Do not buy Makita cordless screwdrivers, batteries and co. in the hardware store!

The Japanese brand Makita is becoming more and more popular with German do-it-yourselfers and not only craftsmen are now increasingly relying on Makita products. The high quality and, last but not least, the ingenious rechargeable batteries with 18V technology inspire everyone who buys products like the Makita cordless screwdrivers or lawn mowers and grass trimmers deploy. But why shouldn’t you buy Makita cordless tools or products from this manufacturer in general at a hardware store? In contrast to Husqvarna products, Makita has a very broad distribution and not only supplies specialist dealers, but also many online shops. The margins are sometimes extremely high, especially in the hardware store sector, so it is not surprising that there are many hardware store chains such as Obi, Bauhaus, Hornbach, Hagebau, Toom and Co. in Germany. However, if you do not want to be ripped off and want to buy the products at a low price, you should avoid hardware stores and instead look around online shops for Makita products. Many cheap and popular Makita products are not even sold by many hardware stores such as Obi, so that customers reach for the high-priced devices. We compared the prices of the most popular Makita products. How much money can be saved with cordless screwdrivers and the like compared to hardware stores?

At Obi, Bauhaus and Hornbach you often pay a lot more for Makita cordless screwdrivers.

Source: Amazon.de

Makita cordless screwdriver: Amazon vs DIY stores Obi, Bauhaus and Hornbach

Makita probably made the breakthrough among craftsmen in Germany thanks to its cordless screwdrivers. Anyone who has ever worked with these devices will not want to go back to cordless screwdrivers from discounters so quickly. But even branded devices from manufacturers such as Bosch do not always offer convincing quality and have led to many customers migrating to Makita. To be fair, however, it has to be said that the Bosch Professional products are also decent devices; you should only make sure that the addition “Professional” is not missing. But what are currently the most popular Makita cordless screwdrivers and how much can be saved when buying from online shops like Amazon compared to hardware stores (Obi, Bauhaus, etc.)?

The most popular Makita cordless screwdrivers at a glance:

1st place: Makita DDF482RFJ cordless drill incl. MAKPAC + 2 batteries 3.0Ah
(Amazon 171.01€ / Obi hardware store €199.99 / Hornbach 199€)

2nd place: Makita HP457DWE G-Series cordless impact drill incl. case + 2 batteries 1.5Ah
(Amazon €118.96 / Obi, Bauhaus and Hornbach do not offer this cheap product)

3rd place: Makita DDF484Z cordless drill driver
(Amazon 89.72€ / Obi hardware store €109.99 / bauhaus €139.00)

4th Place: Makita DTW300Z cordless impact wrench solo
(Amazon 169.29€ / Obi hardware store 174.99€ / bauhaus 195€ / Hornbach 195€)

5th place: Makita DTW300RTJ cordless impact wrench incl. MAKPAC + 2 batteries 5.0Ah
(Amazon 369.90€ / bauhaus 459€ / Hornbach 429€)

6th place: Makita DF333DSAE cordless drill including case + 2 batteries 2.0Ah
(Amazon 113.56€ / obi 129.99€ / bauhaus 128€ / Hornbach 128€)

7th place: Makita DHP484Z cordless impact drill solo
(Amazon 84.99€ / obi €84.99 / bauhaus 142€)

8th place: Makita DDF486Z cordless drill driver
(Amazon 184.90€ / obi 189.99€ / bauhaus 249€)

9th place: Makita HP333DSAX1 cordless impact drill incl. case + 2 batteries 2.0Ah
(Amazon not available / obi 164.99€ / bauhaus 159€ / Hornbach 159€)

10th place: Makita DDF484TB3J cordless drill incl. MAKPAC + 3 batteries 5.0Ah
(Amazon €297.84 / not available in hardware stores)

Conclusion: If it is a Makita cordless screwdriver, drill driver or impact driver, then Amazon always delivers the best price by far. The cheap and popular Makita HP457DWE G-Series cordless combi drill is only available from Amazon, in hardware stores we didn’t find anything here. When it comes to hardware stores, Obi has the best and Hornbach the worst availability of Makita products. Many products can be ordered from Amazon but are not in stock. Obi is also usually cheaper for Makita cordless screwdrivers than their competitors Bauhaus and Hornbach.

Save 10% on the Makita 5Ah battery when you buy it from Amazon.

Source: Amazon.de

Makita battery: Buy from Amazon or in the hardware store?

Makita batteries were ahead of their time and many other manufacturers still cannot keep up with this quality. In addition, the same batteries can be used for many different devices. You can also use the batteries from the cordless screwdriver to operate the Makita lawn mower. So once you invest in this ecosystem, you usually stay with Makita just because of the batteries. The batteries are often fully charged again after just 15 minutes or can at least be used again for a longer period of time. The low self-discharge is also a big plus. Who does not know the situation that after a few weeks or months you reach for the no-name cordless screwdriver again to find out that the supposedly fully charged battery has already discharged itself again. But the performance of the batteries also plays an important role. A good battery does not give up quickly and offers full performance for a long time without e.g. B. the grass trimmer only works at half speed. We have already noticed that cordless screwdrivers are significantly cheaper on Amazon. But does this also apply to Makita batteries and what are the prices at Obi, Bauhaus and Hornbach?

The most popular Makita batteries at a glance:

1st place: Makita BL1850B 18V, 5.0Ah
(Amazon 71.99€ / bauhaus 79€ / Hornbach 79€)

2nd place: Makita BL1860B 18V, 6.0Ah
(Amazon 99.98€ / obi €89.99 / bauhaus 117€ / Hornbach 88€)

3rd place: Makita Powersource-Kit starter set 18V, 5.0Ah
(Amazon 183€ / bauhaus 183€ / Hornbach 183€)

4th Place: Makita BL1830B 18V, 3.0Ah
(Amazon 49.90€ / obi €64.99 / bauhaus 57€ / Hornbach 57€)

5th place: Makita BL1820B 18V, 2.0Ah
(Amazon €43.41 / not available in hardware stores)

6th place: Makita BL1840B 18V, 4.0Ah
(Amazon 59.58€ / obi €69.99 / bauhaus 75€)

Conclusion: The most popular is the large 5 Ah battery from Makita, which is also available at the best price of 71.99 euros on Amazon, while hardware stores such as Bauhaus or Hornbach are asking 79 euros here. The smallest Makita battery with 2 Ah is usually sufficient for most users, but this is only available from Amazon. Incidentally, there is an even smaller battery with only 1.5 Ah from Makita. But this costs the same on Amazon as the larger 2 Ah battery and therefore does not receive a purchase recommendation. At the hardware stores we only found this at Bauhaus and here it costs a whopping 49 euros.

At Obi, this Makita Flex is more than 10 euros more expensive than at Amazon.

Source: Amazon.de

Makita lawn trimmers, lawn mowers, construction site radio and more.

The Makita range is now huge and in addition to various cordless screwdrivers, the manufacturer has much more to offer. We look at the most popular products from other categories and compare them with hardware stores. So let’s take a look at whether the Makita lawn trimmer, the Makita cordless lawn mower or the Makita construction site radio is also cheaper on Amazon.

Various Makita cordless products such as grass trimmers and coolers in the hardware store check:

grass trimmer: Makita DUR181Z cordless lawn trimmer solo
(Amazon 75.43€ / Mindfactory €69.84 / bauhaus €74.90 / Hornbach €74.90)

Cordless lawn mower: Makita DLM382Z cordless lawn mower
(Amazon 156.29€ / obi €199.99 / bauhaus 199€)

Construction site radio: Makita DMR112 cordless construction site radio with DAB+ and Bluetooth
(Amazon 131.11€ / obi 147.99€ / bauhaus 149€ / Hornbach 149€)

Cooling box: Makita DCW180Z cordless mobile cool & heat box
(Amazon 459.95€ / Hornbach 465€)

Vacuum cleaner: Makita DCL281FZ cordless vacuum cleaner 18V
(Amazon 89.99€ / bauhaus 124€)

Chainsaw: Makita DUC353Z cordless chainsaw
(Amazon 226.90€ / obi 254.99€ / bauhaus 235€ / Hornbach 235€)

Flex: Makita DGA504Z cordless angle grinder 18 V
(Amazon 99.08€ / obi €109.99)

Jigsaw: Makita DJV 180 18 V Li-ion Cordless Jigsaw Solo
(Amazon €132.99 / not available in hardware stores)

Compressor: Makita DMP181Z cordless compressor 11.1 bar 18V
(Amazon 89.99€ / Hornbach 119€)

circular saw: Makita DHS680Z Cordless Circular Saw 57mm 18 V
(Amazon 191.16€ / obi 219.99€ / bauhaus 208€ / Hornbach 208€)

Conclusion: Except for the Makita lawn trimmer, all popular products such as the construction site radio or the compressor are significantly cheaper at Amazon than in hardware stores such as Obi, Bauhaus and Hornbach. With the cordless lawn mower from Makita, for example, you save at least 42.71 euros compared to Obi or Bauhaus. Incidentally, when creating this article, we noticed that Bauhaus and Hornbach look pretty closely at what the other is doing, because the prices are often absolutely identical. Amazon often says “currently out of stock” or “usually ready to ship in 1 to 2 months”. According to our experience, if you still place the item in the shopping cart and order it, you will often receive the product much earlier, as Amazon tries to give priority to pre-orders.

Hornbach: Is buying in a branch cheaper or more expensive?

We visited the Hornbach store in Fürth in July 2022 to see if the prices in the stores differed compared to the website. In our random samples, the prices for Makita products were always identical to those on the website. According to the online shop, only the Makita DJV181Z cordless pendulum jigsaw costs 199 euros and was signposted in the branch as significantly cheaper at 165 euros. So it can definitely be worth comparing the prices on the Hornbach website with the prices in the online shop.