help me to choose a drill on a budget

[oleg]

As a new homewner I need a drill/driver for occasional weekend use. I am on the budget

[Mike Paulsen]

Consider a corded drill. You'll get more drill for your money, won't have to deal with battery issues (charging, failure, & replacement), and you can expect it to last decades with little or no maintenance.

Something like this is in the $35-$40 range:

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, If that is your short list, I'd choose Panasonic. I have DeWalt one.

[Toller]

Skill and Ryobi are crap. Only thing worse than crap is reconditioned crap. Panasonic has a good reputation, but I don't know anything about that particular drill.

Lowes is selling a Dewalt 12v drill (DW940?) for $99 now; almost half price off. Some stores don't have it on sale (such as the stores around me) but they will match the other stores if you ask them to. I have two of them and love them. Only problem is that the 12v line is kinda short; almost anything other than drills has to be bought used off ebay. I don't know how extensive the Panasonic line is, but if it is deep that might be a factor.

[wiz561]

Ha, I just posted a problem with my cordless drill. I had a Ryobi before, and it lasted awhile, but it just mysteriously started smoking and died not too long ago. I then decided to upgrade to a Makita. It's an awesome drill and I love it, but I am having a battery problem with it. It's also a little more than what your budget is set at.

best buy list. I also don't know much about the Skil. But as I said before, the Ryobi was great, but it only lasted for about two or three years. I did a lot with it; remodeled the bathroom, put up cement boards, build different projects around the house...even dropped it in my pond once. So, it did a lot and took a lot of abuse...but died after two years. But for the money, it might be worth it.

Another thing to consider is the weight of the drill. I didn't think about it until I bought my current one...but you don't want to be lugging a 2 lb drill around all day long.

Good Luck!

range:

[ransley]

range:

Hide quoted text -

Skill is junk, Ridgid has lifetime battery warranty,

[RickH]

I've owned them all, but the DeWalt cordless has a lot of torque for a cordless, more torque than I've ever seen on a cordless it matches the torque of my corded Makita. The Ryobi is crappy but they have a nice lineup and design ideas for re-using the batteries. My next drill will probably be the DeWalt or I'll just keep the one I "borrowed" from my friend since June. One caveat is that it is a heavy drill for a cordless, probably because it needs heavier gearbox for all that torque.

[George]

Ryobi & Skil are big box junk brands with Ryobi being a home depot "exclusive". Don't know anything about Panasonic.

For occasional use you might also consider a corded tool. More torque, no batteries to charge etc.

[Dan Espen]

Seconded.

The words budget and battery don't belong in the same sentence.

[oleg]

[Phisherman]

Just about any electric drill will outlast most cordless drills. But, you will get a far better value for your dollar with a corded $100 Milwaukee and, if not abused, chances are excellent it will still be running 10 years from now. All of my cordless drills died. If you have to get a cordless, a DeWalt or Panasonic would be your best bet, a big plus if it included two battery packs.

[Bob M.]

Get a corded drill. For the price you want to pay, they're better. You can find a pretty decent one for $50-60 or so and it will last many many years. I believe the Makita drills have replaceable brushes, so for $5 every 10 or

20 years, you can keep the drill going.

However, most corded drills don't have a "pistol" grip like the battery powered drills do. Corded drills have the grip at the end of the drill, which (IMO) isn't as good as the battery powered drills since it's not properly balanced.

Yes the cord can be a hassle, but for a drill it doesn't need to be the heavy-duty kind. In fact even 'light-duty' would do the job just fine.

[Mike Paulsen]

Avoid the store brands. You can't go wrong with a low end Milwaukee, Bosch, DeWalt, or similar well known brand.

Go see what's on sale. That might make it easy to decide.

Be sure to read:

[HeyBub]

Here's a corded drill for $15.00. 3/8", variable speed, reversible.

At that price, if it ever quits you just toss it and buy another.

[aemeijers]

I'll second that. For occasional household use, a corded is definitely the way to go. Under occasional use, rechargeables die young, and 3-4 years later the odds of finding a matching battery pack for less than the cost of a new drill are slim. Corded are also more powerful, in my experience. And they definitely are cheaper. Unless you drill often, and drill more than 20 feet from an outlet, the convenience of cordless is more than offset by the short life, IMHO. Now if I was still making a living on construction sites, my answer would be different- I'd have a rig like some cabinet installers I saw- 2 cordless in belt holsters, one with a drill bit, and the other with a clutched screwdriver head, and a backup load of batteries in the charger. But these were commercial-grade drills, not DIYs, and for a pro, time is definitely money.

I do own a cordless (24v B&D), and like it, but it was a $25 impulse purchase off the remainder table at the borg, marked down from about $60. It is great for small 2-3 hole jobs hanging things on walls and such, but when I tried to do production with it (deck screws on a couple of replacement boards), it wimped out after 4-5 screws, and would not dog them down. I went out and bought a corded Makita 3/8 variable/reversing for about 50 bucks, and zipped through the rest of the 30-odd screws in short order. Since the corded would easily do anything the cordless does, but the reverse is not true, if I had to choose between them, I would definitely keep the corded one.

Under light household use, any brand name corded should easily last 15-20 years. Both of my current drills replaced an extremely cheap B&D 3/8 that I had used for over 25 years, but smoked the bearings on drilling through 45 year old framing, running wires. (it still spins, but overheats quickly. I use it for wirebrushing rust off the car now.)

aem sends...

[Dan Espen]

Hmm just 10? I have a B&D over 30 years old that still works.

The variable speed was never very good though so I got a corded Royobi keyless with a clutch. I was expecting that to be the last drill I ever bought. I think they last a lot longer than 10 years for the average homeowner. At least this homeowner, I doubt it sees more than 2 hours of use a year.

[Steve Barker LT]

I wouldn't even bother if it's not a dewalt or a porter cable.

s

[DerbyDad03]

re: "occasional weekend use"

What will these "occasional" uses be?

Many here have suggested a corded model which might make sense if your occasional use won't be on a ladder 2 stories up. In other words, think about what you will be using the drill for and picture that use with an extension cord in the mix.

Oh yeah - If you go corded, make sure your drill budget includes the cost of a decent gauge exterior-use extension cord that either includes or can reach a GFCI outlet if you plan to use the drill outdoors.

My drills? A 20+ YO corded Skil 599 Xtra-Tool Hammer drill and a Dewalt DC759 18V drill. The *only* time I use the Skil is if I need a hammer drill which lately has only been a few times a year. I use the Dewalt for everything from removing outlets to mixing paint. On occasion I'll even drill a hole with it. ;-)

BTW - I also bought the Dewalt circular saw and flashlight - tools only - for use with the 18V batteries.

[DerbyDad03]

- I do own a cordless (24v B&D), and like it, but it was a $25 impulse purchase off the remainder table at the borg, marked down from about $60.

Not for nothing, but I wouldn't expect a $60 cordless drill, even a

24V model, to be able to handle even the smallest of jobs. Perhaps that's why it was on the remainder table.

My wife went to the B&D store at an outlet mall. She wanted to surprise me with tool so she asked the salesman for some help. When she told him that most of my tools are Dewalts, he suggested she go buy me a shirt or something! He didn't want to sell her anything B&D because the quality is so inferior to Dewalt.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, I don't know which brand(haven't used corded drill for a while) but I'd get variable speed reversible one with keyless chuck.