Best cordless drill?

[khai]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum but have used this site to do research in the past and have always been impressed with the amount of knowledge shared.

I did a search and looked for opinions on various options but would like to see if there is consensus on what my "best option" might be.

I just bought a house (my first) and am in the process of "tooling up". I've always borrowed or rented power tools in the past whenever necessary, but owning my own home sort of gives me an excuse to go out and buy my own damned tools.

I was looking around and have not seen any reviews of the IR 2575k, or the new IQv line either. Likewise, no-one here has commented on the Porter Cable options as far as I can tell. I've seen recommendations for Hitachi, Milwaukee, Rigid, and even people who like Bosch/DeWalt/Craftsman - not to say that there's anything "wrong" with the last three brands, but I figure I might as well buy a great tool once rather than an inexpensive to medium quality tool that I'll need to replace in a few years, and those have never struck me as "professional grade".

So... What cordless drill / line of cordless products do you recommend?

 

[chavist93]

As far as drills go, I am a really big fan of panasonic cordless drills. I have used milwaukee and dewalt, but I always go back to my panasonic.

 

[Danglerb]

I like having a little choice, big and heavy, small and light, plus I doubt I will ever get rid of my corded Makita and Milwaukee drills.

Dewalt seems to work pretty well for a lot of guys I talk to.

Personally I think I would wear out at least one fairly cheap drill before dumping a lot of cash into a high end drill. I expect to see better stuff in the next few years as well as battery and magnet technology improve.

 

[Major Ramifications]

I like the Milwaukee and Dewalt cordless drills the best. I would take a good look at Ridgid because of their lifetime battery warranty. Because whatever you buy, you will need new batteries in two to four years anyway. For most brands, this means buying a new tool with two new batteries because the price of the batteries is so outrageous.
The other thing to keep in mind is that you will be dollars ahead by deciding on a brand and voltage that you can add whatever tools to that you will need in the future. This way, you only need two good batteries at any time, rather than two for each different brand of tool. Dewalt probably has more different cordless tools available than the others.
The new Craftsman Lithium Ion line is nice, but the older 19.2 EX or Die Hard drills are **** next to a Dewalt or Milwaukee.
In my book, Bosch and Dewalt are above Hitachi, but you don't have to agree with me on that (debate make life more interesting).
Oh, one more thing, if price is not an issue, go with lithium ion batteries in whatever brand you choose.

 

[icnsltmfg]

I had a great craftsman but when the battery went, the replacement was more than a good replacement drill. I went out and bought a DeWalt and have been very happy with it. Great quality and performance.

 

[MustangFJ]

Milwaukee, Rigid, Ryobi and some Craftsman are all made by the same company. (TTi in Hong Kong) However, they are still not fully consolidated so there are differences.

Porter-Cable is now owned by Black & Decker. B&D has owned the DeWalt brand for many years and also makes some Craftsman.

Bosch owns both Bosch & Skil.

All of these brands have a variety of quality levels within the brand. Some manufacturers have clearer distintions such as Bosch is permmium while Skil is the same companie's lower level brand. DeWalt is just Black & Decker's premium brand. Royobi is TTi low end brand. It is a lot easier to sort out the low end than the best high end tools.

My thought are that I would buy a cordless drill with a Lithium-Ion batter or just get a drill with a cord.

My two favorite drills considering the value for the money are:
Bosch Tools Litheon™ 10.8 volt Pocket Driver™ - Great performance for average home use in a compact package.
http://s7.sears.com/is/image/Sears/00961374000?qlt=90,0&resMode=sharp&op_usm=0.9,0.5,0,0

Craftsman Professional 20 volt Lithium-Ion 1/2 in. Drill/Driver. Great performance for the money. It goes on sale for $199. I really like mine. I never get close to running out of power.

Granted, there are plenty of great drills out there.

 

[MustangFJ]

One other thing. Fine Homebuilding & Fine Woodworking magazines publish an annual tool review. Last year I picked up a copy in early December. Great info.

 

[danski0224]

Infrequent use will kill a cordless tool just as quickly as abusing it.

The new lithium-ion batteries are supposed to be better with infrequent use than the ni-cads and ni-mh batteries.

Nothing wrong with a nice corded drill for occasional use.

 

[PoorOwner]

I don't know if anyone seen bosch booth at certain shows where you drop it from ladder height and if the tool stopped working you get a new bosch cordless drill. Where I have seen it took about 70-100 drops.. They seem pretty rugged but the floor may be playing a trick..

 

[khai]

The other thing to keep in mind is that you will be dollars ahead by deciding on a brand and voltage that you can add whatever tools to that you will need in the future. This way, you only need two good batteries at any time, rather than two for each different brand of tool.

I was thinking about that as well... What do you guys think about something like this? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009U5OUW/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Instead of spending $150-250 on a drill, I could drop a little more and get a whole package. (btw - why do they always package a flashlight with these things? Does anyone care about the POS light?)

 

[khai]

Personally I think I would wear out at least one fairly cheap drill before dumping a lot of cash into a high end drill. I expect to see better stuff in the next few years as well as battery and magnet technology improve.

When I was a kid (maybe 14?) I bought a cheap B&D drill for my dad for Father's day. It sucked ***, and I've hated cheap tools ever since. Now I have the opposite problem...

 

[ImportTuner]

When I was a kid (maybe 14?) I bought a cheap B&D drill for my dad for Father's day. It sucked ***, and I've hated cheap tools ever since. Now I have the opposite problem...

I had two Black and Decker drills - 3/8" and 1/2" - both would not die after 35+ years, so I donated them to Goodwill ...

 

[eschoendorff]

(btw - why do they always package a flashlight with these things? Does anyone care about the POS light?)

Yes, some of us do. I thought the exact same thing when I bought a Ryobi combo a few years ago... but I use the HELL out of that light in the garage....

 

[Coach James]

I have a B&D cordless that is still going strong after 8 years adn a Hitachi cordless that I use to drive everything including 3 inch #12 wood screws(with pilot holes). I would not be inclined to buy another B&D but I would buy another Hitachi. And I use the light that came with the Hitachi all the time. I'm suprised it hasn't broke yet.

 

[chad s]

I was thinking about that as well... What do you guys think about something like this? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009U5OUW/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Instead of spending $150-250 on a drill, I could drop a little more and get a whole package. (btw - why do they always package a flashlight with these things? Does anyone care about the POS light?)

Im not a big fan of the 18 volt Panasonic, but our company (A/V and security instal) has been using Panasonic cordless drills exclusively for years, and they are awsome. We use all 15.6 volt drills. The charges hold a long time, and they have plenty of torque. I find that the chuks are the nicest to use, and the drills are VERY well balanced. You will not find a Dewalt that feels as nice in your hand, or is nearly as well balanced. You'll find that most aviatronics techs use Panasonic drills.

I dont care for dewalt at all. The quality of the Panasonic is SIGNIFANTLY nicer than that of Dewalt, which feel like toys to me, and the chucks are just plain cheap feeling.

I have an 18 volt panasonic, but its just too heavy to use all day, but it has a TON of torqie, it will rip your arm off.

For basic stuff, a 15.6 volt 1/2 Panasonic will be great, the quality will far exced anything you can buy fro dewalt or at home depot. I regularly drill 1/2 holes in 1/8 steel plate in one shot with a 16.5 panasonic, and they work great.

I never have understood why so many contractors use dewalt tools. I guess they feel the need to buy yellow tools because of tradition, but ever since B&D bought Dewalt, its very mediocre.

And yea, we sometimes drop our panasonics from 6-12 foot ladders, I wouldnt use that as a test on a new drill, but they can take it with no issue.

 

[SteveL]

I love my Makita 14.4v drill, impact, light combo that I got about 18 months ago. $179 on sale at the time and they have worked flawlessly. Relatively lite weight and the impact will drive a 3" screw in pressure treaded lumber like its butter! Batteries seem to last forever too. Not like the POS Ryobi that I use to use.

The flash light is a flourecent type and came in very handy in a couple of different power outages.

 

[chad s]

I love my Makita 14.4v drill, impact, light combo that I got about 18 months ago. $179 on sale at the time and they have worked flawlessly. Relatively lite weight and the impact will drive a 3" screw in pressure treaded lumber like its butter! Batteries seem to last forever too. Not like the POS Ryobi that I use to use.

The flash light is a flourecent type and came in very handy in a couple of different power outages.

A guy that works with us has that exact set. After about 3 months of everyday use, the batteries will only hold a charge for 15-20 minutes of medium duty use (I say that because its not CONSTANT runing).

Our Panasonic batteries under the same, actually harder use, last a year and a half to 2 years.

I was pretty dissapointed. Maybe his batteries were a bad run or something. The flourecent light is very nice though.

 

[DiStOrTiOn]

I got a Ryobi starter kit from HD back in May, and I love them. My first cordless was a cman 14.4 volt, batteries stopped holding a charge, and it would've cost more to buy a single battery than an entire drill kit at sears. The ryobi's are pretty good, we have them at work, we beat the hell out of them, drop them, leave the batteries on the charger, charge them when their half full, i've even hammered stuff with them before (on top of a ladder, last resort) and I have yet to see them fail on us. If you're looking for a system, ryobi has 25 or so tools that all use the same batteries (which are cheap to replace, 40 bucks for a 2 pack), and they just came out with lithium ion batteries, which i believe you can use with their regular tools as well. I also have a B&D corded 3/8, that thing kicks major cordless *** when it comes to the harder stuff, just about tore my arm off once.

 

[timgr]

I've owned a Makita 3/8" 9.4V cordless for over 10 years, and have no reason to replace it yet. Very handy - I owned a corded Cman 3/8" drill before that and wore it out. For a 1/2" drill, I'd certainly buy a corded drill.

I woudn't bother with the cordless sets - just about every other tool, except a flashlight, you'll get a better value and more use out of corded tools.

 

[boiler7904]

I've got a 14.4v Bosch cordless that's been a good tool for the 3+ years I've owned it. I've also got a 12 v Bosch Impact Driver that gets more use than the drill - also a real good tool. My corded drill is a Milwaukee.

Milwaukee has a reputation as a good line and you see a lot of them on construction sites around here.

DeWalt's 18V line is popular because it offers 30+ tools that work off of a single battery platform.

If I was in the market to replace my cordless tools, I'd be looking at the Makita 18V LXT series tools (the 3.0Ah green version, not the 1.5 Ah white version) - they've been getting great reviews from magazines and trades people that I know.

Probably the three biggest items to think about are how much you'll use the drill (does it really make sense to have the weight of a 18V when 14.4 will do the job well?), the other tools you'll want as part of the system and what your budget is. You can't really go wrong with any of the commercial grade tools out their - it all comes down to personal preference. Look at warranty too. For instance, I just learned that Bosch lets you buy replacement at 1/2 price during the 3 year pro-vantage warranty period assuming that you registered the tool.


I've got the 2008 Fine Homebuilding / Fine Woodworking Tool Guide that MustangFJ mentioned but I can't remember if it reviewed cordless drills or not - I'll have to look tonight when I get home.

 

[khai]

I woudn't bother with the cordless sets - just about every other tool, except a flashlight, you'll get a better value and more use out of corded tools.

Thanks - I was wondering about that last night. How useful is a cordless circular saw/reciprocating saw/impact wrench? If I need big power I'd go pneumatic or at least corded, but do these cordless cutting tools really have enough power to be useful? The temptation to get a kit for flexibility is there, but I'm not certain of its actual usefulness. And then there's the thought that a 14/15v drill would likely suffice, but one might want the 18v saw... But not 2 sets of batteries.

This is harder than I would have thought.

 

[ColdDuckTime]

So... What cordless drill / line of cordless products do you recommend?

I would just buy whatever's on sale at Amazon in a brand you are comfortable with...price differences over time can be remarkable.

My running assumptions on this are:

1) 99% of the advice you'll get is from someone who owns Brand X or Y and therefore it is a good one, the other 1% is someone who knows someone who knows someone that had Brand X or Y fail implying a bad one.

2) I think of cordless tools as disposable. Between life spans of batteries, price pressure on the cost of building the things, and ever changing (hopefully better) designs, my bet is that they will last nowhere near as long as corded products.

What I keep hoping for is a teensy, corded electric impact wrench.

 

[khai]

A question for all you Panasonic owners - is the battery pack held together with screws or is it hermetically sealed? One of the guys at work pointed out that it's fairly simple to get a NiMH battery rebuilt, whereas with a Li-Ion battery it is generally more difficult. This is, of course, assuming one can get the battery pack open to replace the cells.

I think I've reached a decision point on the Panasonic line, and am considering these two options:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000REQKGC/?tag=atomicindus08-20

and

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009U5OUW/?tag=atomicindus08-20

A difference of $200 means that I either get an 18v NiMH combo set with two cutting tools or a single Li-Ion drill. The ability to rebuild the battery may just swing this one unless someone else posts something that changes my mind.

 

[timgr]

How useful is a cordless circular saw/reciprocating saw/impact wrench?

I don't own any of those in cordless - I do own a couple of corded circular saws and a sawzall. To me, the cord isn't that much of a handicap, and batteries have obvious disadvantages for power-hungry tools. I might consider a cordless impact if I went to the pick-your-part often. You can buy a top-of-the-line Porter-Cable or Milwaukee circular saw for about $130; maybe you'd want a cordless saw in addition to a corded one, but I think there are other tools I'd want first.

BTW the latest Fine Homebuilding review liked the Panasonic 15.6V (?) model - more endurance than the rest of the 18V drills, and lighter. That's something I like about my Makita drill. Also, air motors are much lighter than electric motors for equivalent power, so if you have air, that might affect your priorities.

<edit> I'd probably go for the 12V NiCd model for $99 if I bought a Panasonic, or one of the 15.6V models at ca $180.

 

[chavist93]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009KDGX/?tag=atomicindus08-20

This is the one I have. I absolutley love it. Nothing else I have used feels nowhere nearly as nice as the panasonic. I have never needed more power and the batteries seem to last a long time. I would like to try one on the new lithium panasonics though.

 

[pl_silverado]

I bought a DeWalt 14.4v XRP Drill with two batteries when i was 15 years old, spent $ 200 for it at home depot. The batteries still hold a charge, although not as good as they used to. I can honestly say i've gotten my money's worth considering im now almost 21 years old and am still using the same cordless drill.
I also bought the cheap ryobi combo, but that mainly stays in the house to do household chores and whatever else my mom and sister want to do with them. (It keeps them away from my good tools )

Im currently looking to pick up an 18v Snap-on cordless drill on ebay since i already have the 18v impact, same batteries. Theyre going failry cheap too as a newer version came out already. It's not going to replace my DeWalt though... im going to order batteries and replace the ones in the battery pack and keep on using it.

If you do decide to go for a DeWalt, get the XRP ones... they're a bit heavier duty. The regular ones felt cheap to me even as a 15 year old kid...haha

 

[wilbilt]

I'll jump in.
I have several brands of cordless drills. All have their advantages and disadvantages. Some are newer, some are older.

I prefer my 14.4V Milwaukee (newer) to my 18V DeWalt because it is lighter and the power is more than adequate. The batteries are also less expensive to replace.

I like my older 12V B&Ds because they are made from DeWalt parts (or is that the other way around?) and are great for overhead and ladder work. They also use commonly available DeWalt XR batteries.

My overall favorite, though, is an old 9.6V AEG. It has a 1/2" keyed chuck and is built like a tank. It was manufactured by Panasonic, as were the Milwaukee drills of the time. It uses Milwaukee batteries, which are still available and put together with screws.

As for the flashlights, I use them all the time. I pull a lot of cable in suspended ceilings, and the lights are a big help. The twisty DeWalt style are especially versatile.

You know how it goes...ask 20 people, get 20 different opinions...

 

[chad s]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009KDGX/?tag=atomicindus08-20

This is the one I have. I absolutley love it. Nothing else I have used feels nowhere nearly as nice as the panasonic. I have never needed more power and the batteries seem to last a long time. I would like to try one on the new lithium panasonics though.

Yup they rock!

 

[shopforeman]

Typically I am a big fan of Milwaukee tools, and I own Makita and Dewalt, but two years back I bought a Ryobi 18V cordless drill and I have to say it has been great! It came with one of those handy flashlights two batteries and a charger. The whole thing has been perfect so far and it was far cheaper than anything Milwaukee makes. Cheaper than the Makita stuff too. It is part of the Ryobi one system. Buy a drill like I did. After that you can buy other cordless tools and use the same batteries and charger for everything. I thought that might be handy but I have yet to buy any other tools to go with it.

 

[Vicegrip]

DeWalt 18 V fan here. I heard that DeWalt is coming out with a LiOn pack that back fits the 18 volt tools.

Good advice on looking at the rest of the line. Sometimes it almost as cheap to add a new tool on sale that comes with 2 batteries than to purchase two batteries. Incentive to keep adding to the pile. As if we needed any.

 

[Spookrider]

Milwaukee Model 200-20 3/8 drill a must for corded and for cordless
DeWalt Heavy-Duty XRP™ 1/2" (13mm) 18V Cordless Hammerdrill/Drill/Driver Kit - DC926KA.
Dewalt is being used by the Carp. at my house and I love the his dewalt ^ and I own Mil. 200-20 the are very close to being the same shape and style.
You can put the drill in the palm of hand and triger. So can "Push" the screw in the wood in compare to other type of drills. I been using his Dewalt and now I want one.
Milwaukee Cir. saw can beet the 5y War.

 

[Spookrider]

http://www.milwaukeeconnect.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_27_40028_-1_684254_192158_192137http://www.milwaukeeconnect.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_27_40028_-1_684452_192208_192137"]http://http://www.milwaukeeconnect.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_27_40028_-1_684452_192208_192137[/URL]

http://www.dewalt.com/us/products/tool_detail.asp?productID=15290[/URL][/URL]

Also if you get the Dewalt at Sears get the extended War. and battery problems would be solve. That what Carp. did you may pay little more but you extended warrenty on battery packs and drill?

 

[timgr]

Milwaukee makes a nice saw - I'd buy one if I didn't already have a 4.5" Makita (inherited, nice) and a B&D (ugh - bought when I was in grad school, cheap - ok for framing).

The only downside I see to the DeWalt or Milwaukee drill is the weight.

 

[Spookrider]

The only downside to the Mil. and the DeWalt is the cord on the Mil.
Both don't weigh much to me. Both has good balance.

 

[Spookrider]

The best 3/8 drill on the market to me or so far that I have used.
And the two top row Mil. I own my self and the DeWalt I get to "play" with when the Carp. is there working on my house.
With all those tools you can whip a house in shape quick.

 

[l_bilyk]

The best cordless I have used to date was the dewalt 18V XRP with the ROHM self-tightening chuck. It's bulky and heavy but it has lots of power, and a low gear for mixing mud and driving self-feed bits.

Before that the best drill I have used was german built milwaukee power-plus. The new TTI units are not as good, and I'm not a fan.

Panasonic drill are really good, but the rest of the line is small and not as good as some of the others.

 

[khai]

Thanks for your thoughtful responses everyone. I read through them all as well as a bunch of other threads that pertained to cordless, drills, kits, recent purchases, specific brands and then saw a sweet kit on ebay that I managed to score for what I think is a pretty good price ($310 w/ free shipping).


I think I'm going to be pretty happy with my new tools.



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