What battery drill?

[AudiSport]

Hi all, I need to get myself a battery drill for odd bits of DIY etc round the house. Putting up the odd shelf and drilling the occasional hole. Can anyone recommend me a low to mid range model?

[Toyowner]

Bosch or Dewalt.

[Ricky_M]

Makita.

I've had a 14.4v that I use in work most days, its nearly 5 years old and still going!

Think you just missed out on a deal in Screwfix. They had 18V Dewalts for £100 and 14.4V Makitas for £89.

[daveparry]

I used to buy expensive like Makita and Bosch bt when they break they break, you go out buy another But they are still expensive and usually only guaranteed for a year So I now buy cheap and cheerfull from B&Q 12 month warranty no hassle just take it back and get another one and cheap as chips!

[skilly1]

This is fantastic, was £90 in B&Q.

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detai...

[Gingerbread Man]

I've got a Makita I've bought for private jobs when away from the van. My piece of advice is to get a decent sized battery. We have Ryobi drills at work with 1.2 (?) amp hour batteries on them. They run out so quick.
My Makita has an 3 amp hour battery and goes on for ages. They are a more expensive battery though, and most manufactures do a small and large battery.

[wolf1]

skilly1 said:

This is fantastic, was £90 in B&Q.

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detai...

I wouldn't bother with that one as they are selling a pair of hitachi 14.4volt ones at B&Q for £79. Both a drills but one has a 13mm chuck and has hammer action and the other has a smaller chuck and in mainly a drill driver. They also have a similar pair of Ryobi ones a bit cheaper.

[Ganglandboss]

skilly1 said:

This is fantastic, was £90 in B&Q.

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detai...

Weedy battery, only a 10mm chuck and no hammer action. I wouldn't bother.

[mybrainhurts]

Word of warning...

Don't leave your charging battery unattended.

My Bosch battery started smoking and cracking and popping and banging and melting recently.

Very glad I didn't leave it on overnight...


PS...Makro have a Bosch 18v drill with two batteries for £39.95 + VAT on offer.

[engineer21]

similar advice as above really!

avoid low Amp Hr batterys 1.3Ah are cheaper for a reason they dont last very long (if only doing small jobs then fair enough) 2.0 - 3.0 Ah far better

also watch out as cheaper battery drills are slower turning, low torque and only a 10mm chuck! i can garentee at some point you will want to drill up to 13mm so spend a bit more now and it will be a great tool

Makita all the way!! if u get a decent one you can then buy bodys of other tools and the batterys will fit, like the 18v one i have angle grinder, rip saw, drill, screw gun, great tools cant fault them!!

[AudiSport]

How about this:
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detai...

or (never herd of the supplier before though!)
http://www.power-tools-pro.co.uk/makita-8391dwpe-1...

[engineer21]

Personally i wouldnt go for either
looks like with the Ryobi you only get one battery (unless i missed somthing) however my old mans firm sell the ryobis and ok some ppl here will say cheap rubbish but there feedback has been positive! price wise and they seem to last however i do have any.

the makita good make but 1.3ah batterys prob not up to it, will be ok when new but as deterioate over time etc

only my opinion its worth spending a bit more but depends what your gonna do.

Right idea with the Ryobi kit tho u can buy the body of an angle grinder etc, u dont think it will be handy (well i didnt) but i couldnt have ben more wrong!

[audi321]

Dewalt every day for me. 18v range comes with great batteries and if you don't want the new lithium ones, you can get a really good deal on the drills with the old batteries

[Shaolin]

Do you really need hammer action on a battery drill? It makes it heavier and more expensive and even the larger ones deliver a lot less power than a cheap corded. If you're not going to use it for drilling in masonry often I wouldn't bother.

If you're in no hurry to buy, keep a look-out for offers on the better quality makes, they come up at Screwfix and B&Q fairly regularly. I have 2 Makitas I got for about £110 in a screwfix offer, 12v, drill/driver + impact driver, light and powerful enough for anything but hammer drilling when I use my corded.

[Busa mav]

screwfix have a pair of drill / driver Hitachi's for £140 at the moment.

They have been great and come with a decent tool bag.

[Johnnytheboy]

I bought a Makita with L-Ion batteries after advice here and it's fantastic. Been using it at work since its last charge in March. After doing a few holes in masonry I thought I'd better charge it up, but it took about five minjutes indicating the battery had lost no charge in 3-4 months.

[krusty]

Screwfix have the 18V Dewalt at nearly half price at the moment

http://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dc100ka-gb-18v-1-...

[audi321]

krusty said:

Screwfix have the 18V Dewalt at nearly half price at the moment

http://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dc100ka-gb-18v-1-...

Thats a decent deal, but the one to go for is the XRP version. Much more torque, and the batteries, at 1.3ah are a bit low (although there are 2!). So maybe for light use, yes it is a good deal.

[Ganglandboss]

audi321 said:

krusty said:

Screwfix have the 18V Dewalt at nearly half price at the moment

http://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dc100ka-gb-18v-1-...

Thats a decent deal, but the one to go for is the XRP version. Much more torque, and the batteries, at 1.3ah are a bit low (although there are 2!). So maybe for light use, yes it is a good deal.

I've had a couple of XRPs and had no problems with either (other than some thieving p*key breaking into my car and nicking the first one). I have just had a look and they are a lot different. Mine has two 2.4Ah Ni-Cads plus a 2.0Ah Ni-Cad that was being thrown away at work (a couple of my colleagues would take the drill, use it for five minutes and put the battery on charge. I rescued it from the bin and gave it a few charge and discharge cycles and it holds a fairly decent charge). I have never had an occasion where two batteries have not been enough.

A lot of people slate DeWalt but I have never had a problem with the quality. The thing I particularly like is the balance of it. We used to have some professional quality Bosch drills at work. They were good drills but they were heavy towards the chuck, which causes fatigue in the wrist after a while. The DeWalt feels really comfortable if you are using it non-stop.

[Johnnytheboy]

It's worth pointing out that a large (50%?) part of the price is down to the battery, so only buy one with two batteries if you'll ever need two. If you're just doing odd jobs you probably won't.

So for the same budget, you'll get a much better drill with only one battery, potentially a much better battery that means you definitely wouldn't need two.

I bought my Makita for fairly intermittent but intensive work use (putting up hanging basket brackets etc.) and have yet to need the second battery I paid an extra £70 ish for.

Or equally, get a fairly weedy battery drill for screwing (snigger) etc. and a beefy mains drill for the heavy stuff, as they are much cheaper with the same power.