DEWALT DCS355 XR Brushless Oscillating Multi-Tool Reviews

Video transcript

Hello guys. Welcome to Tool Talk. I'm Ben Curry from Electrical Innovations in Derby. And today I'm going to be talking about one of my favourite new tools.

I've had this bad boy for quite some time, it's the DeWalt 18 volt multi tool and it's the brush-less one so it's the newer one. Quite expensive, I think you can get them for less than £200 with a battery, a couple of batteries and charger, around £130 if they're on their own.

You tend to normally get them just like this, without the blades but you do get your sanding attachment to it, which you just click on there, put sandpaper on there if you like.

So for the longest time I never used this, it just sat in the van never getting much use. And then recently I've started using it more and more, until most recently it's one of the staple tools.

Today of all days I went to a job on a fairly new estate, about 30 years old, and was shocked to find straw in the walls. The walls are actually made of straw, unbelievable. Try chasing that out with your SDS with hand-stop on it and a chisel, it doesn't happen.

So the blade on the multi tool to cut my boxes out and my chases out, and made sure work of it. I use this thing for all sorts, sanding heads obviously really good, it gets into the corners when you're sanding. We're actually in our new house at the minute, I got the keys on Friday, so I've been painting, decorating, stripping walls, things like that.

As you can see the sanding attachment has got some kinda ... these are dirt cheap you buy them in packs from anywhere, cheap as chips.

The cutting blades, the first time that you put a cutting blade in one of these you have to get a floorboard out where there's a nail through the bottom of a stud into the floorboard that you're trying to get out from under the stud, and you can do that and push it under and cut the nail, you'll be thankful that you bought one of these. It will have paid for itself in about a second. That's one of the first jobs I did with mine, and it was just life changing, and I've used it ever since.

Things like pat sawing ceilings, you know if you had to cut a hole in ceilings to get an arm up for access, pull a cable, cut a nice big neat big hole, just take a whole trap out, dead easy with one of these, leave it for the plasterers they'll be dead thankful that you haven't just smashed it with your hand.

Like I've already said, second fixing, chopping boxes in plaster board and walls, cables left in there for you, very useful for that. Yeah spot on one of my favourite tools, and the one I use is the DeWalt DCS355, it's the brush-less 18 volt multi tool, so yeah check it out. Four hour power battery, all the normal things every day when you fire it up it's spot on. Okay this is Tool Talk, I'm Ben Curry thanks for watching.

Video transcript

Hi, I'm Russell of Martindale Windows and Developments Limited. I'm a member of Expert Trades and I'm here today to do a review for Tool Talk.
Today I'm going to talk to you about the DeWalt Multi Tool, Oscillating Tool, several other names for it I'm sure in the trade. We all have our own nicknames for them. Firstly, to start off with, I'm new to DeWalt as a tool. I'm really warming to it. Firstly for the value, secondly for the quality of the boxes, how tough they are compared to their rivals, the likes of Makita and Festool. Festool were just as good I'd day, but I've yet to find a stacking box that performs as well as that. The clip together system works really well. I've seen some storage solutions for them in vans and workshops, where they all slide into cages and organisation pole systems. They look like they really nailed it on the storage side, so firstly that's really impressive.
Second is the price. These are selling at the moment through Screwfix, including VAT at 150. That includes the box, the tool itself and the tool is quick release, which we'll go into in a minute. It comes with two 2 amp batteries, which aren't great batteries, but there are two of them and you can keep them rolling and you can obviously add to your system. They work with all the other tools available, 18 volt this is in particular, brush disk motor, LED light on it, all the batteries have got indicators on them to show you how much power's left. You get a great selection of little tools with it, as opposed to the body only Makita or the other tools like that on the market. The Fein Marter, the original that came out. Price-wise this is, I think, the most competitive tool on the market in its league.
We've used it for probably a month now. It's been really good, it's proved really handy. We know that as a tool anyway, purely because of the nature of the tool, great for plumbers, cutting pipes, trimming holes for pipes. The same for electricians, cutting out boxes. We use it for kitchen fitting, cutting holes in work surfaces or in the units themselves. Cutting plastic in the PVC industry, it's really handy for, all sorts.
The tool itself, again like I say it's got a quick release, I'm not sure if you can see that there. It's instant between blade changes, batteries connect, this is like a sliding system. Again, two of those in there, 2 amp, with a battery indicator on the back. This one's a little flat, needs charging. Again, you get a charger with it for that price and there's several tools in here, some of which we haven't even looked into yet. That looks like a dust extraction system for it. I think it's a 15 piece set, so you do have several blades in the set with it. These are really handy for raking out grout on tiles. There's some silicon removers, sanding, that's the plate for the sanding. If I was to put that on there for you, you'd be able to see how quick and easy that is to use. There is a lock, like a safety, you can hold it in and it will hold it on there for you, so you don't have to hold the trigger down; just click it to release.
For what it is, a very powerful tool, very light, very well balanced. Again, extra sanding pads for it. There are extra ... The connection system, I think there's about eight legs that stick out and they go into the back of the tool itself to lock it into position. There's a spare there if the one you've got gets broken. Alan key to service the tool, you can't fault it really for the level of extras you get with it. Again, there's another tool there, another blade sorry. I'm not entirely sure what this is for. Haven't used it yet, but again I'll get round to reading the instructions on it as we do, after we give it a go first and give up and read the instructions. In it's own league, I'd say one of best tools, best value on the market for what they are and I'll definitely recommend trying it.