Hello all,
I am in the market for a new drill/driver combo. I like the Bosch and Makita. Both have the 18 volt i want. In the past, I have owned nothing but a Dewalt. Last year I purchased a Hitachi and I hate it. Both the Bosch and Makita I have gotten to play with, but I can’t find the Dewalt lithium anywhere. I would really like to pick one up and play with it before I purchase it. The only place I have seen them is online.
Does anyone have a Dewalt lithium? Likes, dislikes?
Thanks for the help.
Replies
The 18V? Lowes has em. About 289.00$ IIRC.
I've been holding off on that one, so far I have 2 mak. at 14.4, a Hitachi 12V , and the newer Mak. 10.8 V..oddly, I gravitate to the new little Mak.
I drill a lot of rivet holes and an impact is faster spinning than a drill and the light compact Mak, is a sweetie.
If I was doing a ton of deck screws, I'd grab the 2 pc. Drill with Impact kit at HD or Lowes when they are on sale for 299.00, and use the Li-ion batts in the old style body. Or just get online and buy tool only refurbished.
As an aside I got the 18V nano Hammer Drill with 2 batts, and charger...199.00 From Toolking.com and its hands down better than the old hammer drill I smoked.
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I bought the nano hammerdrill/impact/sawzall kit with the two batts. I live in Canada and I've never had trouble with the batteries being too cold. The batteries actually perform better and longer.
The thing I love the most about the impact is the shortness of the barrel from the back to the chuck. It's shorter than my Bosch 10.8 impact by almost an inch, ditto my old Dewalt impact. I haven't compared that to the milwaukee/makita, because I wasn't shopping for that when I bought it. I'd assume it to be similar to those models, but you never know until you research.
I've never had problems with compatibility with the old styles, but it is sometimes hard to get the batteries to latch to the bodies, especially on the ones I havent used much.
The light is nice.
It makes a different sound at low speed, more of a grinding sound. I've used it *ahem* very thoroughly... and it hasn't changed, so I don't think its an issue.
The only issue I've had with the set, which I still havent figured out is the hammerdrill (awesome chuck, BTW) when torqued all the way while on drilling mode will stop, like it has a dead li-ion battery. This is with a li-ion battery OR the old 18v xrp. Weird. You just wait a few seconds and it returns to normal.
So in conclusion, there's pros and cons to dewalt, but it keeps up with my rigorous use and climate, has features I like, and works well/better with the old bodies.
BTW, I've had the set for a year.
Thanks for the info. I am going to get the dewalt just based on my past experience with them and thier tools. They can really take a beating.