New Drill Required

[cymaz]

My dear old Lucas drill has just died an honorable death.

 

Any recommendations?

I'm thinking of a Dewalt cordless.....any good, it’s been 20years since I’ve bought one !!

 

[Don Fry]

I like the stuff from Aldi or Lidl.

 

Not good as DeWalt. But as good as Bosch when you pull the trigger. At a fraction of the price of Bosch. And I’ve hammered the cheap Lidl/Aldi tools. And at one store,  or the other, a drill is available every month..

[cymaz]

Cheers, I’ll have a rummage about when I’m next in there?

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Does anyone else hate the keyless chucks on modern drills which in my experience are almost impossible to tighten properly?  The odd thing is that I have a keyless chuck for my lathe's tailstock which works very well so I don't think the passing years have taken their toll of my grip too much...

[i12fly]

I've got a Lidl lithium drill/driver. It works really well/ powerful/ lights up the work/ good keyless chuck but the chuck is just slightly out -with a drill fitted and extending out about 3 inches, there is an out of true wobble at the tip of about 2mm. Fine for general use but not for precision work. However using drill bits over 5mm the chuck is ok, no tip wobble. Guess the chuck innards are slightly out of true somewhere.

[J D 8]

Dewalt and Black and decker are much the same these days as Dewalt took B and D . You pay more for the Dewalt name.

Modern cordless drills have a torque limiter, when tightening the key less chuck turn the torque setting up to highest or next highest setting but not the final lock position, hold chuck firm in hand and pull trigger for a couple of seconds and let the limiter rat tat tat the chuck tight on drill bit.

Edited July 24, 2021 by J D 8
correction

[cymaz]

Thanks JD8, good to know.

[Nigel R]

I have  number of Makita cordless tools. 

 

Keyless chuck works. Durable. Well made. no issues with accuracy etc.

 

[Geoff Copping]

I've had this DeWalt drill for a few years now and it's a great bit of kit, assuming they haven't changed the build.

Along with the multi-bit kit they do it's still going strong.

No doubt there's cheaper ones out there but, in answer to your original question, yes, they are worth buying.

[leccyflyer]

11 hours ago, Don Fry said:

I like the stuff from Aldi or Lidl.

 

Not good as DeWalt. But as good as Bosch when you pull the trigger. At a fraction of the price of Bosch. And I’ve hammered the cheap Lidl/Aldi tools. And at one store,  or the other, a drill is available every month..

Agreed. As a long time Bosch drill user my little cordless Lithium Parkside drill from Lidl is used more than any of my several drills, for all but the heaviest duty jobs. I think the Parkside power tools are excellent value for money, especially for occasional home use. A professional tradesman will want something more robust and possibly with more features, but for home use they are great.

[cymaz]

Thanks JD8, good to know.

Thanks for all the feedback.

I’ll let you know what my final choice is soon.....exciting isn’t it ! 

[BackinBlack]

I bought this particular XR Brushless DeWalt drill kit with 4.0Ah batteries and charger about 5-6 years ago, to replace a trusted 15-20 year old Makita NiCd powered drill. It has proved itself a reliable, robust, powerful tool, well suited to professional and, in my case, enthusiastic amateur use. In my experience cheaper tools usually prove false economy in the long run. Their quality can be rather hit and miss and long term product support non existent. Quite often their lack of precision and robustness becomes frustrating and makes it difficult to achieve a satisfactory level of workmanship. Just my opinion you understand.

[Piers Bowlan]

13 hours ago, Don Fry said:

I like the stuff from Aldi or Lidl.

 

Not good as DeWalt. But as good as Bosch when you pull the trigger. At a fraction of the price of Bosch. And I’ve hammered the cheap Lidl/Aldi tools. And at one store,  or the other, a drill is available every month..

Depends what Bosch drill you are comparing with. Bosch produce the 'DIYer range' which are green and the professional 'blue' range;- brushless motors, metal gearbox, 2-speed variable etc. Then there is the battery size to consider, some drills have 1.5Ah lithiums some Bosch models have 4.0Ah. Bosch also use Sanyo cells, and I somewhat doubt the Parkside products will, which will probably have a bearing on the battery/product life. 

At the end of the day, as always, it depends on your budget, what you are going to drill and how much you will use it. 

The Dewalt product featured in the OP looks excellent although I note it is supplied with 2 X 2AH lithium batteries although Dewalt drills are available with bigger batteries too, at a higher price of course. The question is, what size batteries do you need - bigger batteries may give you more torque and be under less stress so may last longer? 

As Nigel says Makita tools are top quality and seem to be the 'go-to' tools of many tradesmen.

[John Lee]

+1 for the DeWalt brushless XR drill, and their Multitool which uses the same battery

[Andy Stephenson]

Makita drills use A123 LiFe batteries which last years, hold a charge amazingly well and have all the features you'd expect, expensive but good.

[John Tee]

I had a Makita supplied at work which I thought was pretty good for the use I wanted. Have had several De Walt and the differnce is amazing wouldn't go back anything less now. Well worth the extra. A bit ott for modelling though.

Problem with most cordless drills now is the price seems reasonable until you read that the baterries are extra and expensive.

John

[Graham R]

Recently bought the De Walt Combo to replace my old AEG died. Both drill and driver come with 2000 batteries. Drill  is not too heavy Very pleased so far.

[cymaz]

I just bought the DeWalt at Screwfix..£30 off now £119.99

 

2 batteries and 3 yr warranty if you register online

 

[Steve Goodwin]

I have the same drill, never let me down. I would however invest in the larger batteries, I have a 5ah battery and it make the unit much more powerful. Dewalt maybe another incarnation of B&D but the quality is very good.

I have the Multitool also, with interchangeable batteries it’s superb.

[John Wagg]

I had one of the Lidl/Aldi battery drills (can't remember which?) and every time I came to use it the batteries had run down,

My Dewalt is excellent and the batteries hold their charge very well so always available.

[Engine Doctor]

14 hours ago, John Wagg said:

I had one of the Lidl/Aldi battery drills (can't remember which?) and every time I came to use it the batteries had run down,

My Dewalt is excellent and the batteries hold their charge very well so always available.

I have an Aldi drill . Excellent for the price. Batteries hold charge well and are same as my Aldi battery pressure washer , great little tool for light cleaning jobs. Use of drill varies but never had issues with the batteries holding charge but did notice that charge didn't last long for the first couple of charges but has now improved greatly. Might be something to do with a batch of batch of cells ? Mine is 2 or 3 years old now so don't know how long they last. Time will tell.

[Outrunner]

Same as the Doc, really impressed with my cheap Aldi drill, holds charge and as an amateur the battery pack is plenty big enough for home use. Keyless chuck holds drill tightly and came in a nice carry bag that I use for storage and carrying around. If I was a professional then I would invest in a brushless pro tool with spare batteries.

[kc]

The problem with cordless tools is when they are NOT used!   The cells always seem to deteriorate when not used.   Therefore it's better to have several tools that use the same powerpack.

[Don Fry]

My Lidl drill, small drill driver is on its last legs, lot of arcing from the commutator area. I think the cause is because it has a brake, and it gives an arc crack when you let go of the trigger abruptly. Wear starting on the chuck, with a hint of runout. The Li ion battery is good. 11 years old. Steady home and aircraft workshop use.