I bought the hammer drill/drill (2704)and impact brushless M18 set a couple months ago. For the previous 20 years, I have been an almost exclusive user of Dewalt cordless tools, but needed a compact lightweight hammer drill for air travel where my toolbox needs to be under 50 pounds. 95% of the time I don't need the big drills or lots of power, but I do need a hammer drill for mounting large displays and I was tired of carrying my Hilti T-5 for 2 minutes of work each week. My set came with the 5Ah batteries, but I bought a couple of the 2Ah to further lighten my load.
Using the drills hard on the past 2 jobs, I have 2 major complaints and a couple "I wish the drill did or didn't do this" issues. For the work I do, I have to jump between bits and drivers 5 or 6 times an hour. About once a day, my chuck locks up so hard that I have to put the drill between my legs and use both hands to get it to unlock....I mean serious struggle. Once this week I even had to resort to a co-worker holding the handle, while I turned the chuck. Not sure the issue, but it was a big waste of time. I don't know the technology behind the hammer drill feature, so the comment above about the way these chucks are attached got my attention.
Just by coincidence, another team with my company was on an install nearby this week and I stopped over and was shown a new 20v Dewalt compact hammer drill/drill one of the guys just bought. I went Milwaukee only because I wasn't aware Dewalt now makes a similar compact model. The Dewalt felt good, was lighter and the controls are a little more familiar to me. I cannot be sure, but I think his came with smaller batteries and I doubt it has as much torque as the Milwaukee. I was telling this co-worker my chuck struggles and the very next day, I got a call asking if I could stop over and help him get his open too.....must be common problem for drills with this feature.
The other major complaint I have is the rubber selector ring is too easy to change. A couple times I have set the drill down on its side on carpet and the setting has changed to hammer. or drill. Maybe not a big deal for some, but I work around expensive computer and servers and being on the wrong setting can be a costly mistake.
I wish the charger was 18v only and more compact like the Dewalt design. I also like how the Dewalt charger is recessed, unlike the wings on the Milwaukee charger, which are more prone to being broken.
Overall I am very happy with the drill and just hope the battery life is similar to the years of service I have gotten from my Dewalts.
