Which brand 18v cordless drills (2 Viewers)

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I've been tempted with those 20V Dewalts .. but ! damn what I'm gonna do with all my 18V dewalt tools and all my batts ! :frown:
 
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.

Tell your Dad I'll take those Makita tools off his hands. You won't get mine from me, and I've used pretty much them all. I never leave my batteries out in the cold. I got 5 good years out the original batteries, and that was after a LOT of use.

The Dewalts we have in the Habitat tool shed all have crappy plastic chucks.

My Makita drill has a hammer function, I have used it many times. The only complaint I have with having one drill that "does it all" is the thing is too darned big and heavy for most uses. Besides, if you're putting in 100 TapCons, you're gonna want to go with a corded hammer-drill rather than risk overheating the batteries.
 
I've been tempted with those 20V Dewalts .. but ! damn what I'm gonna do with all my 18V dewalt tools and all my batts ! :frown:

Not sure if you're aware, but the "new" 20v tools are the same actual voltage as the old Dewalt 18v tools. Just a marketing deal to distinguish the two sets so people don't complain about compatibility.

Ultimately DW decided that the compact slide in style battery was the better choice and at some point they would have to make a clean switchover. So the 20v was born.

I believe the solution is simple. Buy a 20v kit of some sort with a cheap light. Cut apart light base plus 18v batter pack and some wiring and gluing = adapter from old 18v DW to new 20v DW. That's what I'll probably go with if/when I end up needing to replace tools or batteries and move to the new system.
 
Tell your Dad I'll take those Makita tools off his hands. You won't get mine from me, and I've used pretty much them all. I never leave my batteries out in the cold. I got 5 good years out the original batteries, and that was after a LOT of use.

The Dewalts we have in the Habitat tool shed all have crappy plastic chucks.

My Makita drill has a hammer function, I have used it many times. The only complaint I have with having one drill that "does it all" is the thing is too darned big and heavy for most uses. Besides, if you're putting in 100 TapCons, you're gonna want to go with a corded hammer-drill rather than risk overheating the batteries.

I think you can buy new Makita drills for around $50 w/o batteries.

All of my Dewalt drills have metal chucks. I think they are Jacobs brand IIRC on the cheaper ones and Rhom on the nicer ones. Never had an issue with them being too big or too heavy for me. Then again they rarely get used for lighter duty tasks. If i were using them primarily as a screw driver, I think there certainly would be better tools for the task.
 
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Makita LXT drills in tool only(no batteries or charger) are starting at 89.99 currently in the hammer drill and drill driver flavor
 
Makita LXT drills in tool only(no batteries or charger) are starting at 89.99 currently in the hammer drill and drill driver flavor

Here's a hammer drill for $59. I'd guess you can find them cheaper locally. I know when they have the Dewalt bare tool sales you can get them cheaper than the internet pricing. Makita bhp452z 18V LXT Li-Ion Cordless 1/2" Hammer Drill-Driver (Bare Tool) Although I've never seen a local tool shop have a makita bare tool sale like the Dewalt ones.
 
Not a bad deal if your a Makita guy for sure
 
Not sure if you're aware, but the "new" 20v tools are the same actual voltage as the old Dewalt 18v tools. Just a marketing deal to distinguish the two sets so people don't complain about compatibility.

Ultimately DW decided that the compact slide in style battery was the better choice and at some point they would have to make a clean switchover. So the 20v was born.

I believe the solution is simple. Buy a 20v kit of some sort with a cheap light. Cut apart light base plus 18v batter pack and some wiring and gluing = adapter from old 18v DW to new 20v DW. That's what I'll probably go with if/when I end up needing to replace tools or batteries and move to the new system.

After a closer look, this is an absolute no-go to build an adapter. Dewalt put the low voltage safety cut off in the trigger rather than in the battery. You would kill the battery pack the first time you used it in an older 18v drill. If you want to get creative, you certainly could build a small circuit into the adapter to perform the low voltage cut off function. Probably could be mass produced for a few cents. Don't know enough about them at this point to tell whether it would be easily made with cheap off the shelf parts.
 
After a closer look, this is an absolute no-go to build an adapter. Dewalt put the low voltage safety cut off in the trigger rather than in the battery. You would kill the battery pack the first time you used it in an older 18v drill. If you want to get creative, you certainly could build a small circuit into the adapter to perform the low voltage cut off function. Probably could be mass produced for a few cents. Don't know enough about them at this point to tell whether it would be easily made with cheap off the shelf parts.

After all looks like they nailed .. even with the same V you would be tempted to buy the new model .. ( that's all about uh ..! ) I'm cool about that now and even better knowing that are the same V ( or at least close ) maybe the 18V tools come down in price ..
 
After all looks like they nailed .. even with the same V you would be tempted to buy the new model .. ( that's all about uh ..! ) I'm cool about that now and even better knowing that are the same V ( or at least close ) maybe the 18V tools come down in price ..

It appears the BEST battery that money can buy for 18v tools is the early Dewalt 18v style with "nano technology" on them. They are A123 LiPo internal cells. You can read up on why here: Nanotech will let us wear batteries and get 150 mpg - USATODAY.com Much better than any cell that's ever been sold in a Makita, Milwaukee, or any other line of tools as far as I can tell. (I'm not sure about Panasonic or Festool - they may be the two others that may have sold as good a battery.) Both the newer DW 18v lithium packs and the new 20v Max packs use cheaper sony, Sanyo, or Samsung cells that are all basically the same and are the same as Makita, Ryobi, and most other lithium batteries.

So maybe you're best off just stocking up on some older nano- lithium batteries from DW and keeping the old tools going.

Disappointing that DW went for the cheaper cells like everyone else, but understandable. No one was buying the $120+ batteries. It's hard to sell your product when your average consumer can't readily tell the difference and the better battery cells are twice the cost of your competitors.
 
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Since Black & Decker bought DeWalt, I have heard nothing but bad news.

There will never be a DeWalt in my lineup.
 
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I have one of the old model and few 9180 .. also got one 9180 defective and had problems to get that one replaced by warranty ..

IMG_1822_1.jpg
 
If the pack looks like this it's the better one, good for 2000+ charges and have the capacity to provide 60 amps, If not, it's more like 5-600 and only around 20 amps IIRC. I believe the product number is the same.

DSCN3698.jpg


I get a solid 2-3yrs of service from the NiMH for $39 ea. and I rarely use them outside my garage, so I'm never far from a new battery. I also have 3 chargers and about 6 good batteries, so I'm never out of juice. Hard to justify the $100+ batteries.
 
If the pack looks like this it's the better one, good for 2000+ charges and have the capacity to provide 60 amps, If not, it's more like 5-600 and only around 20 amps IIRC. I believe the product number is the same.

have one of the old big ones .. one like this one ( black side ) and 2 of the yellow side ( like the one that I put in the pic above )
 

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