alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Screwfix doing decent offers on 18V twin packs of hammer drill/impact driver at the moment.

There's a choice of Hitachi, with 3 year guarantee, and DeWalt, Makita and Bosch with one year.

All have a pair of 1.5Ah Li-Ion batteries plus charger and case.

Hitachi: http://www.screwfix.com/p/hitachi-kc...t-driver/2283f
Max torque 145Nm. £170

Bosch: http://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-18v-...t-driver/2903f
Max Torque 130Nm. £199

DeWalt: http://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dck...river-xr/78457
Max torque: 155Nm £239

Makita: http://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-dlx...t-driver/45732
Max torque: 160Nm £219

Bosch professional: http://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-prof...t-driver/10170
Max torque 160Nm. £289

Any thoughts?

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I bought a drill a couple of days ago, I went for Makita for 3 reasons.

1) I have 2 that are still working after 20yrs a large portion of which they were my main daily use drills for work.

2) It has lithium iron batteries, the only thing that's retired them is the ni-cad batteries.

3) It was on special offer with almost 60 quid off.

No brainer for me as I have only ever had one Makita drill die on me (plug in) and that went way way above and beyond the call of duty, took some serious abuse before it said enough is enough.

JGlanzaV

iTrader: (3)

None of the above!

Get down to city electrical factors (I don't know if all branches do it, but I knoy plymouth definitely are)

289quid dewalt twin pack

1x brushless combi drill
1x brushless impact drivver
1x charger
2x 18v 4ah batteries

Stacking case with a tray in the top for screws etc and a really nice insert for your tools. Really good bit of kit

A stanley toolbox with removable tray lid (good bit of kit again)

I got one the other day. Very impressed with it

Henrik

iTrader: (5)

All the good tradesmen I know have mainly makita gear.

Personally, I went for a 18v makita combi drill kit for 150quid for my DIY projects, and for DIY it's a serious piece of kit. Much better than the consumer range they do (which i've also had for about 5 years).

When I browse the screwfix catalogue, I always end up spending some extra time on the makita impact driver page.. my next purchase, probably..

Henrik

iTrader: (5)

This is the one I have: http://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-dhp...essories/34224

I love the fast charge 3ah battery.. I did a large'ish wooden decking installation (about 23sqm) on 2 + a bit charges. Used close to 600 screws in total.

pflowers

I use milwaukee stuff, gets major abuse but never had a problem.

taylor85

iTrader: (5)

makita on a budget - Milwaukee are bit higher up the ladder

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Strange: two Makitas, one blue, one white, one £20 dearer, yet Makita UK say they are the same innards.

JGlanzaV

iTrader: (3)

Makita tools are good stuff. The batteries on the other hand are not the best.... My mate owns a tool shop and sees 3x as many makita batteries back as any other brand

Chip

Used Makita for many years but needed to buy a drill a few months ago for a one off job so picked up a Stanley 1.5ah twin pack drill form Homebase. It's made by DeWalt and since having it have used it 100's of time to not only drill but wind motors etc and it's never failed us. So impressed were we that we bought another one.On offer at the moment for under a ton. Get a 10% off voucher and its £90, you really cant go wrong as it has a 3 yr warranty as well.

Here: http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebas...r-drill-105132

P.S If it does fail after 3 years chuck it away and buy another one. It'll still be cheaper than replacing a Makita battery.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Still looking at Makita, now found a brushless set?

Henrik

iTrader: (5)

A makita 3ah battery is only 48 pounds off amazon (branded), or 30 quid unbranded.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Ah...but will it fit the new Makita stuff?

I gather Bosch now does charging by placing the drill on the charger top during use, when not actually being used, so topping up all the time?

Not sure what models that's on?

BoozyDave

iTrader: (8)

I bought a makita LXT combi drill 2 years ago, it died within 15 months. I thought it was flat and tried the other battery that had just charged and it didn't work. the switch failed and shorted out both batteries

the makita batteries are rubbish, the amount that fail is silly. have a look on ebay and see how many faulty ones are for sale. they fail due to bad design. they don't like being charged up if they are still 40% or more. the battery monitor is powered from only one cell in the battery, so if they are left for a while that cell drains, if you try and charge it, the charger thinks a cell is dead and lights up the fault light. if you try the battery 3 times and the light comes on 3 times, the battery shuts down for good

I would go for the hitachi

Mark10sti

iTrader: (2)

Very Interesting stuff

imprezagaz

iTrader: (2)

Il second this. Got the stacking kit with driver, torch, circular saw, jigsaw and recipicating saw. The 4ah battery's make all the difference

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Interesting.

I'm under the impression that letting lithium ions go flat is what damages them.

And that's certainly the case for me with my li-ion torches which don't have cell protection.

I've always put my batteries in charge the moment I notice a drop in torque. The charger is a 30min charger so I take it off charge as soon as its done - I never needed to leave it on charge overnight etc.

Touch wood my Makita stuff has been ok - I have three 3Ah batteries, so far so good.

I did originally buy a hitachi drill and it was a nice bit of kit. But the chuck was faulty (Jacobs -machined off-centre = oval holes ). Suppliers didn't have anymore in stock to swap it, so ended up with a Makita bhp453 instead, which has took some abuse ( been crushed by a 4post ramp -still intact and working LOL), think in hindsight I would have preferred a slight more powerful model with second hand grip - a 5" diamond core cutter is a bit heavy for it, but yes I have drilled 5" holes in brick with it with plenty battery to spare to core drill another 2.5" hole and some rawl plug fixings. (I do have a SDS but someone had borrowed it for longer than I expected ).

JGlanzaV

iTrader: (3)

I would vtually offer another suggestion, I got supplied with an AEG drill a while back, and thought it was going to be ****. Pleasently suprised at how good it actually is!

Really top quality bit of kit. So much so I went and bought the impact driver too

Henrik

iTrader: (5)

AEG is well regarded in e.g. Sweden AFAIK, but they do two ranges (consumer and pro).

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I have a corded AEG in France, it gets loads of abuse and continues to work.
Came with an SDS and a standard chuck.

Only thing: the capacitor in the handle exploded one day while in use...