Cordless Drills

My 14 year old Dewalt 14.4 volt drill is on it's last legs. It might last for another set of batteries but for that price I could almost buy a new drill. Also the battery latch is ridiculously cumbersome.

I don't make my living with tools but they do get used. I break out the drill at least once a week. 3"-4" screws are not uncommon.

I'm liking the Makita 18v and the Milwaukee M18. Always been a Porter Cable fan. The Dewalt line up seems to be on the heavier side.

Not interested in "price point" tools from the big orange box or HF.

Pros? Cons?

What Say ye? http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs32/f/20...ep0creator.gif

dewalt is still tops or ryobi.
i have a drill or two for light stuff, but my go to gear is a porter cable impact drill driver.

For driving screws you can't beat a good impact.

I have 2 dewalt drills and 2 dewalt impacts for at hem and at work and use them both all the time without issue.

I have a Craftsman cordless that's going on 25 years or so. I'm on the second set of batteries. HEAVY use the last two weeks and it's still going strong.

I bought a Ryobi 18 volt multiple tool kit several years ago and it's still going strong. Batteries have had a good life and are affordable.

Dewalt, is the only brand I have bought my crews for the last 15 years 18 volts of pure power I never switched to the Lithium Ion but I hear great things about them, I just couldn't justify switching out 20 drills, the nice thing about having everyone on the same platform was I never had to listen to anyone whine about missing batteries...

I have the Makita kit. I love it. Its taken a few tumbles from my roof and doesnt show it at all. Plus being able to charge a battery in 15 min is pretty awesome.

http://www.thehulltruth.com/attachme...-kit-combo.jpg

Milwaukee M18. I'd burn the motor up in the Dewalt in a year. The Milwaukee has lasted 5 times that.

Next drill I buy will be a Ridged mostly becasue of the battery warranty.

I use rigid. You have to register them immediately otherwise the warantee is void.

I have a Dewalt and a Hitachi. The Dewalt cost almost 3x what I paid for the Hitachi and I have yet to notice a difference in performance between the 2.

I just went through this looking for the best replacement for my Dewalt Cordless Tool Kit... I did not have any complaints about the old one which was 12 years old I believe. I used for home/work. I wanted to make sure I was buying the best for the money as possible. With viewing all the kits and knowing the opinion of my peers and a many searches on the web. I stuck with Dewalt.. Expensive though.

I have had a bunch of cordless, only stuff still running is Makita. Makita 9.6 volt, I don't know about the 18 volt.

I have always had good luck with all 3, Makita, Milwaukee and Dewalt. Be sure to get the contractors version, not the model at home depot. The difference is that the contractor models will have all steel chucks while the consumer models at Home Depot and elsewhere have plastic chucks.

I used to sell the hell out of Bosch cordless tools. They're slightly higher cost, but you can drop them hundreds of times, or once from 40', and they'll still keep running. One of the demonstrations they'd do at trade shows would be to let people climb a ladder up to 10', drop the tool, and if it breaks and they can't get it running again, they win a free kit. They'd get between 150-500 drops between breaks. So they'd only give away 1-2 kits the whole show. Great tools, but you can't go wrong with the Makita kits. We used to repair a TON of DeWalt, so FYI, they're not always the most reliable. Stick to the Lithium Ion Batteries, because they're lighter and run better, very even power draw and last through hundreds and hundreds of charges. The old NiCd batteries are heavier and don't draw the same way.

I'm currently running the Makita. Used it for fence last week, 3.5" lag screws for the main boards, 2" wood screws for the planks. The battery only lasted 20-30 minutes under that continuous hard use, but they were charged in 15, so I just kept rolling. Good torque, good speed. I like it, and Costco has the kit.

Last one was a Hitachi NiCd. Didn't take long for the batteries to stop holding a charge, but it served it's purpose for a while. Batteries had to cool before being charged, extending charge time a bit


The problem I have now is finding #2 phillips bits that actually work. I've bought the store brand at the counter sold loose, Ryobi, Hitachi, Milwakee.
The Hitachi were absolute worthless junk, snapped the tip off every bit on the first screw.
The Milwakee weren't far behind, lasting about 4-5 screws (25-30 if I baby the shit out of it) Bottom line, at the first slip, they're done.
The bits that came with the screws weren't much better, but fell somewhere between Milwakee and store brand.
The store brand were a little better at 30-40 screws
Can't remember any other brand because it's been too long.

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Originally Posted by Goodburbon

problem I have now is finding #2 phillips bits that actually work. I've bought the store brand at the counter sold loose, Ryobi, Hitachi, Milwakee.
The Hitachi were absolute worthless junk, snapped the tip off every bit on the first screw.
The Milwakee weren't far behind, lasting about 4-5 screws (25-30 if I baby the shit out of it) Bottom line, at the first slip, they're done.
The bits that came with the screws weren't much better, but fell somewhere between Milwakee and store brand.
The store brand were a little better at 30-40 screws
Can't remember any other brand because it's been too long.

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I'd highly recommend finding these kind of bits, they have a square drive as well as the Philips drive, grab on better and last longer, less stripping.

http://www.fastenal.com/web/products...Id=&rfqLineId=


Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

+1 for makita.

i have a bosch that i really like. but, that rigid battery warranty is enticing.

Thanks for all the feedback! [Beer]

I still have the original phillips bits that came with the drill. Never had a problem with them. Most of the time I use galvanized hex head screws. Between building a metal garage and re-roofing the house, I have a lot of those left.

I'm liking the Makita drill driver/impact wrench combo. Maybe pick up a third battery for the set.

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Originally Posted by BigDee

I have a Dewalt and a Hitachi. The Dewalt cost almost 3x what I paid for the Hitachi and I have yet to notice a difference in performance between the 2.

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Hitachi's are highly underrated and have a lifetime warranty. I have nothing bad to say about any of the Hitachi, Milwaukee, Makita or Hilti tools i have owned.

I have owned many of the brands listed. I only issue Milwaukee 18 volt now. We have almost all of the tools and they run forever. They get abused, but keep on going. I have dropped them off of roofs with little damage. Dewalt is what we used to use, but te batteries seemed to die out sooner. My 2 cents

I use all Rigid.

I really like my 18V Makita compact. I only use it once every couple months but the batteries hold a charge well and recharge from dead in about 10 minutes.

Don't do Snap-on!!!!!!!! I'm on like my 5 replacement in 2 yrs. it's actually a game now.

I'd go Dewalt.

Was in the same boat as you... I cryed

Got a Craftsman 19.2 volt... she's a purdy sum bitch....does a GREAT JOB!

(It's red though)

I do sheet metal for a living so I use cordless drills about as much as one can on a day to day basis. +1 for Dewalt, Makita, Milwaukee, or Hilti. All are very comparable with the Hilti being slightly better + lifetime warranty on battery's but I don't feel the price difference is worth going with Hilti. Tool King has a great selection of bare cordless tools for further down the line when you need another tool but don't need more battery's/charger. Go with w/e you can find the best deal on and definitely get a combo pack that includes an impact drill. They are handy for so many situations.

I use dewalt I would recommend going to tool king off of 6th and Simms they have all the major brands and better prices than the box stores. You can also buy reconditioned tools that still have warrantees. If you have a bunch of batteries you can buy the bare tool which I really like because I have 7 batteries and don't need any more.

Someone touched on it a bit. You need the kit. Bought a DeWalt impact driver last year. Heavy but tough, and I get free DeWalt batteries at work. My Buddy had a Hitatchi and it was the most user friendly tool I've seen. Lasted 8 years till gravity got it. Back to the impact driver. The best thing for driving screws ever. You can sink more deck screws and lag bolts per charge. And it is fast. The Bosch drill/ driver is nice too.

I've gone through Makita's, Ryobis's and Dewalt's. Went to Home Depot to find a replacement and picked up a combo pac of an 18 volt 3/8" drill/driver and an 18 Volt impact. What swayed me was the lifetime warranty on ALL components, drills, chargers and batteries! I had previously found it cheaper to buy a new Ryobi with batteries and charger than to replace batteries. The Rigid combo pac was $179. With the impact driver I can drive a 6" 3/8" lag screw all the way into/through 5/8" drywall and a 2x6 edgewise (did it as a test) and still have plenty of battery left.

My 18v li-ion makita has probably seen close to 2-300 complete charges (still somewhat new) and I mainly use it for drilling (or reaming) on sheet metal pretty much daily; no problems. I've had that sucker too hot to touch more than a few times.

I was an electrician for a brief period and what I bought and what everyone else had on their belt was a 12v compact Dewalt Impact. Next up was probably Milwaukee and third most common was Hitachi. Do NOT fall for Rigid's battery warranty at Home Depot. I almost did and was SO glad I didn't. The M18 fuel stuff is solid if you don't mind weight and the new 20v brushless impact from Dewalt is the cat's ass! So, in closing, Dewalt 12v compact impact for carrying around and the 20v brushless for large jobs that require more grunt and weight isn't an issue. There are kits with both of those in them and the tools included are probably the best in the business aside from maybe the comparable Milwaukee kits. You would be hard pressed to find a trade that relied on their drills more and anything other than those three brands in the hands of electricians to burnt up within weeks/months. There are a couple others (mostly German made) that are better but they're in a different price bracket than the stuff I listed so unless you're using them all day every day to earn a living it wouldn't be worth the investment.

BTW, having left my 20v at work I used my 12v impact to built this entire bench using 3" screws:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-P...IMAG0649-1.jpg

Chewed up a boat load of batteries (this is where the 20v brushless shines!) but handled it like a champ and went back to work with me Monday morning.

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Originally Posted by Ah Pook

My 14 year old Dewalt 14.4 volt drill is on it's last legs. It might last for another set of batteries but for that price I could almost buy a new drill. Also the battery latch is ridiculously cumbersome.

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answered your own question.

Dewalt... works

doing floors I used a dewalt, I would go through a 50# box of 2-1/2" flooring a day at least 3 days a week for 5 years.
I Still have it.. it still works.

I moved up to the DeWalt 20 Volt Li Ion Combo Pack to finish my garage and back deck.....

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Originally Posted by Tinelement

Don't do Snap-on!!!!!!!! I'm on like my 5 replacement in 2 yrs. it's actually a game now.

I'd go Dewalt.

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For our shop we bought all new $5000 sets that included the 18V drill. 4 batteries were DOA. 4 more died in a month and Snap-on has told us to take a hike. I still use my 10yo dewalt at work. Because of that I have Ryobi at home and have been pleased. I am not a pro user but I have not had to break out the spare drill that came with a black friday deal and mine has built a few decks and a fence.

". Do NOT fall for Rigid's battery warranty at Home Depot" Please elaborate. I've not needed to use it but do they not honor it?

Ryobi has com a long way, but still home owner quality not heavy use. Porter cable has gone down hill now a homeowner quality brand. Milwaukee, Dewalt are great all around tools, but cost more have had good luck with the new ridgid tool, and the lifetime warenty on batteries, and tools are great. If you want the best get the Mil if you want good all around get the Dewalt (not my fav) or rigid. not a fan of dewalt only because the quality is hit and miss, but the drills always seem to be decent.

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Originally Posted by Richard K

". Do NOT fall for Rigid's battery warranty at Home Depot" Please elaborate. I've not needed to use it but do they not honor it?

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The batteries are poor quality & you'll be using the shit out of the warranty. In addition the drills themselves are sub-par & the motors crap out regularly. They attempt to fix them at the store but will then send them off for repair. When I reach for a drill I want it to work. I don't wanna have to deal with regular trips to Home Depot. Again, my experiences are from those who use them daily & with heavy use so they may not fail as often but it's a better indication of long-term reliability.

As stated in the #1 post, I will not be buying anything from Big Orange. If I buy a Dewalt, I want a Dewalt, not a pricepoint imitation.

Going to try and make it to Tool King this week. I forgot that I originally bought the Dewalt set from them.

Again, thanks for the info.

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Originally Posted by Ah Pook

As stated in the #1 post, I will not be buying anything from Big Orange. If I buy a Dewalt, I want a Dewalt, not a pricepoint imitation.

Going to try and make it to Tool King this week. I forgot that I originally bought the Dewalt set from them.

Again, thanks for the info.

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This urban legend that Home Depot gets inferior tools to supply houses is complete BS propagated by tool houses to keep them in business. I've talked to reps from Dewalt & Milwaukee who say that they cut NO corners in the tools they supply Home Depot with and don't even know what tools are going to what suppliers until long after they've been manufactured. I was actually told this by several reps both outside of as well as in actual supply houses where they're trying to push the very tools I'm questioning. I can't speak for others but it just doesn't seem to make sense to produce inferior products that could/will hurt your image/name and the added complexity for tracking and supply chain just wouldn't offset small savings from cheaper sourced parts.