Which brand 18v cordless drills (1 Viewer)

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howdy
Im looking at getting some new 18v cordless drill,tech gun,and few others
A lot of tradies around are running dewalt,hitachi,hilti
Any suggetions or prefered brands you guys use
 
I recently picked up a Dewalt 18v li-ion hammer drill. I am very pleased with it so far.
It was a replacement for a Milwaukee 18v that i had nothing but battery trouble with. The first two i got warrantied. One lasted another year or so the last one about 3. It's worth buying a new set than buying two batteries for pete's sake.
 
I mainly use Makita cordless tools, but also have bosch. I used another guys Milwaukee cordless and it felt bulky.
 
I've been using Makita for years with great satisfaction. Last year I bought and moved into the 18 volt line...its excellent. I recommend it. Not sure what a "tech gun" is though...
 
My 18v Makita cordless drill feels lighter and smaller than my Makita 14.4v. I like this set better than all the others.
 
If you won't use the tool often, any of the ones you mention are okay.

You're more likely to be happy with Makita than the other brands you named and the Makita will be price competitive with those. I have a 9.6v/12v combo cordless Makita from 1996 and it has yet to let me down on a task a cordless should be asked to do. Years later I picked up a Makita cordless impact 'drill' and it does everything I can think of with serious oomph.

In order of increasing cost, these are good tools, too, and I'd consider them upgrades from the others in your list: Metabo, Panasonic, Festool. Festool's biggest battery is 15.6v, but you wouldn't know it's not 18v - but pricey.
 
I have the Makita LXT lithium-ion powered impact. It rocks. Lightweight, powerful, and charges quickly. The battery life is also really good.
 
I bought a Hitachi 18V lithium ion drill / impact driver combo set on Amazon for about $200 on sale. I'm a prefessional woodworker and use them all the time. I also have three 14.4 Hitachi nicads which work great (bought on clearance at Lowes for $99 several years ago).

I pretty much ignore any DeWalt offerings because their batteries (nicad) always had short lives. I have three DeWalts with no good batteries but it isn't worth getting new ones since you can buy a whole kit with drill for the same price. I do like the comfort/ergonomics of Makita, Milwaukee, and Porter Cable.
 
I use 18 volt Dewalt every day and will buy nothing else. I have just about every 18volt tool they offer and they have all worked great. I just had 3 hammer drills that were worn out/ abused, completely rebuilt for $100 each at the dewalt service center. They replaced everything but the transmission selector with new parts. One of the drills I took there was in a box. It had been dropped off a 10 ft ladder.
 
DeWalt for me as well. I've got a full set of 18V Li-Ion cordless tools, and use them pretty often. I've found that I needed a smaller drill for doing installs in vehicles lately, so I went with one of DeWalt's new 12V drills and it does really well! Everything I've thrown at it so far.
 
I just bought a huge "kit" of 18V Dewalt tools for Habitat a few months ago, Lowes donated a big gift card to our chapter so I had to buy there. I hate them, they suck. There's no light on the circular saw. The light on the impact driver is terrible, and they still haven't learned from Makita to put a timer on the light so it stays on for 10 seconds or so after you release the trigger. You also can't get the light to come on without spinning the chuck. Very annoying. The hammer drill is so heavy I can't get any of the volunteers to use it, they eventually put it down and go get a corded drill.

I'll keep my 5 year old Makita LXT stuff, thanks. I use the hell out of the impact driver, it's still one of my favorite tools. I have to keep it on my belt when I'm on the Habitat site or people will "borrow" it.
 
I bought a Hitachi 18V lithium ion drill / impact driver combo set on Amazon for about $200 on sale. I'm a prefessional woodworker and use them all the time. I also have three 14.4 Hitachi nicads which work great (bought on clearance at Lowes for $99 several years ago).

I pretty much ignore any DeWalt offerings because their batteries (nicad) always had short lives. I have three DeWalts with no good batteries but it isn't worth getting new ones since you can buy a whole kit with drill for the same price. I do like the comfort/ergonomics of Makita, Milwaukee, and Porter Cable.

I've been a Dewalt fan ever since Black & Decker came out with the professional line. That's where Dewalt came from. I've always been impressed with the quality. I have to say though I bought the 18v Hitachi drill this last time. Was less expensive had a better warranty and was a hands down a better drill than anything I've used. The charger is really nice. If you can get over the looks I'd seriously take a look at it.
 
I picked up a Hitachi 18v from Costco for $120. Put up 400' cedar fencing over a week with no problems and the battery gave me plenty of work time and grunt. I usually stick with Milwaukee & Bosch, but am very impressed with this drill. Plus, can't beat Costco return policy!
 
I've been looking on eBay.au and eBay US , all the brands seem to be a fair bit cheaper from US but half the sellers only post around the states, and buying drills etc from tool shops here are about $200 more than from eBay.au only prob with ones from US is the charger needs some mods to suit our plug and 240v
I'm still yet to use makitas which seem to be fairly popular amoungst you guys , I've been using hitachi and dewalt drills/hammer this week and find the bats to last longer on hitachi and seem to have a bit more grunt.
 
A coworker is prepping for a move to NZ now (he's actually down in Christchurch right now), he's buying tools furiously as they are insanely expensive down there. He went with the Makita LXT series because the charger works on both 120V and 240V.
 
Hitachi it's a top notch brand in cordless tools .. I'm dewalt fan .. just coz you can get more parts, batts with easy in the web ..
 
Anyone have experience with Rigid cordless tools? I absolutely love my Rigid angle grinder and would like to stay with them if their cordless tools are just as good.
 

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