Walther/Metabo are about the best you can find [if you can find them] excellent quality made in Germany [or at least they used to be] the cordless hammer drills use a "pulse' technology that extends the batt. life and gets more torque power out of a lower voltage Batt.

DeWalt 18V hammer drill is an excellent choice but one charge will only go about half a day when continuously hammer drilling. [but that is really heavy usage you would most likely not be doing].

For basic home-owner type stuff the Ryobi would be an excellent choice because of their +1 system you can buy additional tools sans-battery at very reasonable prices as your needs expand.

other then that Milwaukee is another great product but you will pay for it.

If you are close to the border a little trip across to Canadian Tire would be worth your while the Mastercraft Maximum house brand tools are generally of excellent quality and the return policy is second to none... if it breaks just bring it back and say "it broke I need new one" and you will generally get a new one right there and then [unless you obviously abused it then as with any place you're on yer own lol]

 

These are the tops for cordless drills. DeWalt provides the ample power in the 18+power range but dies in the battery and clutch department. Bosch makes nice corded products, right on the price. Many of the store brands offer “no question” replacement making them an affordable alternative. I have seen most of the brands die with enough use or abuse, whatever you want to call it.

 

My Ryobi standard batteries have an OK life. My folks gave me the Lithium drill with 2 batteries ($179'ish at Home Depot-charger, drill, flashlight and 2 batteries) for X-mas. I cut up half of a travel trailer today using one of the lithium batteries in my sawzall. 3 Blades and the saw has not slowed down. The charge indicator on the battery is still showing Green...

I have the Right angle drill, grinder, 2 drills, flashlight, Rotozip clone, sawzall, radio and vacuum...

My 18v Makita drill after a 3 years the battery life is getting very short..

If I depended on it for work, I would go with Milwaukee like Wabbit has...

 

To clarify for 89trknwby - Black and Decker and DeWalt are NOT made by the same people. It is indeed the same parent company, but they do not share assembly facilities. The Dewalt and Porter Cable lines are definitely designed to a higher level of performance than the B&D line (I make parts for Dewalt and P-C)

Dewalt products are made in Mexico (Reynosa in particular)

B&D are made in China.

 

Battery lifespan for my porter cable has been 5 years now and it holds a charge for ok jobs but quickly dies after maybe an hour use.

My old makita 9.6 battery was from when they first came out, in the late 80's or so, it finally died this year.

 

B&D owns dewalt, we used to buy B&D 14.4 batteries to use in our dewalt's, because they were about 1/3 the $$

 

I'd recommend either Milwaukee, DeWalt, Rigid, or Makita. My dad is a general contractor and I know a lot of people besides him who are in the carpentry/remodeling business - and these brands seem to be the choices for their cordless tools.

I'd say Milwaukee would be the best of those with their 24v system, but it is pricey.

Personally I went with DeWalt's package deal...ended up finding a new 6-tool 18v unit on eBay for $350 and it still qualified me for the free tool rebate. So I got a hammer/drill, impact drill(my personal favorite), angle grinder, reciprocating saw, circular saw, flashlight, and a jigsaw all for under $400 shipped to my door. Only downside to the packages is they only come with 2 XRP batteries. The XRP battery packs are the only ones worth using - but I think I heard of DeWalt having a lithium battery? My XRP batteries charge in 1hr and the normal ones which are like 1/2 the size charge in like 30min. I have 6 batteries and 3 chargers which makes up for lost charging time.

I've had my set for 3yrs and so far have no complaints about the DeWalt cordless tools other than the impact drill has so much power it torques off screw heads and breaks screw tips like crazy - titanium tips seem to last 10x as long. My dad had an impact drill finally die after 4yrs of using it everyday - motor still worked, but I think the impact mechanism was worn from too much use.

You could always go the cheap route and get the 3pc 18v Ryobi set for $99 at HD which as a drill, circular saw, and flashlight...might be good for the wife's tool set when she complains that there is never a screwdriver at home when she needs one.

 

Lol NEVER buy RIDGID ANYTHING except for air compressors! Everything else is pure junk! Warranty takes MONTHS (i work for a repair shop, waiting for parts makes us look bad).... if you want the best stick to metabo/bosch. mid end, makita, milwaukee, ryobi...
dont even think of ridgid or dewalt or black and decker or porter cable.

 

Its been a while but didnt panasonic use to be the best in the cordless market? And the same company that makes the panasonice makes the ridgid. And I could be wrong on this but Im pretty sure that the same company that make ryobi also makes the craftsmen. I use to work at home depot. The ridgid use the stores drill not his own to take the 18v ridgid and launch it down an isle to show how tough it was. the de walt rep wouldnt even try it with his. I believe de walt now owns porter cable along with black and decker and milwakee was bought but the company that makes the panasonic and ridgid. Depending on the customer service of the store the store i work at would take back a defective ridgid tool and battery to support the lifetime SERVICE warranty. But it has been about 3 years since I worked at home depot. Depending how you are going to be using for just stuff around the house I would get a ryobi. It is pretty durable for what you pay for and if it does break it is more cost effective to just buy a new one than to pay for a more expensive one to get fixed. I have both brands ryobi and ridgid obviously. I use my 12v ryobi to do alot of home stuff around the house and works pretty well. I have had it for about 3-4 years. Original battery. I also have a 18v ridgid hammer drill. Same battery. I use it for bigger jobs and the 30min charge time is pretty handy when you do need a drill.

 

we had a bunch of problems with dewalts, the brushes burnt out of 2 on me inside of a year.

never again

 

Lithium Ion is the only way to go. They have no memory problems. Which is why they are used in laptops and eventually Hybrid cars. They are more expensive... I believe they are using NiMH batteries... which are still much better than NiCad... which are terrible.

I'd also check the cost and availability of the replacement battery, which you may never need, but the cost can vary big-time.

Lastly, I'd check to make sure it has an intelligent charging system. Can you leave it plugged it, and will it then shut off in the charger. LiIon types also usually have a quick charge feature. Entirely desirable. What that means is that it will apply proportional charge depending the measured voltage. This requires a bit more circuitry, but it is not expensive to have that... and it should be there. This kind of charging system will also be the kind that shuts off when the battery is fully charged.

Things are changing so fast in the industry, that you have to check what you are buying.

 

IDK depends on which Ridgid you're talking about... HD ridgid I agree with you but the old Ridgid Pipe/heavy industrial trade tools I would buy in a heart beat. They were great.

 

Yup yup i always forget about those. I am of course talking about the power tools (home depot crap) not the pipe threaders, those are "real" tools not the new dinky stuff.
Ridgid compressors are decent because they are rebadged Campbell Hausfeld "Extreme" compressors with upgraded parts here and there... electric tools are tho...

 

I miss the old Ridgid tools calander...

 

I use these professionally everyday drilling mostly steel with a smattering of stone and brick, here's my take...

Dewalt, My current favorite drill is an 18V dewalt hammer drill w/ T-grip, the pistol grip of a year or two back sucked. That said, I have also had horrible luck with a couple of Dewalt chucks, they are kinda hit or miss on the batteries and the hammer on my hammer drill is pretty weak, but I drill a lot of stone and that can be hard on drills.

Milwaukee. Great drills no complaints, haven't gotten one of the 24V yet, had some power/torque issues as my last one got older even with a new battery.

I've never had a good makita, they may exist, I know folks who swear by them, I'm just not one of them.

For a straight up hammer drill, Bosch, hands down.

None of the other brands mentioned seem to be built for everyday hard use.

My two Groats...

Mike

 

My Ryobi set, including the 18volt drill, has been a great purchase. The tools are sturdy, keep thier charge, and so on.

 

Well this is a few days old but I'll have to say that Milwaukee is the top. Or at least they used to be. We've got one of the 14.4s from about 10 years ago and it is still going strong so we have not had to buy a new one. About a year or so ago I came across a Hilti demonstration and they cordless drills they had seemed to be good quality. They felt sturdy. I have never used one but they seemed good. I personally have an 18V DeWalt which works flawlessly but it is fairly new. I got it just before christmas and have been using it quite a bit since. I don't do much wood work with it mostly steel work. Drilling and putting in screws. The batterys last quite a while with it but it is only about 6 months old.
I had a really cheap $29 drill that I killed in about 2 uses but it was cheap. We had a Makita corded T handle drill but we burnt that out using it to start the pup motor on our CAT motor. We now use a 1/2 chuck corded milwaukee pistol grip. It takes the abuse. Thats bout all I have to say about drills as I've only ever used a few different kinds.

 

Ryobi with 2 batteries. I loved my Milwaukee. The batteries and ever increasing power standards are the problem. I have now gone through 2 Ryobi's. They are the bang for buck in my opinion.