Cordless Drill/Drivers...what's hot?

[John Coloccia]

Time for the weekly cordless drill and impact driver thread. What's hot these days? I'm generally happy with my Makita (BDF452 and matching impact driver), but one of the batteries is completely dead, and I can't imagine spending $70 each on new batteries....seems crazy when the entire kit was about $200 new. Anyhow, the drill chuck always had a bit of runout anyway, and so many people have had battery issues over the years, I'm thinking it's time to cut my losses.

I'm checking out some Milwaukee stuff. What do we think? Any other suggestions or comments? I don't want my drills to turn into disposable products, like everything else these days.

[michael langman]

Hi John, I have a 12 V Makita drill that I bought reconditioned from CPO and I had a weak battery from the start 3-4 years ago.
Now that both batteries, 2.6 Ah, are bad, I am going to cut them open with my little air grinder and cut off wheel and replace the bad cells inside.
Can,t get much cheaper then that if you have the time and patience to do it.

[John Coloccia]

As I understand it, part of the problem is once the Makita pack is detected as bad, there's circuitry in there that kills the pack and prevents it from working again. I'm not sure these new Lithium ion packs are repairable...not the Makita ones, anyhow, and that's part of why I want the Makita's gone. It was a great little kit for the price, but between a mediocre chuck, questionable battery life (mine did OK but a lot of others have had horrible complaints) and things like that, it's time to retire it for a more grownup kit.

My old Porter-Cable lasted forever. My Hitachi lasted forever (still going, actually). What's out there that's going to give me some good life and is maintainable. I'm not into Festool, BTW. Their drills are about the only thing I can't stand from them.

[Bill Richardson]

I've been running the 12 volt Milwaukees hard for over a year now with no complaints.

[John Lanciani]

Brushless motors are the big thing. More torque and longer run times per charge.

[Mike Henderson]

I've been using DeWalt, mostly 12V for small drill and driver, and have been happy with them. I also have DeWalt 20V tools and those have been working fine, also. I hear good things about Milwaukee tools but no experience with them.

The thing I like about the DeWalt 12V tools is that they're light while still having sufficient power. Previously I had the DeWalt 18V tools and the weight of those was starting to get to me. The DeWalt 20V tools are lighter than the 18V tools but the 12V are even better.

Mike

[Tim Cooper Louisiana]

Milwaukee 18v FUEL 1/4 Brushless Impact Driver #2653-20. I love this thing. It is perfect. I went the Makita route and had an issue with all of the batteries. Switched over to Milwaukee for my cordless tools, and I've been very satisfied. I've had a good assortment of their tools, for a little over two years, and I've never had a battery fail. I bought a milwaukee chuck adapter for my impact driver, and now I never reach for my drill/driver or hammer drill.

It has the electronic gears, and they work well. In the past I kept a little 12v drill/driver for lighter duty stuff. I should sell it.

I promise that I don't work for Milwaukee :P. If you do go the Milwaukee route, I'd also check out the 1 handed reciprocating saw. It's pretty handy.

[Andrew Hughes]

I like my Panasonic cordless, Its been a good user for about 8or 9 years battery's have been redone once by MTo battery's.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Time for the weekly cordless drill and impact driver thread. What's hot these days? I'm generally happy with my Makita (BDF452 and matching impact driver), but one of the batteries is completely dead, and I can't imagine spending $70 each on new batteries....seems crazy when the entire kit was about $200 new. Anyhow, the drill chuck always had a bit of runout anyway, and so many people have had battery issues over the years, I'm thinking it's time to cut my losses.

I'm checking out some Milwaukee stuff. What do we think? Any other suggestions or comments? I don't want my drills to turn into disposable products, like everything else these days.

John - I have the black driver, a bigger 1/2" green driver, and the green impact. I got 2 of the small batteries, and 3 of the large ones. One of the small batteries is dead and gone, but the big ones are still fine. Maybe it is the small batteries that are the weak link?

I remember talking with you about your thoughts right after you bought your Makita stuff, and the influenced my decision. SO - [a] my stuff is the same age as yours, and [b] if it fails - that's on you.

[Rich Riddle]

My current favorites are the brushless Makita models. Backup are the Bosch lines.

[Erik Loza]

Funny: I just went through this about 3 weeks ago with my old 14.4V DeWalt gun. Bought the 20V DeWalt brushless "max" version at HD and been really impressed with it so far. Lighweight, battery life is good, chuck is much nicer than the old one. But I would have kept the old 14.4V one if I could have found batteries at a reasonable price.

Erik

[Kent A Bathurst]

But I would have kept the old 14.4V one if I could have found batteries at a reasonable price.

Erik

You summed the game in a nutshell, Erik.

The manufacturers move on, the old gear in their rearview. The consumer is boxed in, in terms of discarding the main gear, in favor of new gear that is supported.

Oh - wait......are we talking about cordless drills/drivers, or PCs?

[mreza Salav]

I have had a pair of Makita and won't buy again. I've had Ridgid and the life-time-service (or whatever it is) is good for batteries. So far the price of the new batteries I've got has paid for them already. I've a pair of Milwaukee as well and so far have been happy with them.

[John Coloccia]

John - I have the black driver, a bigger 1/2" green driver, and the green impact. I got 2 of the small batteries, and 3 of the large ones. One of the small batteries is dead and gone, but the big ones are still fine. Maybe it is the small batteries that are the weak link?

I remember talking with you about your thoughts right after you bought your Makita stuff, and the influenced my decision. SO - [a] my stuff is the same age as yours, and [b] if it fails - that's on you.

Really, I don't regret it. I definitely got my money's worth out of them, no question, and I still have one battery that's working OK. The ones I have are absolutely perfectly sized for shop use. I think Milwaukee makes similarly sized ones too now, though their batteries are no better in the pricing department. I think it will generally be a little higher quality, though, so it's OK. I'll probably hang on to these and see if any of the aftermarket, no-name batteries work OK. They're only $35 each, so I don't mind trying one out just to see. You may be right about the small batteries being the weak link, but I have to say that I didn't really do anything particularly special to take care of them, and I got quite a good bit of use out of them. I'm more concerned about buying new batteries because SO many people have complained about them. I'm worried I'll get a dud and end up just throwing away $70. If it wasn't for their terrible reputation, I'd even consider just buying another battery, but it's too risky when I can just jump ship for just a bit more $$$.

[Chris Padilla]

There are outfits that will refurbish your dead batteries with fresh cells a la Mr. Langman. Some cells are easier to open than others. I had some outfit from PA (name escapes me and I can't locate 'em online right now) refresh my Festool batteries. They are often cheaper than new batteries and can further often upgrade the cells with longer life batteries so you can go longer between charges. Some can upgrade from NiCd to LiNi to give even better performance.