Snob. They have some decent tools and certainly some crap. I've bought cases of throw-away brushes from them, and a couple of crap cordless drills. They work, but not well enough to bother with, next to my PC and Makita. I recently bought a *cheap* 10" slider. Though not a Hitachi, it's reasonable, for 1/5 the cost. Even if it were only good enough for frameing (it's better than that), it was worth the money.
Ryobi is on my list of "never buy again". I have one of thier circular saws. While it has been quite servicable and a *huge* step up form the Crapsman it replaced, it's still junk compared to a PC or Makita. It'll soon be replaced.
Wrong! You should *never* run a multi-cell NiCd (or NiMH) battery flat. You will reverse-charge any weak cell and ruin the pack. When you *first* notive any lack of torque or RPM, stop and change batteries. You're about to destroy them and there isn't much energy left anyway.
Sorta. It's fine to let it charge overnight, if it's going to be used again tomorrow. Most chargers will shut off when the battery is topped anyway. No, it's not a good thing to cook batteries, but decent chargers don't do this. Crap like Dustbusters and "rechargeable" NiCd flashlights do. Avoid them.
Don't use it for any continuous operation. The batteries will not like it.
Home Despot will do pretty much what the customers wants. They'll ship it back to the manufacturer anyway. I'm not sure why you'd want a hammer drill though.
Not I, but would certainly like to hear from anyone who has too!