Electric vs Lithium ion drills

[Loren Woirhaye]

The batteries catching fire or exploding really isn't a concern I think. They will just shut down and not work anymore. You absolutely should not open a pack to attempt to reboot or repair a Li-on battery.

[Rick Potter]

Get out of the 90's Gramps,

Take it from another senior....get a 12 V set. I have Milwaukee M12's, and love them. If I were buying today, I would look at the DeWalts also, the newest crop have brushless motors, and are even smaller and lighter.

Be sure to check out the capacity of the one you decide on. Milwaukee M12 for example takes four different capacity batteries.

Rick Potter

[george newbury]

My son had me buy into the DeWalt 20 "max" set. I'm impressed with the drills and lifespan of a charge. I'm also impressed with the cost. I was wanting to get the jigsaw. But couldn't bring my self to spending the $160, instead bought a $30 Ryobi.

[Bryan Cramer]

I just saw an ad for a Porter Cable corded impact driver. Is this tool even practical? Here it is. I will say that I use my corded drill for pocket screws most of the time. If I need to do any continuous work like free hand drum sanding I will use a corded drill. I have a rule of thumb of always keeping a corded drill around at all times as a backup and to save some wear on my batteries for continuous use.

[Terry Therneau]

The lithium are great -- until it gets cold. A building project got a bit late this fall at my place, temps down in the low 30s, and the carpenters on the site didn't even bother to take cordless tools out of the truck. I went to saw one 2x4 with my Makita reciprocating and a fully charged battery, and it didn't make it half way through.
In the shop though, my 1/2" D-handle slow speed Milwaukee gets pulled out once in a great while for a big hole saw, and the tight quarters drill a little bit more often, but by and large they corded drills rest in peace in their cases.

[fred klotz]

Performance wise, I believe the cordless can do most of what a corded drill can. I've used drills professionally for about 40 years, and currently have a fair number of both corded and cordless, all in quality brand names. I service my own tools, so have seen the insides of most of them at some point.

Longevity is where a quality corded tool will win out over a quality cordless tool. Take a corded and a cordless that you feel are at the same performance level. Remove the battery from the cordless. Notice how much lighter it is. Look inside the two tools and you'll see drastically different innards.

Cordless tools usually become obsolete due to battery technology before wearing out. Corded tools can last for generations. I have some that are probably almost as old as I am. Oldest cordless goes back maybe 20 yrs (9.6v Bosch) still working, but had much lighter use than any corded drill I have.

If the weight and cord aren't a real draw back, I use the corded. For work at the bench, in awkward places, and light duty away from the shop and power line, the cordless rules.

For my purposes, if I could only have one power drill, it would be corded, backed up by the original cordless, a hand brace.( which I also have several of)

[Don Morris]

OK, OK, I'm sold, will have to watch for President Day sales. Thanks for the input people. Just hadn't been keeping up with the times.

[Sam Whit]

I use corded only. Can't remember a time I have regretted it. I do remember when I got rid of my dewalt cordless because 2 new batteries cost almost as much as the new drill.

[Earl Rumans]

Don, Home Depot has the full line of Milwaukee drills, you should drop by and check them out. Just make sure it's the new Fuel series you are looking at.

[Rich Enders]

Don,

In addition to the issue with lack of cold performance mentioned by Terry, we all need to keep in mind that these batteries contain a flammable electrolyte which is pressurized. Overheating, accidental shorting, and damage has lead to ignition. I have no direct experience, but on reading up on the current state of the technology it makes one think twice.

We have all heard of the 787, Tesla, and Prius battery fires. This is not a problem for power tools because they have internal shut-down circuitry to minimize the chance of a fire. However spare lithium ion batteries are not similarly protected, and because of this are not allowed in the passenger compartment of a commercial aircraft, and will not be shipped by the post office overseas for example to our military.

With proper caution this is probably not a big concern, but they cannot just be taken for granted.

[John Coloccia]

I wish someone would make a corded drill that:

1) balanced like cordless
2) had torque/gear feature like a cordless
3) had a brake like a cordless
4) had a great trigger

I would still have a cordless in my shop, but I would use the corded much more. In fact, I would probably plug it into one of my elevated outlets, and hang it from the ceiling, ready at a moment's notice. As it is, cordless drills have almost every advantage over corded drills for general shop use, and it irritates me to no end that I have to keep on charging/replacing batteries to keep them going.

re: Li-ion fires
It's a real danger, but it's overblown. Chargers are very conservative. The circuitry in the battery itself is very conservative. The cases are built very tough so accidental damage is pretty rare. Don't drive a punch through the case. If you smell something like bubble gum coming from the battery pack, maybe it's leaking. Other than that, Li-ion, LIPO, etc are generally pretty safe in consumer gear.

Hobbyists using these packs get themselves in trouble because we use them a lot more aggressively, and in much harsher conditions, plus a lot of setups are home grown and the workmanship is...uhm...well, let's just say if someone asked me, I would tactfully suggest that they take a soldering and electronics class with me before butchering any more of that poor equipment that never did anything to deserve that kind of treatment.

[mreza Salav]

I have many cordless ones (from little 10.8v Makita to fully hammer drill 18V ones) but for my recent job of drilling 1/2" dowels I got tired of draining my corldless ones (I would drain the battery faster than the other one would charge). So went out and bought a new corded drill (Milwaukee). I think each one has its use and none replaces the other completely.

[Eric Schubert]

Another vote to check out the Milwaukee cordless tools. I'd always used cheaper cordless tools and finally shelled out for the Milwaukee M18 drill/driver combo kit. HOLY MOLY, what a difference a good tool makes! The batteries are powerful and last much longer than my old drill. The M18 FUEL is even better, but the standard M18's work wonderfully for me.

[Tai Fu]

However low quality manufacturing has led to some cell phones/laptops exploding. It's not necessarily overcharging (chargers have built in circuitry to prevent that) but internal shorts, damages (drive a knife through them for example) can and does lead to fires or even a nice loud bang. Li Poly batteries are supposedly less aggressive when it comes to explosion but it can still burst into flame when punctured. Other batteries simply leak if overcharged/damaged.

So don't cheap out on batteries...

[John Hays]

I use corded only. Can't remember a time I have regretted it. I do remember when I got rid of my dewalt cordless because 2 new batteries cost almost as much as the new drill.

This ^

Call me old school, but I don't need the headache of babysitting a battery in my shop. When I want a drill to work, I plug it in. I would even go as far to say that costwise a corded drill gives you a better bang for the buck, simply because you don't have to buy a new power source every year or two. In fact, I've had the same 2 Black & Decker drills for nearly 20 years and only one of them is just now starting to wear out.

Now if I were always working away from my shop, then yes, cordless is the way to go... but that's not the case for me.