Black Friday Power Tool Deals in the UK: How to Tell a Real One From a Fake

A power tool is harder to discount honestly than a television. Whether a battery is in the box, how big it is, whether the saw is the 110V site version and who is selling it are four places where a listing can look like a discount and not be one. Here are the checks, in September rather than on the day. Nothing on this site is bought or handled, nothing is promised to be reduced, and every claim comes from the pages listed at the end or our own rankings.

What the day is now

Black Friday 2026 falls on Friday 27 November, and it is no longer a day: when Which? tracked the 2024 sale it treated 15 November to 12 December as the Black Friday period. In the UK the tool shelf is Amazon, Screwfix, Toolstation, B&Q and Wickes, plus the makers' authorised resellers. Our rankings cover only what Amazon UK sells, which is where these checks point.

The traps that are specific to tools

Kit or body only. Body only means no battery and no charger, and almost every driver in our impact driver ranking ships that way. The pack and charger are most of the price of a kit, so a body-only listing beside a kit is a different product, not a bargain.
The pack size in the bundle. The DeWalt kit in our cordless drill ranking ships with two 2.0Ah XR packs, and the page says anyone drilling all day will want a 4.0Ah or 5.0Ah on top. Two batteries in a title can mean either, and a bundle that swaps the larger packs for 2.0Ah ones has cut the price by cutting the product.
110V or 240V. UK sites run tools at 110V through a transformer, and the site versions sit beside the domestic ones under another code: DeWalt appends -LX, so the DWS774-GB in our mitre saw ranking has a DWS774-LX sibling that will not run off a domestic socket, Makita marks /1 for 110V and /2 for 240V, and Evolution and Einhell list 110V separately.
A "was" price against a different box. The CMA's reference-pricing principles apply to "a product or bundle of products" that actually sold at the higher price. A "was" figure that belonged to the kit with the case and second battery, set against the bare tool, is not a comparison of the same thing.
Who is selling it. "Sold by" and "Dispatched by" are different lines. Milwaukee has no Amazon UK storefront, so every Milwaukee offer is a marketplace seller with its own returns terms, and Milwaukee's extension from one year to three needs an Authorised Milwaukee Distributor and registration within 30 days, which a marketplace purchase cannot satisfy. DeWalt's extension needs an authorised DeWalt European reseller; Makita's is for consumers, not business customers.

How a "was" price is supposed to work

A "was" price is a reference price, and the law treats a false "specific price advantage" as a misleading action. In August 2024 the CMA published principles for online mattress sellers that put numbers on what genuine means: the "was" price must have been offered for a sufficient period immediately before the discount, generally at least 30 days, for no shorter a time than the discount runs, and at least one unit should have sold at it for every two sold at the discount.

Two caveats. The CMA temporarily withdrew those principles on 30 July 2026 while it considers the High Court's judgment in its Emma Sleep case, and they never made new law: they pointed back to the Chartered Trading Standards Institute's questions. How long was the product at the higher price, how recently, were significant sales made at it, and is the comparison against an out-of-season price?

Which? tracked 175 home, tech and health appliances across eight retailers, Amazon included, for a year around Black Friday 2024, and reported in November 2025 that 83 per cent were the same price or lower at least once outside the four-week sale window, and that none were at their lowest only on the day itself.

How to check a price yourself

Which? points readers at price-history sites: for Amazon that means camelcamelcamel, which it names, and Keepa, which calls itself an Amazon price tracker. Both plot what an ASIN has sold for over the preceding months. Then:

Screenshot the listing now, with the date, seller line and box contents visible. In November that is your reference price.
Price the bare tool, the kit and the packs separately. If the kit saves less than the packs cost, it is the deal; if more, the box has changed.
Check the ASIN, not the title. A different ASIN is a different product.

Your rights on a Black Friday order

Under regulation 30 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 the cancellation period on an online order ends 14 days after the day the goods come into your possession. Citizens Advice's plain version: the cooling-off period starts the day after delivery, nothing need be wrong with the item, and after telling the seller you have another 14 days to send it back. GOV.UK adds that the refund is due within 14 days of the item's return.

Faults are separate: section 22 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives 30 days from the day after delivery to reject faulty goods, and a sale price does not shorten it. Manufacturer guarantees sit on top of those rights, not instead of them, as Makita's terms say.

What tends to move, and what does not

This is a pattern, not a promise. Our category pages say that on cordless tools the deepest discounting of the year lands on kits, where brands bundle an extra battery rather than cut the headline price, and that combi drill twin packs, impact driver twin packs and bare tools all move. Pressure washers are seasonal, and the stock moves in November precisely because it is months from when anyone will use one. Batteries and chargers matter for the same reason: the pack is most of the price of a kit.

A checklist for the day

Body only or kit? The title to the end, then the box contents.
Which packs, and how many? 2.0Ah and 5.0Ah are different tools in practice.
Which suffix? -GB or -LX for DeWalt voltage, /1 or /2 for Makita, ZJ for a Makita case with no battery.
Same ASIN as the one you screenshotted in October?
Sold by whom, and dispatched by whom?
Note the delivery date: the 14 and 30 days run from the day after it arrives, and the guarantee registration (four weeks for DeWalt, 30 days for Makita and Milwaukee) needs the serial number.

How this site behaves on the day

The routines that run this site verify price, ASIN and availability against the live Amazon UK listing before a page goes live and again every day, and a pick that is discontinued, loses its buy box or is superseded is swapped out and the ranking rebuilt. No price is shown on this site until Amazon's API is unlocked for it; the deals page lists a product only once its price is confirmed through that API and sits below its previous price.

The picks worth a watch list

Each of these current picks illustrates a check above; none is a prediction that it will be reduced.

DeWalt DWS774-GB 216mm Sliding Compound Mitre Saw with XPS: the suffix pick. -GB is the 240V UK saw and -LX the 110V site version; a deal on one is not a deal on the other.
Evolution R255SMS-DB+ 255mm Double Bevel Sliding Multi-Material Mitre Saw: the box-contents pick. The Plus Pack listing includes clamps, a dust bag and blades; its "was" price against a listing without them is the bundle trap in one product.
DeWalt DCD778D2T-QW 18V XR Brushless Combi Drill Kit with 2 x 2.0Ah Batteries: the pack-size pick. Two 2.0Ah packs, a charger and a TSTAK case; the number to compare on the day is the Ah in the title.
DeWalt DCF887N-XJ 18V XR Brushless 3-Speed Impact Driver: the body-only pick. No battery, no charger, no case; if a twin pack with a combi drill appears, price the packs inside it first.
Makita DTD173ZJ 18V LXT Brushless Impact Driver with Makpac Case: the read-the-suffix pick. ZJ means the Makpac Type 3 case is in the box and the battery and charger are not.
Kärcher K 4 Power Control Flex Pressure Washer, 130 bar: the wrong-season pick, from the pressure washer ranking: the kind of machine that moves in November because nobody needs it until Easter.

Three questions people ask

When is Black Friday 2026?

Friday 27 November 2026, the fourth Friday of the month. Which? treated the 2024 sale as a four-week window, and the tool shelf runs to the same calendar.

Is Black Friday a good time to buy a mitre saw?

It can be, if you already know which saw and which version. Our category calendar puts Black Friday as the deepest discounting of the year on power tools, but a good moment is not a good listing. Settle the saw on capacity and voltage with the mitre saw ranking and our guide to what size mitre saw you need, then note the ASIN and seller.

Can I return a Black Friday tool purchase?

Bought online, yes: 14 days from the day after delivery to cancel, another 14 to send it back, and the refund within 14 days of its return. A fault gives 30 days to reject under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 whatever the price was. A marketplace seller on Amazon sets its own returns terms, so read them first.

Sources

CMA, Discount and reference pricing principles: selling mattresses online (1 August 2024; temporarily withdrawn 30 July 2026)
CMA, Unfair commercial practices guidance, CMA207
Which?, Black Friday price-tracking findings (25 November 2025)
GOV.UK, Accepting returns and giving refunds: the law (regulation 30 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013; section 22 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015)
DeWalt, Manufacturer Guarantee Policy
Makita UK, 3 Year Warranty and its guarantee terms and conditions