If you’re trying to choose between multiple big box hardware stores, you can shop pretty confidently at Lowe’s. According to JD Power, Lowe’s is the home improvement store with the highest rate of customer satisfaction when it comes to things like level of trust, products and supplies, return policies and processes, and additional services. Plus, Lowe’s regularly beats competitor Home Depot when it comes to price.

The question on today’s docket, however, is all about the tools. We’re looking at how the offerings available from Lowe’s stack up against one another and against tools from competitors. It turns out, there are plenty of professional-grade tools on the shelves of your local Lowe’s and on the company’s website which outshine their peers in specifications, real-world tests, consumer satisfaction, or some combination of those factors.

Whether you’re shopping for the DIYer or tool enthusiast in your life or filling out your own tool collection, Lowe’s offers a wide selection of highly rated tools at reasonable costs. And if JD Power can be trusted, which is sort of its whole deal, you’re likely to have a pleasant time shopping there.

When you need to move heavy loads, it’s nice to have a little help. Hand trucks use a couple of simple mechanisms, namely the wheel and the lever, to multiply force and make it easier to transport heavy objects. A hand truck, also commonly called a dolly, can be an incredibly useful tool to have on hand. The only question is which one to choose.

Lowe’s offers the Milwaukee 4-wheel convertible hand truck for $89.98. It converts easily into two configurations and folds up for storage. It features four plastic, five-inch, non-marking wheels and a lightweight aluminum body. The whole item weighs just 15 pounds. By contrast, the most comparable item at Harbor Freight is the Franklin 2-in-1 Convertible Hand Truck. It weighs twice as much, has bigger wheels, a larger carrying capacity of 800 pounds, and a slightly larger price tag of $99.99, to match. It’s not that the Franklin hand truck isn’t good, it’s that it’s simply too much in most cases.

The Milwaukee cart trades some of its carrying capacity for portability, being much lighter than similar pieces of equipment and easier to transport. With 300 pounds of capacity, it’s more than enough for most users, and it’s easier to store between jobs.

When the weather gets warm, many of us start spending more time on yard maintenance. If you already have a lawn mower, consider the Kobalt Quiet Tech 24-volt Cordless Battery String Trimmer and Leaf Blower kit to complete your lawn care needs.

The kit retails for $219 and features a string trimmer with a cutting swath up to 15 inches wide. The classic bump-feed feature lets you advance more line by smacking the trimmer against the ground, and you can control the rate of spin with the variable speed trigger. The included leaf blower also has a variable speed trigger, Turbo mode, and a removable blower tube. It pushes air at up to 500 cfm and reaches air speeds up to 120 mph. The kit also comes packaged with a 4Ah battery and charger.

To get the same thing from Harbor Freight, you’d need to buy a battery and charger, string trimmer, and leaf blower piecemeal. You can do that for about $210, roughly comparable to the Kobalt bundle. While you’ll save $10, you’ll also sacrifice more than 150 cfm and about 25 mph from the blower. You’ll also lose three inches of cutting swath diameter from the trimmer. The Kobalt kit offers more power and improved efficiency for about the same price as the competition.

If you don’t have a lot of space in your workshop, a multi-position ladder can streamline things by taking the place of multiple ladders. The Little Giant Ladder Multi-Position Ladder can shapeshift into six different configurations, like some sort of home improvement Autobot. You can configure the ladder into an A-frame, an extension or staircase ladder, a 90-degree ladder, or a scaffold base.

These highly rated multi-position ladders are available in various designs with cool names like Epic or Dark Horse. At Lowe’s you can find the humble Multi. It comes in 14-foot, 18-foot, and 22-foot versions, and can support 300 pounds. In A-Frame mode, it can support up to 300 pounds on each side. The 18-foot option retails for $239 and folds down to just 4.6 feet for storage. It’s made of lightweight aluminum and features non-marring feet to protect the floor and provide a more secure grip. Like many multi-position ladders, there’s a bit of a learning curve to changing its shape, but once you get the hang of it you’ve basically got several ladders in one.

DeWalt 20V Max 2

0-Gallon Cordless Wet/Dry Shop Vacuum ToolRev/YouTube In our comparison of shop vacuum brands, Ridgid took the crown, but DeWalt came in second. The brand has a good and longstanding reputation in the industry and is recommended for consumers who want durable, quality tools, and are willing to pay a little bit of a premium for them.

Users tend to gravitate toward the DeWalt DCV580H 20V Max Cordless Wet-Dry Vacuum, which can carry up to two gallons of liquid and solid debris and is battery powered, so you won’t have to worry about the cord when you’re cleaning up. It retails for $179, without a battery or charger.

A reusable wet/dry HEPA filter traps most dust, and you can clean the filter by tapping the dust out or rinsing it with water. The DCV580H moves up to 31 cfm of air, and you can even reverse the airflow, turning it into a blower to clear small spaces. It comes with a five-foot crush-resistant hose and onboard storage for accessories and tool attachments.

People have been painting with rollers and paint brushes for ages, but paint sprayers can be a more efficient solution for a range of projects, from painting your home’s exterior to staining your deck.

The Graco Magnum Project Painter Plus Airless Paint Sprayer retails for $237 and comes with a few features that can streamline your next painting or staining project. It can handle projects requiring up to five gallons of paint, and it has adjustable pressure. According to some reviews, it delivers an even coat of paint that eliminates the need for multiple coats.

It’s capable of spraying unthinned paint or stain in a consistent stream, and it supports hoses up to 50 feet long. Instead of filling up a paint canister like other paint sprayers, you stick the hose directly into the paint can and start spraying. It has a filter built into the handle, just before the sprayer, to trap debris and prevent tip clogs, and when you’re finished you can clean the sprayer by connecting it to your garden hose using the PowerFlush adapter.

This isn’t any ordinary power drill. The Cat DX13 18V One For All 1/2-inch Cordless Hammer Drill features a high-efficiency brushless motor, a two-speed all-metal gear box, and excellent battery performance. All these features help it stand apart from other big cordless drill brands.

The low speed setting gets up to 550 rpm and high goes up to 2,200 rpm. It has a max torque of 700 in-lb and can easily switch between drill and hammer drill modes, where it has a maximum impact rate of 35,200 bpm. An auxiliary side handle can be attached as needed for extra grip support. It comes in a kit with a belt clip, side handle, a Slide Lock case for storage and transportation, a One For All 5Ah/18V Graphene batter, and a 15A charger.

When compared to its competitors, the major benefit of the DX13 is the 5Ah Graphene battery, at least according to CAT. The company promises improved protection from heat, cold, and impacts, a longer battery life, twice the power, and much faster charging times than the more common Li-Ion batteries, although it’s unclear how they compare to the likes of Milwaukee’s High Output or Forge batteries.

Oscillating multi-tools are an evolution of the oscillating saws used by doctors to cut off plaster casts, and they’re the belle of the home improvement ball these days. Instead of a rotating or reciprocating blade, oscillating blades made tiny jiggling back and forth movements. They’re useful for doctors because they can easily cut through solid, brittle casts, but don’t cut skin even when they come in contact with it.

Outside a medical setting, oscillating tools are a popular option for a wide range of tasks. If you’re looking for a professional-level oscillating multi-tool, the 24V Cordless Brushless Five-Speed Oscillating Multi-Tool by Flex, which you can find at Lowe’s, stands up against the competition. For one, it can move as quickly as 20,000 OPM, comparable to other high-end oscillating multi-tools.

The 24V Flex lithium batteries claim to bring improved power and “Therma-tech” heat management technology for longer runtime, and faster charging time when using a dual fan charger. Meanwhile, vibration suppression technology claims to help keep your hand steady while the blade does its work. It also features tool-free attachment ejection. With the right collection of blades, you can cut, trim, scrape, sand, grind, and more using a single multipurpose tool.

A carpenter square is an essential piece of woodworking equipment, even if you’re not a carpenter. They can be used to measure short distances like any other ruler, but they’re most useful for laying out guidelines for cuts or making sure finished products are square and level.

The Johnson Level steel carpenter square from Lowe’s is just 1/8-inch thick and features a low glare, anti-rust coating. The main body is 1.5 inches wide and 12 inches long, with an 8-inch by 1-inch tongue. The is colored in bright orange so it’s easier to find in a crowded workshop, and it has high-contrast markings broken into 1/8 and 1/16-inch increments.

It outshines its Ace Hardware equivalent, the 12-inch steel carpenter square. The two are pretty much identical, but the Johnson Level has much better user reviews, and it’s about a dollar cheaper. At just $7.98, the Johnson Level steel carpenter square is one of the best investments you can make for your workshop.

A multimeter can be incredibly useful when diagnosing or testing electrical systems. It can help you figure out whether there’s something wrong with a particular outlet or if certain components are functioning correctly. Used correctly (and safely), it can save you some time and the costs of expensive repairs.

In our ranking of multimeter brands Fluke took the crown, and the Fluke 117 non-contact digital display multimeter is one of the brand’s more popular offerings available at Lowe’s. As the name suggests, the multimeter is a multipurpose tool capable of measuring several electrical characteristics, including voltage and resistance. The Fluke multimeter can also measure capacitance, continuity, frequency, and more. It has automatic AC/DC voltage selection, a large white LED backlight, 4mm silicone test leads, and a holster, all for $312.98. If you need a multimeter, the Fluke 117 is a popular choice with an impressive set of features.

For the purposes of this list, professional-grade tools were defined as those that outshine the competition in terms of specs or real-world tests, or that were highlighted by expert reviewers. In many cases, the tools we selected won in several of these categories. And just because these tools are professional grade, doesn’t mean that they have to be expensive, so price wasn’t a major consideration in our selection. One of the tools on this list is even cheaper than the average coffee shop latte.

To populate this list, we looked across the Lowe’s landscape to find tools that represent a large swath of what the company offers, while also fitting our definition of professional-grade tools. Every tool on this list is highly rated by consumers and has positive user reviews, or was highly received by professional reviewers.