Brushed or Brushless?

[Burdekin]

Going to get an Erbauer battery drill, have the impact driver and am happy. What’s the real difference between brushed and brushless when using the drill? Worth getting brushless for DIY and if so why? Will get one of the Erbauer ones: https://www.screwfix.com/c/tools/co...rvoltagesupply=18_v&price_from=0&price_to=100

 

[tlovatt]

Brushless motors are a bit more efficient and you do not have any rubbing contact parts to wear out.

Depending upon how often you use it and keep it for, in a DIY setting the lifespan of the brushes / com is likely to be of little consequence.

The brush-less machine has a higher max torque and is a bit shorter (15mm) both of which could potentially be handy on occasions. Given the relatively minor difference in torque personally I would either save the money and go for the brushed one, or if you this you will need a more powerful drill, spend a bit more on one with higher torque.

 

[Burdekin]

Thanks. Went for the brushed option, should do me. I’ll probably lose it or drop it off a roof or something anyhow before it wears out. I have corded drills if I need some proper grunt I suppose.

 

[MattF]

Thanks. Went for the brushed option, should do me. I’ll probably lose it or drop it off a roof or something anyhow before it wears out. I have corded drills if I need some proper grunt I suppose.

Can't say as I ever noted much real world difference between brushed and brushless, when fitting. I had mainly brushed, and other lad had mainly brushless, and battery longevity, performance etc. never seemed worlds apart. Both did the job, batteries needed charging just as frequently, and if you came across something well stuck in, either type of driver would usually fail to sort it & you'd resort to a drill. More difference would be noted between, say, the cheaper drill & the more expensive model. Both my Makita drills are brushed, (I bought a basic model mainly for countersinking etc., save swapping out bits constantly), and there you could note some performance difference between it and its more expensive sibling, if you used it for certain tasks.

 

[tlovatt]

I have (amongst my collection of 8 cordless drills ) Makita brushed (2 G series and 2 LXT) and brushless (2 LXT), a Metabo and an AEG, out of the lot, the G series Metabo are the cheapest, have the lowest torque rating and smallest battery. Which ones are my go to drills - The G series Makita, they are nice and light,and just feel right, well sized comfortable handle, good balance etc! next choice are the brushed Makita LXT (they have 3ah batteries as opposed to the 1.3ah on the G-series), they are comfortable but heavier and not as well balanced.

The brushless one (which is more powerful with 50% more torque) only gets used when I need the power and is better than getting a cordless out. Although the thing I find I need power for is driving in large screws and the impact drivers do a far better job, faster, much more powerful, and a lot less force applied to the hand (shame about the noise)

 

[hunter27]

For what it's worth I find when my Makita 18v battery runs out on the brushed drill and I put it in the brushless drill it will carry on drilling for a few minutes longer.

 

[brightspark]

when you overload any drill notice how the armature burns out first not the field coils that sums it up . brushless can take more stick and less parts to wear out

 

[Kayos]

All my gear is Makita LXT brushless. It’s a bit lighter than my old stuff

Always have 2 batteries in the charger so don’t really notice how long they last

 

[tlovatt]

For what it's worth I find when my Makita 18v battery runs out on the brushed drill and I put it in the brushless drill it will carry on drilling for a few minutes longer.

You should be wary of doing this, you do not want to run the batteries too flat and by the time the undervoltage protection kicks in you have already discharged them more than is ideal, as soon as the drill performance starts to drop off stop using the battery and put it on charge to avoid shortening its life

 

[Richard.]

There are advantages to brushless tools but they really only come to light when you start using them from a professional point of view.
The extra torque is actually something I’ve not personally found to be that much of an advantage because brushed tools are plenty powerful enough when we are talking about drills, saws, grinders, it’s only when we go into things like nut runners and drivers the torque of a brushless tool starts to play apart.
For me the brushless tools main advantage is it’s weight and it’s efficency on the battery. 2 really awesome things but neither of which will be massive advantages if your only using the tool at home on projects so I say you made a good choice to save some money and go brushed

 

[tlovatt]

when you overload any drill notice how the armature burns out first not the field coils that sums it up . brushless can take more stick and less parts to wear out

I would be surprised if you ever manage to burn out the field coils on any brushed cordless drill. Cordless drills use permanent magnet motors, for brushed variants the stator has the magnets and the armature windings are engergised through the com. In a brushless motor, the armature has the magnets and the stator has a series of windings and a controller to energise them in sequence.

 

[Richard.]

You should be wary of doing this, you do not want to run the batteries too flat and by the time the undervoltage protection kicks in you have already discharged them more than is ideal, as soon as the drill performance starts to drop off stop using the battery and put it on charge to avoid shortening its life

It’s a good point and it’s something I always did too. Nowadays the smart batteries have this sorted. Mine simply shut down when it’s time to charge and simply won’t fire the tool up again. Same with the charger, it was always a bad thing to leave them on charge for hours or days but now the smart chargers recognise when a battery is charged, hot or knackered and simply shuts down the charge. It’s quite difficult to wreck a battery nowadays with the clever tech in them and the chargers.

 

[wristpin]

Several moons ago I asked what a digital motor was - as In Dyson's ads. No one had a definitive answer and the general consensus was that it is a bit of marketing hype. Now I see that Bosch are using the term in the ads for their new stick vacuum. Could they just be brushless motors?

 

[lshigham]

Several moons ago I asked what a digital motor was - as In Dyson's ads. No one had a definitive answer and the general consensus was that it is a bit of marketing hype. Now I see that Bosch are using the term in the ads for their new stick vacuum. Could they just be brushless motors?

That's my understanding, yes

 

[tlovatt]

Several moons ago I asked what a digital motor was - as In Dyson's ads. No one had a definitive answer and the general consensus was that it is a bit of marketing hype. Now I see that Bosch are using the term in the ads for their new stick vacuum. Could they just be brush-less motors?

The Dyson motor is indeed a permanent magnet rotor with electronic circuitry switching the coils in the stator on and off to drive the rotor around (i.e. brush-less). Where the Dyson design is unusual is that it is very high speed 2 pole with a narrow rotor. For this design they have had to make the poles asymmetric so they can regulate the starting direction of the shaft.

 

[brightspark]

no comparison old and new what would you rather use dewalt lighter . smaller and more powerfull

 

[Richard.]

no comparison old and new what would you rather use dewalt lighter . smaller and more powerfull

Yeah, goes without saying really. It’s half the tool with twice the grunt.
Lithium batteries are the only way to go now as well. I wouldn’t go ni cad again now.
I bet those big red ni cad lumps are lower power than the compacts on the XR.

 

[angellonewolf]

dont even know what got in my 4 cordless drills but all do good and do get a hammering not every day but often

 

[rtbcomp]

I've just treated myself to a De Walt DCD776 18v. It replaces a Skil corded hammer drill, a Wickes 12v Cd drill and a Stanley Bridges corded (with 1/4" chuck). The De Walt comes with 2 batteries and an intelligent charger that will charge 10.8, 14.4 and 18 volt batteries. The only gripe I have is that you have to really tighten the chuck because if the drill bit jams it mangles the shank. I use it on torque setting 15 for drilling to try to reduce the chances of that happening.

There's a couple of yellow tabs on the case which hinge up, I haven't a clue what they're for

https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dcd776d2t-gb-18v-2-0ah-li-ion-xr-cordless-combi-drill/899cf

Ordered Sunday, was here Monday morning.

 

[Robotstar5]

I've just treated myself to a De Walt DCD776 18v. It replaces a Skil corded hammer drill, a Wickes 12v Cd drill and a Stanley Bridges corded (with 1/4" chuck). The De Walt comes with 2 batteries and an intelligent charger that will charge 10.8, 14.4 and 18 volt batteries. The only gripe I have is that you have to really tighten the chuck because if the drill bit jams it mangles the shank. I use it on torque setting 15 for drilling to try to reduce the chances of that happening.

There's a couple of yellow tabs on the case which hinge up, I haven't a clue what they're for

https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dcd776d2t-gb-18v-2-0ah-li-ion-xr-cordless-combi-drill/899cf

Ordered Sunday, was here Monday morning.

Probably a stacking system so it "docks" with similar cases?