supporting sales channels with it’s required overhead it’s a recipe for disaster especially when the economy starts to slow and people buy less of them.
I do hope SBD actually has a clear and concise vision of what they want to do and I hope it works because I do like my DeWalt tools and I’d hate to see them overreach and go out of business or get sold off and turn into a cheap brand like they did to Porta Cable.
J.B.
Kobalt – I noticed new 20V lawn tools at Lowes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen these before. If so that means they are growing the brand, not replacing with CM. Right?
Dewalt – Could this be something HD asked for/demanded from them given the strong push of CM at Lowes?
Mike (the other one)
My local Lowe’s has reset their whole tool department. Kobalt is still there, but the selection has been reduced. For example, you cannot get loose Kobalt screwdrivers. Those have been replaced with Craftsman. You can now only get Kobalt screwdrivers in sets. For the most part, blue has made way for red.
Over in lawn and garden, Craftsman has replaced all of their mowers except Husqvarna and John Deere, though I’m pretty sure MTD is still the OEM.
Not sure what the point of this Atomic line is. A Home Depot “competitor” to Craftsman?
Bob
You guys make good points about Home Depot driving this. I bet the conversation went like this…
HD management: “make us something exclusive for ….. price point.”
SBD management: [calls down to R&D] “Hey guys what do you have?”
R&D: “Shorter drill and impact with a slightly newer motor thats slightly stronger. Oh and a new compact recip and circular saw to compete with TTI but thats a few months out. Also have …… thats really cool but need more money to develop”
SBD management: “build the first four. I agree the …… is a game changer but we blew the budget on crappy ‘me too’ copies of hand tools with the DeWalt logo so no more money. We will just wait for milwaukee to come out with ….. then I can get the board to let me fund the project.”
SBD management: [calls Home Depot] “we got 4 new tools for …. price point but you gotta buy our crappy DeWalt branded pliers and screw drivers to get the exclusive.
Home depot management: “Deal! Ill have my people call your people. Meet in 1/2 hour for a 3 martini lunch?”
Well something along those lines. Lol
Brian A
LMAOOOOOOOO
This might not be too far from the truth…
Hoser
Good humor, but not the way it works.
Frank D
HD is now exclusive for Stanley?!
Our HD are an absolute mess if you want to get your hands on anything storage related from Stanley, Ridgid or Milwaukee. They carry a couple products from the entire line and that is it. Sometimes you see them. More than often you don’t. Have tried to get my hands on a couple more pieces … I pretty much look once a week or so. No dice.
Fortunately I stocked up on about 36 Stanley Deep and Shallow organizers ( some from local purchases in three stores, most from online shopping through Amazon & other resellers ) for my two ” Sortimo ” racks and am switching in a couple Ridgid & MW ones for daily duty parts. It was absolutely stupid, you could only get a couple deep ones at HD, then they were sold out. You could get some shallow ones at Target, then they were sold out, … (sigh) HD has Ridgid exclusivity and for over 3 – 6 months you cannot get your hands on some organizer items?
At least with Stanley, there’ll a push from the manufacturer to get stuff onto the floors … and maybe there’ll be some drive to flesh Stanley out against Craftsman?
ktash
Yeah, their organizers have been disorganized for a long time. I tried to buy some deep Husky ones and the latches never worked. I returned them showing them the inoperable latches and I swear they just put them out on the shelf again.
Ditto trying to buy some of the other brands of organizers.
Corey
Nothing said Stanley was exclusive… Just this weird atomic brand. No way Stanley would ever be exclusive anywhere other than a brick and mortar “Stanley Black and Decker” store, which I’d hope and assume they’re not stupid enough to make in 2019 lol
Stuart
Here’s the story that was briefly mentioned in the post above:
https://toolguyd.com/stanley-fatmax-exclusive-partnership-home-depot-2019/
Joe framer
People keep. commenting that the atomic looks to replace the 12v line, but it looks like Dewalt is finally expanding the 12v line…
. One answer may be that the atomic line will be the ” holiday” special buys. I believe they would have more power then the Milwaukee and Makita holiday bundles.
.. I do know pros wont be buying the drill or impact but possibly the ” milwaukee style hackzall” depending on power. The very small saw may be good for sidewallers.
ktash
Because Harbor Freight is advertising a drill that is “comparable” to Dewalt, perhaps the were vying for those customers. They can have these on sales/special pricing and beat back the HF challenge (joking).
Evan Durfee
Dewalt is just glorified Stanley. They’re trying to keep up Making who has had a subcompact line of tools at Depot for a year or more.
fred
Interesting
We sometime forget that our purchasing decisions are sometimes influenced by what’s on offer and vice versa. Home Depot is a big enough player to be able to influence what gets produced. I might go so far as to say that they can have both a positive and negative impact on the market. Today the retail tool sales market (with bricks and mortar store presence) share behemoths are HD and Lowes – with smaller players like Menards. Amazon has been making inroads and their presence may change things further. Smaller yet are folks like Acme, MaxTool, ToolNut, ToolUp and others – some with bricks and mortar stores but relying on the Internet for most of their revenue.
MRO and Industrial distributors also still seem to be making a living. These firms once were the only places from which we bought for our businesses. Often we’d try to negotiate on price with them – like the bigger companies did – but with limited results. Once the Internet took off – we found that we were doing more and more tool shopping online.
What does all this mean for HD and their exclusivity deals with SBD? I observe that Sears once was in this position – much like HD sitting in the catbird seat. We all know what happened to them: through a long series of changes in the market coupled with what certainly seems like bad decisions – they lost their preeminent position as a purveyor of tools. Some of that was undoubtedly Sears misreading the market and their changing customer base. But more recently it almost looks like some Greek Tragedy – with punishment meted out by the gods for the sin of hubris. I generally like HD – and hope that they remain strong by giving their customers the tool choices and options that their customers want – not just tools that their marketing gurus think will confound the competition.
Roger
SB&D need to stop rehashing their products all over the place. I’ve seen the exact same drills in both Stanley and DeWalt form-fac. If DeWalt is the top then they should hold it up there. Why just a little better? Why not A LOT better? Why can’t they use the same similar or bigger/wider motors as some other companies? Too much concentration on holding on to decades old brands. Let PorterCable die a quick and honorable death. Allow some old brands to just.. die… Allowing cross platform their batteries internally could have helped. The R&D may need a shake up. Maybe fire a few and hire new. Names don’t do much when the competition is grinding you into the ground. Honestly, I’m interested in the new drill when it becomes “special” priced, but a solely 60V drill would have been a better surprise.
NCDubski
Be nice if Dewalt would just sell the Mac 12V (better yet 20V) 3/8 90d Max ratchet as a Dewalt product through normal sales channels. Be good competition for the Milwaukee fuel, everything I own is Dewalt except for the fuel. The fuel 12v batteries are a pain to change. Not paying Mac prices, and their truck doesn’t stop at my house when I’m wrenching on weekends.
Nick
I’m not a pro, but a heavy-use home owner, and honestly these fit the bill as replacements for my older (10+ year) drill and impact. I already have a full set of 18v tools, and a slew of 20V batteries and 18v adapters.
My old drill and impact are starting to show their wear and a more compact drill is a welcome addition to my tool chest as my old one has difficulty fitting into some of the tighter spaces I’ve needed it for lately.
I’m Dewalt loyal mainly because I don’t have the budget or space for several brands of chargers and batteries for specific tools. Based on comments, sure, there are better options from other brands, and they don’t compare well to the better new release products from Dewalt…but compared to aging 18v homeowner stuff, it’s just what -I- was looking for. My set should be here Tuesday. I’m excited to see how the are.
Ethan Donahue
Just buy Ridgid. Can’t beat the lifetime service agreement. Plus, mine kick my JW’s DeWalt asses all day
Bob
Little tid bit of unsubstantiated rumors. Ran into the local SBD rep at my Home Depot. He was checking sku’s or something in the DeWalt section. Nice guy. Asked a few questions to him. Wish I had more time to talk to him.
I asked what was new? He mentioned the 20v sander and a few other things and then the Atomic line. According to him Atomic is not a 12v replacement. He said they were coming out with new 12v stuff soon. Atomic is a HD exclusive. Large retailers like that sort of thing he said. He sort of relented the drill and driver were a price point but the compact circular saw and haksall copy were pro tools to compete with TTI. I hope he ment Milwaukee and not Ryobi!
I told him I never got 12v class tools especially now the 20v stuff is so compact. He mentioned most of the lazers are 12v so they wanted to have a tool line that would work with the 12v battery. Kind of a bass akwards way to justify a battery voltage class. Should have made the lazers run on 20v rather than build a crappy 12v line lol.
Anyway thats the scoop from a legitimate anomous guy, with generic first name, from some somewhere on the internet so obviously this is all true lol.
I don’t think I have a need for a hacksall or sub compact circular saw but I will try them out in the store. Maybe I’ll like them?
P.S. I also asked about the ……. as well. He was pissed they blew the budget on crappy pliers and said they are not building it any more hahaha.
Toolfreak
Atomic tools are “Exclusive”?
Not “Explosive”?
Ethan Donahue
Lowe’s is indeed killing off Kobalt. Why, I have no idea. They were Superior to anything with the Craftsman name over the last 30 years. Lowe’s is all in and banking hard on this Craftsman deal, and I think it’s gonna blow up in their face.
Sean
My local Lowes has all Kobalt hand tools on clearance, most 50% off right now and I’ve slowly seen more craftsman coming in to take their place as they go so it appears to be happening.
The What?
As the number one home improvement retailer in the US, HD definitely has a say and influence on what tools are available at the big box stores. I think the only reason that HD isn’t selling craftsman is simply because they didn’t want to. I’m sure that sbd approached home depot about selling craftsman before they considered talking to Lowes. Remember Lowes is always trying to catch up to HD, and when HD told sbd “hell no, we’re not going to ditch our house brands and have you flood our stores with a ton of shit that we’ll be stuck sitting on from a brand that is discombobulated and lost its clout”. That’s when sbd resorted to Lowes to sell craftsman. So in other words, if hd says they want sbd to make a line of tools exclusively for them to sell from Dewalt, they’re gonna do what it takes to keep them happy. I don’t think Lowes has that luxury being that they are in the number two spot.
Roger
I think they changed the tags to [NEW] now.
I’m going to side track a little by asking:
When is DeWalt going to update their cordless plate joiner? They seemed to have a 18V and a 14.4V versions. I thought they were going to continue the trend of updating the woodwork category. It’s so weird they have things going sprawling all over the place in categories they already have several models of.
Joe
IF dewalt Suddenly allows only Home Depot to be exclusive carrier of their cordless tools that would suck and probably cost them customers.
Home depot over charges on tools unless its a home depot tool. If its a tool that lowes can also carry, they charge 5-10% more unless you ask them to match the price or if its on sale ?.
If lowes stops carrying dewalt, the $99 drill battery & charger will suddenly be 159 at HD and there will be nothing you can do. A corded dewalt circ saw will be 199 again nowhere to compare, oh well, $$$$$$$$$$$
OhioHead
The way I read this thread is Atomic is exclusive to HD…….SBD would be stupid to cut off the IC channel.
We all know HD is exclusive w/ TTI for Big Box retailers.
I wish I could get my hands on the original Ridgid sander & hammer drill that were made in Germany (I think by Metabo circa 2003/2004).
Stuart
As mentioned in the post:
So, it looks like Home Depot is the only brick & mortar retail home center it’ll be sold (as per their “exclusive” wording), but it’ll be available elsewhere too. Is this a life-of-the-product exclusivity? Temporary?
Seeing as how Home Depot is the only source for the tools right now, they might have a market-wide exclusive headstart.
OhioHead
Thank you Stuart was just clarifying the previous post about DeWalt going exclusive to Depot.
Mike
It’s brilliant STBD they are making a 20v compact line to compete with Milwaukee fuel 12v line thw tools will be equal or smaller than Milwaukee’s12v line but you can use 20v batteries and 60v batteries with them and the grips are so much better than those horrible12v grips, everybody going larger voltage now why would you want to go 12v when you can make 20v tools just as small as 12v tools
PHILIP JOHN
Makes perfect sense to me… since both Milwaukee and makita have compact 18v. I dont see the impact being an issue… it’s small and performs well. I love using the 1.3 battery when I can.
The long wait for 12 v may mean extensive r and d for new tools to surpass the leader In this area.
An update on the 1 inch impact gun would be welcoming. Dewalt has been in hiding for too long since SBD bought craftsman!
Richard van der Heijden
FYI: The DCD708 is readily available in the EU. Kit price with 2 1,5A batteries, charger and Tstak is €189,-.
Nick
Following up on my earlier post – I received my set a few weeks ago and put them to use this weekend building some DIY fencing to keep deer and birds out of my blueberry bushes.
Initial impressions were good. I used the impact driver a ton to drive in some hex-head screws. I don’t feel like it’s all that much faster or more powerful than my older 18v model, but it’s a lot lighter, and that was noticeable after a few hours.
The drill was fantastic. That’s really why I bought the set because it’s so much more compact than my old one (and lighter). I didn’t have that many holes to drill, but I did put some large holes in with some Bosch DareDevil spade bits. The biggest was 1 1/2″, and it powered through pretty easily. I was worried about it kicking back on me since it didn’t have the extra handle like my old one, but I didn’t have any issues.
Again – not a pro, but I was a fan for my use.
Dave
My store, Peoria, is throwing out Kobalt to the wayside and putting craftsman everywhere. Have to kick cardboard displays out of the way that says craftsman to look at any other tool brand. Did they not get the memo that craftsman is a dead kmart no-warranty chinese brand?
And at the price posted, HD can keep their special Dewalt things to themselves. I stand in their store and order from amazon or other on line merchants.
Ethan Donahue
Craftsman has been garbage for over 20 years now. Fuck Lowes