Need a recommendation for a heavy duty cordless drill for everyday use. We mainly work in new production home construction and set numerous PK nails with discs in sidewalks. We have used the $50 throw away drills, which are good for about 9 months, for years. IÛªm in the market for something that will last for a couple of years or longer. Something in the $100-$200 range only used for drilling into concrete sidewalks. The type thing that uses .22 caliber shells is not something I am interested in. (the crews would probably shoot their foot or worse).
Thanks in advance.
don't know if these are available in the US but i use a Bosch GBH 36 V-LI Plus Professional. Exceptional battery power.
I accidentally bought a 24v Bosch hammer drill (used) on EBay. They tricked me and included "36v" in the title. I got the drill for $150. The used batteries were shot, so I bought some knockoff replacements on Amazon for $50. It actually works great. Can drill a long PK in seconds. Can drill a hole for a 3/8" x12" spike in about thirty seconds into concrete. The 36v would really kick ass.
We have 2 Bosch DCD970 18 volt drills. I got them out of their boxes last December and I was amazed to find that the batteries still had lots of juice. The last time the batteries had been charged was May of 2014! 18 months without a recharge and they were still cranking. The Bosch drills are very useful, as we were drilling holes for Magnails in bulkheads on Clear Lake. We would drill about 40 holes and the battery would run down so I purchased a spare for each drill. That process would last us until lunch and we recharged the batteries while at lunch.
Before I went back to school to be a surveyor, I spent 21 years building custom cabinetry and millwork. I made my living in part, with my cordless drill. There are several that are good (Makita, Dewalt), but when I am plunking down my hard earned money, I will always choose a Bosch cordless drill. This is my opinion only of course, but I have a load of trial and error in "research". Good luck!
The Dewalt 20v cordless hammer drill should work perfect for you.
I have their drill/driver as well as the skill saw. Happy with both.
When buying cordless tools, it's all about which batteries and chargers they come with. I would suggest buying the tool separate and getting a fast charger and larger capacity batteries that will run the largest tool you plan on buying.
I didn't pay attention and bought a drill/driver kit first. Works fine, the 1.5 amp batteries last plenty long and are small and light weight. They charge in about an hour. Then I decided to buy a skill saw to go with it. The saw takes a 3.0 amp battery min. The charger that came with the drill/driver takes 3 hours to charge the 3 amp battery. The small batteries will not work with the saw.
The 3 amp batteries can range in price from $59 to $115 depending on where you buy them so it's kind of a big deal to get that stuff right the first time.
I would also look at the manufacture date on the batteries, being that they are high dollar items, many of the small lumber yards will have unsold batteries sitting on the shelf for years. I'm not sure how that affects the warranty.
Drill preference is changing through the years. It used to be that makita had the best drills-80-90's. Then Bosch seemed to be taking it over. And some high end stuff is out there too. I have used a pretty good Dewalt drill too but they were always heavy. The most important thing to realize is that even in the same brand they are not the same. People ask for them by volt which is wrong. They make cheap versions to put on discount or holiday sale that are complete junk. So the "18 volt" you thought was a deal turned out to be the cheap model. Look for a metal chuck not a plastic one. As imaudigger mentioned, the amp rating is important too, often overlooked. I would recommend not buying at Home Depot or the like, first of all I hate those places. Second they usually have crappy models. If you do go there they bought out Milwaukee which always made really good products, and still makes a decent drill. Hilti makes great products but they are more expensive. Usually there is a local hardware store that supplies most of the real construction outfits, so the turnover is large enough that it was not sitting for years. Don't go to the little hardware store for these items either.
A little more expensive but...
I'm trying to get one that:
Is coordless
Large Capicity
Has Hammer-Drill.
AND
Can do HAMMER ONLY.
So, I can place a chisel in it, and carve holes in the pavement.
HARD TO FIND.
N
I have had a Bosch cordless for many years, the batteries just don't last, and power is lacking. If we had to set more than one or two disks, the batteries just wouldn't last. We rented a corded model several times, and then I recently bought a corded Bosch.
http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-11255VSR-BULLDOG-SDS-plus-D-Handle/dp/B000BB79Q6
It works MUCH better. But, you need AC power. We have a small generator, it works fine. A lot of the sites we work at (dams) have AC available.
We recently did a tunnel where we had to set pins in the ceiling. The tunnel had about 2 feet of water in it. I was worried about voltage drop because of the distance from the outside, where we could run a generator. We have had trouble in the past stringing extension cords together, the voltage would get too low. Typical extension cords are #16. I bought a 500' roll of #12 wire and put plugs on the end. worked great. I bought a large garden hose reel to wind the cord up on, so now we have it if needed.
I have one of the Bosch 36V SDS-Plus rotary hammers. Not cheap by any means, around $700 on Amazon, but it gets the job done. Comes with two batteries. I can drill out 1/2" pilot holes and 1-1/2" cores for recessing aluminium caps in A/C on at least five monuments per battery. The batteries re-charge in the time it takes to kill the other. Drilling in PK nails should be nothing for it. I would recommend it to anyone.
We tried cheap, we then went quality. The value is in the quality...
https://www.boschtools.com/us/en/boschtools-ocs/cordless-rotary-hammers-11536vsr-27672-p/
I've been using a DeWalt 18v hammer drill for many years with great results.
At the end of last year added a DeWalt DC212B 18v 7/8-Inch Cordless SDS Rotary Hammer Drill that is better.
I have used Bosch, Hilti, and DeWalt. The high end Bosch ones are arguably the best but I like the DeWalts because they are light, work okay and have good one year replacement. Hilti is fine also but have some idiosyncrasies that get on my nerves. Mostly 18 V I think.
I like Hilti brand bits and fasteners the best of what I have used.
To be clear, the tool for setting anchors in concrete is a rotary hammer, not a drill.
If you have people who are not versed in such things I would stress to them that there is no need to put a lot of weight into it, apply enough pressure that the roto is engaged and let the tool do the work, wrenching down too hard can shorten the life of the tool considerably.
If I were buying for general purposes I think I would try to find a model that shares batteries with a seven inch grinder and pick one of those up as well for minor concrete cutting etc.
when I was in construction about ten years ago hilti was the name that really worked. would stick to a good name like the ones everybody listed above and at a minimum I would get one that hammers.