Over at Home Depot, it looks like they are replacing their selection of Bosch Daredevil spade drill bits with Diablo SpeedDemon spade bits.
All of the Bosch Daredevil bits and sets are marked down, and a sole Diablo set appeared on the shelf, a touch of red where there used to be a sea of blue.
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The 6+2 bit set didn’t have a price tag, but is advertised as saving you up to 70%, presumably off the full retail prices of all 8 individual bits. It’s priced at $10.
There are several dozen user reviews at Home Depot’s website, all from “Seeds Program” (free product) testers.
Given that Diablo is a Bosch-owned brand, and that these new SpeedDemon spade bits look identical (at least without microscopic scrutiny), could they simply be Bosch Daredevil bits in Diablo-red color?
We have not seen any press releases from Diablo yet, and so there are few official details or insights to draw from.
From Home Depot’s website, it looks like there will be different sets, individual sizes, stubby bits, and 16″ bits in some sizes.
The product listings say that the bits can be used in corded or cordless impact and drill/drivers, which was also true for Bosch Daredevil bits.
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A store associate commented that the Diablo spade bits are all priced lower than the Bosch spade bits they seem to be replacing. But while the $10 for 8 bit pricing seems decent, Home Depot’s past Bosch promo displays were far better. During promo seasons, we’ve seen a similar 6+2 spade bit set selling for $5, a 10+2 set for $10, and an 18pc set with case for $20.
If the individual bits are priced lower, that’ll be great. I have found it to be cost effective to stock up on promo sets rather than just 2 or 3 bit sizes, leaving me with a very uneven number of spares.
Do these Diablo Speeddemon drill bits offer any benefits over Bosch Daredevil bits? Maybe that’s why there hasn’t been any press releases or official launch information from Diablo?
WHY is Home Depot seemingly shifting over from Diablo to Bosch for spade bits? Given the Diablo dominance in circular saw blades and sanding pads, and the split presence in reciprocating saw blades alongside Milwaukee, this could very well be done for as part of a greater consistency or brand unification effort.
It seems like a small move, to go from Bosch bits to Bosch-owned Diablo bits that appear to be identical aside from the blue vs. red color scheme, but changes like this are extremely impactful when it comes to branding and user recognition.
It also seems like “savings” is a big part of the marketing as well. For instance, there’s a 9pc set on Home Depot’s website, and similar to the prominent “up to 70% savings” blurb for the 8pc set, that 9pc set advertises “up to 60% savings” as one of its key selling points.
The comment from an associate that said Diablo bits are priced lower than Bosch’s leads me to wonder: Are these Bosch Dardevil bits in Diablo red colors, or is there something else that’s different about them? Will they offer more performance? Lower? Greater durability? Less?
Have you seen any changeover at your local Home Depot yet? It could be that they’re testing things at certain stores, or this could be a nationwide rollout.
Stephen
The Home Depot website says none of the Bosch spade drill bit sets are available at any store within 100 miles of me (Atlanta area). The status on some of the Bosch sets are Unavailable In Store. All still offer Free In-Store pickup. Some of the Bosch sets even say Out of Stock Online.
Several of the Diablo sets show Limited Stock at nearby stores. They are all marked “NEW”.
Yvonne
I live in Monroe, GA and my store has both of the bits. As a matter of fact, I just bought the 10 pack of Bosch bits and I will be returning the 8 pack (unopened) Diablo bits I bought Last week. Definitely marketing because that is why I purchased them. I just recently switched to Milwaukee also. That red on red is catchy. I was in the store yesterday to pick up two of the tool deals they had going on and saw the Bosch 10 spade set and said to myself; l “10 is better than 8. Bosch is Diabo, Bosch is amazing; they look identical, stop trippin’! “ , and so I purchased the Bosch and the Diablo is going back. The only trouble now is not to buy another tool when I go back to the store?!
fred
The Bosch Daredevil bits – from what I recall – were made in China.
Are these Diablo bits also out of a factory in China?
Perhaps Bosch switched OEM’s
Spenser
Purchased a set of Diablo “Speeddemon” bits. Made in china, construction seem, so far as I can tell, identical to the thou. Just a red paint job.
I’d imagine Home Depot seems to be phasing out any blue products, not sure why beyond avoiding Lowe’s colors, but it seems they’re going deep on red things.
Tom
Bosch wouldn’t make this switch voluntarily if it was eating into their profit margins. My guess is that these are made with a different grade of steel or that the cost of manufacturing has otherwise been lowered to hit the lower retail price Home Depot desired. Some head-to-head testing should help to clarify if there is any corresponding drop in performance.
Nathan
better question is Home Depot getting rid of carrying Bosch all together. Over the last year I’ve seen a lot of bosch stuff on clearance rack and no new replacements. For example before I bought my new bosch jig saw I almost bought a clearance one from HD near me. It wasn’t the exact one I wanted but it was over 50% off – but no box, no accessories set, etc.
meanwhile no new bosch tool on the display – they do have a drill and recip saw but no other bosch tools on the table – this was December of 19
Stuart
Home Depot has been choosy about their Bosch offerings for years. Around 13 years ago, I had a gift card, and had to choose a Ridgid ROS since Home Depot didn’t carry Bosch’s. They did have a Bosch finish sander though.
Lowe’s tends to have a better selection on Bosch tools, but Home Depot has always had a good selection of accessories. Maybe there’s an exclusivity arrangement, but it doesn’t look like it.
This seems to be more of a brand consolidation effort, but it’s hard to say.
This could strengthen sales. If you buy Diablo circular saw blades, and reciprocating saw blades, and maybe sanding pads, which brand might you be more loyal to when it comes to drill bits and jig saw blades – Diablo or Bosch? Meanwhile, it might all be the same to Bosch, and they can still change things up during promo seasons with different bundle offerings.
From their website, Lowe’s didn’t carry Bosch Daredevil bits anyway, as they focus on Irwin and maybe Spyder.
Patrick
My local HD had all of their Bosch jigsaw blades at half off right next to a new display of Diablo jigsaw blades in similar cases with similar codes for types of blades.
fred
Again I wonder about COO
Bosch always had many very high grade jigsaw blades – made in Switzerland. Some Diablo abrasives and reciprocating saw blades are also made in Switzerland – but some of their products come from India too.
Has Diablo moved their jigsaw blade production elsewhere – or are there some other measures Bosch has taken to allow Diablo blades to meet HD’s price points?
CountyCork
Maybe making room for Nail Strike?
Steve Sorensen
Personally, I considered the Bosch spade bits a poor design. Why the wood screw addition to the tip? It just makes the damn things difficult to use.
fred
Usually bits that have lead screws are thought to self-feed requiring less pressure to drive them into the wood and perhaps boring faster. The sacrifice is (as you note) is less control – especially to control depth on non-through holes and for angled drilling. Its a compromise that you may like or not. In the plumbing business – most of my folks preferred selfeed bits for drilling pipe clearance holes – eschewing spade bits altogether even in the smaller sizes where they used auger bits. But in our remodeling business the crews asked us to buy (mostly Irwin) spade bits in normal and sometimes stubby and long lengths.
fred
BTW – I should have mentioned that as an alternative to having a lead-screw at the tip of a spade bit some manufacturers affix a pilot. The pilot allows you to use the bit to center on an already drilled hole and expand it. This is handy in some crafts like fishing rod building to re-size cork grips.
https://flexcoat.com/shop/reel-seat-arbors/arbor-pilot-bits
Gordon
Given that Lowe’s has always had a greater Bosch presence, I wonder if this is part of a plan to push an exclusive deal with Lowe’s. This might be the “good faith” move that Lowe’s is looking for.
Charles F
I was thinking the same thing. I wonder if Lowes is realizing it is driving contractors away at this point.
Matt
It may be. I was in there yesterday looking for the new Craftsman V20 brushless recip saw which apparently they aren’t getting now. The entire Craftsman line has yellow clearance priced stickers on everything. Hardly stocked at all and very shoddy looking display now too with many missing tools and the ones there were very dirty and worn down looking. Almost looked intentional as the Kobalt section looked like a beautiful showroom. This is exactly how the Menard’s Craftsman section looked with the yellow clearance stickers before it all disappeared. Even many of the hand tools had yellow clearance stickers.
The first thing I thought was A) I just dumped a bunch of money on a line of tools they’re discontinuing, and B) They’re putting Metabo HPT or possibly Dewalt front and center now in Craftsman’s place. Seeing this though it could very well be Bosch. Not sure where Craftsman is going now though or if SBD is just dumping it like Porter Cable. Even our local ACE is nearly full on Milwaukee now.
taras
Those red bits have been out for awhile, except that they used to say HILTI on them.
Plaingrain
Not a fan of those bits, too much tear out for me. I go with the auger bits.
Toolfreak
I’m pretty sure the Diablo bits and other accessories that look like the Bosch but with red paint are exactly that.
It’s way more cost effective for Bosch to make the same stuff on the same production lines and only change the easy stuff – the paint on the product and the ink on the labelling. The plastic package is even the same since again, not cost effective to change the package they are going into.
For most people, this is only something they’d notice at a changeover like this. Bosch usually has their Bosch-branded and Diablo-branded bits in seperate retailers so most buyers would never think they’re the same thing.
As for whether this means Lowe’s will carry more of the Bosch stuff, that would be nice and make a lot more sense. HD carries very little Bosch stuff in-store so it’s weird they have so much of the Daredevil line for accessores. Makes way more sense for Lowe’s since they have quite a bit of the 12V/18V cordless and corded tools in-store. Even if they don’t put shelf fulls of them out, it’d make sense to have them on a end cap with Bosch stuff or in cardboard/aisle hanger displays.
taras
I wonder if this means that we’ll see Diablo branded Nail strike auger and spades?
Toolfreak
I would guess so, if HD doesn’t have another brand better positioned to supply all their stores around that quality/price point.
There might even be more stuff that has been Bosch-only-branded in the past that will show up with red paint as Diablo-branded if HD is making it worth Bosch’s while to do so.
I doubt Bosch would turn down money, especially more money or money they wouldn’t be getting otherwise if they were selling less stuff at HD rather than more.
High&Mighty
The Bosch daredevil bits suck. They really do. They always have. Bosch appliances suck too. But that’s another story for another day. The daredevil bits don’t hold an edge at all and dull up way too easily. Especially at the lead screw. Can’t sharpen it. Once it’s dull it’s trash. Poorly designed and used on the wrong type of bit. Diablo is very well known for making quality blades. Bosch, not so much. I never snapped a paddle off of a spade bit until I used a Bosch bit. Snapped clean off in the middle of the paddle going through some 2×10 blocking for a black iron gas line going to an exterior tankless. This has happened four or five times during similar applications. I’ve also had the back of the hex end snap off on quite a few occasions as well. So it’s a good thing that HD is switching to Diablo. I don’t know why HD switched to Bosch from Irwin/Hanson in the first place. I still use some of the Irwin bits even though they were removed from stores years ago. They were good, solid bits. Another issue is that Bosch bits can’t be sharpened because of that stupid radius shaped paddle and those stupid horns they put on the edges of the paddle and of course the incorrectly implemented lead screw tip. Spade bits were designed to be resharpened so that you could get years of service out of them. Lead screws are for long auger bits and cable/wire installation bits. Bosch didn’t see it that way. They suck. Bosch daredevil is a stunt gone bad and HD should have done this a long time ago.
Toolfreak
The Diablo bits are just going to be the Daredevil bits with red paint on them, so you’ll get the same performance.
Plaingrain
I do think the Diablo recip blades are nicer than Bosch. The higher priced ones anyway.
Steve
I saw about 40, maybe more, large Daredevil sets, in a case, in the clearance section of my local Home Depot today for $14. Earlier in the year they were clearing the bigger set with the roll up pouch.
What I think is going on here is nothing but Marketing 101. Diablo is a very strong, highly respected, super popular name brand in one sub catalog of power tool accessories, saw blades, so they’re beginning to use that brand name on other closely related categories in power tool accessories. So long as they don’t dilute the brand with products that don’t live up to the quality of the brand’s current reputation, they will have success doing this with other related power tool accessories as well.
As for who pushed it, Bosch or Home Depot? I would guess Bosch, and they likely worked closely with Home Depot.
Chris
It’s just marketing. Lowes and HD don’t want to compete on price for the same items as it lowers profit. They want to have their own lines of product unique to themselves so any brand loyalty stays with them. They want to advertise products that can only be purchased at their stores, why advertise for bosch and allow your competitor to sell them. They want to advertise for things you can only get there. So Bosch accessories are sold at Lowes. Don’t like Bosch, great even a better reason to have a different brand at HD. That way Bosch scan sell to you even if you don’t know they own Diablo. With most things in this world, there is always room for 2 competitors and if you make 2 differently branded products that are sold in those 2 competitors you have the complete corner on the market.
SaturnFire
Thank you for posting this. I went to my local Home Depot and got a bunch of clearance “Bosch” stuff right next to the new daredevil.
SaturnFire
I meant Diablo … I got the BLUE stuff on clearance. RED stuff sitting there untouched at full retails.
Robert
Home Depot doesn’t want to compete with Lowes on selling the same items. Lowe’s carries Bosch. Even though the home Depot and Lowe’s carry DeWalt tools they’re usually different models. So Bosch switched from their Daredevil bits to their Diablo bits.