^ this. mine have held up great.
Which brand 18v cordless drills
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^ this. mine have held up great.
mine too, the dewalts went through batteries left an right, so i switched to the ridgid combo pack, i had one battery go bad, and that is because i left it in the radio for 2 years.
I'm a pretty heavy DIY'er but do not make my living with my tools and ryobi has always been good to me. The depth of the line is hard to beat and that you can now swap LI for the old ni-cad's is a great deal.
Now if you are a tradesman apprentice and someone just gave you a blank check to go buy tools, then sure, go big. But, if you just need a cordless drill to do a few chores around the house go ryobi.
I currently have makita and dewalt and a craftsman.
Makita gets my vote hands down.
Makita gets my vote hands down.
Makita is the brand to go with from the info I received.
I had recently purchased a Milwaukee 14 volt system. I was having a problem with the clutch slipping. I took to the local independent repair guy. He told me that Ryobi purchased the Milwaukee name. That Dewalt and B&D were owned by the same company. The same being true for Skil and Bosch (same owners). If I remember right he said Home Depot owns Ryobi and Ridgid. According to him the best battery tools on the market are Makita. He said the quality was better and that batteries were tops. He pulled out a used Makita Sawsall and plugged in a battery that he had laying around. That tool was impressive. It looked to have way more power then even my 110v Milwaukee. My next tool purchase will be a Makita.
I had recently purchased a Milwaukee 14 volt system. I was having a problem with the clutch slipping. I took to the local independent repair guy. He told me that Ryobi purchased the Milwaukee name. That Dewalt and B&D were owned by the same company. The same being true for Skil and Bosch (same owners). If I remember right he said Home Depot owns Ryobi and Ridgid. According to him the best battery tools on the market are Makita. He said the quality was better and that batteries were tops. He pulled out a used Makita Sawsall and plugged in a battery that he had laying around. That tool was impressive. It looked to have way more power then even my 110v Milwaukee. My next tool purchase will be a Makita.
I'm a 18v DeWalt man myself, carpenter by trade. A few lads I work with have Festool drills good quillity. I have have Festool gear myself,
saws, sanders and hoover very good product, But lots of €$£
I was also using some 14.4v Panasonic Gear recently and I must say I am very well impressed, Light, powerful, quick Li-ion re-charge if I had to go shopping in the morning I'd be having a good look at them.
Panasonic 14.4 Volt Lithium-Ion Cordless Tools | AceTool.com
NOT promoting the shop its just a list of what Panasonic stuff I was using
saws, sanders and hoover very good product, But lots of €$£
I was also using some 14.4v Panasonic Gear recently and I must say I am very well impressed, Light, powerful, quick Li-ion re-charge if I had to go shopping in the morning I'd be having a good look at them.
Panasonic 14.4 Volt Lithium-Ion Cordless Tools | AceTool.com
NOT promoting the shop its just a list of what Panasonic stuff I was using
I've got the same cordless drill and I haven't been overly happy with it - the batts don't seem to last long and the "instant stop" when they run out annoys me (although I'm told that's an Li-Ion thing, not the drill), but the biggest annoyance is that for some reason mine will not stay in the second gear. I can be drilling on a horizontal or vertical angle and as soon as there is any real resistance on the bit it just starts to slip, like the gear isn't engaged properly. Fiddle with the selector and try again, same result....
Never happens in 1 or 3. Sent it back to be looked at and it was returned to me unchanged with a report saying the couldn't reproduce the fault. The first thing I tried it on afterwards, it did the same thing
That said, I'm sure if I could get a decent service centre to fix it, I would be a lot happier with it....
Festool make the best 90Deg cordless drill attachments I've seen too - very compact, but yeah, very big $$$ too....
RIDGID is the way to go, no contest. Why, you ask? LSA, AKA Lifetime Service Agreement. The tool is guaranteed for life, period. Batteries included. Yes, batteries. I have replaced all 5 of my 18v batteries for free, after 3 years of use- 3 went bad, the other two the service guy replaced 'cause they were old. Not to mention they are good quality tools with great features, some not found on other brands. Also, in talking to the service guy- an independent tool repair shop- he sees very few of the tools in for repairs, other than batteries.
Just invested in a 12v mini drill, probably go for the 12v multi-tool next.
Just invested in a 12v mini drill, probably go for the 12v multi-tool next.
Tapage
Club 4X4 Panamá
actually I thought that's great feature ... you aren't running progresive low on batt .. they just give the 100% ( they should ) always until no more and then just die, pic another put that one on charge and continue the job ..
Mine always just seem to run out on the last hole while sitting on a shed roof with the spare in the back of the truck on the ground!! With my old Makita it would start to slow down, but more often than not would just have enough juice to finish that hole and get the job done.
Not a fair comparison, I know, but still it just has enough niggly things about it to annoy me!! They do recharge pretty quickly though...
I've owned the Makita 18v kit for 1 1/2 years now. Used daily, and still fabulous. I have a 36v Dewalt impact that I pull out sometime to change tires and stuff but otherwise doesn't get much use anymore. The Makita battery charge time is a little long. I have a Bosch NiCad impact driver that is heavier but charges in 1/2 the time.
Skillet
Skillet
Happy birthday to me...
Picked this up yesterday at home cheapo and, so far, like the feel.
The larger of the two drivers is a "hammer driver," so a nice compliment to my current 14.4 Makita driver and the impact driver.
BTW, my 14.4 volt Makita driver is about 6 years old and has been an outstanding tool with no battery replacements (yet)...
Picked this up yesterday at home cheapo and, so far, like the feel.
The larger of the two drivers is a "hammer driver," so a nice compliment to my current 14.4 Makita driver and the impact driver.
BTW, my 14.4 volt Makita driver is about 6 years old and has been an outstanding tool with no battery replacements (yet)...
I have some makita cordless tools and no complaints.Oh and happy birthday!
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Happy B Day.... I have the Hitachi 18V and I love them (drill, circular saw, sawzall, and impact) I have used pretty much all of them in the past 10 years.. Hitachi is my favorite but Makita and Dewalt are close seconds IMO..
Tapage
Club 4X4 Panamá
Hitachi it's a great brand .. I went dewalt just coz it's easy have much more cheap available parts/batts ...
brian
SILVER Star
for a cordless drill, it will twist your arm off if you bind a drillbit up.
i have run way more holesaws than i should have...not little ones either, 2, 3, 4''ers through stainless and steel.
i'm going to replace the set in the service truck with another, and bring the old set home.
i've been running mine for atleast 3-4 years now, and like i mentioned when on the clock it gets beat on pretty hard. the batteries are still going strong. that impact has some serious torque as well. it has gone through several of the 3/8" adpters for sockets, just snaps them right off.
my new set will be the drill that has the hammer feature in it.
FWIW, my tools are all dewalt 18v right now. Although the batteries don't last as long, it's really nice to be able to buy a 2.4 ah battery pack for $39. Most of the newer Li batteries are small, like 1.8ah or less. I can rebuild my Dewalt packs for about $50, and put 5ah sub-c cells in them. That would triple the output of 90% of the Li batteries currently available. I also have a lot of other tools, grinders, impact, hammer drill etc, so switching brands would be really expensive.
One thing I see missing from many drills is the hammer function. I have needed to drill holes for red-heads many times with my dewalt hammer drill. Works great.
My father in law has a makita 18v set, that lasted just over a year. Batteries are both dead and its so expensive to replace them it's not worth it. The problem apparently is that cold temps will kill the batteries at least for those drills. Only takes one -20 or -30 degree night and they're toast. Not sure why that is the case.
I've only killed my dealt nimh batteries by physical damage or had a single internal cell go bad. They are very easy to open up, and replace a single bad sub-c cell.
One other thing I like about the dewalt tools is the chuck. They have all metal high quality chucks. Some of the other brands I see with a lot of plastic on the chuck. Probably works fine around carpentry. Would not fare so well around steel - I use mine with cut off wheels and all sorts of other brushes in them and rubbing a metal chuck against a sharp steel edge once in a while is no big deal. The plastic chuck wouldn't hold up so well. I had - still have but don't use - a ryobi and the chuck was crap.
I certainly cant say dewalt makes the "best". They obviously are by far the most common and most popular, likely because they were by far the best when they first came out before all the other newer models. Now there are a lot more great options. If I were starting from scratch, Id probably go all Rigid because of the warranty on the batteries. IMO that can't be beat.
In terms of pure battery life, IIRC the Panasonic drills will double any other drill in actual testing of how many screws can be driven with a single battery. It makes sense because they have ~ 4ah batteries. They are also quite expensive.
One thing I see missing from many drills is the hammer function. I have needed to drill holes for red-heads many times with my dewalt hammer drill. Works great.
My father in law has a makita 18v set, that lasted just over a year. Batteries are both dead and its so expensive to replace them it's not worth it. The problem apparently is that cold temps will kill the batteries at least for those drills. Only takes one -20 or -30 degree night and they're toast. Not sure why that is the case.
I've only killed my dealt nimh batteries by physical damage or had a single internal cell go bad. They are very easy to open up, and replace a single bad sub-c cell.
One other thing I like about the dewalt tools is the chuck. They have all metal high quality chucks. Some of the other brands I see with a lot of plastic on the chuck. Probably works fine around carpentry. Would not fare so well around steel - I use mine with cut off wheels and all sorts of other brushes in them and rubbing a metal chuck against a sharp steel edge once in a while is no big deal. The plastic chuck wouldn't hold up so well. I had - still have but don't use - a ryobi and the chuck was crap.
I certainly cant say dewalt makes the "best". They obviously are by far the most common and most popular, likely because they were by far the best when they first came out before all the other newer models. Now there are a lot more great options. If I were starting from scratch, Id probably go all Rigid because of the warranty on the batteries. IMO that can't be beat.
In terms of pure battery life, IIRC the Panasonic drills will double any other drill in actual testing of how many screws can be driven with a single battery. It makes sense because they have ~ 4ah batteries. They are also quite expensive.
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Well, after running the M12 series milwaukee tools since they came out (impact and 3/8" drill) with a dewalt 18v nicd 1/2" drill for the bigger stuff, I finally bit the bullet. Lowes has the Dewalt 20v hammerdrill / impact combo for $350 AND you get a free battery. It's the 3.0ah batteries (comes with 2, get the third 3.0ah free). So far, I'm in love. The impact is actually about 1" shorter where the chuck is, than even the milwaukee m12 impact. And has about 40 ft/lb more torque. I use the impacts for mechanic work mostly. I put all new seals / gaskets / water pump / oil pump / fan clutch (modified) throttle body cleaning... all with the m12 milwaukee. The only bolts it couldn't back off were the throttle body bolts, most likely because I had 14" of extensions on it. But once you get into the habbit of using small impacts for every day work, you'll find yourself doing things in half the time. I haven't really used the hammer drill, with exception of running a 1.25" hole saw through my friends oil pan for a weld on bung.. but damn thing almost broke my wrist when it caught.
Sorry for the long-winded post, but from what little experience I have with the dewalt 20v so far, I am very impressed. And the battery deal going on right now at Lowes makes for a hell of a deal too.
Sorry for the long-winded post, but from what little experience I have with the dewalt 20v so far, I am very impressed. And the battery deal going on right now at Lowes makes for a hell of a deal too.
