12 DeWalt Tools Beginners Should Steer Clear Of

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The DeWalt name is a vaunted status symbol among tool users. Investing in DeWalt equipment tends to deliver a premium experience, along with plenty of power, to consistently get the job done. Professionals and 'prosumers' alike gravitate toward DeWalt tools and accessories because of the catalog's enormous breadth and the tools' high degree of quality. However, even the best tools are sometimes limited in their ability to provide value to a user.

Occasionally, DeWalt makes equipment that some users may be better off steering clear of. But tools that miss the mark aren't the only solutions that can be problematic for buyers. Novice home improvers or those with niche specialties may not always be ready to take on certain jobs, and the tools that support those new and unfamiliar tasks might be difficult to use or even dangerous. Skill level discrepancies, high prices for specialty items, and even tools that appear designed for one purpose but perform better in others are all pieces of equipment that can be troublesome for beginners. DeWalt isn't immune to these issues, and these 12 tools fall into a category that could be a rethink for shoppers with limited experience in home renovation or large-scale repair tasks.

The 20V Max XR Cable Stripper is a classic example of a niche solution that will expand your functional horizon but isn't likely suitable for inclusion in a basic tool collection. The cable stripper is available from Amazon as a bare tool for $94, and it can be found in a kit format with a wide range of included cutting heads for $599. That's a major price discrepancy, and user reviews indicate that the bare tool comes with no cutting solutions whatsoever, even though the tool itself appears to come with a stripping head; users will need to buy stripping bushings separately. 

When augmented with its bevy of cutting accessories, the tool can cut cables up to 4 inches in diameter. It features quick-release bushings that make swapping accessories simple, too. But users often give it underwhelming reviews. Amazon users awarded it a 3.9-star average rating from 114 buyers. It also exists within a subsection of the electrical world that many beginners won't want to dip their toes into.

Among tools that can help a woodworker level up their skills, the thickness planer is a solid option. DeWalt's 15-amp, 13-inch Corded Thickness Planer is available from a wide range of retailers, including Ace Hardware, for $689 for Ace Rewards members and $859 at the regular price. It's also available at Home Depot for $669. This makes it a very expensive piece of equipment for those just starting to build out their tool kit. The thickness planer isn't particularly difficult to use, and realistically, the machine does most of the work for you, pulling boards through the cutting heads as it flattens your workpieces.

But beginner renovators and building enthusiasts aren't typically going to be facing off against fine woodworking projects early on in their DIY careers. It's also frequently considered a good idea to invest in a hand plane first, to learn the ropes and flatten boards on your own. An inexpensive, vintage hand plane can be found for a reasonable price and in good shape if you look for bargains at garage sales in your area. DeWalt's thickness planer is a high-quality tool and operates as a benchtop solution that adds portability to your workspace. However, it's not exactly suitable for use in basic DIY projects, and there are better alternatives for those just launching a hobby career in the world of woodworking.

DeWalt's ToughSeries Heavy Duty Construction Jack is an interesting inclusion on this list. It's a solid support tool that can help with numerous installation projects. But those using this particular piece of equipment may want to invest in a pair rather than a single jack, doubling an already high price tag of $129 at Ace Hardware (or $115 for Ace Rewards members). For large-scale projects, two jacks can quickly balloon into four or more, driving up the cost of procuring the necessary equipment in a hurry. This tool is also designed to help with heavy-duty lifting requirements that come into play when performing installations of cabinetry and other hefty materials.

Cabinets are essentially just boxes that need to be situated on the wall. This makes the task relatively simple in theory, but when adding the weight of these prebuilt units, it quickly becomes more demanding than many beginners might be prepared to handle. Lifting heavy workpieces into position can become stressful, creating a spiraling effect in which one mistake is magnified into many. Doubling down on this issue, cabinetry and other installations like it require a significant level of precision. This is absolutely the right tool for the job, but the job may not be one a beginner wants to handle on their own.

The 20V Max Jobsite Blower is a tool that gets mixed reviews. It's available at Lowe's for $179, and the online product page notes that more than 500 blowers have been purchased by industrious tool users in the last week. It sports a middle-of-the-road 4.2-star average rating across those buyer reviews. Users note that the attachments come loose a little too easily, making this a tool you may have to fight with a bit to achieve the desired outcome. This can easily frustrate a beginner tool user who may not be prepared to handle a finicky piece of equipment and take its quirks in stride.

Another issue users report is that it doesn't appear to generate enough power for regular outdoor cleanup tasks. The tool is listed as a jobsite blower, specifically, but user reviews note that it's more appropriate for cleanup tasks within a workshop, perhaps serving as a dust management solution to replace your broom. Considering its name, beginners might ultimately assume that it can be used for a variety of tasks, only to be disappointed when it underperforms in certain areas that might be essential to a home maintainer and offer full performance in areas that constitute fringe use cases.

The 14-Inch Chop Saw from DeWalt can make a big impact on a renovator's workflow. It's available on Amazon for $220 and offers multi-material cutting capability, with a stable base that lets you lock workpieces in place and cut through them as you would with a miter saw. But the chop saw is a tool designed for cutting metal and other dense materials rather than wood. This is essentially the miter saw equivalent of a tool like an angle grinder, and it uses a large abrasive wheel rather than a standard cutting blade.

Those new to the DIY arena may not be ready for all that this change of working material entails. For one thing, it's sometimes necessary to introduce a small stream of water into the mix when cutting through things like concrete bricks. Additionally, metal and other materials you might cut with the chop saw can produce sparks and flying debris that pose more hazards than cutting standard lumber. Beginners may not know that they need to take additional precautions with a tool like this, treating it the same as any other cutting tool, when the reality stands in stark contrast.

DeWalt makes a particularly interesting chiseling tool that can be a serious asset in the hands of a dedicated renovator. It's a versatile tool that even haters of the brand will love. DeWalt's three-piece set of Side Strike Wood Chisels is available from Ace Hardware for $37. It comes with a ¾-inch, 1-inch, and 1-¼-inch chisel, each featuring numerous functional details that make the tools highly versatile and useful. I personally own one of these chisels and use it for a range of renovation tasks. But I have cut myself with the tool before, and that's where the potential problems exist for a beginner renovator. Each chisel features one flat side and a cutting surface that runs all the way around the rest of the blade, making it a useful renovation tool with the potential to injure the unwary.

There's a serrated tooth edge down near the bottom, and the rest of the chisel features a very sharp face with squared edges for high-precision removal of material. However, with so much edge on offer, these tools make it particularly easy to hurt yourself. Users need to be more careful than ever when wielding them, making the tool perhaps just a tad less valuable in a novice's hands. 

Cutting cables is different than tasks involving basic wiring. If you need a tool like the 20V Max ACSR Cable Cutting Tool, you're likely working on substantial, whole-home electrical renovations that go beyond the scope of basic DIY work in the field. This is a tool that tends to get good reviews from users, but it's geared toward professional operators both in its price tag and the job it's designed to complete. The cutter is available from Amazon for $884, Acme Tools for $1,500, and Home Depot for $931. None of these price tags is budget-friendly, so this is a unit you'll only invest in if you actually plan to use the tool regularly.

Not only is the task of heavy-duty wiring potentially dangerous, but it may also be more cost-effective to hire a professional than to buy a single piece of equipment for one project. Alternatively, if you have the skill level to use a cable cutter like this but don't have one in your collection, it might be worthwhile to explore rental options to get the job done rather than buying such a niche tool at a high cost.

The 20V Max 550 PSI Portable Power Cleaner is available at Ace Hardware for $169 but sports a 2.7-star average rating from 147 buyers. The cleaner is designed to provide a light-duty solution for spraying patio areas or cars, among other pressurized cleaning tasks. The tool can draw water from any freshwater source thanks to its included suction hose, making it a natural fit for DIYers seeking a basic powered cleaning solution.

Buyers have noted that it feels cheaply constructed, has low water pressure, and performs inconsistently. Ultimately, this results in a tool that may end up sitting in the corner of your garage rather than serving as a useful addition to your tool collection. The 550 PSI output is also a target of reviewer criticism, with many suggesting that it's not powerful enough to support anything beyond basic spraying tasks. This can leave users who anticipated a versatile power cleaner in the lurch.

As with some other heavy-duty tools on this list, the 20V Max 15 Degree Coil Roofing Nailer is not a multipurpose tool. It is designed specifically for roofing installation. The coil drum that feeds nails to the driving head can accommodate fasteners ranging from ¾-inch to 1-¾-inch. It delivers up to 500 nails per charge on a small, 2Ah battery, and for rapid installers, it can handle actuation speeds of three nails per second. The tool retails for $479.99 at Ace Hardware, but Ace Rewards members get $100 off that price for a kit that comes with a battery, charger, and soft-sided contractor's bag.

This nailer is a high-quality tool, but its intended use case goes far beyond what a typical DIYer will be comfortable handling. Roofing installations are brutal work. Operating in the hot sun on top of the house, temperatures can rise as much as 20 degrees above those experienced just below ground level. This is an intense workload with plenty of additional subtasks beyond the installation process that require a roofing nailer. Adventurous DIYers might consider tackling this job themselves, but a beginner isn't likely to be prepared for the intense, time-consuming demands, and this purpose-built tool may not be the best fit for those doing a one-off roof repair or replacement. 

The ToughSystem Storage Rack isn't a tool from DeWalt's catalog in the classical sense. This is a solution that helps maintain the organizational structure of your collection, and it's among some of the most useful equipment in DeWalt's ToughSystem lineup. However, this doesn't make it an ideal purchase for all types of tool users. Beginners seeking organizational structure in their collection may not be prepared to spend $105 on this storage rack at Amazon, especially given the investment needed for each individual storage box that connects to its rails. The rack offers solid versatility and a high-quality way to integrate vertical organizational capability into your garage or shed. But it's a fairly expensive foundational element for a tool user who may not yet have a full understanding of how they want to lay out their workspace.

Instead, it may be a better option to invest in ToughSystem toolboxes first to organize your equipment by job type, size, or another category that makes sense for your workflow. After you've begun separating your tools into usable buckets to streamline your organization, investing in a racking system to further improve your structure can be worth the expense. That's not to say it isn't a decent addition to a workshop, just that beginners may not yet have the collection needed to maximize the investment. 

Unfortunately, buyers share many gripes about the 20V Max 13-Inch String Trimmer. It doesn't appear to be a tool that can overcome its numerous flaws. Available at Ace Hardware for $189, or $10 off for Ace Rewards members, the tool has a 3.4-star average rating from 102 buyers. Many note that the guard appears to be too small, allowing the tool to fling rocks and other loose debris at the user and around the workspace with impunity. This can be a real problem for a beginner operator who isn't prepared to handle the additional level of debris flying around the yard as they try to clean up the edges of their mowing job.

The ergonomics of the tool are also called into question, with reviewers complaining that the equipment is hard to manage with a comfortable grip. Some tools feature unavoidable quirks like this, but most string trimmers aren't heavy or awkward enough to necessitate this kind of discomfort level, and so settling for one that isn't easy to operate doesn't have to be your reality. Issues with the motor appear to persist as well, underpinning a tool that just hasn't been built to the same level of care and capability that DeWalt equipment usually exudes.

The 60V Max 20-Inch Chainsaw is one of DeWalt's larger chainsaws, and it's available from Ace Hardware for $529 as a kit that includes a battery and charger. The brand offers a range of outdoor power tools designed for cutting branches and other yard debris. This is a heavy-duty solution that delivers the equivalent power of a 50.2 cc gasoline-powered alternative, with up to 3.49 horsepower. 

There are some natural pros and cons to an electric chainsaw, including that they're easier to start, making them a bit more forgiving for beginners. This model features self-lubrication and additional features, such as a low-kickback bar and a chain brake, that help increase safety. It claims the ability to cut through 17-inch white oak logs in as little as 18 seconds, delivering huge power and long cutting capability for demanding tasks.

But a large chainsaw is naturally harder to operate than smaller tools. A beginner jumping into the chainsaw world will often find tools with long bars, such as this, unwieldy and extremely difficult to control. A 20-inch chainsaw is essential when cleaning up after trees have been knocked down during a hurricane or tornado, for instance. But it's not typically required for basic yard maintenance. If you're unfamiliar with chainsaws and the way they operate, investing in a large tool like this can ultimately do more harm than good. Instead, leaving the more demanding cleanup tasks to professionals might be the better option.

These tools and accessories have a place in a tool ecosystem and have even been well-liked by users. Some are recipients of mixed reviews, but inclusion on this list is not a mark of quality or lack thereof. Some of these tools may result in suboptimal purchases because they are not always appropriate or particularly useful for beginners. Most are used in specialty situations that beginners may want to avoid as they grow their skill level and confidence.