Advice please - best mix of Dewalt Cordless tools

[newbury]

Background -
Son and his wife have lived in a 1 bed condo for years. Now with baby on the way they will be taking over my small house I'd been renting out. He's been borrowing tools for years, and storing some with me, no space in the condo.

So finally he's in a place where he will need tools and have a place to put them. He decided that he wants DeWalt 20V Cordless for his birthday.

What's the "best" kits?

thanks

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Background -
Son and his wife have lived in a 1 bed condo for years. Now with baby on the way they will be taking over my small house I'd been renting out. He's been borrowing tools for years, and storing some with me, no space in the condo.

So finally he's in a place where he will need tools and have a place to put them. He decided that he wants DeWalt 20V Cordless for his birthday.

What's the "best" kits?

thanks

Can't recommend a kit, but I can recommend the cordless drill. I think mine is the 18 volt; bought in on sale last year about Christmas time for $99. I also have the DeWalt saber saw, have had it for several years and like it very much; it however is not cordless. I suppose if I didn't have a shop, the cordless kit might be attractive. I often wish I had the cordless Sawzall; lots of times when it would have come in handy.

 

[ovrszd]

I have an 18V drill/driver 3spd, and 18V drill/driver compact 2spd, an 18V sawzall, an 18V skillsaw and an 18V angle grinder.

I use the 18V drill/driver compact the most. It's considerably lighter than the 3spd larger drill and will do most work up to heavy drilling.

Next favorite would be the 18V angle grinder. But I do mostly metal work. It goes thru a battery pretty quick if doing heavy grinding.

The sawzall and circular saw are extremely handy. Both will run quite a while on a battery. Last Summer I built a campground shelter in our timber using only those two tools. Didn't have electricity out there.

Do some thinking about what tools he needs. Then do some shopping on Dewalt's website to see if there's a kit that meets those needs. It's real common to see sales on Dewalt equipment at various stores. Be wary about kits so you don't end up with a couple tools that you'll rarely use. I bought all my tools individually when I'd find them on sale. That way I don't own any that I don't use.

Enjoy the shopping!!!

 

[deerseeker001]

i have the 1/2 inch drill and the 20volt impact,dewalt makes good tools.i use the cordless impact the most.

 

[newbury]

<snip>
The sawzall and circular saw are extremely handy. Both will run quite a while on a battery. Last Summer I built a campground shelter in our timber using only those two tools. Didn't have electricity out there.<snip>

Thanks, I was concerned about how long those two would run on battery.

Years ago I bought 5 of the Milwaukee 4-Volt Cordless Screwdrivers kit,

each w/2 batteries and a charger on sale for $20@. I continue to kick my self for not buying 2 dozen.

 

[ovrszd]

Thanks, I was concerned about how long those two would run on battery.

Years ago I bought 5 of the Milwaukee 4-Volt Cordless Screwdrivers kit,

each w/2 batteries and a charger on sale for $20@. I continue to kick my self for not buying 2 dozen.

My Son has one of those and uses the snot out of it. He's not gentle either. Yep you shoulda bought at least a dozen.

As for the Dewalt 18V circular saw. I was sawing old pine 2x4s and 2x6s out of a building I'd torn down to build the shelter. It would run all day on one battery. I was surprised.

 

[dmccarty]

I will be a contrarian and recommend corded tools.

I have a bunch of Dewalt cordless tools that I have not used for years because the batteries died off and were expensive to replace. My last battery was the last straw. It was in the charger and I used the drill to quickly drill some holes in something. Replaced the battery in the laundry room where the charger was under some wall cabinets. I went to the other side of the house and shortly I smelled something burning. Sniffed around the house and discovered the battery smokey heavily and obviously about to either explode or catch on fire. I threw it on the gravel driveway to cool off. If I had not been home that battery would likely have burned down the house.

I have a bunch of expensive dead cordless tools. The corded Black and Decker I bought when I first married still works. The cordless tools are dead until I go spend a few hundred dollars on batteries. For the battery replacement price I can buy much better corded tools that will last a lifetime instead of a few years.

Battery tools sure are convenient but I am done with the dang things. I can buy better tools for less. I just have to take a bit of extra time to string an extension cord.

Buy him a decent set of corded tools and an extension cord. Save a bunch of money in the long run.

Later,
Dan

 

[joshuabardwell]

I second that emotion. There is one tool that I have, that I would not trade for a corded version, and that's a drill. There are just too many times when I need to make a hole or turn a screw, bolt, or nut, and I'm far away from an electrical outlet. Other than that, my corded tools outperform their cordless cousins by such a wide margin, that the convenience of the battery is not worth it. And I have a corded drill as backup, or for making holes in metal, where the battery powered one struggles.

Besides, the battery can hardly be said to be convenient when, for example, I get a total of 16 feet of cut through 1/2" plywood with a circular saw before the battery is dead. Same deal with the reciprocating saw. The batteries always die before the job is done!Now, granted, my tools are 18 volt NiCad, not the newer fancy lithium ion stuff, so maybe that's different. Bottom line: for $50-100 you can buy a corded circular saw that will out-cut a cordless one by far, will run all day without needing to be recharged, and will still be working in twenty years, with zero dollars of additional input (no new batteries to buy when the old ones die).

 

[mikehaugen]

I agree almost 100% with Joshua. A drill is probably the only cordless tool that is practical around the house. Have sawzall, corded drill, grinders, a couple circular saws and like them with cords. If you were doing a lot of remote work, it may be good to have more cordless stuff. The only other 2 things that I would like to have cordless would be a sawzall and maybe one of those impact drivers. Another thing to remember is that cordless tools like to be used often. If you use one every couple months the battery will probably be close to dead every time you go to use it, and the batteries will not last very long.

If you do decide to go cordless, try to be consistent with the brands/ types. That way when batteries go bad, you only have 1 type to have to buy, and each battery will get more use.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

I'm a self-employed licensed carpenter. I was a long time DeWalt fan. Beat the snot out of them day in and day out for years. So much so that my corded recip saw needed a new cord and it took me 3 years to get around to fixing it and only used the corded circular saw if i was framing a whole house. I haven't used a 3/8" corded drill in almost 15 yrs. Loved the DeWalts, fit me perfect and stood up to everything I thew at them.

The last DeWalt stuff I bought was the 18V Nano stuff when it first came out. It's the last DeWalt I'll buy. They seem to be more interested in selling volume over quality. They still don't have a charge indicator on their batteries while all the other major brands do (Milwaukee has had them since their first gen Lithium)

A year ago I bought a Rigid set (was the only kit to offer exactly the tools I wanted - circular saw, recip, impact, drill, flashlight) My cheapness got the better of my judgment as I wanted a Milwaukee set but couldn't afford it at the time. In 20 yrs of buying tools and over $50k invested in them, the Rigid set is hands down the WORST $500 I've ever spent on tools.

Take a good look at the Milwaukee and Makitas before you buy a DeWalt