Cordless Drill

[Hddnis]

I've never had a DeWalt tool die. Some of the jobsite drills, corded and cordless, have cracked housings and they keep right on going. Same with DeWalt sawsalls, cordless and corded saws, spiral saws, sanders, impact drivers, the whole line has been great for us. We've never had a problem with batteries at all; which may be due to the fact that we use them a lot so they never sit idle. The li-ion are even better and hold a charge without use. Farms, homeowners/handymen and hobby users should get those.

We also have a few Makita and no complaints, but they lack power in the rechargable drills.

I like Milwaukie for hole hawgs, they are a little smoother than DeWalt.

We won't touch Rigid tools anymore. They are heavy, underpowered and poorly built. The lifetime warranty won't replace your lost time when the tool fails. The blades wobble on the chop saws. The gears strip on the drills. The sander motors burn out in just a couple of months. Did I mention they are heavy?

Nailers? Hmmm.

DeWalt is OK there, but we have very few, so far none have broken.

Hitachi makes decent framers and roofers. Their roofers are a little underpowered for siding.

Senco has been fine for us. Some don't like them but so far I've never gotten a real good reason beyond not liking the color.

Max makes some really good stuff right now. Framers have plenty of power, same for roofers and staplers.

Bostich is reliable, really hard to kill in fact, but kind of heavy by todays standards.

Makita I would not touch in air powered tools. They have this new high pressure gimmick they are pushing. Supposed to be really light weight, but you have to buy a whole system and each part costs four times what you can get other brands for.



Mr. HE

 

[tdi-rick]

[snip]

Though if you want a driver rather than a hammer drill, get a Festool. Rather don't get one, borrow one, as they are crazy money. Best cordless I've used - only 12V, but leaves the 18v DeWalt for dead.

Husq2100 keeps saying the same thing.

I have Metabo and Hitachi and they have been pretty good, and a lot of the other tradies around here run Makita or Hilti.

 

[teatersroad]

Husq2100 keeps saying the same thing.

I have Metabo and Hitachi and they are pretty good, and a lot of the other tradies around here run Hilti.

festool, crazy nice stuff. but I think of them as power tools for the shop, not something to kick about at a jobsite too much. Did a bunch of marine joinery and furniture, the shop had lot's of festool stuff.

another comment on the bosch drill, even though the guts of the f/r switch kept breaking, it was definately the best balanced drill I had.

I don't care for the heavy cordless stuff, 12-14v is good enough for cabinets, trim, electrical. comfortable to use and plenty of power. If I need more I plug in.

 

[BryanEx]

purchasers of these products may elect for a limited time to receive a free Lifetime Service Agreement.

Okay... cool. It must be that the "limited time" has run out in Canada only so far. Several guys at work that use Rigid were talking about how they had to make sure their batteries failed just before the three year mark if they wanted new ones.

 

[MCW]

Rick mentioned Hilti and as far as I'm concerned in the world of cordless drills Hilti are king however they are very expensive. Back when Ni-MH was the battery of choice I'd have chosen a Panasonic nearly level with Hilti. I like the balance of both equally. From memory they were both Mexican made and/or assembled? When I used to install commercial air conditioning the only people without Hiltis were the ones that couldn't afford one - everybody acknowledged they were the best cordless drills.
The Dewalts are "OK" and have heaps of grunt, are tough as nails, but I always thought their balance was up to sh*t. I have also seen many many problems on building sites with the 18v impact hammer models - they always seemed to spit main output shaft bearings, probably from poor sealing and the dust ingression from hammer drilling. They were also too long for use in aircon and it's surprising how many times they were too long to fit behind tight ductwork for instance when needed (back down that ladder to beg for the bosses' Hilti!). In Australia I think the Dewalt and Milwaukee tools are way overpriced for what they are. I'm sure you guys in the states get good deals on them.

Let me give you an idea what I mean:

I imported my 18v Hitachi's from the US and landed them here for AUD$310 each. Out here to buy they were AUD$595. All I needed to buy was a step down transformer to run the 110v chargers on 240v (cost AUD$90) and all was good. Looks like we get ripped on tools AND chainsaws
All my cordless gear now comes from the states, just like my chainsaws.

I currently use Hitachi Li-ion 18v 3.0Ah drills (both rotary hammer and plain drills) and have had a good run despite being Chinese made. I also have a couple of old 12v Swiss made Bosch drills that I bought back in 1996. The original 1.4AH Nicad packs died and being Sub C cells I just pulled the batterys apart and repacked them with 3.5Ah Ni-MH - this is a great little drill and a good few inches shorter than the Hitachis for getting into tight spots. Even with the ten Sub C cells in the pack it balances great. I have two of them and they're still going strong.
My family runs a soft furnishing's business (curtains and blinds etc) that I do most of the installing for (I need more hours in the day!) and most of the work is over my head. Not the ideal place for big thumping drills and balance to me is probably more important than grunt. I've also found that the torque settings on the 18v Hitachis are far too hard for finer work. Even at their lightest torque settings they'll still bust or strip the odd smaller screws. This is where my little Bosch 12v drills are handy.
I've also found that the 3.0Ah packs on my 18v Hitachis don't last anywhere near as long as I thought they would and during hard work you chew through them quick and can never be too far from your charger

 

[saxman]

I personally have Milwaukee cordless tools, not saying they are the best but we have a good dealer in my town that has an in-house warranty service department if needed. I have read in a a consumer report type magazine that Panasonic makes a dandy cordless drill, anybody have any experience with one? I know in my area they are hard to find.

Steve

 

[thinkxingu]

Truth be told, most of the contractors I know use Ryobi for cordless: they burn through most every brand in a year, so they stick to the cheapest and just replace.

That being said, all drills work well. It's the powerhogs like reciprocating and circular saws that show the true test of battery power and quality. That being said, I've yet to find a better brand than Hitachi for those. And their drills have class-leading power to weight ratios.

S

 

[blel]

I do carpentry work for a living and have had the Panasonic EY6432 15.6 volt for about 6-8 years. A great tool, never a problem. I really doubt if anyone could tell the difference between 15 volts and 18. The drill has great balance and feel, much better than Dewalt, etc. The batteries are expensive but last forever. I would definitely buy another one.

 

[mweba]

Own both Makita and Milwaukee and pleased with them. I have owned the Milwaukee M18 set for almost three years and had the batteries replaced once (under warranty). 2 year 2000 charge warranty if I remember right. Went with Milwaukee due to the tools available for the same battery system AND Dewalts batteries are ridiculous expensive. Milwaukee also has a high capacity battery option which comes in handy for the sawzall (for trimming trees), skill saw, and impact wrench.

 

[jhellwig]

Cordless and batteryless

 

[teatersroad]

ditto a few thangs, the panasonics I've used felt great - right there with the bosch, just haven't seen any around lately. Dewalt might be robust, but also clunky, bulky, and not a great feel to them.

 

[jimdad07]

I personally love my Dewalt tools, they have been used very heavily for about four or five years now and they have not let me down yet. I have some buddies who have the smaller Makita impacts and 1/4" drive drills and they seem to like them.

 

[demographic]

I do carpentry work for a living and have had the Panasonic EY6432 15.6 volt for about 6-8 years. A great tool, never a problem. I really doubt if anyone could tell the difference between 15 volts and 18. The drill has great balance and feel, much better than Dewalt, etc. The batteries are expensive but last forever. I would definitely buy another one.

I'm also a carpenter and my last cordless drill was a 15.6 volt Panasonic, very good kit with the only weak point being the chuck.
I now have a Hitachi impact screw gun and will be buying a Hitachi combi drill as soon as I can spare the cash as my old Makita (to be fair to it, it wasn't a top of the range one when I bought it) isn't really upto the job.

I've had De-Walt cordless drills and the batteries were pretty poor so I replaced them with Nickel metal hydride ones which made things better.
I have one of their corded powerplaners which I have yet to find one better of any make.

I wouldn't touch a Bosch cordless drill with someone else's but their Jigsaws are good.

Nail guns, well if its cordless gas powered one there's not much wrong with Paslode and I have one of their second fix brad guns, the first fix nail guns are good although I personally have a Hitachi. Both have their good and bad points but they about balance out about even.
Corded SDS drills, well I have two as one had a problem and I needed another in a hurry so i went out and bought another whilst i repaired the first. The old one is a Makita but its seen years of heavy site use so i can't blame it for the SDS chuck needing a fresh circlip and the bearing putting back in after that and my new one is a Hitachi and thats going well so far but its only a year into its use.
Again I wouldn't have a Bosch one as they last well but they are just far slower than either my Hitachi or Makita.
For chopsaws I think Makita takes some beating and personally I wouldn't buy a De-Walt over one any day.

Corded ripsaws/circular saws, I have two Hitachi's (seven inches and nine inches) but admit that unless I was getting into Festool kinds of money (too damn expensive for me) that they are much of a muchness.

I've used Milwaukee tools before and found them good and if I was putting up drywall all day i would be using Hilti without a doubt as their cordless collated screwguns are the best I've seen in the UK.

After reading my rambling reply through I think that for the most part my vote goes to Hitachi with a few notable exceptions.

 

[sawkiller]

I used some panasonic about 10 years ago at a powerplant we were working at. If memory serves they were only 15 volt but very far ahead of their time in performance, balance, power ETC. I still think of all the cordless I have ever used they were the best and I have used about all of the brands mentioned on here so far.

Still I will only buy ridgid you can't beat the warranty!

 

[bcsizemo]

I'll chime in with some other thoughts....

I don't have any recommendations other than what everyone else has said.

I do have a little Hitachi impact and driver/drill kit and it works well (Li-Ion). I will say Hitachi does make a couple different models of drills in the 18V Li-Ion series. They have one that is 18V 1.5Ah and does not have replaceable brushes. They also have one that is more expensive gives you 2.5Ah batteries and I believe has replaceable brushes (or so it appears to.)

Also on the "batteries cost me a fortune" thing:

Some place like this:
http://www.batteryspace.com/
has basic Li-Ion/Nimh batteries that most of these units use. IE: my Hitachi impact driver unit uses 16850 Li-Ion cells 1.5Ah...I can get 2.4Ah cells $8 a pop (I need 3). So for half the price of a new battery I can rebuild one with 50%+ more run time.

Just a thought since everyone on here seems like a tinkerer..

 

[tawilson]

I've gone Dewalt for the last 10 years or so. I've had the battery issues too over the years, hopefully the lithium-ion last longer. Tools are tough, but I do wish they had a bigger variety.

 

[Fronty Owner]

we've run dewalt and milwaukee at work for a while now. they seem to hold up pretty decent for some people, others not so much.

Like saws, a homeowners version (black and decker, or generic) will get the job done for a while, but the professional (dewalt, milwaukee, etc) will perform better, and hold up longer.

 

[BryanEx]

I've had the battery issues too over the years, hopefully the lithium-ion last longer.

Depends on how you use the tool. Lithium batteries fail based on age regardless of charge cycles while Ni-cad fail based on charge cycles, not age. If you're depleting your batteries on a regular basis lithium is the way to go but if it's lengthy periods between charges Ni-cad may serve you better. That being said, lithium certainly delivers more power and are lighter weight.

 

[cutforfun]

go by the makita 18 volt drill/impact kit and you will never use another drill again. Thats what i did and i use it every day for work.

 

[joe912]

As for Battery pack rebuilds
Primecell
These guys are very good. Reasonable prices too