I bought a cordless Black & Decker power drill a year or so ago and the motor has burned out.
I am now looking for a better, more reliable cordless drill and have been thinking about these power drills. I am heavily leaning towards the Dewalt because it has the most reviews with an average of 4.6 stars. It's also cheaper than the other ones.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions on which power drill I should get?

Thanks.

 

Ooooooooo, you will get opinions of power tools.

All my power tools are Dewalt, I dont even have Lithium batteries, I just dont need them, and find the tools and NiCad batteries to be a great value and quality.


I would stay away from Craftsman, Roybi, Black and Decker, anything from Harbor Freight.

 

Need to know some things first. Are you a novice or advanced DIY'r? What will you primarily be using the tools for? Basic home repair, fine woodworking, rough functional items? On a guess, how often would you use the drill or other cordless tool? Do you have any other cordless tools now? Do you have corded tools you'd replace with cordless if they were cheap enough?


Ok, all that said...I would never buy a B&D or Skil cordless tool (of course, except for maybe an upper end Skilsaw, I wouldn't buy their corded tools either). I also would never buy a Milwaukee or Dewalt or Makita or Bosch. Not because of quality though. If I had an unlimited budget of course I'd love to have those. But at their prices and the price of addl or replacement batteries, I just can't justify it if I want to have more than a tool or 2. Since I don't run a business, I have no way of writing them off either.

As it is, I have a circ saw, sawsall, 2 speed range drill, impact driver, multitool currently fitted with an oscillating head, flashlight, handvac, radio, small pocket drill (diff batt), and 4 ea large and small capacity batteries, 2 chargers + a couple of carry bags. Everything probably cost me less than $350. The brand often has 2 large cap batteries on sale for less than $60 and in 3 years, I've never had a single tool or lithium battery problem. Some of the tools are even older but I bought them bare and used them with my old NiCad batteries til those died. Oh, that's another point. This brand has a done a real good job of making things backwards compatible. So if you have a 10 y/o drill, you can still use the new batteries in it. Not sure if the upper end brands are the same or not.

You probably know where I'm going with this...

Yep, thats right, they are all Ryobi.
I know, I know . Some people say they are cheap junk to be looked at with distaste and and their owners spat upon when you encounter them...lol. All I know is they work just fine. I rotate the batteries, use the vac and radio often, they seem to be holding up ok. Now all that said, I do have a very nice Makita circular saw and a Milwaukee Sawsall, because there are times when power and quality do make a difference, but they may get used once for every 20-30 times the cordless tools do. If I need to cut a few 2x4's I'm not going to get out the Makita, grab an extension cord, set up sawhorses, etc when I can grab the cordless off the shelf, balance the 2x on the retaining wall, grab it with one hand and the saw with the other and be done in 2 min. Are they the lightest...maybe not. Do they have worklights and MP3 players built in, no. Can you address them by name and ask them where the best coffee is...of course not, that's what friends and neighbors are for!

So anyway...what I'm saying is if you want a great quality cordless drill and that's the only tool you'll ever buy, go ahead and spend $175-200 on one tool, batteries, and a charger. Just remember that if you want a new battery or tool to match sometime down the road...it's gonna cost ya.

 

I'm with Gungu45y on this one.
I also have some high end electric tools that I use for heavy duty use, but 99% of the time I use my Ryobi set.
I bought this set last year at Christmas time on sale for about $169.00. to replace my older Ryobi tools that all still worked fine.
I sold my old set for $100 to someone that had no tools.
My tools get used every day on real jobs and I have yet to have one brake down.

 

Thanks for the detailed reply! I will consider those points.

Oh...and I'm just using my tools around the house...fairly advanced. My B&D devices have been ok for the most part. I like the batteries being interchangeable among compatible devices.

Hmmm. So narrowed down to Dewalt and Ryobi.

 

Oh, Sorry, I didn't see you link before.Hhad my screen adjusted for night and the blue didn't show up enough. If you are buying off Amazon or Ebay, you may indeed be able to get the bigger names at better prices. Just make sure they aren't reconditioned. I don't have a problem really with buying re-con tools, but only from a dealer, not online.

I was looking at prices from my local HD. Normally, if I want or need a tool...it's for "now" use, not next Monday. Also, the local Depot has kit's that aren't on your list. For a price just $10-20 more you could get an impact driver or a circ saw, sawsall and light as well. For $10 less, they have a kit with a saw and drill. If you happen to be military, a vet, or know someone who is, you'll get $10 off any purchase. And there are always in-store specials and regional ad's for the week that don't show online.

No matter what you finally choose, I highly suggest you go to a store and handle the tools. You may find that the brand you were looking at is much heavier than you expected or the handle just doesn't feel right.

 

Guess I can put Ridgid on my list.

I respect everybodies opinion, but I could never go there with the years of comments I have seen!

 

If you can I recommend waiting a month. Thanksgiving the tool stores come out with some good inexpensive sets.

I am a pro and I use my cordless tools HARD. That said, I did have a Rigid drill/impact set for about 3-4 years and it did very well for me. Power wise it did not have the same power as the big name tools, but it always did the job well enough. For a homeowner, they should work just fine. I would also recommend a drill/impact set. I Looooove my impact gun.

If you do go with Rigid, just make sure you send the warranty card. That will get you free replacement of anything that breaks, including batteries.

On your list I would not recommend buying the DeWalt kit. It is older battery technology and not lithium ion. Out of your list I would choose the Makita.

 

Oh, I like Rigid pretty well also. That's what we used as "store tools" when I worked there. I have a corded 10" Rigid power miter saw that I think is as good as any equivalents out there.

And I didn't notice the Dewalt was NiCad. Not an option to me.

 

I did not have good luck with Ridgid cordless drills.
I have had the best luck and performance with Milwaukee cordless.
By far the best bang for the buck.

When you have cordless tools..... you need to USE the battery. You cannot charge it and allow it to just sit around. It will lose capacity fairly quickly. The battery needs to be routinely used and exercised.

I guess in that vein of thought it may be better to buy a tool with a less costly battery and just replace it sooner.