hammer drills

Metabo is an absolutely top quality brand - whatever they make is A1 so it's not the drill itself.

Much more likely is that the bricks are just very hard, possibly engineering bricks.

You need an SDS drill - you simply will not believe how good they are unless you try one - and you will never go back to a normal hammer drill.

Ask me if you need to know why :-)

This is the one I have

Probably the best on the market IMO is the Makita 2450.

If you have a lot of work to do Screwfix have an unbelieveable offer

HTH

IMHO, the key word is "pneumatic".

I have a Bosch pneumatic SDS that is still going strong after almost 20 years of doing things like drilling 1 metre plus 24mm diameter holes in granite. Pneumatic is so effortless in comparison to normal hammer drills - no pushing, downwards it just goes through under its own weight.

I made a 750mm SDS extension (steel rod + SDS to UNF adapter + a bit of lathe and mill work) and use it to drive 24mm holes through my ground floor walls. Solid stone, mostly granite - 1.5m thick in places...

Electro-pneumatic is the type. Places like Screwfix sell them for around £70- £80 ish. You also see several traders selling them on Ebay. Most are SDS type chucks. I have a Sparky one which I got for about £50, and that goes through hard concrete like a hot knife through butter. It also has rotation stop so it can be used for chiselling. I also bought one in France for ?35 in a DIY place, and that works just as well.

Have to agree. Carbide tipped SDS bits with an electro-pneumatic SDS drill is the way to go. Once you use it, you won't go back.