Question Any suggestions or recommendations for a good cordless drill?

Mark

Founder
Staff member
Premium Member
GOLD
Joined
May 27, 2012
Messages
5,192
Location
Bellmere, QLD
Website
www.selfsufficientme.com
Climate
Sub-Tropical
My old Ryobi drill has packed it in after several years of abuse (I mean use) :) does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations on what I should get next?

I am kind of thinking about exploring the Ryobi option again with their interchangeable 18 volt range but I thought my last drill lacked a bit of power to be honest but the newer range might be better - I really don't know.

Happy to look at any suggested brand...
 

stevo

nativebeehives.com
Premium Member
GOLD
Joined
Jun 13, 2013
Messages
1,804
Location
Clontarf, Qld
Website
nativebeehives.com
Climate
Sub-Tropical
on my phone so not so simple. . but.. it looks like his id the three hundred dollar aeg cordless.

ive had ryobi drills and they were good. i have makita and bosch stuff and its pretty good. I looked at the bunnings site and some of the bosch drills look ok.

how much do you want to spend ?
 

Steve

Valued Member
Premium Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
670
Location
Brisbane Australia
When I was looking for a new cordless drill a year or so ago this is my story....

I do like the Ryobi system but you do pay for it.

Things I looked at and my answers to the questions:
  1. How much am I going to use it? - not a great deal but they do come in handy if you do have one even if its more for screwing rather than drilling.
  2. How light is it? - I think for me this is a big selling point as with cordless you want as light as you can get otherwise you might as well get out the hammer-drill and go hard. A heavy drill is not a pleasure to use for more than a minute IMHO.
  3. What normally goes wrong with cordless drills? - for me it was the battery in my experience. The chucks used to wear out but I think they have got better with them now. Lithium batteries will probably be pretty similar I think when looking at the cordless range. No matter what they will still have roughly the same amount of recharge cycles, perhaps a more expensive one may last a bit longer in charge but not directly proportional to the cost. And the cost is the big thing with replacing these batteries. It will probably be cheaper to buy a new drill then to replace the battery. I could be way wrong with these assumptions but I'm just telling you how I saw it at the time.
  4. How much do you want to spend? - as little as possible but still get a decent unit
  5. Am I likely to buy other 'attachments' for the Ryobi system to make use of the interchangeability? - probably not. They all look good but I'm not in the market for a rechargeable torch or saw.
So my thought process was I wanted a powerful drill, as light as possible, and two batteries if I could.
I ended up with an Australian brand called Ozito which is 18V with 2 batteries. It is pretty light and plenty powerful for my needs. It's also very compact compared to some of the other cheap model which is a feature I really liked. I installed my mothers kitchen with that drill and it was awesome. I cant remember how much it was but definitely way cheaper than the Ryobi. It has a 3 year replacement warranty which I thought was awesome seeing I'm yet to have a drill last that long.
That was at least a year ago so they probably have a whole new range of products now to choose from.

As I said I've only had it for about a year so I can't comment on its longevity but so far I have no complaints.
Really you can't go wrong with a Ryobi, Makita or Bosch. I didn't have a great deal of spare funds so I had to look for a cheaper model.
If you can afford the named brands then go for it. I just thought I would give my experience with the slightly cheaper brand.

Good luck.
 

Mark

Founder
Staff member
Premium Member
GOLD
Joined
May 27, 2012
Messages
5,192
Location
Bellmere, QLD
Website
www.selfsufficientme.com
Climate
Sub-Tropical
I guess I don't want to spend hundreds but I was thinking around the $150 - I think my last drill cost less than 100 bucks.

Thanks for all the pointers and considerations! At least it confirms my own feelings that many of the brands out there like the Ryobi, Ozito, Makita, and Bosch, are all pretty good.

What normally goes wrong with cordless drills? - for me it was the battery in my experience.

Battery is something I didn't consider - it could well be that both my batteries are stuffed and not necessarily the drill. Do I waste money on a new battery pack only? Like you say the battery pack might be almost as much as a new drill set...

Why couldn't this of happened last weekend - I could of had a drill for Fathers Day instead of boxers :D

I'll pop in to my second home (Bunnings) tomorrow and see what they have on offer.
 

Mark

Founder
Staff member
Premium Member
GOLD
Joined
May 27, 2012
Messages
5,192
Location
Bellmere, QLD
Website
www.selfsufficientme.com
Climate
Sub-Tropical
Just to finish my drill story off, I went to Bunnings this morning and checked out some prices and it looked like I was going to fork out $220 upwards for a complete kit (drill and battery). My old drill is a impact and driver drill but now most brands sell them as a specialist and separate impact drill or a driver driver drill. I decided to try my luck at Masters but over there they didn't have any Ryobi to compare prices and they had brands I wasn't familiar with like WorX and 909. The Bosch etc were all about the same prices as Bunnings.

I went back to Bunnings and just happened to run into the Ryobi Rep in store so I asked him about the changes from their last drill to the new ones etc and told him my drill was stuffed. He seemed to think the old model was one of their best if not better than the newer models and wondered if both my batteries had packed it in at the same time making it look like the drill so he recommended I just buy the new lithium battery pack for $99 and give it a go first.

Well, I slapped the new battery into my old drill closed my eyes and hoped then pulled the trigger and zimmer de zim Zimmmm!! She went like the clappers :yahoo:It was the most powerful my drill had ever felt - even brand new.

So it was the batteries in the end - still cost me 99 balloons but it was better than a whole new drill set.

What I like about these new lithium batteries and re-chargers is you can leave them charge without any worries of cooking the battery because it turns itself off. And apparently, it will hold its charge for 12 months at nearly 100% so no more re-charging just because the drill hadn't been used for awhile.
 

Steve

Valued Member
Premium Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
670
Location
Brisbane Australia
Nice work Mark. It sounds like you got a pretty good result.
Batteries do have a finite life and 9 times out of 10 its the battery that packs it in.

Great success I think. If your old one still does the job and you can get a reasonably priced replacement battery, then why not.
 

Tim C

Two heads are better than one
Premium Member
GOLD
Joined
Aug 6, 2014
Messages
445
Mark. I have an old 9 (or 12) volt cordless. I wired it up to a cig-plug cord and run it off which ever 12 volt battery is charged off (which ever) my solar panel. It will literally twist your arm off- no lack of power. The battery should have a carry-strap for convenience.
 

Justin Dallas

Member
Premium Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2014
Messages
15
Website
www.justindallas.co.za
I was looking at the new Bosch Professional (blue series) cordless drills - REALLY nice! Cordless, Li-Ion battery, 18v with a hammer function. They also have another version with SDS chuck.

But, with new Li-Ion batteries becomming mainstream - the price is really falling with the Ni-Cd systems. I picked up a quick replacement 18v Ni-Cd Cordless drill with Hammer function (think it was Fragram or Ryobi) for like R400 ($35) here. It wont last as long as the Bosch - but, its like an 8th of the price.
 

Mark

Founder
Staff member
Premium Member
GOLD
Joined
May 27, 2012
Messages
5,192
Location
Bellmere, QLD
Website
www.selfsufficientme.com
Climate
Sub-Tropical
My old crappy Ryobi is still going great after I swapped the battery for the new lithium 18v - heaps more power and longer battery life. Looking forward to seeing 36v become mainstream :)
 

Mark

Founder
Staff member
Premium Member
GOLD
Joined
May 27, 2012
Messages
5,192
Location
Bellmere, QLD
Website
www.selfsufficientme.com
Climate
Sub-Tropical
What a great idea!!!! I didnt realise you could just buy a new Li-Ion battery for a Ni-Cd cordless drill.
Yeah, neither did I until the Ryobi rep I met at the hardware store (Bunnings) said I could - saved me a lot of money :)
 

stevo

nativebeehives.com
Premium Member
GOLD
Joined
Jun 13, 2013
Messages
1,804
Location
Clontarf, Qld
Website
nativebeehives.com
Climate
Sub-Tropical
2013 thread?... wooo.

I ended up buying an AEG battery drill, it has been working well over the last threes years. I also bought a Ryobi 18v drill that shares the 18v one+ battery system. It's a similar spec to the AEG. When I'm making boxes I have one drill with a drill bit and one drill with a counter sink head or a screw driver tip in it so speed the process up. Sometimes I think I could use three drills.

No problems with either brand..... yet.

I think, it you're going to use something a lot then buy good quality because cheap tools will annoy you. I'm not saying that Ryobi or AEG are high end quality or anything. I mean, if you go for the cheapest brands like something from Aldi or even "some" Ozito tools just have little things that drive you nuts like low quality brackets, fittings or guides.

If you don't use the tool that much and just need something to get a job done then they're probably ok.
 

Ash

Valued Member
Premium Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2015
Messages
679
Location
Preston, QLD
Website
asmedical.webege.com
Climate
Temperate (all seasons)
Good going with that. The Bunnings guys are always helpful. We'll be graced with another Bunnings store in Toowoomba soon, to complement the existing one on the western side of town, and given the fall of Masters it's going to be up and up for them. I bought a Ryobi One 18V cordless from them and have been happy with it. The top setting has more than enough power for me but I gave it to a tradie once to do a job for me and he smirked. I'm the first to admit I'm not a natural handy man, so I won't be constructing anything elaborate with it.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom