A drilling question.

[James Salisbury]

Which is a better drill, a £50 14.4 V bosch such as the PSR 1440 or a Focus own brand 18V? I have the 18V one and the chuck now has a nasty wobble...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's a minefield. Most power tools use the same size cells - sub C. So like for like, higher voltage should mean longer battery life. But the quality of cells varies enormously between cheap and decent makes - and does the peak current that can be sourced from the battery.

And that's before you start on the mechanics. ;-)

I've got a PPPro 18 volt I use for junk things - although I modified the charger and changed the cells for decent ones. So it's not bad. But not as good as my ancient Makita 12 volt in general.

[Rick]

I got a PPro one - comple junk, took 8 hours to charge, and could not drill 4 10mm holes in 3 inch green spruce. I found a dewalt 18v at a good price, delivery was two weeks, and the charger is 110v, so I ain't tried it yet ......

I wish I had just spent some more money with screwfix, it would have saved me hours of messing with my corded drill, on the roof of me house. The dewalt 18v hammer drill/drive is 200 quid with screwfix, and comes with a all the normal freebes, if only thay were that price with screfix 4 weeks ago :-)

Rick

[Ian Stirling]

And then again...

I just bought a 18V one from Aldi, for about 20 quid. Have drilled 30*16mm*100mm holes with it, after ~1 hour charge, and shows no sign of fading. Works well.

[dave]

I bought a £15 one from Argos several weeks ago. Used it to drill dozen of holes (some just for fun :-) ), mainly on woodwork, some in thin steel cases, several in brick for shelving - no problems at all and recharges in about an hour. I've only had to recharge it twice.

[Paul Andrews]

Which drill in particular?

[Lobster]

Have you tried the Power Tool faq at ?

David

[Vaci]

I got about a week's worth of drilling out of a B&Q PPro before it broke. The staff at the returns counter didn't seem surprised. So if you just want a drill to abuse for a week or two, for free, then they are perfect. Don't expect it to last any longer, though!

Vaci

[Doctor Drivel]

A PP or PP Pro? They are different ranges.