Pennsylvania man buys 'counterfeit' tools and opens them up to see what's actually inside them

A Pennsylvania man bought ‘counterfeit’ tools online and opened them up to see what was actually inside them and whether they actually are as good as the real deal.

What started as a simple side-by-side comparison quickly turned into a wild teardown full of loose wires, strange labels, and a few very surprising results.

He picked up what he said were fake DeWalt, Makita, and Milwaukee drills and impact drivers online, then matched them against genuine tools bought from trusted US sellers.

And while some of the alleged knockoffs looked convincing from the outside, it did not take long for the cracks to start showing.

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The results of the tool test

When it comes to tech, you need to get power tools right, because an incident with a power drill can be potentially lethal.

John Malecki Unscrewed decided to take some alleged knockoffs and put them to the test.

At first glance, some of the tools looked pretty close to the real deal, especially from a distance, but once the batteries went in, things got interesting and slightly dangerous fast.

One impact driver had an obvious trigger delay, sounded completely different, and even gave off a smell that made the host doubt whether it was truly brushless at all.

The drill also raised eyebrows with its flexing housing, poorly locking chuck, and a bit that slipped right out during every test he did.

Still, not every result went exactly as expected.

In one of the biggest twists of the video, the real DeWalt impact driver actually broke during the screw driving test, while the cheap version kept running.

What’s going on inside?

The teardown was where the biggest differences appeared.

Inside the genuine tools, the parts looked clean, tightly packed, and properly secured, with neat wiring and a much more polished overall layout.

Inside the cheaper versions, the construction was often much messier, with non-anchored parts, simpler mechanisms, and much less confidence-inspiring engineering.

The ‘fake’ Makita tools were the most convincing of the bunch, even though performance still lagged behind the real thing.

The ‘fake’ Milwaukee tools, meanwhile, were easier to spot, thanks to weaker power, battery wobble, and noticeably rougher construction.

To finish things off, the team dropped the alleged counterfeit tools and their real counterparts, ran them over, and generally abused them for fun.

The result was exactly the reassurance you would hope for, with cracked plastic coverings, flying stickers, and a very clear reminder that a suspicious bargain is not always much of a bargain at all, stick to the real deal.