After drilling over 1,000 holes and sinking at least 60 pounds of screws in drill tests dating back to , we&#;ve found the DeWalt DCD701F2 Xtreme 12V Max Brushless 3/8 in. Drill/Driver Kit to be the best one yet.
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Manufacturers like to market them to pros, but don&#;t be put off: For all of those slightly-more-involved home tasks&#;from hanging a baby gate to mounting shelving&#;a drill will make the work faster, easier, and more enjoyable. And you&#;ll be more likely to achieve solid, professional-looking results than if you used hand tools alone.
Cordless drills are more powerful than they&#;ve ever been. Yet they&#;ve also gotten so compact and lightweight that you can probably handle one even if you&#;ve never picked up a drill in your life.
This DeWalt is similar to the 18-volt Milwaukee, but it offers a little more battery life and an LED that can be used independent of the drill. It also has a higher price tag.
The 18-volt Milwaukee -22CT handles demanding work faster and easier than the smaller, 12-volt drills, yet it manages to retain the great ergonomics and other features of our top-pick DeWalt drill.
This Milwaukee isn&#;t as comfortable to hold as our top pick, but it has all-day power, especially when used with the high-capacity battery.
The Bosch PS31-2A 12V has power similar to that of the DeWalt DCD701F2, but it&#;s clunkier to hold. And the little touches, such as the LED, aren&#;t as nice.
The DeWalt DCD701F2 Xtreme is the most comfortable drill we&#;ve ever held. It&#;s loaded with convenience features and packs enough strength and stamina to easily handle common jobs around the home.
The DeWalt DCD701F2 Xtreme 12V Max Brushless 3/8 in. Drill/Driver Kit combines power, comfort, and convenience in a way that none of the other tested drills do. In our tests, it bored 30 1-inch holes through a 2-by-10 on a single battery charge, showing it can handle just about anything within the four walls of a home (and even the occasional foray into more aggressive work, like a small decking repair). Other drills we tested had similar power, but the DeWalt DCD701F2 really excels in ergonomics and convenience features. The molded handle seems to account for every curve and bulge of the hand, the battery is designed so that the drill can stand upright when not in use (other drills, like the runner-up Bosch PS31-2A 12V, need to be placed on their side), and the LED is positioned so that it illuminates the drill front better than most. In all our years of testing, we haven&#;t found a drill that&#;s as much a pleasure to use as this one.
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SKIP ADVERTISEMENTIf the DeWalt DCD701F2 is overpriced or unavailable, we also like the Bosch PS31-2A 12V Max 3/8 in. Drill/Driver Kit. In our tests, this 12-volt Bosch couldn&#;t drill as many 1-inch holes on a single charge as our top pick, but it still has more than enough power for general home tasks. In our own measurements, we found it to be about 5 ounces lighter than the DeWalt DCD701F2, but it feels heavier because the balance isn&#;t as nice. The Bosch battery slides up into the handle, making the grip fatter and not as contoured as the DeWalt&#;s. Also, the LED doesn&#;t illuminate as well. Even with these drawbacks, we&#;ve been using (and recommending) this drill for years, and we&#;ve seen firsthand a long track record of reliability.
If you&#;re looking for a real workhorse of a drill, or if you have other tools in the Milwaukee 12-volt ecosystem, we like the Milwaukee -22 M12 Fuel 1/2 in. Drill/Driver. It&#;s pricey for a 12-volt tool, but when we tested it with the included 4.0 Ah high-capacity battery, it put up numbers that rivaled or exceeded many of those of the 18-volt drills we looked at. Its considerable power is emphasized by the fact that it comes with a 0.5-inch chuck (the nose of the drill, where the bits fit in), which is larger than what is found on a standard 12-volt drill. This allows the Milwaukee to accept larger drill bits. The downsides are that, like the Bosch PS31-2A 12V, the handle isn&#;t as comfortable as the DeWalt DCD701F2&#;s, and when using the lower-capacity battery, the tool can be placed only on its side when set down. We think most will be just fine with the capabilities and comfort of our top-pick DeWalt, but this Milwaukee can definitely get a lot of work done.
If you take on projects that have you drilling lots of holes and sinking long screws, we recommend stepping up to the Milwaukee -22CT M18 Compact Brushless 1/2 in. Drill/Driver Kit. This 18-volt drill shares the most important characteristics of our less powerful top pick: It&#;s extremely comfortable to hold and use, and the little convenience features, such as the belt hook and LED, are spot-on. It&#;s also extremely short&#;shorter than even any of the 12-volt tools we tested&#;so it fits into tighter spots. Compared with our 12-volt Milwaukee pick, this larger drill completes tougher jobs much faster, doing the same work in less than half the time with a battery that lasts a lot longer. We tested drills during a kitchen remodel and a few smaller house renovations, and this is the drill we reached for over all the others.
If the Milwaukee 18-volt drill is not available, or if you have other 20-volt DeWalt tools and batteries, we also like the 20-volt DeWalt DCD800E2 20V Max XR Brushless Cordless 1/2 in. Drill/Driver Kit. It&#;s very similar to the 18-volt Milwaukee in power, ergonomics, and overall design. The DeWalt lasted a little longer in our battery test, and it has an LED that can also be switched on independently of the drill and slightly rotated, a unique feature that turns it into a rudimentary flashlight (which could come in handy in nearly any crawl space). The light is neat but not necessary, so we prefer the typically less expensive 18-volt Milwaukee, which is a little shorter and delivers roughly the same power and battery life.
If you&#;re looking for more power and battery life than what the 12-volt models provide, but you&#;re hesitant about the cost of the 18-volt Milwaukee and 20-volt DeWalt drills, we recommend the Ridgid R 18V Brushless SubCompact Cordless Drill/Driver Kit. It doesn&#;t have the same strength as the other two, but it has enough power for most midsize DIY projects, such as light framing. We see it as a good drill for someone starting out on the DIY road who might want a decent drill at a lower cost.
For more information, please visit Cordless Drill Supplier.
Ryobi&#;s 300-Piece Drill and Drive Kit and 95-Piece Drill and Impact Drive Kit are the best drill bit sets we&#;ve found in years of testing.
This article appeared in the Winter issue of This Old House Magazine.
To say that a drill/driver is an indispensable home-improvement tool is no exaggeration. It accomplishes basic tasks like drilling holes in wood, metal, and masonry, and when fitted with the right bit, lets us drive screws and other fasteners into those holes, and back them out.
Today&#;s models have come a long way since the first portable drills for homeowners were introduced in the early s. Back then, they weighed more than 5 pounds, were tethered to a cord, and, if the bit grabbed, could break your wrist as the drill spun in reverse. That danger largely disappeared with the introduction of torque-limiting chucks, enabling drills to drive screws&#; and become known as drill/drivers.
Cords have largely disappeared, too. There are now dozens of cordless versions that utilize the latest in lithium-ion batteries and sophisticated electronics, providing more power, longer run times, and more features (hammer drilling!) than ever before. So whether you&#;re drilling a 1/16-inch hole in steel or a 6-inch hole in wood, driving screws into drywall or anchor bolts into concrete, there&#;s a drill/driver suited to the task.
Details: These small, compact drill/drivers, a.k.a. electric screwdrivers, typically have a ¼-inch chuck that accepts hex-shank driver bits, as well as drill bits with ¼-inch hex shafts. They&#;re nice for small screw-driving tasks like tightening outlet covers or assembling furniture, and they&#;ll fit neatly in a kitchen drawer. However, their small motors spin slowly and generate very little torque, so they&#;re likely to bog down when drilling into thick material.
Details: These drill/drivers are powered by bigger components, motors, and batteries than light-duty tools. Outfitted with either 3/8-inch or ½-inch chucks, they can accept a wide range of drill-bit sizes and driver bits, and easily perform common tasks like drilling a hole in a 2×4 or driving a small lag bolt. Their motors spin fast and they deliver higher torque than light-duty options, but they lack the oomph of tools with larger battery packs.
Details: These drill/drivers have the most robust batteries and motors, with the power to spin augers, Forstner bits, and large hole saws; to sink thick lag bolts and long screws; and to churn mortar with a paddle bit. The ones with a hammer-drill feature pound their spinning bits thousands of times per minute to quickly drill holes in concrete. While heavy-duty drill/drivers can do everything that lighter-duty ones can, their added weight and bulk make them clunkier and more tiring to use.
To drill a vertical hole, make a jig by fastening together two 1×s with their ends offset as shown. Check that the jig&#;s inside corner is square with the work surface, then line up the bit in the corner and start drilling. Remove the jig before the chuck touches it.
To drill a horizontal hole, hang an eyebolt on the smooth part of the bit&#;s shaft. Try to keep the bolt in the same place as you&#;re drilling. If it moves in or out, adjust the angle of the drill accordingly.
The simple act of drilling a hole requires finding the bit that works best for job at hand. You want a bit made for the type of material you&#;re boring into, which efficiently creates a hole of the size and appearance you&#;re after. Read on to learn which ones to use when.
TOH Tip: To minimize tear-out, splitting, and stripped screwheads, always drill a pilot hole before driving a screw. And to find the correct bit size for that hole, match the drill bit to the diameter of the screw, minus the threads.
When you shop for cordless tools, two ratings deserve your attention: volts (V) and amp-hours (Ah). Volts roughly indicate how much power is packed into a tool&#;s battery. Amp-hours reflect how long a tool can deliver that power. Both of these are a function of how many cells are in a battery pack and how they&#;re wired together. Heavy-duty tools have both high V and Ah to generate the torque they require.
As TOH master electrician Heath Eastman explains, most tool batteries are assembled with cells that produce 3.6 volts each: 12V tools typically contain three such cells; 18V tools usually have five cells. Do the math, and it&#;s clear that advertised voltages don&#;t always correlate with battery output: 10.8V and 12V tools both have the same number of batteries and the same number of volts.
The same is true for 18V and 20V tools. That&#;s because tool manufacturers who market 12V or 20V battery platforms are measuring battery voltage when it comes off the charger, before it goes under load. All batteries will register at their higher voltage, until the trigger is pulled. Then the voltage drops to its calculated value: 10.8V or 18V.
The more cells a tool has, the longer its run time. Visually, it&#;s a quick read: Fat battery packs have more amp-hours than slim packs (though bigger packs weigh more).
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