What Cordless Power Tools To Buy???

[Garth]

im a sparky, i use a panasonic drill, and it works a treat, treat it right, and it will look after you, i have had some issues with my drill, mine came down to the fact i treated it wrong. but yeah, the new panno's rock

in all honesty, unless you get the lithium ion makita i wouldnt go near them, they have fallen over in the last few years big-time in the trade drill

millwalki i dont see many plumbers with them
panasonic, yeah, light drill, easy to use, and fit into tight spots
dewalt, heavy drill, large in size, will strugle with small work as clutch doesnt slip enough.
hitatchi dont see them around much, but from what ive been told not to bad.

bosch, good for your home handy man.
to get a good drill, speak to the boys at work, afterall, they will know what is good for you.
but only advice i can give, stay away from atlas capco and black and decker drills, they die quickly.

 

[JBDrifter]

I use the new Makita 18V cordless drill and I recommend it to everyone! Even all the guys on site (I'm a sparky, work commercial/construction) comment on how good it when they use it for the first time.
I used to have a Hilti and it was friggin fantastic!! It was unfortunately stolen out of my car though, and I decided on buying the Makita as replacement because another guy at work had just bought it and I loved it.

I wouldn't touch Hitachi... the triggers malfunction a lot. Had at least 3 guys at work with the same drill and exact same problem.
The new Milwaukee's are meant to be great but I haven't used them yet.
I've never been a fan of DeWalt so not really comment... they might be great, I just don't like them.

My preferences would definitely be Makita or Hilti.

Oh yeah I might as well mention also that a mate that i was working with today recently bought himself a 18V Lion Makita kit... included cordless drill, cordless hammer, saber saw and torch (I think that's all).. cost him $1200.

 

[one_and_only2004]

Electrician here.

I own an 18v Lithium Makita - is an absolute bitch to change between drill/screw/hammer settings but apart from that it's awesome - it even has 2 little LED lights so you can see what you're drilling a bit better, very handy in roofs and under houses. Cost $740
Another fella at work has an 18v NiCd Dewalt drill - its very heavy but can drill roughly twice as many holes as my makita can without flattening the battery. i think it was $770
The boss has an 18v Hitachi drill - we use it as a paperweight to stop all the empty pie/chip packets from blowing away... Once the batteries get a bit low (roughly 8 20mm holes in timber) the stupid thing just shuts down and refuses to do anything for about 5mins. Whatever it cost, it was too much

The boss has just bought a makita as a replacement...

 

[VrWagz1]

The lithium ion makitas are a good drill, any other cordless makita is rubbish. If you can afford Milwaukee then go for it but it will probably get stolen before you get to use it. I would go hitachi myself, the good one anyway and you can get the packs. Much like the makita the only hitachi thats is any good is the top of the line stuff, the cheaper hitachi stuff is crap too. I havnt found metabo cordless stuff to be very powerful myself but long lasting gear. Dewalt forget it.

 

[TrEnNaVY]

now with a poll
getting used to the site now.
have a vote, let me no
thanks every1

 

[ScoHar]

Go Milwaukee, if you can still afford it out of $1500.

 

[Doctor Sodways]

Everyone i know uses Panasonic stuff, all the sparkies i know swear by them, and a lot of other tradies love the things too

 

[CALAIS 6]

we have dewalt drills and have nothing but problems with them the newer we buy the worse they seem next time we are going for milwauke or Hilti

 

[Hunter SS]

I'm a fitter by trade and i have Milwaukee 18V Drill and a 28V cordless grinder... they work great!! can't complain.

 

[michaelw]

One good thing about the Hitachi is that they don't change the battery shape so in the past if you bought the NiCd Hitachi 18V tools the new li-ion batteries would fit them. So when the new "rancid yak butter-ion" batteries come out (or whatever the next technology will be) chances are you wont need to buy new tools. I have a Li-ion drill and a impact driver and they are great.

Mike