Panasonic 15.6 v drill

[chester]

I am about to buy this cordliss drill, but was wondering if anyone has any experience/opinions on how much of a difference there is between the

15.6V and an 18V (panasonic has an 18V for ~$40 more, but I like the idea of lighter/smaller). I know the 15.6 volt will serve most of my needs, but occasionally I want to drill though studs (for running wires, e.g.) or 3/4" plywood, treated lumber, etc., and have found my old Ryobi 12V inadequte for such tasks (well, the batteries are pretty old in that one). Will the 15.6V have the torque to accomplish such tasks, in anyone's experience? thx

[Fred]

Its better to have too much power than not enough. For a high end drill like Panasonic $40 difference is not that much more but the 18V maybe too heavy for all around use. If it was me I just get a 14.4V drill (or keep the 12V Ryobi and get new batteries) and grab my corded drill for heavy duty drilling. I have a couple of older Panasonics and those batteies are expensive and only good for a few years.

[Jeff G]

For drills, volts don't matter. Amps do. 5A or more should be enough for studs, treated lumber or any other home job.

[Alan Smithee]

I just bought this drill this morning the 15.6v EY6432. I did my homework, it was picked as the top drill by the editors of Fine Homebuilding in the March 2003 issue. By all accounts it's awesome. NiMH batteries with a SMART Charger -- alleluia! . It has the feel of a precision instrument. The only down side is the price. But I finally got tired of buying a new drill every two or three years. I'm hoping I'll get at least 5 or 10 years out of this one. I'm going to try to rebuild my old drill's battery packs (see my post) to use as a back up or as a spare.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

On 09/06/05 03:58 pm chester tossed the following ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

I've drilled through that kind of stuff with my 9.6V Black & Decker.

Perce

[Edwin Pawlowski]

The Panasonic will do wonders compared to the Ryobi. Great drill, nice feel to it.

[keith]

How do you think you get amps? Power (V*A) is really the metric of interest (power = torque*RPM) . There will be less loss in a higher-voltage drill, given the same power. Higher voltage = more power, but heavier.

[Fred]

Good try but I have to go with Keith. Power=VxA as stated by him and there is no getting around that. Gearing down does not give you more power, just more torque but less time to do the work given the same amount of power.

[Larry]

I bought the Panasonic 15.6V drill in July and it's great. Based on published reviews and hands-on shopping, my choices were down to the 15.6V Panasonic and the 18V Milwaukee. I bought the Panasonic because it was lower cost, lighter and smaller to get into tighter places. I am in the process of remodelling our lake cottage and spent a lot of time this summer rewiring the place. I've been using 3/4" spade bits to drill through doubled up studs and top plates to pull romex wire. Plenty of torque for that job; enough to almost break my wrist when the bits catch unexpectedly. The charge in the batteries last forever. I also used it to drill through 4x4 treated lumber for some dock repair. No problem. Got it for $175 (+S&H) through Amazon on one of their sales.

[Jeff G]

While it's true that for both volts and amps, more is better, in the context of power drills the relationship between voltage and "more power" is ambiguous. Drills can be geared to run at any range of speeds, and voltage doesn't tell one anything about how much _torque_ they can generate, which is the important spec with regard to drills (at least for purposes of this discussion). Amps on the other hand is a much better spec to determine the amount of torque drills can generate. E.g. 5A is 5A, regardless of how a drill is geared or its range of speeds.

[Jeff G]

Efficiencies and battery quality vary across brands, and even within models of the same brand. E.g. it's easy to find 15.6V drills that have both more torque and longer capacity than some 18 and even 19.2V models. The point is, an amp (or at least ft/lb) rating is a much more accurate bottom line for torque, whereas voltage isn't.

[keith]

No one raised "efficiency". Even then, a lower voltage (thus higher current) battery at the same power will be less efficient. There *are* loses in the battery, controls, and motor. Voltage *does* matter.

No it's not. A high torque rating doesn't mean more power at all. Power is torque *times* RPM. You really do need both, which is why any decent cordless drill has two gear ranges. AFAIK, there isn't a standard for torque measurement either. Stalling a drill isn't exactly recommended.