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I need a cordless drill

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I have DeWalt 12V cordless drill from around 2001 -- it uses the DC9071 12V NiCad Packs ... needless to say, they do not hold a good charge and are not cheap to replace. Eventually, it will get replaced with a 20V unit from DeWalt or Makita .. to bad DeWalt does not have an adapter to use the Lithium Ion packs with the older 12V Post style battery -- they do have an adapter for drills that were 18V NiCad to us the newer 18 - 20V Lithium Ion Packs.
 
bruceb said:
I have DeWalt 12V cordless drill from around 2001 -- it uses the DC9071 12V NiCad Packs ... needless to say, they do not hold a good charge and are not cheap to replace. Eventually, it will get replaced with a 20V unit from DeWalt or Makita .. to bad DeWalt does not have an adapter to use the Lithium Ion packs with the older 12V Post style battery -- they do have an adapter for drills that were 18V NiCad to us the newer 18 - 20V Lithium Ion Packs.
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They would not have you as a repeat customer then offer you a cheap way out. They would just accept the next first time buyer.
 
I prefer Milwaukee over DeWalt. The DeWalt brand has gone way downhill in the last decade.

If you just need a cheap set. Get the Ryobi set. They're good enough for most light duty household jobs. Ryobi is manufactured by the same company that makes Ridgid, Craftsman, and Milwaukee.

For high-end, my preference is Milwaukee, but for the lower end, Ryobi is not bad. I'm not a fan of Ridgid.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that this is Anandtech, so everyone is filthy rich and have supermodel WAGs. That means you should be buying Hilti. 🙂
 
Scarpozzi said:
. I have had great luck with Ryobi and feel like it's a better deal to buy this combo every few years just for the batteries.
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+1 for the ryobi gear. They haven't changed the battery connection type in 10+ years. All the old blue stuff still works with the new LiIo batteries. I still have cordless drills, saws, etc. that are easily 10 years old and still work fine. :thumbsup:

Bought some new green colored tools and LiIo batteries over the last few years. I haven't worn out one of the LiIo batteries yet. I do like the higher capacity batteries better than the small versions though.
 
DeWalt won't get me as a repeat customer, especially now that they are owned by Stanley Black & Decker .. And I did not pay for the first cordless drill (gift for like 10 years or so service with my job) .. But it is costing in terms of buying new NiCad Packs ... If you want really good power tools, look at the HILTI Line ... reasonably priced and work very well.
 
I don't understand the people saying things against dewalt or others. Due to technological advances (lion, brushless, metal transmissions, etc), practically NO cordless tools have went downhill. It feels like people don't know there are different models available. The dcd950/970 dewalt drill is a legend, I still have 3 of them, it was finally bested by the milwaukee fuel series, which was then passed by the dewalt 20vmax dc995, and now the gen 2 milwaukee stuff is the best you can get. That's not an opinion, I'm a dewalt guy, but milwaukee has just jumped to the lead in the never ending game. Makita has a beast drill in the 481, I bought one for my one makita guy and you can really tell it's 1062 inch pounds of torque. Dewalt has a more forgiving overcurrent protection in the 995 though, so I can actually get more work done with it, even though it's 'only' 728 inch pounds.
Tool threads bring out lots of FUD monsters.
 
Most recent lithium cordless drills (and impact drivers) are good from DeWalt, Makita, Rigid, Ryobi, Milwaukee.
You can't go wrong with any of them.

I would personally go with Rigid for the life time warranty on batteries.
I personally have DeWalt (work) and Ryobi (work and home), and love them all.

Anything from the last 5 years is amazing compared to anything 10+ years ago.
 
Eli said:
If you're going to stick with the drill you have, you should try and revive the battery. There is probably nothing wrong with it, but whether you're successful or not will depend on how much patience you have.

When nickel cells are left to self discharge for a long period of time, their voltage curve upon charging again is often wonky, and most chargers will either refuse to charge, or won't charge fully. Here is what it looks like visually:

In this first graph, the batteries had been sitting for over a year unused before being charged. Their voltage spikes up very high very quickly, and in response the chargers cut back to trickle charge after only inputting a fraction of the batteries total capacity.

DischargedPack1.jpg



Naturally, this gives you poor capacity:

DischargedPackDischarge1.jpg


This is what you're experiencing right now.

But after some more cycles, things start to look pretty good. This is the 5th charge cycle on the same batteries:

DischargedPackCharge5.jpg


Which results in a normal discharge cycle:

DischargedPackDischarge4.jpg
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Great info. I've also "fought" with deep cell marine batteries that chargers refused to charge, and after a week of fighting and charging, had them working just fine again.
 
bruceb said:
DeWalt won't get me as a repeat customer, especially now that they are owned by Stanley Black & Decker .. And I did not pay for the first cordless drill (gift for like 10 years or so service with my job) .. But it is costing in terms of buying new NiCad Packs ... If you want really good power tools, look at the HILTI Line ... reasonably priced and work very well.
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You realize that B&D bought dewalt in 1960? Hilti has a decent impact driver and arguably the best cordless hammer drill in the industry, but their regular cordless drill (SFH-18A) is an oversized, slow monster that would have been awesome in 2004.
 
I stand corrected on when they were owned by Black & Decker.
I own a few Porter Cable tools (Impact Gun, Hammer Drill, Right Angle Drill, 3/8 small profile variable speed drill)
but all of these are 110VAC power types and doing very well. Never thought about them for cordless models.
 
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I have one of these. It works ok, but it's a bit on the wimpy side.

Even with a full charge, it can't hold a candle to my old $20 Black & Decker corded drill in terms of sheer grunt - I can use it to, say, drill and drive pocket screws for furniture projects, but it wouldn't be up to the task if I were building a deck.
 
dave_the_nerd said:
I have one of these. It works ok, but it's a bit on the wimpy side.

Even with a full charge, it can't hold a candle to my old $20 Black & Decker corded drill in terms of sheer grunt - I can use it to, say, drill and drive pocket screws for furniture projects, but it wouldn't be up to the task if I were building a deck.
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Right, because if you're driving a bunch of screws (building a deck) you should be using an impact drill.
 
dave_the_nerd said:
I have one of these. It works ok, but it's a bit on the wimpy side.


Even with a full charge, it can't hold a candle to my old $20 Black & Decker corded drill in terms of sheer grunt - I can use it to, say, drill and drive pocket screws for furniture projects, but it wouldn't be up to the task if I were building a deck.
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Cuz that is not part of the hxp line.
 
Really depends on your usage. If you need it for one or two projects then buy something cheap. If you want something that you can use everyday and depend on then I personally recommend Dewalt because that is what I have experience with. They just flat out work, haven't had one break on me, batteries last a long time and tons of power for a cordless. I can't say that they are better than XYZ brand because I haven't used any in the last decade or so, I found a brand that worked really well and stuck with it even if it costs me a few extra bucks.

I did buy something from Ryobi, dammed if I can remember what, and it sucked balls so I wouldn't buy my 8 year old a $4 flashlight made by them.
 
Occasional use as in homeowner, even the Ryobi is good. Avid do it yourselfer, Milwaukee or Dewalt. I have both. Some of my Dewalt cordless are 18 years old and still taking a beating
 
DrPizza said:
Great info. I've also "fought" with deep cell marine batteries that chargers refused to charge, and after a week of fighting and charging, had them working just fine again.
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Yeah, you'll often end up fighting with lead acid chargers for a similar reason.

The mechanics are different, but the behavior is similar. When a lead acid discharges, it develops a sulfate layer on the electrodes. The sulfate crystals aren't very electrically conductive, so the batteries' internal resistance increases significantly. This causes the voltage to spike very high upon trying to charge, which confuses many "smart" chargers. They'll just immediately say the battery is full. Generally, the "smarter" they are, the worse they are.......

If you can't get a lead acid charger to charge a battery, put a known good battery in parallel with the misbehaving one and charge them both. That should help get the chemistry moving faster.
 
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