I took a long walk through my local Home Depot store recently, which is something I do on occasion, and I love what I saw.
Shown above are Milwaukee Shockwave impact-rated screwdriver bits. Take a look at the image and see how quickly you can identify the bit sizes.
Now do the same for these Makita screwdriver bits. What sizes do you see?
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And for these Dewalt MaxFit Ultra anto-snap design bits?
The bit packaging cards didn’t always look like this.
Rewind a few years ago, and some brands – notably Milwaukee – had clear size labels on their power tool accessory packages while most other brands did not.
Dewalt’s bit packages had clear sizing, if you looked close enough.
But Milwaukee’s were clearer.
The Dewalt FlexTorq packaging at Lowe’s wasn’t any better.
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The Bosch bits at Lowe’s weren’t much better.
Here’s what Makita’s impact bit cards looked like.
Searching for a particular size of screwdriver bit wasn’t fun. Once you saw where the sizes were, it wasn’t too bad, you just had to look very closely.
But what happened if you wanted to compare prized across brands? It was a chore.
Fast forward to today, and all 3 major pro construction brands at Home Depot have similar bit size labeling.
You can find the bit sizes and styles in a contrasting color at the bottom of each card.
Thanks to the contrasting colors and consist placements, you can easily zero in the size you’re looking for at a glance.
It’s still not effortless to compare pricing, since Home Depot’s main brands have a mix of 2-, 3-, and 5-packs on the pegs, plus higher quantity bulk packs for certain sizes.
Milwaukee was first to place their impact screwdriver bit size and style at the bottom of the packaging card, and Dewalt and Makita followed suit.
Maybe the other tool brands followed Milwaukee’s lead because it was a good idea, or maybe it was a request from Home Depot. Regardless of when or why, I’m glad to see this.
The modern packaging is easy on the eyes and more importantly convenient and customer friendly.
This seems like an “everyone wins” type of product evolution.
Now, if you’re wondering how the impact screwdriver bits compare, I feel that Makita has the best fitment, Milwaukee has the best value, and the Dewalt are about as good.
TomD
I wish it extended to the bits themselves. The brand name is visible on the brand color quite easily, but you often have to stare at a (dirt and oil filled) tiny engraving on the base to see the size.
I get the need to promote the brand but a huge T20 ok the other side from it would be nice.
Matt_T
It’d be nice if they ditched the brand color on the bits and used size colors instead. I currently run mixed brands so I can tell them apart. I’m going to switch to GRK when I need to re-order torx.
Cando
Wera does this. The bit type is colour coded (eg red is Phillips, green is Torx) and there’s a big number printed on the sleeve for the size.
Tdot77
PB Swiss does that also
Matt_T
The only time I’ve found color coded bit type to be useful is when working with PH and PZ, which may be why some euro brands do it. Beyond PH and PZ it’s generally easy enough to eyeball the bit type.
Stuart
In a comment to yesterday’s post (https://toolguyd.com/dewalt-elite-series-screwdriver-bits-lowes-launch/ ), someone remarked “Does anyone select a bit by looking at the side for a label and not just the tip?”
I assume it’s easier and maybe less expensive to add a minor mechanical engraving step for size identification than laser etching.
As for a solution, I suppose you can always take some narrow tape or a paint maker to your most commonly used bit sizes.
Matt_T
I’ve thought about using heat shrink tubing for color coding bits. Would probably hold up better than paint.
TomD
Heat shrink is a great idea. Though for me, it’s not terribly bad because there’s a ton of T 20 bits and then a bunch of other ones. I never use.
Bdub
I use heat shrink color code on my commonly used extended hex bits. Started years ago on my first kit car build and then started doing it on metric bits. I’ve even used colored electrical tape on flare wrenches for repetitive jobs. My nut drivers were already color coded so it just grew from there.
Wayne R.
I’ve got a set of 3M electrical tapes of the 10 colors used in telecom coding. I’ve used that to mark a set of most used bits, worked well. Didn’t get them coated in oil or anything though…
Gdog
Its 12 colors, bl org grn brn slt wht, red blk yel vio rse aqu . We used to use plasti-dip to color code nutdrivers and wrenches, mix primaries to make diff colors. And it electrically insulated the tips for working on hot plant.
Kury
GRK COLOR CODES their bits . Only kind I buy .
mark w
As an operational excellence and quality engineer. This is the kind of iterative improvement that I honestly feel built this country. People not afraid to take a shot at stuff in the hopes of making it better
Nicholas Mukai
I’ll never buy anything except colour coded grk drivers.
Steve
Yes, it is great that it is easy to identify the size and type a bit. But that’s not the problem.
At the stores near me, very seldom are bits where they are supposed to be. Very frequently the Phillips is with the torque, straight is mixed in with Phillips. You have to dig through all of them to find the size that you need. Kind of annoying.
And don’t even get me started on the Screws/hardware
Gdog
The bulk bins of switches and outlets piss me off the most. A-holes mix that shite up worse than anything else, imo. Color, amps, style, tamperproof, brand. So many variables.
ColeTrain
Over double in price…🤣 Always love reading the comments, as most of very informative but it concerns me how many of you struggle to visually tell the difference between a torx and a Phillips… New glasses everyone?
Stuart
This is one of those things where things were passable before, but better today.
You see this in UI and similar fields all the time.
Developer: “How’s this look and work for you?”
User: “Great, it’s perfect.”
Developer: “How about now?”
User: “Wow, that’s so much better!”
Would you not agree that all 3 brands moving the size ID to the bottom of the packaging card, and with contrasting colors, is an improvement over how the packaging used to look?
That’s the point. Things were working fine, and yet they still made improvements.
I’ve purchased and price-compared tools at the end of the day, with a baby in an arm, in a hurry, etc. I’m glad for any improvements that get me out of the tool aisle quicker.
Now if only Home Depot and other stores would fix the problem of missing inventory. HD’s website says my store has dozens of condensate p-traps, but it’s not on the shelf and we couldn’t find it in the upper shelves either.
David
“Now if only Home Depot and other stores would fix the problem of missing inventory.”
If you only knew how many different ways there are for inventory counts to be wrong. It’s honestly amazing they are ever even close to actual. Not surprising, it’s mostly due to human error but there are few process aids that could check these errors. Don’t get me started on not being able to find product that IS actually in the store…. Somewhere. Yep, human error again
grump
Are you blind or something, I’ve never had an issue finding the bit size labels on any bit packages. Just take a second and look at the BOLD lettering companies have always put on there bit packs. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.
Stuart
You seem upset and offended. Sorry/not sorry that I appreciate consumer-friendly improvements in product labeling and retail packaging.
Best,
Dr. Stuey (PhD, not in rocketry, but close enough)
Flooring
Does anyone use Milwaukee flip bits? One end T25, the other #2 Phillips. Absolutely fantastic product right there.
Can’t find it at HD, only Ace Hardware.
Kyle
Big fan of those too, and also had to get mine at Ace which I rarely go to. These are what I keep in both of my impacts by default, and they probably cover 2/3 of my needs in one bit. Wish they were more easily available. I’ve got a #2 Phillips/T20 double bit and a Phillips/flat double bit that come in handy too.