Cordless Drill - Normal or Lithium

WeegyAVLover

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Hi All,

My old man has asked for a drill for his Christmas and suggested a £50 Cordless B&D 18.8V.

However I seen a MacAllistar Lithium from B&Q for £80. Its a bit more but the best I have seen for Lithium. My dad is not a builder or anything like that, just needs it for odd jobs round the house so does not need the DeWalts or Makita drills and Bosch just seem really expensive and not as good as DeWalt.

So My question is - if you had the choice of a drill with a normal battery and one with a Lithium battery what would you choose?
Also what would make you go for it?

Lithium seems to be the way ahead as I believe the battery life is a lot better than with a normal battery and the charge time is dramatically reduced to 1hr charge.

Are there any other adv. / dis adv.?


Col
 
The major advantage of lithium for me is the slow rate at which it loses its charge, so if you only do the odd job, when you pick it up out of the toolbox a lithium one is more likely so have any juice in it than a Nicad or NiMh.
 
I would go for a lithium battery every time. They hold their charge and put up with high / low use. With Ni-cad you have to discharge the battery between uses. They also take ages to charge. My old 24v Bosch Green battery died and it was going to cost me the same money for a replacement battery as a new drill. I still have it as a back up but have gone l-ion now.

If it's just for odd jobs around the house, he will always have power, so I would go for a decent corded drill instead. For that money, he could probably get a Bosch Blue (professional), Dewalt or Ryobi. However, corded are no use for putting screws in. Ryobi are considered to be about the best DIY stuff out there. Their l-ion stuff shares the same batteries throughout the range and have excellent support. I have a MacAllister sander and it's fine but B&Q didn't stock replacement pads for it despite selling the sander. If something goes wrong in the future, some of the cheap brands aren't the best for supporting their gear long term. That said, at £50-80, I suppose you could consider it to be disposable.

Another good alternative around the house are the 10.8v / 12v options. They obviously won't do masonry but are lightweight and extremely usable.
 
For that money, he could probably get a Bosch Blue (professional), Dewalt or Ryobi. However, corded are no use for putting screws in. Ryobi are considered to be about the best DIY stuff out there. Their l-ion stuff shares the same batteries throughout the range and have excellent support.

My boss wouldnt even touch a Ryobi drill, nor would any of the electricans we employ, they pretty much think ryobi is rubbish.

never really asked why though.
 
My boss wouldnt even touch a Ryobi drill, nor would any of the electricans we employ, they pretty much think ryobi is rubbish.

never really asked why though.

Yes but he said for DIY use, electricians are not doing diy..

John..
 
Yes but he said for DIY use, electricians are not doing diy..

John..

ahhh, ok, didnt read properly

i still wouldnt touch ryobi for that simple fact though :smashin:
 
ahhh, ok, didnt read properly

i still wouldnt touch ryobi for that simple fact though :smashin:

If you asked most tradesmen they wouldn't touch any tools aimed at DIY to be fair.
 
its worth checking the charge time for batteries , i looked at a ryobi drill and it had a 4 hour charge time :eek:
 
Thanks for the advice guys. I actually got the drill for £70. So Seems like a cracking deal.

My dad wants a cordless drill for round the house and wanted something more heavy duty than his 14.4v at the moment.

Would have purchased a Ryobi but they were more expensive. The Mac at B&Q is different from a sander though as most drill bits are universal & if it breaks down or has problems then I would be disappointed if it was less than 2 yrs old.

He will be using it to do a lot of screwing (stop sniggering) so a corded drill is not really practical.

Finally the charge time says 1hr & there are 2 batteries included which again says it was a great deal.

Purchased & collecting tomorrow. Well chuffed

Thanks again.
Col
 
nice one, I'm sure he'll be very happy with it :thumbsup:
 
My boss wouldnt even touch a Ryobi drill, nor would any of the electricans we employ, they pretty much think ryobi is rubbish.

never really asked why though.

I wouldnt touch it either, I'm not saying its useless but you get what you pay for.
 
Two batteries always a must, so sounds like an excellent pressie
 
My work provided me with a erbauer cordless drill 3 years ago (from screwfix) came with 2 battery's , this things taken a right beating and its still going strong, battery's charge up pretty quick too.

My dad has a roybi cordless drill and loves it, he's mr DIY , put it this way if the drill keeps my dad happy with the amount of DIY he does then it will suit most people.
 
My last apprentice went through about 4 different type cheap cordless drills in just over a year (one was a Ryobi twin pack) For diy use they are probably fine. For daily use get something else :smashing:
The one he has now is A Makita Screwfix special offer, £100 or something. Thats about 18 months old and on its last legs.....

John..
 
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Makita also make DIY versions of their tools.

If its cheap, its DIY.

5 years on and still going strong.

Image017.jpg



Back to the OP, there is no need to splash out if it is only for occasional use.
 
Makita also make DIY versions of their tools.

If its cheap, its DIY.

5 years on and still going strong.

image



Back to the OP, there is no need to splash out if it is only for occasional use.

I told him the Makita drill was rubbish, but as you say for diy its fine..
For a good quality drill your paying around the £300 price mark.
If i was getting one for diy i would not pay more than £75 for one..

John..
 
it is also worth noting that drill bits vary enormously , i bought these drill bits , they were cheaper when i got them , and the 8 mm bit is still going strong after i dont know how many holes , in fact it is not wearing from a sharpness point of view out it is getting small in diameter :eek:
 
going to resurrect this one

i've the chance to buy a cordless drill with 18v Lithium battery , for cheap.
thing is i won't use it that much. how long do these batteries last in the real world
would it be good for a lot of years if i just kept charging it every now and again...
just like the idea of having cordless but if it will die after a year or two there isn't much point, i'll grab a corded one
 
I have a set of Ryobi One+ tools - chosen because of the broad range of things, including garden tools (strimmer, hedge trimmer, pruning saw) that run using the same battery as the DIY stuff. The original ("free") two 1.3ah batteries that came with the first thing I bought are, after ~8 years, still performing perfectly well. Because of their broad usage, they do get cycled fairly often, and once every few months, they get fully and slowly discharged using a low-wattage LED light unit.

As a test I ran a 10w lamp until it died just a few weeks ago. You'd expect it to run for ~1 hour or so. It ran for 55 minutes. So it's all good.
 
I bought a cheap black and decker lithium ion drill about 3 years ago. It gets used a few times per year and chucked back in the shed. Sometimes i charge it fully beforehand, most times i don't. Still works like new.
 

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