Time for a new Drill & Impact driver....what's your thoughts?

[johnny]

i recently had a horrible job to do under my car .....rear subframe needed changing.. so i thought i would diy it as garage wanted an exorbitant amount to do ... i looked at cordless impact wrenches makita, dewalt , milawalkee all to much for my pocket so i went for cheap. basic. knockoff dewalt lookalike, mightly impressed with build quality and it did and still does everything i asked of it .. i bought an adapter to give it another use as an impact driver and it does that well to. im actually suprised what you can get for £60 .... brushless motor . doubt it will last like a big named brand, time will tell

I did the same recently and bought a Chinse Makita clone 1/2" socket impact driver and it is superb ,strong and powerful . Crikey i couldn't buy a replacement Makita switch for that !. I certainly couldn't afford the cost of a Makita impact wrench for the occasional use it would get
All my power tools are Makita so that I can share the 5x batteries between them . Having 2x Makita drills make light work of any project requiring pre drilling pilot holes and screwing .Such a waste of time changing bits all the time.

My advice .....don't be a power tool snob and dismiss cheap clones unless you've tried them .They are terrific value for money for the budget conscious

 

[Dulanth]

A few years back I dropped and broke a Fein drill I had at the time and needed a replacement quickly. I called in at B&Q on the way home and saw a big green 18v Bosch drill on sale, it looked the part and I thought it can't be that bad can it

It didn't last a week before the gearbox (something inside anyway) gave up, really highlighted the difference between the diy and pro stuff, to be fair it was getting heavy use but I presumed I would get a bit longer out of it.

absolutely agree with your thoughts, however i don't expect to put this tool to massively heavy usage

 

[Dulanth]

I did the same recently and bought a Chinse Makita clone 1/2" socket impact driver and it is superb ,strong and powerful . Crikey i couldn't buy a replacement Makita switch for that !. I certainly couldn't afford the cost of a Makita impact wrench for the occasional use it would get
All my power tools are Makita so that I can share the 5x batteries between them . Having 2x Makita drills make light work of any project requiring pre drilling pilot holes and screwing .Such a waste of time changing bits all the time.

My advice .....don't be a power tool snob and dismiss cheap clones unless you've tried them .They are terrific value for money for the budget conscious

i did do a fair bit of research and online reading of reviews and video watching before i made a choice and i'm happy with my resulting purchase it's "good enough" for the usage i expect to put to

 

[angelboy]

My advice .....don't be a power tool snob and dismiss cheap clones unless you've tried them .They are terrific value for money for the budget conscious

I don't want to be a powertool snob, but I do subscribe to the believe that if you buy cheap you buy twice - hence why my Dewalt has lasted 15 years (and it's still going, I just think I'd rather make the update now before it fails completely).

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I had a green Bosch which took all I threw at it for ten years before someone relieved me of it. I was pleased, so I bought a blue one .......... which burned out with little use in two years.

 

[Stevebod]

I had a basic Bosch cordless drill and it was crap, (Chinese cheese), the battery only lasted a year or two. I replaced it with a "Worx" cordless drill with 2 batteries which has been going fine for the last few years, (I am an "occasional" user).

 

[TheUnicorn]

I had a green Bosch which took all I threw at it for ten years before someone relieved me of it. I was pleased, so I bought a blue one .......... which burned out with little use in two years.

so annoying trying to get anything good and reliable, I've had a blue bosch for maybe 8 years and it's been great, I would have confidently told anyone that asked that it was a good buy (although I can't disagree with the previous poster who pointed out their limited range of tools). seems that however much research you do, whatever you spend, you are still gambling your money to some extent when you buy any power tools

 

[quintain]

so annoying trying to get anything good and reliable, I've had a blue bosch for maybe 8 years and it's been great, I would have confidently told anyone that asked that it was a good buy (although I can't disagree with the previous poster who pointed out their limited range of tools). seems that however much research you do, whatever you spend, you are still gambling your money to some extent when you buy any power tools

When I moved down to the then car build city of Coventry in the early 1960s, nobody would buy a 'friday afternoon built; car...I wonder in this day of much-increased automation if 'friday afternoon build' still occurs.

 

[Aligish]

I've been using a Dewalt DC988 for 15 years for DIY work and it's been a great bit of kit. The gears are getting hard to engage now but the big problem really is the batteries don't hold a charge for long. I've got a range of dewalt battery powered tools, impact driver, circular saw, SDS drill so I've about 8 batteries that I've just condensed to 4 that will hold a charge long enough to do a few jobs.

So I'm going to get rid of the old Dewalt stuff and replace it but I only really want to get a new hammer drill and impact driver. I have a corded SDS and circular saw which I'm happy with.

I was tempted to stick with Dewalt but every place I look the big 900 series drills are out of stock and the comby kits only seem to have the 700 series drills.

Every review I watch there doesn't seem to be a brand or model that's and out'n'out winner. They all have strengths and weaknesses.

I'm sure I'm going to get a mixed responce but what's your thoughts?

Hi,
For what it's worth, I switched from Dewalt to Milwaukee last year. Built a 20 X 12 ft workshop using Dewalt drill/driver combo and they didn't put a foot wrong. Decided to change to the Milwaukee because I wanted a drill with more torque. The model I have now is rated at 135nM and I couldn't be happier. I've also gone for a circular saw and a couple of the 12v drill/drivers - they haven't disappointed.
I wouldn't say they're necessarily better than the Dewalt but they certainly feel very robust and heavy duty. The drill chucks are especially good.
I'm building another shed over the next few days so they'll get put through their paces. I'll report back...#
Best aye.

 

[Ozi]

Plenty of people here with more experience of the different brands than me but one bit of advice I was given which seems to be useful was to buy lower rated batteries and swap them regularly. I got two Makita 3Ahr batteries for about the same price as the 5Ahr I last bought. I was told use for 5 minutes and swap so the battery never gets hot and it will live longer. Also don't fully discharge before re-charging as I have seen mentioned above. I think I'm correct to say that the Makita charger senses when the battery is fully charged and cuts out but don't leave it charging anyway in case it's a fire hazard. I haven't been doing this long enough to absolutely prove it works but the chap who told me is an engineer for a battery manufacturer so I hope he knows what he is talking about.