Looking for best cordless drill to purchase

paulharvey · Dec 30, 2013

Interesting, cause stanley had gone from low to medium priced medium grade hand tools to low to medium priced crap tools lately.

downsizingnow48 · Dec 30, 2013

Interesting post. Sad that the flagship American tool lines have been bought merged sold cheapened. I have two big Milwaukee drills, a drywall screw gun, and a Sawzall bought 20-30 years ago, and still strong as new.

DFB · Dec 31, 2013

I'll tag this on here...for anyone looking for a cordless impact tool this deal is supposed to be $100 off and comes with two XC batteries. 2200inch lb

Milwaukee 2652-22 M18 1/2 Inch Impact Wrench with Pin Detent Kit

Bird · Dec 31, 2013

DFB said:
I'll tag this on here...for anyone looking for a cordless impact tool this deal is supposed to be $100 off and comes with two XC batteries. 2200inch lb

Milwaukee 2652-22 M18 1/2 Inch Impact Wrench with Pin Detent Kit

2200 in. lbs.? And when you convert that to ft. lbs., as half inch impacts are normally rated, I wouldn't give $50 for it, much less $200.

DFB · Dec 31, 2013

They don't come cheap. It is what it is. Probably close to the highest rated in that lightweight category. Most I see are only 1200-1450 in lbs in a $200 price range...now if you want one with 325 ft lbs like the Makita BTW450 18V Cordless LXT Lithium-Ion 1-2 in. Impact Wrench Makita450 it will be almost twice as much. To each their own

RichZ · Jan 1, 2014

I've never had luck with cordless drills. I've had many brands, DeWalt, Bosch, Hitachi, and others. The batteries were always shot in about 2 years. I have a farm, and I used them often, especially on fencing. Maybe I'm too hard on them. I was in the middle of a barn project with my wife, and both of my drills died at the same time. I just wanted to be able to finish the project, so I got 2 really cheap Black and Decker 18 volt cordless drills at Walmart for $20 each. I figured the'd work long enough to us to finish our work, and I'd figure out a decent drill to get later. That was 4 years ago, and those 2 cheap drills are still fine, and they've lasted longer than all of the "professional" drills I've had. I'm not saying B&D are good, but I just lucked out with these 2.

IslandTractor · Jan 1, 2014

RichZ said:
I've never had luck with cordless drills. I've had many brands, DeWalt, Bosch, Hitachi, and others. The batteries were always shot in about 2 years. I have a farm, and I used them often, especially on fencing. Maybe I'm too hard on them. I was in the middle of a barn project with my wife, and both of my drills died at the same time. I just wanted to be able to finish the project, so I got 2 really cheap Black and Decker 18 volt cordless drills at Walmart for $20 each. I figured the'd work long enough to us to finish our work, and I'd figure out a decent drill to get later. That was 4 years ago, and those 2 cheap drills are still fine, and they've lasted longer than all of the "professional" drills I've had. I'm not saying B&D are good, but I just lucked out with these 2.

The issue with cordless tools is typically battery maintenance not tool failure. Both too much and too little time in the charger shortens the life of NiCad and nickel metal hydride batteries. Lithiums are better but not perfect. Batteries used daily or weekly with enough but not too much time in the charger will last longer than batteries left in or out of the charger for weeks or months at a time. The pro chargers for lithiums are often smart chargers these days so do a better job of battery maintenance too. The Makita charger can fully charge a 3amp lithium 18v in about half an hour or so and the battery will keep near full charge for several months so there really have been big advances in battery technology in the past decade or so.

Also, replacement batteries are almost as expensive for the cheap brands as for the pro brands. And NiMh batteries are no cheaper to replace than lithiums. I was about to toss my Ryobi tools after buying new NiMh batteries every couple of years but got a set of lithium batteries and charger instead which are going strong several years later. Lighter too.

RichZ · Jan 1, 2014

I use my drills at least weekly, so they're in the charger a lot. I leave them in until the charging light goes off. I THINK I care for them properly, can't say for sure that I do, but I try. I always bring them back in the house when I'm done with them, I know the cold doesn't do them any good. I'm just shocked that these cheap drills are lasting me longer than the professional ones. These are so cheap that they don't even have a separate charger. You just plug the charger into the drill. The batteries are removable though. I'll just keep using them until they fall apart.

IslandTractor · Jan 1, 2014

DFB said:
They don't come cheap. It is what it is. Probably close to the highest rated in that lightweight category. Most I see are only 1200-1450 in lbs in a $200 price range...now if you want one with 325 ft lbs like the Makita BTW450 18V Cordless LXT Lithium-Ion 1-2 in. Impact Wrench Makita450 it will be almost twice as much. To each their own

I have that Makita impact wrench. Haven't used it a lot but it is a very powerful tool and very useful when you don't have a compressor handy. Not a toy. I already had the batteries etc so it wasn't a bad deal at $150 for the bare tool on sale. That is one of the nice things about the pro level cordless tools is that once you have acquired a couple of batteries, you can add additional tools for halfway reasonable prices. I'm kinda hankering after the Makita battery powered grinder after realizing how useful it would be in remote locations.

k0ua · Jan 1, 2014

IslandTractor said:
I have that Makita impact wrench. Haven't used it a lot but it is a very powerful tool and very useful when you don't have a compressor handy. Not a toy. I already had the batteries etc so it wasn't a bad deal at $150 for the bare tool on sale. That is one of the nice things about the pro level cordless tools is that once you have acquired a couple of batteries, you can add additional tools for halfway reasonable prices. I'm kinda hankering after the Makita battery powered grinder after realizing how useful it would be in remote locations.

I bought the cheap Ryobi 4 1/2 inch grinder yesterday since I already have batteries.. at 39 dollars I figured not a big risk. I will let you know if you are interested. So far so good, but I need to really use it not just test it.

James K0UA