Replacement cordless drill

[excossack]

My current drill Challange Extreme has packed up. :-(
So time to replace with something decent. I am looking at a budget of around £150.
Ideally I would like
2.5+ ah battery
Storage case
Additional battery (or at least the option)
some decent power for drilling into metal, wood & masonary

I have seen
AEG - Who?
Milwakue - again who?
Makita
Dwaltz (maybe a bit out of my league)
A mate has some Site+ drills and says they are good
Hitachi
Ryobi

Ideas people?

 

[kingkenny]

anything makita,good, reliable,parts easily located.

 

[gordon stephenson]

Surprisingly I rate the screwfix Erbauer 18v very highly, I even out performs my 18v DeWalt for power and battery life,Nice well made piece of kit that gets very good reports, you can buy it with Ni-cad or Li-on depending on buget,Mine is the Ni-cad and battery life is great.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-ere185com-18v-1-7ah-ni-cd-cordless-combi-drill/88921

 

[pedrobedro]

18v ? I have a Makita which is good but I am only a diy user. A friend of mine who is a builder had a couple of Makitas pack up within warranty a few years ago and has now invested in Metabos which have been much more robust. I read somewhere that Site are a budget range made by Makita. If you don't need so much capacity then 14.4v are a good price.

 

[ford34/2]

After the makitas I went to Dewalt, then on to AEG you will find the milwaukee tools are the same drills, the 18 volt as with all 18 volt stuff are quite heavy, I currently using AEG 18 and 14.4 as my every day drills, its so sad when new batteries cost more than a drill charger batteries and case. I refilled the dewalts with new cells for a fraction of new batteries and they stay at home now for domestic use, started off with the 9.6 makitas probably 20 ish year ago and still use them but some of the cells have been replaced, good budget and screwfix do some great deals, but sadly I have never heard of some of the manufacturers,If it were me I think I would be sticking with a name I know or be prepared to maybe replace in another 3/5 years - depends on batteries, I have 3 each of the AEG and a torch and extra charger for each voltage, sadly the 14.4 doesnt fit the 18. unlike the Makitas

Stan

 

[madkayaker]

Site + is MAkita under a different brand. for £150 you should have little worry finding a drill. My local Whicks has 18V makita in for £99 (on clearance). one thing to consider is for occasional use NICAD and NIHM will go flat between use where as LION should keep it charge better but expect to pay a little more. I recently got a 18V bosch hammer drill (the compact size one) that came with 2 1.5AH LION and had a voucher to send of for a 3AH one as well. that was £160 from CPC. so look out for offers

 

[ford34/2]

forgot,---- as Xmas is on its way-- offers -offers who knows what will be available before and after Xmas.

Stan

 

[mike os]

I have tried most, as samples, purchaced or borrowed of other tradesman.. and most of my kit is makita.

as I find it a good balance between cost, reliability, value and performance. Also repairs are cheap and available.... unlike some brands I can mention where even approved repair centers cant get parts ... avoid yellow is the advice from my local repair center ( a place where I go & say I want a new xxxxx to do this, what should I buy)

If it is occasional use & left for weeks without use, the Liion batteries are the best choice despite the additional cost as they "survive" better on occasional charges or being left flat... additionally with 15-20 min charging they are good enough to make one battery do for casual use.

 

[Shox Dr]

After owning makita's for the last 25yrs I wouldn't buy their stuff again the last 18v drill I bought (£350) has been through 4 batteries at 129quid a pop.

I wouldn't have Dewalt given, every tool shop and builders merchants started to stock them a few yrs ago, soon stopped once they started coming back. Now no one stocks them.



I did some work for a local Stainless Steel fab shop, and they used Ryobi One stuff and I was well impressed with it, for purchase cost, and cost of ownership. Batteries hold there charge and last a longtime while in use.


The rest are Ok to bloody good, but with the cost of Ryobi it's a no brainer

 

[Hitch]

Hitachi for me.
I have an 18v NiMh battery drill, wasnt cheap, cost me £230 from ebay, list was almost £500 iirc.
3 Batteries, all 3.3ah, fan cooled charger... All 3 still about as good as the day it came out the box. Its about 4 years old now. It thinks nothing of a 2" forstner bit, or a 13mm twist drill through steel.

Its been superseeded by a LiIon version, which i have used, but not owned so cant comment on its lifespan.

Second to that, the Hitachi imapct driver I bought about 7 years ago, with Nicads, still works fine. Batteries still hold charge over a couple of weeks without being used.

Neither of them get used every day, but when i do, they are being used hard.

The Ryobi stuff i had, i wasnt that impressed with, 18 months or light use and the batteries barely took a charge.

Dewalt, i have a 12v dewalt drill/driver. every time i go to use that the batteries are flat.
Dont hold a charge more than a few days.

 

[Delgado]

I've got an 18v Dewalt (8 years old), an 18v Makita (4 years old) and an 18v AEG that I bought recently to use at home. Although the batteries arn't what they used to be, the Dewalt is by far the best of the 3, the AEG and the Makita are about the same, perhaps the AEG is slightly better, but that might just be because it's a bit newer. That being said, I've got other Makita tools and I'm more than happy with them.

 

[Silver Surfer]

My 2p worth

Ryobi 18v cordless drilll and circular saw - killed them in two months site work
Dewalt - only borrowed but not impressed
Milwalkee - way way too heavy
Metabo - got a full set for site work had loads of issues with batteries and the quality was not what I expected - never again
Blue Bosch - very good but never owned (will try next after my Makitas die)
Makita - lasted longest of the lot but newer ones have had problems with weak gearboxes. old 9.6v NiMH stick drills were and still are indestructable.

Summary

Heavy use - none of them survive or maybe thats just me

I have found that 14.4v drill / drivers (not combis) are best all round with Irwin Cordless bits for masonary. They are not too heavy and as they don't do hammer the batteries last longer.

L-Ion batteries every time

Currently use 10.6v Makita's (two pack set with 2off batteries ~ £140) not the best but great for what I do now (will drive 4" screws no problem) only drawback is a 10mm chuck and not really suitable for heavy drilling (use a cordless 18v Black & Decker as its the only thin I have left alive from my site days)

 

[CTB]

Milwaukee 20 years ago used to be the tool of choice for professionals in the States and Canada.
They were never the most powerful, but still had enough grunt to do the job and were ergonomically good to use even wearing gloves. But the best thing about the Milwaukees was simply that they were so well made (read tough) that they would last far longer than any equivalent power tool used under demanding conditions.

I still own a Milwaukee circular saw, 25 or so years old and still going strong on a 240 to 110 transformer, and a Milwaukee 12v cordless drill, the first model they made, that even today with a replacement battery from 13 years ago will keep its charge for more than a week unused, and will still drive more long screws than my bosch14v. on a full charge.

The sad thing is that now Milwaukee tools, like nearly every other quality tool nowadays, are made in China. So I would imagine that the quality has suffered also.

 

[TechnicAl]

gotta be Bosch Blue

get on ebay there are usually some good deals

 

[pete23]

bosh blue for meself aswell, just got a new one, last one died after about 8yrs use.

was used most work days of that 8yrs

 

[Lewis Medlock]

Screwfix are doing Makita 18v with one 3ah Li-ion battery for £150.

Lithium ion's the way ahead I reckon.

Jim

 

[Rick]

Certainly something Li ion.

I got a cheap Hitatachi because it was Li ion with 2 batteries for £100. It broke within about 10 minutes. Dewalts and Makita's are still going strong.

 

[Ragnarok]

I've been using a tiny bosch blue 10.8v to build my new workshop, it's a kit building 30ft-50ft and so far i've done about 4500 bolts up with it, the drill has been excellent

 

[Hitch]

As with all brands, you get the DIY end of the range, up to the full on heavy duty ones. You get what you pay for. with a lot of thing i think.

 

[brightspark]

As with all brands, you get the DIY end of the range, up to the full on heavy duty ones. You get what you pay for. with a lot of thing i think.

an old proverb . u cant have a rolls royce for the price of a mini