Every trade counter conversation about budget tools ends up in the same place. Someone says Erbauer is fine for the money. Someone else says they had a Titan grinder that outlived a DeWalt. And a third bloke says both are the same Chinese tat in different plastic, so buy whichever is on the shelf.
That last one is closer to the truth than the other two, but not in the way people mean. Erbauer and Titan are both Screwfix-exclusive brands owned by Kingfisher – the same parent company that owns Screwfix and B&Q. Check the small print on a Titan drill and a Erbauer drill and you will find the same UK manufacturer name: Kingfisher International Products Limited, 1 Paddington Square, London. Same owner, same buying operation, same stores.
So they are not competitors in any real sense. They are two rungs of one ladder, and Kingfisher put them there deliberately. The useful question is not which brand is better. It is which rung you should be standing on, and whether either belongs in a working van.
Our quick verdict
Erbauer is the one to buy if you are a tradesperson. The EXT 18V platform is a proper battery system with brushless motors, metal gearboxes on the better tools, and enough range that one battery family covers most of what you do. It is not Makita, and pretending otherwise helps nobody, but it is a genuine trade-adjacent tool at roughly half the money.
Titan is the one to buy if the tool is going to sit in a cupboard between jobs, or if you need a specific tool once and cannot justify a good one. It is cheaper for a reason – brushed motors, nylon gearboxes, lower spec across the board. It will do the work. It will not do the work five days a week for five years.
The exception, and it is a real one, is Titan’s heavy corded and SDS kit. Titan breakers and mixers have a long-standing reputation for punching well above their price. That is worth its own paragraph later.
The two brands in brief
Erbauer and the EXT platform
Erbauer’s EXT 18V battery platform is the thing that lifts it out of the budget bracket. One battery runs across the range – Screwfix expanded the line to 68 power tools on EXT, which is a serious number for an own-brand. Batteries come in 2.0Ah, 4.0Ah and 5.0Ah, and there is an 18/36V EXT pack for the higher-draw tools.
The Keep Cool battery tech is marketing language for cell cooling, and the claim is up to 25% longer run time and up to double the lifetime versus older Erbauer packs. Take the numbers with the usual salt, but the direction is right – heat is what kills packs, and the current EXT batteries hold up better than the ones Erbauer sold five years ago.
The tools themselves are brushless across most of the EXT range. Take the ERI1107COM EXT Elite combi drill at £159.99 including VAT: V2 brushless motor, 150Nm, all-metal gearbox, 24 torque settings plus drill and hammer, anti-kickback, 70mm in wood and 20mm in masonry. That is not a DIY spec sheet. That is a spec sheet that would look at home on a tool costing £280.
Titan and the TXP platform
Titan has its own 18V battery system – TXP – and it does not talk to Erbauer EXT. That matters more than people realise. If you buy into Titan you are buying into a smaller, cheaper, more limited platform that you cannot upgrade out of without starting again.
The Titan TTI1257COM combi drill is £79.99 including VAT with two 2.0Ah batteries and a charger. Fifty newton metres, 22 torque settings, brushed motor, nylon gearbox, 35mm in wood and 13mm in steel. For eighty quid with two batteries in the box, that is honest value. It is also, spec for spec, a third of the torque of the Erbauer at half the price.
Titan’s corded and SDS end is a different story. Titan breakers and mixers have earned genuine respect on site – people report Titan 5kg drills breaking up thick slabs and stripping render off house after house over years. When the tool is mostly a motor, a gearbox and a lump of steel, and there is no battery chemistry or brushless electronics to cheap out on, Titan’s cost engineering has less room to hurt you.
Head to head at a glance
Screwfix prices including VAT, checked July 2026. Prices move with promotions – always check before you buy.
| Factor | Erbauer | Titan |
| Battery platform | EXT 18V – 68+ tools, 2.0/4.0/5.0Ah, 18/36V packs | TXP 18V – smaller range, mostly 2.0Ah |
| Motors | Brushless across most of the EXT range | Brushed on most cordless |
| Combi drill benchmark | ERI1107COM – £159.99, 150Nm, brushless | TTI1257COM – £79.99, 50Nm, brushed |
| Gearbox | All-metal on the better tools | Nylon on the drills |
| Warranty | Varies by tool – 1yr on some, 2yr on the newer EXT range | 2yr manufacturer’s guarantee on the drills |
| Cross-compatible? | No – EXT does not fit TXP | No – TXP does not fit EXT |
| Corded / SDS | Decent, unremarkable | Genuinely good for the money |
| Where it earns its place | Daily trade use on a budget | Occasional use, second tools, heavy corded |
| Best for | Trades who need a real platform cheap | DIY, backup tools, one-job buys |
Where Erbauer wins
The battery platform, and it is not close. Sixty-eight tools on one battery family means Erbauer can actually be your system rather than a collection of odds and ends. You buy a combi, then an impact driver, then a multi-tool, and the batteries keep working. That is what a platform is for, and Titan does not have one at the same scale.
Brushless motors are the second. Brushless is not a badge – it is longer motor life, more torque from the same pack, and less heat. On tools you use every day that difference shows up within a year. The Erbauer EXT Elite drill’s 150Nm versus the Titan’s 50Nm is not a marketing gap, it is a physical one.
Build quality on the better tools is the third. All-metal gearboxes, anti-kickback, proper torque control. Erbauer’s top-end EXT kit is closer to trade-grade than most people give it credit for, and if you have only ever handled a ten-year-old Erbauer you are arguing with a tool that no longer exists.
Where Titan wins
Price, obviously, but the more interesting win is price per outcome on heavy corded work. A Titan SDS max breaker or a Titan mixer costs a fraction of the branded equivalent and does the same job with the same violence. If the tool has no clever electronics to cheapen, Titan’s savings come out of the badge rather than the guts.
Warranty is a quiet win too. The Titan TTI1257COM carries a two-year manufacturer’s guarantee, which is longer than the one-year listed on some individual Erbauer EXT products. Check the page for the specific tool – Erbauer’s warranty is inconsistent across the range, and Screwfix advertised a two-year guarantee when the new EXT line launched, so what you get depends on which tool you pick up. Both benefit from Screwfix’s 30-day money-back returns, which is worth more than it sounds when you are testing whether a budget tool can hack it.
And Titan wins on the tool you need once. A tile saw for one bathroom. A planer for one door. Buying Erbauer for that is spending money to solve a problem you will not have again.
The bit nobody says out loud
Because both brands are Kingfisher, the choice between them is not a competition – it is a price ladder. Kingfisher positions Titan below Erbauer on purpose so that Screwfix has something for the homeowner and something for the trade without either brand eating the other. Understanding that saves you from a common mistake: buying Titan expecting Erbauer performance because they sit on the same aisle in the same store.
It also means neither brand has a manufacturer standing behind it the way Makita or DeWalt does. There is no Erbauer service network. Screwfix’s own product page says it plainly – if the product needs repair, take it to a store and they will arrange it. That is a retailer’s warranty process, not a manufacturer’s. It works, but it is slower, and when a tool is out of warranty it is generally a bin job rather than a repair job. Factor that into the sums.
Price and value
The Erbauer drill costs twice the Titan. Three times the torque, brushless, metal gearbox, bigger batteries. On pure spec per pound the Erbauer is the better buy, and it is not particularly close.
But value depends on duty cycle, and this is where most budget tool advice goes wrong. If you use a combi drill twice a month, the Titan is better value because you will never reach the point where the Erbauer’s advantages matter, and you have saved eighty quid. If you use it daily, the Titan is worse value at any price, because you will replace it and then buy the Erbauer anyway.
The honest comparison for a full-time trade is not Erbauer versus Titan at all – it is Erbauer versus a second-hand Makita or DeWalt at similar money. That is a harder argument for Erbauer to win, and if you are buying a platform for the next decade it deserves an honest look before you commit.
So which should you buy?
If you are a full-time trade on a tight budget, Erbauer EXT. It is the only one of the two with a platform worth committing to, and the current brushless kit is far better than the brand’s reputation suggests.
If you are a DIYer or a homeowner doing occasional work, Titan. You will not use it enough to find its limits, and the money saved is real.
If you need heavy corded or SDS kit and the branded price makes you wince, Titan without embarrassment. That is where the brand is genuinely competitive rather than merely cheap.
If you already own a decent battery platform, buy neither. The worst reason to buy either brand is that it was on the shelf when you walked in, and the second worst is that it was cheap. A third battery family in the van costs more in chargers, packs and faff than the tool saved you.
Frequently asked questions
Are Erbauer and Titan the same company?
Effectively yes. Both are Screwfix-exclusive brands owned by Kingfisher, and both list Kingfisher International Products Limited as the UK manufacturer. They are two price tiers of one operation rather than rival brands.
Do Erbauer EXT batteries fit Titan tools?
No. Erbauer uses EXT and Titan uses TXP, and they are not interchangeable. If you buy into one you are committed to that battery family.
Is Erbauer good enough for professional use?
The current brushless EXT range is good enough for most trades most of the time. It is not built to the standard of Makita or Milwaukee and it will not last as long under heavy daily abuse, but as a budget platform for a working trade it holds up better than its reputation suggests.
Is Titan any good?
For occasional use, yes. For daily site work, generally not – brushed motors and nylon gearboxes do not survive that duty cycle. The exception is Titan’s heavy corded and SDS tools, which are genuinely good value.
What warranty do Erbauer and Titan come with?
It varies by tool, so check the specific product page. Titan’s combi drills carry a two-year manufacturer’s guarantee. Erbauer’s is inconsistent – some EXT tools list one year, and Screwfix advertised two years across the new EXT range at launch. Both are covered by Screwfix’s 30-day money-back returns.
Should I buy Erbauer or a used Makita for the same money?
If you are buying a platform to keep, a used Makita is worth serious thought – bigger range, better resale, every merchant stocks it. Erbauer’s case is that you get new tools with a warranty rather than someone else’s worn ones. Both are defensible. Neither is obviously wrong.
