Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire DeWalt died...

My old cordless drill is almost kaput. Batteries only about half charge, chuck won't release last bit I put in and I might want to do something with it other than phillips screws....

Dropped many times, sometimes on concrete, poor thing- only about 12 years old, also. Not a contractor, but I use the crap out of it.

Anyway. what are you guys' recommendations. I'm thinking maybe a kit with driver/drill and compact drill - likely go 20 V. tto, but not a given.

What brand ?- I know Dewalt is pretty much where Nosler Partitions are...

Porter, DeWalt, Ryobi, Milwalkee, Makita???? What else?

Good and bad.

Milwaukee.

Ive been pleased with my M18 Milwaukee Fuel. I have about 10 different tools now some are 5 years old

I'm a Milwaukee guy but when my present one dies I'm going to replace it with a Rigid, the warranty can't be beat.

I have several Ryobi tools and they’ve been good so far with moderately heavy uses and not treating them too kindly.

Milwaukee or Dewalt, Impact/Drill combo set

Prefer my Milwaukee impact and drills over Dewalts, JMO

I’m Dewalt for everything. Been this for 10 years. 😎

Milwaukee. My income depends on em.

I thought so too, but just yesterday I bought two new 18v Ridgid batteries... and registered them for the Lifetime replacement... NOPE... they changed that to 3 years.

My 18v Rigid won't hold small bits (about 3/16 on down) unless I use channel locks to tighten the chuck. It just shakes loose.

Nevermind... if you buy the whole set (WITH batteries) you are G2G for life... the stand alone batteries is where they [bleep] you

I have several Ryobi tools. They operate with plenty of power. No problems to date.

Milwaukee is tops, but for the money, the latest Dewalt’s are about impossible to beat on seasonal discount.

20. Some actually US made!

Sis is a tool dealer.
Her salesmen recommend the best, to me - sometimes Dewalt - sometimes Milwaukee.
As far as cordless drills, the Milwaukee M18 Fuel was recommended. It's got LOTS more torque than I was expecting in a cordless, and I've used cordless drills for over 35 years.
(in construction)

Condolences. May it rest in eternal pieces like my formerly beloved Makita....

Hilti.

Like SnapOn. Cry once.

We've been doing a bit of construction lately, which involves driving about 25,000 1.25" screws AND removing them. Three years in a row.

We have bought 5 Ridgids, and two Milwaukees M18 Fuel (Brushless). Both Milwaukees are still working as designed, though one is getting a little wonky, the brake doesn't always work anymore, I think. We have two of the large batteries for it and two of the small ones. One of the large batteries seems to not like charging under extreme temps anymore.

Three of the five Ridgids died on the first job. Fiven of the seven batteries are dead. Batteries last about a third of the run time of the Milwaukees. With the Milwaukees you can drive srews for half a shift, load them during lunch, and finish the day. The Ridgid batteries last a little over an hour. Ridged warrantee can KMA.

Haven't used DeWalt, Makita or Hilti, but the Milwaukees are doing me right. I figure they are each close to driving and removing 30,000 screws. Pretty fair.

Milwaukee and Makita are owned by the same parent company, there is a bit of crossover as far as technology is concerned.

Makita introduced the first commercial cordless drill, and tends to be a half step ahead in others when it comes to batteries and motors--which is the most important parts of cordless drill/drivers. Makita batteries will last longer.

Milwaukee makes very good stuff, the quality of the rest of the tool (besides battery and motor) seems to be a tad better than Makita.

Dewalt is generally a few dollars less, and offered the bang-for-the-buck factor. After suffering a bit during the recession,, Dewalt has come back strong and is offering a lot of new, useful tools currently.

Ryobi isn't bad, the batteries are shorter lived than the above brands.

I really wouldn't mess with Rigid.

Panasonic, Hitachi, and Porter Cable aren't bad, but their cordless tools are a step behind the big three these days.

Pick your favorite color, pick a battery voltage (although I think some of the DeWalt stuff can run either 20v or 18v batteries), and stick with the same brand and battery--it makes life more simple.

The bigger the battery, the heavier the tool.

Couple things: KEEP YOUR BATTERIES CHARGED. It makes them last longer. Don't deplete them and then throw 'em in the corner and let them sit. Don't let them freeze. A fully charged battery doesn't freeze as easily as a depleted battery.

The lithium batteries have a chip in them to communicate with the charger and not allow the lithium batteries to melt down when things go wrong (see Boeing). There is a minimum voltage threshold and if the battery is depleted, freezes, drops the voltage below that minimum threshold, it permanently shuts down the battery. The Makitas have the most sophisticated chip and are the first to shut off the battery--there is no way to undo it, either.