Are cordless drills really worth it?

[ivan2]

go to a flee market and look for big brand used drills. dewalt, ridgid, milwakee, hitachi, etc.

 

[SoulAssassin]

Get one of the craftsman sets for like $100 that comes with a light or whatever. Make sure you buy it on sale, they more or less alternate on sale this week, not the next, on sale the next week.

 

[HannibalX]

I have both and use both for different things.

 

[geno]

lion batteries are not a must, but they're a huge bonus when it comes to maneuvering and working in tighter spaces, they're a godsend. I wouldn't pay 2x or 3x the amount of a standard cordless for one, but there definitely are benefits to the smaller, lighter battery. You can find great deals on cordless drills and accessories on places like fatwallet from time to time, keep an eye out there. Otherwise, you can find good combo deals for about what you're looking to spend.

 

[Baked]

Buy a cordless w/ the biggest battery you can find, then buy an extra battery and keep that charged up.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

I have a cordless that I paid $22.50 for w/ two batteries (reconditioned, discontinued model during a sale), as well as a corded that I got as a gift. If I just need to screw something in, the cordless works fine, but if I need more power, I go for the corded. When I helped my parents on their deck we used corded because the batteries wouldn't last long with the constant use. They both have their pros and cons. Nice thing about corded equipment in the long term is that you never have their batteries go flat.

 

[Vette73]

I have done a little of everything. Both corded and cordless have there place. But for your budget and what you need to do, just get a cheap Skil/B&D/Craftsman/etc.. corded drill and a 25ft 14gauge extension cord. Get a small one as the larger ones have more power but you will not need it and that weight gets to you if you use it a lot.

That way you can use it pretty much anywhere you need and will never run out of power from a weak/bad battery. That and even if you box it up for a year it shopuld still work. A lot of cordless battries go bad so then you are in the same place again.

When I remodeled my house and am doing work in my shop the majority of time I use corded. I can't stand to be in the middle of something and run out of power.

 

[Sluggo]

If looks arent a huge deal for you, Text this place sells some Grade C reman Hitachi tools for really good prices.

For the price, you can afford to replace them every 6 months.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Cordless is great, but I haven't found a brand yet whose batteries are worth a shit.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Wheezer

Originally posted by: eLiu
So it seems like the vote for cordless drills is pretty unanimous... and that's the feeling I get from other people I've talked to as well. I guess I'll shell out some extra money and get a nicer set.

-Eric

Edit: The two big stores in my area are Sears & Home Depot... is either one preferable?

I *think* Craftsman and Ryobi are one in the same? (can someone confirm?)

I have a craftsman combo set and love it.

It really comes down to personal choice and most bang for your buck between the two.

Craftsman I know has been rebranded dewalt sometimes...not sure on ryobi.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

cheap tools... lol don't hurt yourself

 

[theMan]

last cordless i got the batteries just stopped charging after about 2 years. there was a sort of gradual decline until i couldn't even screw anything in with it. it was kind of convenient while it lasted, but i mean, i've had my corded drill for over 30 years and it's never given me problems. it was a dewalt btw.

 

[funkymatt]

the lithium-ion drill my neighbor has is nice, it turns off when the battery gets low though.

 

[mugs]

If you're going to be using it primarily for drilling holes, get a corded drill.

If you're going to be using it primarily for driving screws, or at least substantially for driving screws, get a cordless drill/driver.

Cordless drills are generally much, much better for driving screws.

1. Cordless drills usually have an adjustable clutch
2. Cordless drills usually stop dead when you release the trigger, corded drills keep spinning until friction stops them
3. Cordless drills are usually much easier to apply a small amount of power with.

This has been my experience with my DeWalt corded drill and a few other brands of corded drills, and my DeWalt, Craftsman and Ryobi cordless drills.

Sounds like you need a cordless drill. Check out Home Depot. Earlier this summer they had Ryobi 18v drills for $30 including a charger and ONE battery. I think that may have only been a promo price though. Keep in mind that only comes with one battery. I think Ryobi is the way to go for you, honestly. People always insist that people need professional grade tools in threads like this, but I firmly believe that is overkill for a typical homeowner.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Originally posted by: mugs
If you're going to be using it primarily for drilling holes, get a corded drill.

If you're going to be using it primarily for driving screws, or at least substantially for driving screws, get a cordless drill/driver.

Cordless drills are generally much, much better for driving screws.

1. Cordless drills usually have an adjustable clutch
2. Cordless drills usually stop dead when you release the trigger, corded drills keep spinning until friction stops them
3. Cordless drills are usually much easier to apply a small amount of power with.

This has been my experience with my DeWalt corded drill and a few other brands of corded drills, and my DeWalt, Craftsman and Ryobi cordless drills.

Sounds like you need a cordless drill. Check out Home Depot. Earlier this summer they had Ryobi 18v drills for $30 including a charger and ONE battery. I think that may have only been a promo price though. Keep in mind that only comes with one battery. I think Ryobi is the way to go for you, honestly. People always insist that people need professional grade tools in threads like this, but I firmly believe that is overkill for a typical homeowner.

#2 is true most of the time. This feature is called electronic brake. Some corded drills (mostly specialty), have this feature.

There is no such thing as "overkill" when you are talking about tools.

I have purchased many cheap tools over the years, and ALWAYS regretted it. They are either, unsafe to use, do not work correctly, or wear out very fast; usually all three. In the end they cost more to use than quality tools.

Originally posted by: theman
last cordless i got the batteries just stopped charging after about 2 years. there was a sort of gradual decline until i couldn't even screw anything in with it. it was kind of convenient while it lasted, but i mean, i've had my corded drill for over 30 years and it's never given me problems. it was a dewalt btw.

How long did you expect them to last? lol

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: AnonymouseUser
For occasional use, get a quality corded drill.
For daily use, get a quality cordless drill.
For professional use, get one of each.

Agreed, except that for professional use, you'll want two corded - one "normal sized" and one larger drill with more HP. You'll kill a smaller drill if you're drilling a lot of large holes (> 1")

But, for occasional use, I'd definitely go with corded. For weekly; cordless - a quality one.

 

[coremortality]

Yet another vote for 18v DeWalt. Well worth the money.

 

[IGBT]

..they've come a long way but aren't the end all for your drilling needs.

 

[xboxist]

If I understand your intentions correctly, just get a cheap corded drill. You're just talking about busting it out every now and then to fix or do very simple household things, right? No need for cordless.

 

[KaOTiK]

One of the few things I learned from my dad about power tools since he is a master carpenter is if all you want to do is put a screw in the wall for pictures and other crap that a regular screw driver could do get a cordless, otherwise get a corded as they will last for an extremely long time and be more powerful.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Sluggo
If looks arent a huge deal for you, Text this place sells some Grade C reman Hitachi tools for really good prices.

For the price, you can afford to replace them every 6 months.

Actually they have the Grade A drill on sale for cheaper then the C right now. Would do what the OP needs and more for around $30


The green drill

 

[dman]

Just an FYI, I've read about some of the cordless batteries stop taking a charge. Well, many chargers have a safety feature so that they won't charge the batteries if they drop below a certain voltage. You can sometimes give the batteries a manual charge (using a different voltage source, something larger than the current voltage level of the dead battery) and get them up over that minimum (up to 2-3v perhaps) so that they'll take the regular charge from there.

Is this safe to do? Probably not, but, if you are careful it's probably not that risky either. Do some reading first. Odds are if the pack discharged below the safety level something was wrong anyway, but, well, it worked for me. The recovered battery pack still isn't perfect, it drains quicker than the other one that is good (maybe 5% / day), but, it did charge and does run the drill whereas before it was completely useless.

 

[Jeff7]

I'm using an old Bosch that my grandfather gave me. It had ancient Nicad batteries, which I replaced with some super-cheap, Grade F (Powerizer brand) NiMH cells. Thus far, they seem to be working.
I had plans to refit one of the packs to use Li-ion cells, but I kind of lost interest in that project. Some day I might pick it up again though. The NiMH's are working just fine for now though.
And the drill is great to use. Long battery life, and it's got a lot of torque.

Dman: NiCads or NiMH's can get a "manual" charge, at least to boost them a bit. But don't do that with the Li-ion packs. They've got protection circuitry to monitor each individual cell. Plus, those things are somewhat volitile.

One possible way of reconditioning a pack of Ni-xx cells might be to break open the pack, and cycle the individual cells. It's possible that one has gotten weak over time, and that can bring down the performance of the whole pack. If it gets weak enough, it can find itself reverse-biased, and start taking a reverse charge from the stronger cells. When that happens, the weak cell will sustain damage.

My dream battery pack would of course be Li-ion, but it would use one of these circuits, instead of a conventional protection circuit. Conventional ones simply monitor the cells for excessive current flow rates, or low voltages. This kind gives individual charging attention to each cell, to keep them all at nearly the same strength.

 

[Leros]

Cordless is good for most things. If you're just hanging a picture, no need to drag out an extension cord and the cordless should be powerful enough. But if you're doing something like drilling concrete or drilling a lot, corded is the way to go. For an apartment, cordless is probably better. For a workshop, I would have both.

 

[Kelemvor]

I rarely use my corded drill unless drilling tons of holes. It doesn't have the setting so it will stop drilling once it gets to a certain tightness like my cordless does. If it had that feature I might use it more but it's just so easy to not have to worry about plugging it in.