Best cordless drill?

[N2SPOOKINU]

If your tools are like mine the most important tools are the cordless drill. Just curious which brand you prefer?
We went shopping for new drills today because our others are just worn out. The batteries go dead to fast and just dont give us what we need anymore.
We went to Home Depot and talked to one of the salesman.
To our surprise we found out Ridgid has a LIFETIME warranty on the batteries AND the cordless tools.
All you have to do is fill out the warranty info online. If a battery goes bad or a drill stops working just take it to Home Depot and they will send it out for repair. (1-2 week return time).
We bought ours today. Tried it out a little. It looks like it will do the job just fine.
I really like the lifetime warranty part.
Just a little info I thought I would pass on to my fellow haunters that might be needing some cordless tools this year.

Greg
Fearfest

[Darkangel]

Rigid and Dewalt are good just make sure you get the impact drills definitely the better drill to use.

DA

[N2SPOOKINU]

Yeah dark, thats all we buy now. We have alot of dewalt drills but with this lifetime warranty Ridgid has we are going to have to try them.

Greg
Fearfest

[Darkangel]

You'll love them!

Good luck,

DA

[Twin Locusts]

I only have an impact wrench for auto work but can speak to the quality of Dewalt. If you're getting battery powered the key is to get a minimum of 14.4 volts, 9.6 will make you do more of the work and will simply fail at some jobs. 14.4 is faster and has more torque in every application.

I've gotten good, sustained use, battery life as well. However, if Rigid does the job well it's hard to beat lifetime battery warranty. It's be good to know if Dewalt is the OEM for Rigid.

The only brand I suggest staying away from is Ryobi, never owned any but have worked on sites that do and they're junk.

[Darkangel]

I suggest 18 volts for your impactor. I've owned a few Ryobi's they were fine.

DA

[xxxdirk]

We own 5-7 Ryobis. Dewalt and Rigid are good, but I can not justify the price. (Always get 18V

[damon carson]

That lifetime warranty is only on your lifetime Greg! LOL!
Damon

[bodybagging]

Makita and Dewalts 18 volt of course...... Of course after 6 years of abuse my Makitas took a dump on my this past season... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Dark Attraction]

The Makita 18 volt Lithium Ion drills are by far the best drills for haunt use IMHO. They are very lightweight, powerful, and durable. You can get a set with a drill and an impact, plus charger and 2 batteries for $279. Home Depot had a set with one battery during Christmas time for $99, but I think it was a cheaper version.

I have a ton of 18v DeWalt gear, including drill/screwguns. They are great workhorses, but they get heavy over time.

A few years back, I purchased a Ridgid 18v set because of the "lifetime" warranty. The drill was very heavy, and impractical for frequent use in a haunt environment. I ended up trading all of my Ridgid cordless stuff for other tools.

I have mild carpal tunnel that is aggravated by too much use of the heavier drills. I haven't had any problems after driving hundreds of pounds of screws in the past 2 years using the Makita.

I also picked up some "refurbished" Makita drills to have some extras, and some of the bigger (3.0 ah?) battery packs.

On a related note, your local Interstate Batteries store can re-cell your dying or dead batteries. I just had a bunch of my DeWalt 18v's done, but I haven't had a chance to try them out yet. They are supposed to be better cells than the originals.

[N2SPOOKINU]

Dark, thanks for the info on interstate batteries. My Dewalt batteries are goin bad on me and if I can get them replaced cheaply I will consider it.
Most of my drills are Craftsman 19.2v and I bought new batteries for them last year and they already went bad. I know they have a warranty but I got the run around last time I tried to replace them so I will not buy any more.
We purchased the white Makita ion 2 years ago and the battery lasted about 6 months. Home Depot replaced it for me and the replacement lasted about the same time .
So now I have a Makita without a good battery and a bunch of Craftsman cordless tools with minimum amounts of batteries and Dewalts with the batteries going bad. (Very depressing lol)
I guess I dont have good luck with batteries which is why I was leaning in the Ridgid direction.
We will be buying 5 more impact drills this week to get our shop set up for tear out.
This thread has been pretty informative. Thank you!
Greg
Fearfest

[Jim Warfield]

Try The Black & Decker Smart Driver

I know Black & Decker has made some junk but this little hand-sized drill is incredible and the best 39 to $42 you will ever spend for any battery drill.
It is very small but solidly built, powered by Lithium it just keeps on turning and turning even when by the old normal standards these low groans would be the last sounds that you would hear just before a battery would go completely dead, this one is so surprising this way. Very handy for small places and high places when 18 volt batterys will break your. arm. What's
saving this abuse worth? $39-42? dollars? I can't stop using mine it is so easy to even carry around, you slip it in your pocket, leaving both your hands free to carry or hold other things.
They have a smal blue light built in to show you what you are working on. The forward/reverse switch is very handy and is designed so it almost reverses each time by itself as your hand passes over the lever. It has torque clutch adjustments which are very handy for controlling touchy drilling and screwing jobs with small, and thin things where neatness counts.
I too have had many different brands of different tools. I used to have a "Tools That Shit On Me" display here in my haunted house. A "tree" with them al hanging there, cords usually cut off and sometime internal parts laid out.
A local hardware store/lumberyard owner who sells DeWalt tools told me a few years ago that DeWalt makes many drills and saws that look identicle but are not, heavier or flimsier internal parts and this is what makes some of them much more expensive than the "On Sale" DeWalts, sometimes. You normally only discover this fact when you begin ordering switch parts and other things, one size doesnot fit all, or at least this was the way it was a few years ago, unless he was just fibbing to justify his locally higher prices?

[krazedklownkilla]

Ridgid is a great drill and its what I use BUT it is very heavy.

[RJ Productions]

I switched to DeWalt when 14.4 was the biggest. I just stayed with them. The biggest issue is manufacturers switching style of the batteries. We bought Craftsman cordless and the next year they switched style and you couldn't get batteries.

In regards to batteries the best bet is to get a few batteries, then when you have the battery shells you can have them rebuilt.
I've used Battery Pack Rebuilders.

http://stores.ebay.com/Battery-Pack-...LC?refid=store

You pay shipping to them, they pay return shipping.

[Graveyard]

Drill..

I really like this Ryobi:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...atalogId=10053

It's lightweight, affordable, plus comes with a light at the base so when you are doing some night drilling or quick fixes here and there it comes in handy.

Although you can only get this version purchased individually, the one in the kits do not have the light.

Ryobi 1/4 in. 18 Volt Cordless Impact Driver, about 1 hour recharge time.


Gets the job done, very good worker, never talks back... and worse case if you do drop it from working on your 50' tall facade... it's reasonably priced to replace if it breaks outside of its warranty period.