Cordless drill 18V, Milwaukee or Makita

[Ollie]

Any strong pros or cons between these two tools?

[Upscale]

I've got a Milwaukee 12v cordless and it's always performed flawlessly. Had the 10 year old batteries rebuilt recently, but other than that, I've never had any problems with it. I've also got a Milwaukee corded hammer drill for the tough jobs. So far to date, I've not come across any better company for drilling tools.

[Joe_Stein]

I don't have either. Check out the Grizzly 18v drill/driver (G8597). I like mine a lot. Joe

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

I've got the Milwaukee 1/2" cordless hammer drill and it's quite stout. I replaced a Dewalt 14.4V drill with this one and so far the only thing I don't like about it is where I grip the chuck to swap out bits is a little hard on my hand compared to the Dewalt. The Milwaukee has some neat features, such as the ability to reverse the battery pack if you're working in a tight spot.

As for power, I believe it'd break my wrist before it bogged down. This thing is very muscular.

[J. Clarke]

Just a suggestion, but look at the whole system and go with the one that has all the pieces you think you're going to need. That way they all use the same battery, which is a far greater convenience than you might think.

[TeamCasa]

Milwakee 18v. I have three and they all work great and are very powerful. Dave

[Ollie]

Wow - mainly pros for the tools that people have. That is not making my choice easier. Recently I have seen quite positive statements about Panasonic. And, the Hitachi looks good on paper.

I had my 12V Skil for 10 years and it was reasonable, except the battery life was quite poor. I was leaning towards 18V, but perhaps there could be smaller and lighter 14.4V models that would in practice do all the things than the 18V models.

First I had only two alternatives, but now there are 8 permutations - or perhaps even more if the low cost Grizzly is a realistic alternative.

What would you do?

[Thomas Bunetta]

[Dave Hinz]

I've got the 12V Milwaukee and the 18V Makita. I like the Milwaukee's battery contacts better, the ones in my Makita get mis-aligned every once in a while and keep the battery from going in, which bends 'em worse, etc. I haven't used Milwaukee's 18V, but if the 12V is any indication, I'd say go for the Milwaukee rather than the Makita.

Dave Hinz

[MaxEN]

If you are going to use it for woodworking mainly, Bosch 14.4 is the way to go. It is simply the Best. Enought Power and tourq. I think. Maxen

[Jay Pique]

I'd go Bosch. Bosch is compact, which helps if you're into casework. Think about what other cordless tools you'd like, so you can perhaps stick with one brand/one battery.

If I were doing cabinet installs every day - or even just once or twice a month - I'd definitely have a full set of heavy duty cordless tools. It just seems like it would save a lot of time and frustration, provided you had a couple of extra batteries always charging in your truck.

JP

[Rob Jones]

Here's the text of a reply I recently posted to another query about Makita cordless drills:

============================================ I bought a Makita MForce 18V drill about 9 months ago, and couldn't be happier. When I bought the drill, I knew that I was going to have to drill several holes in a concrete floor to install 3/8" redheads (building a wall in my three-car garage) and wasn't sure how well a non-impact drill would work. As it turns out, the Makita drilled those holes effortlessly ( eight of them if I remember correctly) and had plenty of charge left over. I'm sure their 14V drill would perform accordingly (might require a full battery's charge).

I also believe that the state of cordless drill technology (at least the non-impact driver types) has reached the point where user features outweigh battery considerations when choosing a new drill. For my purposes, I chose the Makita over the other guys for two primary reasons:

1) The Makita fit my hands better than any other brand. I have medium-size hands, and my drill-fondling trips to Lowes (and others) led me to feel that the Makita fit me better than the others. 2) I already owned a 9V Makita drill with the stick-type battery, and the charger that comes with the MForce drills will handle that battery as well as the battery for the MForce drill. So, I now have two decent cordless drills.

I too, thought that I didn't want an 18V drill, but after handling both the 14V and the 18V MForce drills, I realized that the small weight difference (5.3 lbs vs. 4.6 lbs) probably wouldn't matter for my usage. To date I have not regretted choosing the 18V model over the 14V model.

Still, I think the most important factor is "How does it feel in your hands"? After all, that's where the drill will be doing its work! ===========================================

Rob

[max1]

My wife and I are finishing a shell we had built. Doing everything from electrical, HVAC to cabinets and the deck. When this project started I had an 18V Ryobi which had served me well for several years prior to this "little" project. Of all things, the charger for it died. I decided to replace it with the 18V Milwaukee and I have been very pleased. I compared the Milwaukee and Bosch tools in two different stores and the chuck on the Milwaukee in both cases was MUCH smoother than the Bosch. For me, the Milwaukee just felt better in my hand. YMMV. In the last couple weeks we built the deck which is cedar - not exactly the hardest of woods. This drill could easily put the 3 1/2" deck screws clear through the 2x6 floor boards if I would let it. Another thing I like is the feel of the trigger. Makes starting screws one-handed in akward positions very easy. A final thing I liked was that the high speed of the Milwaukee was a little higher rpm than most other drills in this category. Comes in handy for certain drilling applications. On the negative side (if you count this as a negative) it nearly took my wrist off when drilling through some exceptionally tuff material and catching on a knot. I don't expect to have to buy another cordless drill for a very long time.

Just my $0.02

Bob

[J. Clarke]

Something to consider--the latest generation of 18v drills from Dewalt have a 3-speed transmission and go up to 2000 RPM on the high speed.