Best Cordless Drill

I read something over at toolmonger that got me rather excited.  Milwaukee is updating their M18 line with a brushless motor.  Brushless motors are more efficient and is one of the things that has previously set festool drills apart.  I don’t know of any other manufacturer that uses brushless motors.  (Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.)

While the M18 is not currently our favorite 18 volt drill, this does mean that I will be giving the M18 a serious second look for that title.  It’s not that I don’t like Milwaukee.  They currently hold favorites in the compact cordless drill and 24 volt drill categories.  And the M18 is already a solid product.  I wouldn’t dissuade anyone from buying one.  But after looking over all of the evidence, the evidence sided with Bosch to have the best 18 volt product.  One advantage Milwaukee has though is more products you can use those expensive 18 volt batteries in.  I won’t go into more details here, but suffice it to say there are reasons you would want to purchase a different drill than the one I recommend for a given category.  Go ahead.  It won’t hurt my feelings.

I seriously hope this update lands the M18 in the top spot, and not because I have an affinity for red tools.  I just want to see cordless drills get better.  And thus I hope the brushless motor turns out to be a gigantic advantage.  And then I hope all of the other high end manufactures follow suit.  Then we as consumers will win.

I had a friend growing up who was tall.  I think he ended up around 6’8″.  You always wanted him on your basketball team.  In fact, you wanted him on your team for just about every sport, except for maybe crab soccer where the smaller, more nimble guys like me could excel.  Most of the time his height was an advantage.  But sometimes he suffered the fate of everyone who has to use a product that was designed with someone else in mind.  His desk at school may be uncomfortably small.  By high school it was hard for him to find shoes.  Every once in a while I wonder what kind of car he drives.  I’m sure his choices are severely limited.

I’m guessing he often curses the people that design things.  I probably would too.  But I also feel for the designer.  Then again, I’m average height and weight and right handed.  But sometimes I wonder about the decisions made on tool designs.  A lot of the thicker handled cordless drills are just small enough for me to use comfortably.  I’m sure people with small hands can’t (use them comfortably that is.)  There are other factors too.  The trade off between weight and power.  If you’re stronger than average you’d probably like to see that balance go toward power.  And the opposite is true too.  I’ve seen some chucks that are easier to work with small hands because the two areas you have to grip are close together.

Back to my friend.  I never worry whether he can find clothes.  There are stores that cater to people like him.  Shoes?  I’m sure the Internet has helped immensely with that problem and in finding a lot of other niche products too.  And I’m sure he eventually finds a car that is comfortable.  But in all of these things his choices are limited.  Most of the products just aren’t for him.

Back to cordless tools.  Most of the drills I can think of are quite similar.  That is, manufacturers seem to design for the middle, the type of hand that 90% of people have.  If you have bigger or smaller hands, I’m sure you can find a drill.  There are smaller drills and larger drills.  But the 5 best 18 volt cordless drills I can think of are all designed for the middle.  You’ll have to choose something other than the 5 best.

This isn’t a rant.  I’m not saying that manufacturers should change their design process.  (Although, I would like to see more quality niche products.)  This is just me thinking about the design process and the people who have to use the products that have been designed.  So I’d like to hear your stories of tools you couldn’t use or were uncomfortable and the alternatives you went with.

Recently DeWalt has updated their entire line of lithium-ion tools.  This change has come with new branding which, you might have guessed, is DeWalt 20V Max.  Don’t be confused by 20 volts versus 18 volts.  These drills are comparable to 18 volt drills and should be compared as such.

Fall is fast approaching and already the leaves are starting to pile up on the ground. That’s got me thinking about cordless leaf blowers and, since they’re related, cordless trimmers. The biggest concern here would be battery life and power. A portable battery simply cannot hold the same amount of energy as a small tank of gasoline.

But the question is whether a portable battery is enough, or two batteries since I don’t mind switching in the middle of a job. The big advantages of electric are noise and convenience. Who wants to keep around a gas/oil mix just for their trimmer or leaf blower? I know I don’t.

And since a large portion of the cost of cordless tools is in the batteries, if you already have two great batteries, you can pick up a bare tool for a reasonable price. In fact, this is something you should think about before you buy a quality drill. Before you spend close to $200 on a drill, you should think about what other tools you can use those two batteries in. Does the manufacturer offer the kind of tools you’re likely to want?

Most manufacturers offer the usuals: cordless circular saw, jig saw, light, radio, grinder. You’ve seen the kits. But if you’re looking for a cordless drill whose batteries you can use in a leaf blower, it looks like you can choose from Black and Decker and Makita. That’s it. I wish there were more, but it is what it is.

I’m not saying you should buy a Makita because some day you may want to get a leaf blower too and you’ll save 50 bucks. Buy the drill that’s best for you. But if you’re looking at a Makita and one other brand, on the fence and you’re likely to want leaf blower too, then factor the leaf blower into your decision.

I’m going to try to get my hands on cordless leaf blower soon to put it through some real world tests. In the mean time, what are your experiences? Please let me know in the comments.

Milwaukee recently sent me a Milwaukee M12 drill to review, (full disclosure, they sent it free of charge.) I spent quite a while running it through its paces, and then I put together the video below:

Click here to check out the Milwaukee 2410-22 M12 12-Volt Cordless Drill at Amazon

I liked the drill.  Honestly, it’s a good time to be a cordless drill enthusiast.  Rapidly advancing battery technology is making different designs possible and manufacturers are taking advantage of new technology to make some great products.  This is one example.  You’ve seen cordless drills this small and lightweight before, but it’s just been recent lithium-ion advances, and the subsequent drop in prices, that’s made it possible to make a small drill like this that’s as powerful as 18V drills of just a few years ago.

In the video I test out the torque, giving some real world examples of what the drill can and cannot do.  The drill has no problem with wood screws, even up to #14. It handles some lag screws as well and I had to go up to a 3/8″ lag screw to find something I couldn’t drive all the way down.  I also do a real world battery test where I drill 3″ #9 wood screws in and out with one battery.  The battery did 60 screws before giving out. However, with two batteries in the kit if you remember to charge the spare you can switch out batteries and keep going indefinitely (as is the case with most any drill with two batteries).

The drill has all of the things you’d expect: LED light, clutch, 2 speeds, battery indicator.  But it does not have a bit holder, which is something I missed. But the best feature is the size and weight.

I also checked out what people online had to say about the drill. About the only negative comments I could find related to the chuck. Some people had problems with the chuck loosening on its own and their bit falling out. I didn’t run into this problem in my testing. I suspect the people having this problem aren’t tightening the chuck enough.

If you’re in the market for a high quality “home use” drill or even a professional use drill I suggest you check it out. Most people who are use to needing an 18V drill could probably use this drill and be delighted with the reduced size and weight. If you’re concerned about whether the drill has enough torque for you check out the video and hopefully that will answer your questions.

If the video doesn’t answer questions you have about the drill leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer them. I’d also be happy if you’d leave a comment to tell me what you think about the review and what you’d like to see in future reviews.

UPDATE:  If you want to see all the reviews I have up so far head over to the cordless drill reviews page.

I’ve got a cordless drill in and I’m working on the review for it. So the good news is it should be available fairly soon. But I wanted to give you guys a chance to give some input on things I should test.

Obviously I’m going to test the torque, test the battery runtime, and give my general thoughts on the drill. But I know I can’t think of everything.

What sort of things do you want to see in a cordless drill review?

The holidays are coming up.  Does anyone have any suggestions for gift ideas?  Mostly I’m thinking about under $50 and drill related.

Note:  All of this applies to lithium-ion batteries in general and not just cordless drills.

We develop battery myths.  Generally these myths are based in truth and following them would be good, but we’re making different kinds of batteries with different characteristics now.

I wrote this post because I see many people whose li-ion batteries have died much sooner than they should and I think we haven’t spread the word on how to care for li-ion tools.  So let me set the record straight.

Lithium-ion batteries do not have “memory”

NiCad batteries can exhibit a “memory” effect, where consistently draining the battery to a certain point will cause the battery perform poorly past that point in the future.  So you want to completely drain a NiCad battery regularly.  But lithium-ion batteries do not have this problem.  In fact they have an opposite quality.

Completely draining a li-ion battery may damage it

That’s right.  Instead of trying to drain a li-ion battery you should try to charge it before it’s completely drained, the opposite of what you should do for a NiCad battery.

But I don’t want you to develop a complex where you’re scared to use your drill for more than 5 minutes. Li-ion batteries have circuitry to prevent them from completely draining.  So you can safely use your drill to close to exhaustion.  But

Never store your drill when it’s almost dead

Lithium-ion batteries have low self-discharge (the amount the battery drains when not in use).  But they still have some self-discharge.  And if you put your li-ion battery on the shelf almost dead and leave it there for 3 months, it’s likely to drain enough to cause damage.

The ideal charge state for long-term storage is around half capacity.  Leaving the battery in a completely charged state for long periods will slightly but permanently lower the capacity.  But since there is some self-discharge, if you put it away full after a month it won’t be full anymore.  Another minor point is that li-ion batteries are best store cool, but not freezing.

The takeaway here is it’s a bad idea to leave the battery charging all the time.  And it’s a bad idea to store the battery empty or almost empty.

Extreme temperatures degrade performance

If you want your battery to last to its full potential, then you should avoid temperatures, above 120 F and below freezing.  So you shouldn’t leave drill battery out in the truck in the summer or the winter.  If you want to store your spare battery for long periods, take it to half charge and put it in the refrigerator.  It will be safe for years in there.

Help spread the word

If you know people with lithium-ion tools point them to this article.  Share it on Facebook or Twitter or blog about it if you’re into that.  Friends don’t let friends abuse their li-ion tools.

I’m always interested in the unconventional things people do with cordless drills.  And it makes sense when you think about it.  Modern cordless drills provide a substantial amount of torque in a portable package.  There are a lot of applications.

And even though you really only need a motor and battery for most of these other applications, a cordless drill is the format most people will have that motor and battery in.

Enter the Cordless drill ice auger.  This is actually just a cool bit.  But like I said, it’s cool.  You can see one in use at this video on youtube.