A couple of comments on Ridgid tools

I bought my son an 18 volt Ridgid hammer/drill/driver and Impact Driver with two batteries and charger for Christmas at HD. With that they threw in cordless Ridgid circular saw in a separate box. IIRC $279.

I told him to register everything ASAP. He went a step further and called. They echoed what you mentioned above, the batteries in the kit have a LTW.

Thanks on the info about only certain dealers offering the LTM.

How do they know which batteries come in the kit and were purchased separately? Are the part numbers different?

I did not do the calling so I cannot say for sure but my son indicated that when he registered the saw and drill that the batteries showed up also.

I've bought all my Ridgid stuff from Home Depot and I double check every time I buy to make sure it's covered by their LIFETIME, Free Batteries For Life warranty and I register religiously.

Having said all that... their drills/drivers etc. and batteries have ALREADY lasted longer than any other cordless tools I've ever owned and I've thoroughly abused and used them. So I'm sold.

Every Ridgid tool and battery has a unique serial number. When you register for the warranty on their website, you must enter the serial numbers.

The tools, batteries and chargers use a very sophisticated technology to ke ep things straight and to make sure that Ridgid isn't being scammed. While waiting on the warranty lady to have her supervisor make sure that she was completely accurate she gladly shared just how they do it.

First, the parts and pieces have permanently attached stickers with long se rial numbers on them. Within those serial numbers are codes that tell the date of manufacture, the lot, the day of manufacture, and even how it was s old. For the kits, the coded dates cannot show a difference of more than 1

You get your tool back to your lair, charge the batteries, test out the too ls, then go register. When you register, their system catches just about a ny mistake or attempt to register incorrectly upfront since they know when parts/pieces were manufactured, what their purpose was, where they wound up (in a kit or blister pack),and about when they were shipped.

The last bit of insurance for HD to make sure they have an honest buyer reg istering is that you must input numbers that come off the cash register rec eipt in the registration form page.

You wait up to two weeks while they check and verify all the information. Once completed, they send you an email verification and you are finished.

It takes a while, but it's worth it. And if for some reason you do get a le mon, even if the tool is registered you can take it back to HD within 90 da ys for a replacement or money back. They make it tough to say no to them.

Robert

Yeah, me too. I have a couple of sanders and a couple of drills I can't ki ll. The 5" ROSs I use don't see any fine finishing as they can't do it. B ut they have sanded off hundreds of feet of fascia and cleaned up a ton of wood. They are about 15 years old and still grind away. My two 12v small drills are now about 10 years old. When the batteries crapped out at about 8 years, I called Ridgid and they just sent me new ones.

The absolute longest I have ever had a DeWalt cordless last is 3 1/2 years. I still like the feel of the DeWalt drills a bit better, but not enough t o walk away from the price difference AND the lifetime warranty. Of course, there is the performance, too. The newest models of the "GEN5 X" group ha ve brushless motors, higher torque motors, and slightly different ergos wit h a new overmold rubber that is a little sticky. Tough to beat.

Robert

The belt clips are worth their weight in gold. Some of the newer (cheaper) models do not have them, so I look for that and I won't by one without it. There must be something to their lifetime battery warranty because I've never had batteries last this long. I'm sure it has something to do with Lithium Ion technology, but it must also have to do with the integrated chip that controls voltage and heat.

I've worked with high current batteries in the audio/ video world for a long time and I know that heat and over-current can be disastrous for batteries. So having that chip that monitors and controls it must be the key to their longevity.

The cynic in me suspects that Ridgid (leveraging an old respected name) makes more selling your PII gathered during registration than they end up paying out in warranty claims :-)

On 05/17/2017 6:24 PM, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: ...

...

outlines all the conditions, etc., pretty succinctly.

It appears HD is high-enough volume and has a sweetheart arrangement to give them a competitive edge in lieu of the exclusive distribution rights.

I haven't gotten any spam or junk mail from the info I used to register and it's been several years.

" snipped-for-privacy@aol.com" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

This is not correct, someone mis-spoke. It's not legal to require registration for a warranty.

Now, registration could be required for a "lifetime service agreement", but the basic warranty has to be provided without registration.

John

That makes sense, on their side. I wonder how they get around this:

Thanx, John.

nb

They sell the PII to data aggregators, where the data is used to refine a picture of your purchasing habits. This refined data is then used by the on-line advertising giants (google, facebook, et alia) to target specific ads to you when you browse (modifies the google search results) and when you visit third-party sites.

On 05/18/2017 12:04 PM, snipped-for-privacy@notreal.com wrote: ...

The full, 3-yr warranty is on everything; the LSA available is an additional, optional, "perk" of the purcharser's choosing: "original purchaser of an eligible product may elect to register for a free Lifetime Service Agreement."

Must parse the stuff at the earlier link carefully; the lawyers were busy, indeed! ")

I still don't think it's possible since I used a different browser, without cookies or cache, on a different computer, in a different location, to register the tools.

I think you might be surprised as to how good they are at correlating information, particularly if they have your name.