Choosing a cordless drill part 2
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Parts
Once you know which voltage cordless is right for you, there's still the matter of battery type to consider. Once the only choice for battery packs, Nickel-cadmium (NiCad) is still standard on most models. NiCad packs have good power output characteristics, a long recharge life, and are perfectly adequate for most cordless users. One of NiCad's biggest bugaboos is battery memory: Recharging a partially spent pack reduces its maximum charge capacity. NiCad's are also susceptible to heat damage. For best performance, choose a model that comes with an advanced charger and follow good recharging practices, such as draining batteries fully before recharging and letting hot packs cool before and after charging.
Makita, Panasonic and Festool offer models sporting Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries. Although they're more expensive, NiMH cells typically have higher ratings than same-sized NiCad packs do, to offer longer run times. NiMH packs aren't hamstrung by the "memory effect" of NiCad's, and can be recharged at any time. On the downside, NiMH batteries are more expensive and possibly have a shorter charging lifespan than NiCad's.
The newest technology to come down the electron highway is the Lithium-Ion (Li) pack. Li batteries promise impressive performance, including excellent power output for their weight, no memory effect or heat problems (they're ready for use after a fast one hour charging), fairly constant power output right up to when they're exhausted. However, Li batteries are more complex than other battery types. The packs have built-in ("encapsulated") electronics and use special chargers that carefully regulate the charge to each individual cell inside the pack. The only Li-powered drill on the market is the Milwaukee mega-powered V28 drill, designed — and priced -for the most demanding users.
Since all cordless tool brands (and even some specific models) use dedicated chargers that work with their batteries, you typically must use the charger that comes with the drill you buy. Predictably, chargers are roughly comparable in sophistication and features with the drill they're paired with. Chargers for economy grade drills run on separate "wall wart" type transformer power supply. Lacking any charge-managing electronics, these are designed to charge batteries at a glacial pace, and may require many hours to fully recharge a pack. Better quality drills come with upgraded chargers that feature electronic circuitry of varying degrees of complexity. The most clever units (look for several charging-status LEDs on the unit) carefully manage the charging cycle to the pack. This maximizes battery performance and prevents heat damage, to increase a pack's longevity. Some of these units can deliver a full charge in an hour or even less. A few models employ a built-in fan to dissipate heat, while others are designed to charge two batteries at once — a good choice if you go through packs faster than the Marlboro man.
Buying advice: Buy a drill with at least one extra battery (two if you often use a drill continuously for hours at a time: use one battery, charge one, let one sit and cool before/after charging).
To do safe, accurate work, you need to be able to exercise full control over a power tool at all times. Therefore, it's important to consider the layout and "feel" of a drill's basic controls — its trigger, reversing switch, gear selection lever, etc. The controls should be well located and feel easy and natural to operate. Even one control that's difficult to operate, such as a badly placed switch or a difficult-to-slide lever, can make using the finest quality tool a tedious experience. Case in point: I've tried several drills with reversing levers that I couldn't easily flip with my thumb, a real pain when driving and removing screws. Conversely, well designed and well-built controls can make a drill very pleasurable to use. For example, premium quality Hilti and Festool drills have very smooth and sensitive trigger actions.
Hand in glove (so to speak) with a drill's controls are its ergonomics, starting with how well the tool fits in your hand. Major manufacturers have paid a lot of attention to ergonomics in recent years, and imbued their tools with a host of "user-friendly" features. Almost all current drill models have a rubber overmold on their grips, to make the surface softer and easier on your hand. Another ergonomie consideration is how well a drill balances in your hand. This is especially important with heavier, higher voltage drills, where poor balance or nose-heaviness can put a truckload of strain on your hand and arm.
Buying advice: It's always best to try out a drill before you buy it, to make sure it fits your grip and you like its balance and control layout.
When I look at cordless drills and other tools, I usually see two kinds of features: important features that define a tool's character, and incidental features that are add-ons to the basic tool. In the former category, the Australian-designed Triton 18-volt drill's innovative plunge base mechanism transforms a basic cordless drill into a fully portable mini drill press. If I built a lot of bookshelves or display cases with adjustable shelves, I could easily imagine buying this model specifically because it offers such an easy, elegant way to accurately drill 90° holes for the shelf pins.
There's a long list of entries in the cordless drill incidental features category, including: auxiliary handles (best on torque-y high-voltage drills) ; belt hooks that keep a drill handily at your side; built-in LED lights, great for maintaining visual contact when using a drill in lightless closets or crawlspaces; auxiliary bit holders. Skil even includes electronic stud finders that detach from the top of some models (see photo, on the next page).
Only you can decide whether these features are useful to you, or are merely gimmicks; however, I would advise against selecting a model based on its features alone — I'd rather own a really basic drill that's powerful, well-built and comfortable to use over one that's less useful but has a built-in karaoke machine.
Buying advice: Don't buy a drill with lots of extra features that you don't anticipate needing. Chances are, you probably won't use them much.
As with most things in life, you get what you pay for. It's simply unrealistic to expect an inexpensive drill to work as hard or last as long as a premium-priced model. What do you get when you pay more for a cordless drill? In contrast to bargain-priced drills that use nylon gears and light-duty controls, premium drills sport hardened metal gears (and, sometimes, metal gear housings), high-impact, fiber-reinforced bodies and high quality switches and electronics, all built to hold up in the long haul. Something else you usually get when you buy a better-built drill is a better warranty: No-name bargain models may offer only 30 days of defect protection, while national brands typically offer limited coverage for between one and five years. Ryobi offers a two-year warranty and 30-day exchange period, even on their least expensive models, and DeWalt drills feature one year full coverage — even for parts that wear out — and three years limited coverage for parts that break.Warranties on the battery packs are shorter, typically one to two years. But just because a premium drill is built better and is destined to last longer doesn't mean it's necessarily the right choice for you: If you're a weekend warrior whose biggest project last year was hanging a curtain rod, then a less expensive drill might serve you just fine.
Buying advice: It's cheaper to buy a drill as part of a kit that includes several cordless powertools, instead of buying the tools separately. Bonus: all the tools use the same battery packs and charger.
Now that you're thoroughly steeped in drill selection criteria, you may still feel unsure of which cordless drill to buy. Once you've narrowed your choice of drills, you might be tempted to make a final selection the way many people choose a bottle of wine: buy the one that looks the prettiest. But buying on looks alone is unlikely to provide you with a drill that suits your work style as well as your aesthetics. A much more useful strategy when you're unsure of a final selection is to shop at a reputable dealer with a generous return policy. Take the drill home; try it out. If it doesn't suit your needs, or it just doesn't feel right, you can take it back and get another one.
If your budget allows it, another buying strategy is to purchase two moderately priced cordless drills instead of a single more expensive one. Setting one up with a drill bit and the other with a driver bit can actually save a lot of time when making pilot holes and driving screws. Also, if one drill breaks down (even a Rolls Royce ends up in the shop now and then), you'll still have a drill on the job.
Tool review articles like this can be helpful in understanding how various drill models stack up against each other, but unfortunately, there are SO many different makes and models out there (more than 150 by my last count) that no single article can consider them all.
