Thoughts on Cordless Hilti Rotary Hammer

[timbyrnes]

So I'm trying to find a cordless rotary hammer drill and wanted to get some thoughts/suggestions on which one to get.

Basically all it will be used for is drilling 1/2" holes through concrete slabs for 6" Titen HD anchor bolts.

I own a Milwaukee 2712-20 and it just can't handle the repetitive drilling.

Is there anyone out there that has experience with the cordless Hilti line? If so, which would you recommend for me?
The budget would preferably be around $1,000.

 

[eaglefan1]

I don't know about the cordless part but Hilti is the best concrete drill I have ever used. Is corded not a option for the job?

 

[iamrfixit]

So I'm trying to find a cordless rotary hammer drill and wanted to get some thoughts/suggestions on which one to get.

Basically all it will be used for is drilling 1/2" holes through concrete slabs for 6" Titen HD anchor bolts.

I own a Milwaukee 2712-20 and it just can't handle the repetitive drilling.

Is there anyone out there that has experience with the cordless Hilti line? If so, which would you recommend for me?
The budget would preferably be around $1,000.

What do you mean "just can't handle the repetitive drilling"? Battery life or what exactly is the issue? Drilling back to back holes repeatedly over a long period, it's definitely going to get very warm, any rotary hammer is going to heat up under that heavy, constant use. If battery life is your issue and you are already using the higher amp/hour batteries then you'll probably need to look to corded. I doubt any cordless brand is going to perform much different or significantly better than Milwaukee.

Cordless might be handy but too expensive for of my demanding usage. I've used this same bosch model for years to drill anchors for grain bins we build. They are 6" deep 1/2" holes one right after another until 35-50 of them are drilled. The number is dependent on what size we're building. It will easily drill 500+ holes each building season and can usually get 2-3 years out of one.

 

[nitroracer20]

Cant beat Hilti. And you cant beat their guaranteed 1 day turnaround on warranty work.

At your price point you would want the TE-30.

 

[brownbagg]

i like the hilti with the vaccumn attachment, clean, no dust

 

[Farmall450]

Your Milwaukee is rated for continous drilling of 1" holes...what is it doing? Locking and out and overheating?

I've had good luck with mine (and work's) DeWalt DCH133; they have a bigger model in 20v and several (up to 2" continuous use) rated 60v models.

The DEWALT DCH773Y2 is the industry’s most powerful cordless 2 in. SDS MAX combination rotary hammer. The FLEXVOLT® 2 in. Cordless SDS MAX Combination Hammer, with its durable and hard hitting German engineered mechanism, delivers category leading 19.4 Joules of impact energy.

 

[kctyphoon]

Ive had some of the Milwaukees. Worked fine for me.

No cordless is gonna drill all day. These aren’t meant to be continuous use rotary hammers. They will just eat through batteries. Aside from bigger batteries that will improve runtime, they will all be about the same.. Repetitive drilling is a job for a corded tool.

The cordless are meant to do, what they can do..

 

[mobiledynamics]

The corded Hilti's are monsters. Even my smallest one.....TEC7C....is a beast. I just looked it up. Maybe I'm going crazy but the current MSRP's of Hilti seemed to have gone DOWN. Too much competition eh.....

Maybe. As I have not touched my Hilti's in awhile.

 

[eaglefan1]

We always abused the hell out of them on jobs, we didn't pay for them so no worries. They got the hell beat out of them every day by many different people and they just kept pounding and spinning. A lot more then I can say for the HF hammer drill I bought to hang plywood before hurricane Ivan

 

[neophyte]

The corded Hilti's are monsters. Even my smallest one.....TEC7C....is a beast. I just looked it up. Maybe I'm going crazy but the current MSRP's of Hilti seemed to have gone DOWN. Too much competition eh.....

Maybe. As I have not touched my Hilti's in awhile.

Most of the less expensive Hilti tools are made in China now, including the smaller rotary hammers that used to be made in Liechtenstein.
Apparently, Hilti formed some partnership with Panasonic, and now both companies produce power tools in China at the same facility, and I presume maybe Hilti does R&D for the tools, and Panasonic works on the batteries.
As far as I can tell, the rotary hammers are still the same models that were being made in Europe.
A bunch of the other tools seem to have gotten simplified and cheapened, like circular saws and reciprocating saws.
The quality on the cordless tools is supposedly still high though.

 

[bagged89s10]

I work for hilti and my customers love the te-6a 22v with on board dust collection. our new 4.0 and 8.0 amp batteries make the tool run more efficiently and surprising actually drill faster. if the majority of what you are drilling is 1/2”x6” deep holes, you don’t need to go larger. If you want, call me tomorrow and i’ll get you a deal. 860-690-3067.

 

[mobiledynamics]

Interesting read NeoPhyte. Yes, was aware of Hilti's partership with Panasonic years ago. Did not knew it crossed over to the corded to be made overseas ! Even their screwgun (corded) was a staple amongst all tradesman . Gosh, me wonder how good or bad the overseas move has done for them ? Gosh, their PAT's, etc....alot of staple goodies I can think of , than just (concrete drills).

One of the shining things about Hilti was that the Hilti rep brought loaners/replacements to to the site, should tools have failed, etc.

Off to do so Hilti wiki searching/reading.
I kinda wanna say the MSRP seems to have gone down about 40% which was quite a shock when I did the quick look today. Here's hoping quality hasn't gone down 40% though

 

[timbyrnes]

Apologies for being so vague in my dilemma. What's happening is, it's overheating and the battery seems to be running out fast.
I am using the 9.0 Ah Battery Pack and I was just reading the reviews on Milwaukee's website and the consensus seems to be the same issue that I am having, that the run time is a let-down. I could be putting too high expectations on a battery-powered tool.

 

[fkol-k4]

I own the Hilti TE6-A22 and i have also worked with the Milwaukee CHPX, Dewalt DCH273 and Dewalt DCH283.

Overall, i think the Hilti is the sweet spot for doing everything.

The Milwaukee CHPX and Dewalt DCH283 hit harder, but they actually don't drill faster (or not faster enough so i could notice it), and because they hit harder, the drill tends to "walk" on hard concrete sometimes and you have to be more careful to drill in the exact right spot (if you need to...). They are also heavier, so overhead ceiling holes can tire you faster.
But they are better if you do chipping a lot.

Dewalt DCH273 is very light, so overhead ceiling holes are the easiest with it, but it lacks power compared to all of the above.

 

[mobiledynamics]

tim....

cordless batteries IMO do get hot when run hard IME. If I think I'm going to be doing a battery demanding job, I often will rotate the battery out with 3-5 batteries.....once I feel it's getting -hot enough-. Heat kills batteries, so my mindset is partially that as well. I believe the tool is doing a thermal cutoff in your experience(not to save the tool), but moreso maybe to protect the battery ?

Just guesstimating here. I don't run the batteries hard till they drain...if the task at hand is hard on juice.