Hardly Used $500 Drill Bites the Dust

[v6buick]

This Snap-On CDR8850H cordless drill is about four years old, so I can't imagine that the warranty is still active. However, it's barely been used, and I'd really like to save it if possible! What causes this to happen? Did the case crack inside?

I'll be honest. I was really giving this thing all it had when the damage occurred. I was drilling out a stump with a spade bit. All heard was ratcheting after that. Any advice on whether its toast or where to start disassembly would be helpful!

 

[Dumber than lumber]

If it is not saveable you could send it to AvE in Canadiastan.
He could do a teardown vijay-o and explain what went wrong.

 

[dr_clyde]

Snap-on offers flat rate rebuild service for all their power tools.

 

[Packard V8]

Back in the day, a Craftsman 1/2" drill ate a gear in hard use. They just gave me another one.

You admit you were leaning on it, but for what Snap-on charges, their stuff should be idiot-proof. If being used too hard, it should bog down or shut off, not self-destruct.

Good luck with getting them to take some responsibility.

jack vines

 

[v6buick]

Thanks guys. As always I appreciate the input from this forum. I will email my dealer tomorrow. I didn't know that there was a repair program.

My Snap-on tool supplier is a very unique situation, and I doubt it's even worth asking about warranties on 4 year old power tools. Although you can bet I'm going to anyway!

 

[Robbie B]

Back in the day, a Craftsman 1/2" drill ate a gear in hard use. They just gave me another one.

You admit you were leaning on it, but for what Snap-on charges, their stuff should be idiot-proof. If being used too hard, it should bog down or shut off, not self-destruct.

Good luck with getting them to take some responsibility.

jack vines

Now you know if they make something idiot proof they’ll just invent a better idiot.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Skin]

1 year warranty when it was new. Snap-on is probably the worst value in cordless.

Snap-on offers flat rate rebuild service for all their power tools.

For what they charge you could throw it in the trash and buy a DeWalt and still be ahead.

 

[RedneckWelder]

With the exception of the 14.4v ratchets and 3/8 impact guns, the Snap On cordless stuff my coworkers have purchased is universally junk. Skin isn’t kidding when he says worst value in cordless

 

[dr_clyde]

1 year warranty when it was new. Snap-on is probably the worst value in cordless.



For what they charge you could throw it in the trash and buy a DeWalt and still be ahead.

I’m not saying it’s a good value, just that it’s available.

 

[OHMS LAW]

When I started at my current job I needed a drill I’m pretty sure I went through 3 drills back to back before my driver gave me my money back. Same exact thing happened. Drilling and bam! Gear stripped.
Anyway I went with Milwaukee and never looked back

 

[dsimatt]

Thanks guys. As always I appreciate the input from this forum. I will email my dealer tomorrow. I didn't know that there was a repair program.

My Snap-on tool supplier is a very unique situation, and I doubt it's even worth asking about warranties on 4 year old power tools. Although you can bet I'm going to anyway!

There is zero warranty on a 4 year old power tool, will cost you $100-150 to get it repaired and you'll swear it's brand new when you get it back.

 

[ecotec]

There is zero warranty on a 4 year old power tool, will cost you $100-150 to get it repaired and you'll swear it's brand new when you get it back.

Good... he has a LOT more stumps to drill out.

 

[dsimatt]

Good... he has a LOT more stumps to drill out.

Maybe he could hire the member on here with the DR tow behind backhoe to dig them out.

 

[Skin]

There is zero warranty on a 4 year old power tool, will cost you $100-150 to get it repaired and you'll swear it's brand new when you get it back.

Until it breaks again, then hes flushed that money. Snap-on 18V stuff is basically all door stops and paper weights.

 

[Ton ton]

When I started at my current job I needed a drill I’m pretty sure I went through 3 drills back to back before my driver gave me my money back. Same exact thing happened. Drilling and bam! Gear stripped.
Anyway I went with Milwaukee and never looked back

Way to go.

 

[Elsinore13]

1 year warranty when it was new. Snap-on is probably the worst value in cordless.



For what they charge you could throw it in the trash and buy a DeWalt and still be ahead.

The last three Snap On tools I sent in for the $120.00 repair were either lost or they could not repair. Got new replacements, so it kind of worked out decent for me...

 

[Yale]

No offence to the OP but I guess I don't understand the rationale behind spending $500 for a cordless hammer drill when there are well known brands that offer the same thing for $300 or less. To me, this is just another example of a company selling their name in place of a good product.

My thought on cordless tools is that there are major companies that have the R&D and product development to continually improve cordless technology and offer the best in the market. Snap-on is not one of them. If I want a good set of wrenches, a torque wrench that I can rely on or possibly a diagnostic tool, I'm looking at Snap-on. If it's cordless, I'm looking at DeWalt, Milwaukee, or Makita.

What am I missing? Is it brand loyalty? Tool truck convenience? Warranty? What is the draw?

 

[nh_yota]

Send it out for repair and in the mean time buy a new cordless drill from DeWalt or Milwaukee. When you get the SO drill back, sell it on craigslist to recoup some money.

 

[Bacon!]

If it can't stand up to the jobs you task it with, then you need another tool anyway.

Broken and out of warranty it is near worthless (though a small market for battery and charger) so you might as well crack it open and do an autopsy, then see how much SO wants for the parts needed to DIY repair.

If this were some complex assembly then I might not bother, but we're only taking about what, a dozen screws to pop the two halves apart then get all the way into the gearbox? You should be able to locate the fault within minutes.

For example the gearbox is $65.50.
https://shop.snapon.com/repair-products/18-V-1-2%22-MonsterLithium-Cordless-Hammer-Drill-(Tool-Only)/CDR8850HDB

I'd find it less hassle to replace the gearbox myself than to pack it up and ship to them, but do, do an autopsy first before assuming gearbox.

 

[seber]

I've been drilling stumps with my M18 Milwaukee since the tornado. Lost 9 big trees. The batteries get hot but the drill just keeps truckin.

 

[Bacon!]

^ Yeah but you can break anything if you push it hard enough. Perhaps that's the problem, the false perception that if you pay a premium for Snap on, that it has video-game like regenerative mythical properties.

 

[Skin]

^ Yeah but you can break anything if you push it hard enough. Perhaps that's the problem, the false perception that if you pay a premium for Snap on, that it has video-game like regenerative mythical properties.

The problem is that Snap-on doesn't do cordless. The unaware don't realize they're paying $350 for what, by all accounts, is really a $100 drill.

 

[Bacon!]

^ but, I have a $100 drill and it does fine. Expectations.

This isn't really a use where any cordless drill can compete with same price corded.

For lighter tasks, I laugh at how much people pay for certain brands as if the brand overcomes physics.

Snap on is a wildcard here, so easy to pay too much, but nobody that needs max power, pretends that cordless is more than a very expensive way to get a fraction of the work done. That is fine if shunning a cord has more virtues than detriment. I love my cordless tools for what they are reasonably capable of.

 

[WittHay]

We do a lot of drilling where there is no power. Use Milwaukee 18V Fuel for the metal drilling.

Snap-on drills are expensive for what they are . Older brushed models with about half the torque of the top brushless models from Makita and Milwaukee. For what the OP is doing I use a DeWalt DCD985 made in Mexico. The latest ones are assembled in the USA. Good enough for drilling holes in fence posts for gate anchors and other outdoor wood type uses

For drilling in truck frames and other fabricating work, I am thinking about the yet to be released Makita 40 volt. Will be expensive but you have made in Japan quality with the latest tech features

 

[WittHay]

The first two are brushed and the rest brushless

• Snap-on CDR8850M 450 in.lbs
• DeWalt DCD985B 535 UWO
• Makita DHP481Z 1090 maximum lock torque
• Milwaukee 2804-20 1200 maximum torque
• DeWalt DCD996B 820 UWO
• Makita 40V 150 nm or 1330 in.lbs. torque

Quick glance without really going into detail how each manufacturer rates torque is that the older brushed models have about half to two thirds the torque of newer brushless models

If you are drilling 5/8" holes into channel or I-beam using a silver+deming drill bit, it stands to reason that the new Makita 40V brushless would have more power and longer run time than a Snap-on 18V brushed drill

 

[Packard V8]

The newer 40-volt drills beg the question, why, when five years ago there were 40-volt hedge trimmers and leaf blowers, are we just now getting 40-volt drills?

jack vines

 

[Tallpilot]

1 year warranty when it was new. Snap-on is probably the worst value in cordless.



For what they charge you could throw it in the trash and buy a DeWalt and still be ahead.

That is my impression and in general I like Snap-on and believe the evidence that many of their products are higher quality than competitors.

As someone who spent less on his Snap-on 18v tools than probably everyone on this thread, I can tell you one key thing about Snap-on most people aren't really aware of:

They design their tools to be serviced.

That means every once and a while you take your drill apart, and grease the oversized, multiple sets of planetary gears. There's nothing wrong with the internals. They're well built - over built in fact - so if you do oil the motor bearings front and rear on your impacts/drills, and grease the planetary gears on your impacts/drills/ratchets, then you can own them for 10 years, and not have any issues, or even require rebuilding them. Nothing wears.

We're talking heavy use here. I use my drills even when I should use a drill press for very hard material.

I do the same thing for my 14.4v tools.

I've seen close to 75 Snap-on power tools apart over the years. No one services their tools.

Besides this particular case where it is the gearbox failing most of the reported failures are electronic in nature. No amount of servicing will help there and it does not reflect well on Snap-on that Milwaukee's made in China electronics last years longer than Snap-on's (regardless of COO) far higher priced tools.

To me though it boils down to warranty. They recently with apparent great reluctance increased the warranty to 2 years. Milwaukee has been 5 as long as I have been buying their tools. It is understandable that a electro-mechanical tool will eventually fail and a lifetime warranty is uneconomic for the producer but the relatively short warranty period is conclusive proof in my mind that they know the tools aren't spectacular which is simply inexcusable at the price points they are offering them. Yes they offer flat rate repairs but so do the other major tool makers.

 

[Keelhauled]

As someone who spent less on his Snap-on 18v tools than probably everyone on this thread, I can tell you one key thing about Snap-on most people aren't really aware of:

They design their tools to be serviced.

That means every once and a while you take your drill apart, and grease the oversized, multiple sets of planetary gears. There's nothing wrong with the internals. They're well built - over built in fact - so if you do oil the motor bearings front and rear on your impacts/drills, and grease the planetary gears on your impacts/drills/ratchets, then you can own them for 10 years, and not have any issues, or even require rebuilding them. Nothing wears.

Or, get this, I could buy a cheaper tool, not screw around with any of that, and still end up owning it for ten years.

 

[neophyte]

The problem is that Snap-on doesn't do cordless. The unaware don't realize they're paying $350 for what, by all accounts, is really a $100 drill.

Even if a company doesn’t manufacture the components themselves, it’s possible in some cases to take off the shelf parts, and tweak those parts to improve performance where necessary, and there are also low volume industrial tool manufacturers who have to do this as part of their business model.

I have a Trumpf cordless sheet metal nibbler.
Trumpf is top of the line when it comes to sheet metal cutting tools, but unlike many power tool companies, Trumpf isn’t a motor manufacturer.
They purchase quality motors, mostly from quality German power tool manufacturers, like Fein, AEG, Metabo, Suhner, etc. and adapt those to their cutting heads.
For cordless motors they used to use AEG/Milwaukee “motors” or at least the motor housings, but when I disassembled one to clean some leaking grease, it was not a regular factory AEG/Milwaukee motor.
The motor had been modified with a giant heatsink on the end to draw heat from the brush area.
All the bearing used where European made, and where likely higher wuality than what is usually used in the AEG/Milwaukee tools normally.
Trumpf is very specific about the grease used in the gear housing, and lists about a half dozen specific types by manufacturer and number, and all these grease types seem to be somewhat specialized.
The spiral bevel gears were also highly polished, but I don’t know whether that was from use or factory spec.

Basically though, off the shelf components can be modified to increase performance by manufacturers, something that a company like Snap-On could do if they wanted to, but which major power tool manufacturers might not bother with because they aren’t making tools for industrial users, and it’s just easier to give a new tool to someone with an issue than to repair a broken tool or spend the extra to performance enhance all the tools.

Also, Industrial power tools usually have crappy warrantees, because if they didn’t, industrial companies might use them day in day out for assembly manufacturing 24/7 over multiple shifts, and then just kerp asking for new tools or repair service. Hilti for instance only comes with a 2 year warrantee, and construction crews usually can’t work 24/7 due to noise restrictions.

 

[RKA]

People talk about 5 year warranty on these tools, but the fine print makes very clear that warranty isn't really what people think it is on Makita, Milwaukee, etc.:

This limited warranty does not apply where:
- Repairs have been made or attempted by others.
- Repairs are required because of normal wear and tear.
- The Power Tool, Battery or Charger has been abused, misused or improperly maintained.
- Alterations have been made to the Power Tool, Battery or Charger.
- The Power Tool or Charger has been used with a non-genuine or 'knockoff' battery.

Actually 3 of those 5 are exactly what I would expect from most tool manufacturers. The normal wear and tear and abuse are somewhat subjective, so that really requires firsthand experience with the manufacturer to see how often they deny warranty repairs. Do you have any experience with Milwaukee that suggests they are anything less than liberal in their interpretation of the attorney’s language?

 

[WittHay]

The prices on these drills is hard to ignore. When they are list $331 usd or $400 cad for a bare tool, I expect some German engineering or Japanese technology not a older design brushed drill

For the OP, most Snap-on dealers arent that bad to deal with. They might wave or reduce the flat rate repair bill if the drill is in like new condition

What I am kinda of impressed with is the Snap-on 18V impact wrenches. Seen some at equipment dealers taking off stuff that would require a Milwaukee or DeWalt hi torque impact. A couple looked liked the guys forgot they were cordless and attached a air hose to them and dragged them across the cement floor and gravel yard. Snap-on impacts torque ratings are not rated as high as the competitors but still do the job.

Also a few of the newer Snap-on brushless 1/2 impacts have been sold around here. Skookum impact but a little too pricey as I dont own any Snap-on 18 volt