Ryobi, DeWalt, and Milwaukee all play the same battery game — here’s how I avoid overpaying

The tool aisle makes batteries look easy. A bigger amp-hour number should mean a stronger pack, and for years that held close enough to true. Ryobi, DeWalt, and Milwaukee have each broken that logic recently. Every one of them added a second spec, printed quietly or not printed at all, that decides how much power a battery actually hands to the tool. The number on the front now measures runtime more than raw strength. That gap is where people overpay, because on all three platforms the real money goes into the battery rather than the tool. I have wasted cash on Ryobi packs figuring this out. Here is the game each brand runs, and the single habit that keeps me from paying for power my tools will never touch.