Cordless Drill

[RollTideRam]

As of yesterday, I'm in the market for a new 1/2" cordless drill. After 9 years my Porter Cable gave it up. What are the better brands now days? Any opinion on Rigid brand? JC

 

[aczlan]

one vote for Rigid, dad has their 12v 1/2" drill and loves it, the lifetime warranty covers everything INCLUDING the battery against breaking/wearing out.


Aaron Z

 

[bigshovel]

Here at my production shop we have had every brand in the 18 v category. Hammer and standard. This is what we have found due to high useage. Any of them Dewalt, Porter cable, Panasonic, Milwaukee, Hitachi and Bosch only have a life span of 60 days in our environment. Dewalts turnaround time for warranty repair is the fastest. We typically have 3 to 4 out for repair and a constant three in use at the same time. This is a manufacturing atrmosphere though. At home I use Hitachi and Dewalt. I prefer the Hitachi for weight and balance, The Dewalt is prefered for power and torque. Milwaukee has held up the worst in anything we have had. Any of the big four brands should serve the homeowner well.

Brad

 

[jdbower]

I'm been wanting to upgrade to Dewalt's 36V system for a while now, no real need for it but I'm happy with my black and yellow tools.

 

[AlanB]

I have the Craftsman 19.2 (older version) and the Dewalt 18V.

While the Dewalt is 5 times the tool of the craftsman, the craftsman does an awful lot of work for not a lot of money.

Just around the house use, I would get the Craftsman, Several times a week, heavy duty use, it would be the Dewalt.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Panasonic, a buddy of mine owns a concrete business and that is what they have gone too, impressive amount of torque, metal gears inside rather than plastic and he also has a 12V impact driver that will run circles around my 18V Makita putting in tapcons or 3" deck screws.

 

[reb]

I'm been wanting to upgrade to Dewalt's 36V system for a while now, no real need for it but I'm happy with my black and yellow tools.

I thought I heard somewhere that replacement Li Ion batteries for the new 36v DeWalts cost about $130+. Is that correct? For that price I will stick with the NiCads despite their shortcomings.

 

[JerryG]

I have had several brands in the past. DeWalt has held up the best. I almost have everything changed over to DeWalt and what I don't now, I should have by the end of the year. I really like the higher torque of the DeWalt hammer drills. It doesn't seem to effect the battery life either. When I went in to buy my last 18v drill they had a kit on sale with the drill and a smaller size circular saw that was also 18v. The kit was only $27 dollars more than the drill by itself. I didn't think that I would like the saw but for only $27 more I went ahead and got the kit. I am glad I did because I have used the saw a lot. So, when you look at the drills check out the kit prices also.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I have a Rigid cordless impact wrench (14.4 volts if I recall) and it is a great little tool. I have 6 DeWalt cordless drills (hammer and standard), 3 are 18v, 2 14.4 and one is 12v. They have held up great. I also have the 18v DeWalt finish nailer, cut saw, circular saw and light and they have held up great to general construction use. The circular saw is great to take up on roofs to cut in a vent or trim a sheet of plywood that wasn't cut properly on the ground. The cut saw gets used almost daily and is a great tool for any contractor or home owner.

However, I dispise the Craftsman cordless drills. The new ones are terribly gutless and the old ones were better but still very weak compared to the DeWalt competition.

I do second the recommendation to buy the kits. You get a lot of tools for not very much more. DeWalt had the 6 tool 18v kit last year that had the hammer drill, cut saw, circular saw, angle grinder, light and impact wrench. It was around $600 but I almost bought another set just to keep in the barn as they are so handy.

 

[easygo]

I'v got a Ridgid 24 volt model. It is kind of heavy for hours of use (putting up sheetrock) but it is POWERFUL. I would recommend it for sure. Batteries last for a long time too.

 

[ToadHill]

I have a craftsman drill 1/4" that must be 12 years old. It has the battery as part of the drill handle and a charger that plugs into it. It still takes a charge and outworks both my Makita, and Royobi drills. The craftsman is 9.2 volt and the others are both 14. After a charge I can get almost 2 hours work time from the craftsman and only about 45 min from the others.

While I can't speak to newer cordless craftsman products this old one has been great.

 

[Dargo]

I'm been wanting to upgrade to Dewalt's 36V system for a while now, no real need for it but I'm happy with my black and yellow tools.

I actually have a pretty complete set of the 36 volt DeWalt tools. I don't have the SDS hammer drill or the 36 volt impact gun but most everything else. I even have two of their hammer drills (not the SDS type, just the regular DC900). I have 4 of the 36v batteries as well. Here are some of my observations as compared to all the 18v DeWalt stuff I have.

First, as expected, the runtime is better. I wouldn't say it is twice as long as some guys say, but its pretty good. The torque the drill/driver has is actually more than most corded models. But, I really don't have any complaints about the 18v power. The 36v grinder is likely the tool with the biggest difference. If I'm grinding hard on something the 18v grinder will kill a battery in just a couple of minutes or so. I can really get after something pretty hard for about 5 minutes with the 36v model. I actually do get probably more than twice the runtime with that tool. I'd say that every 36v tool weighs more than the 18v tool. This may be no big deal, but it does weigh more. The sawsall and circular saw also work as well as any corded ones I have and I get some really long runtimes from them.

Okay, now for something funny. I was out and needed a cordless drill in a bad way for a job and was hours from home. I went and bought a Ryobi (not the Ridged, but the elcheapo Ryobi) 18v drill set. I got two batteries, an 18v drill and a 18v caulk gun with another 2 batteries for under $100. At the time, I figured if they lasted through that one job I'd be happy. The darn cheap things not only had decent power (not as much as 18v DeWalt, but at a fraction of the cost) but the batteries seem to last almost as long as the DeWalt ones! I kept the caulk gun and have run hundreds and hundreds of tubes of caulk through it with no failures. Unbelievable! Each battery will last for right at a full case of caulk before it needs recharging. But, hey, it came with 2 batteries anyway.

I'm sure Ridged is far superior to Ryobi, but I'm honestly impressed with the value for the dollar spent. I have bought some 18v stuff at Horrible Freight that wasn't worth even carrying home. I was afraid the Ryobi stuff would be the same, but it's not. I also have some Hitachi and Bosch 18v tools that I really like; but they are in the same price range as DeWalt and Milwaukee. Anyway, these are my observations for what it's worth.

 

[MReeb]

I have the Craftsman 19.2 (older version) and the Dewalt 18V.

While the Dewalt is 5 times the tool of the craftsman, the craftsman does an awful lot of work for not a lot of money.

Just around the house use, I would get the Craftsman, Several times a week, heavy duty use, it would be the Dewalt.

I'm in the same boat as AlanB. If the batteries in the Craftsman lasted a bit better than they do, I'd stick with just it but...

 

[George2615]

I have a 12V Milwaukee 1/2" hammer drill at home and an 18V 1/2" Ryobi hammer drill at work. Both came with 2 batteries and charger. The Ryobi at work is just for general use. The Milwaukee at home installed all the screws in the metal roof I installed on my house last summer using only three batteries. I thought that it did a great job. Next week I'll have both drills at my son's house installing a metal roof there so I'll see which lasts longer between charges.

 

[ihookem]

Panasonic is a very good drill. They are light,fast and batteries last a long time and charge fast too. Dewalt is much heavier, more powerfull but not as good. Milwaukee is a little of both.

 

[Lasgambler]

I was a Makita man up till about 9 years ago. Then as my batteries started to fail I started buying Dewalt. I now have three Dewalt cordless drills and almost all the other tools that they offer except for the jig saw. I will stick with the Dewalt. I use these tools on a daily basis. Service and reliability have been good.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I had really good service with a PC 19.2V driver/drill as well as an 18V Dewault but when the batteries for both were giving up for good, I decided to go with a Milwaukee kit (the 18V NiCad because Lithium Ion had just hit the streets). The Milwaukee is, well, a Milwaukee. The name still speaks for itself IMHO.

The kits are packaged in a variety of ways and you can make out if you shop wisely. I bought mine from Home Depot over Xmas season at a good price with three batteries.

If you go for a kit, look for one with an impact driver in addition to the standard driver/drill. The latest issue of Fine Homebuilding magazine has a good writeup on impact drivers by the way.

Evaluate your needs. With more power comes more weight.

Lastly, my friend tells me that one can pick up the Black & Decker battery packs cheaper than Dewault but there is a "nub" that must be filed off in order to fit. That may be worth checking out.

 

[reb]

I ...
Lastly, my friend tells me that one can pick up the Black & Decker battery packs cheaper than Dewault but there is a "nub" that must be filed off in order to fit. That may be worth checking out.

I don't have the info on hand, but there is at least one company that makes replacement battery packs for the DeWalt tools, at a reduced price. I have a couple and they are working well for me so far.

 

[RonMar]

I have a 19.2V craftsman, 2 actually, but one is several years old. The older one took a trip to the bottom of the swimming pool one day, but after drying it out, itworks as it always did, and is still going strong. I bought the second anticipating a failure that has yet to happen, and that deal got me two additional battery packs, and a charger.

The only problem I have had is a failed battery charger. Mine seems to last quite a while on a battery pack, I surely have no complaints with it for daily use, and have used it on several larger projects. I would rate it as a pretty good bang for your buck. I also have their battery sawsall that works pretty well also.

 

[dirt clod]

My 18v dewalt tools have had a hard life but work great.
I have had my dewalt drills fall off tops of 8' ladders landing on concrete, always knocks the battery out. They keep right on going though. One thing I have found though is you can get a battery shop to replace the cells in the battery packs when they go bad. You don't save much $. The big differance is in the panasonic cells. It seems like the factories drop a little in power just after taking out of charger and then level out until they start going dead and dropping again. The panasonic cells stay the same power level until they are almost dead. They are better than new packs. I can tell if I have a factory pack are a rebuilt just by taking out of charger and useing. This is compared to new packs. I'll never by a new pack, unless someone comes up with a li-lon
charger/battery upgrade kit.