Dead Drill

[The Medway Handyman]

Like many around here I prefer a mains drill for a lot of jobs & carry one on the van. Last one was a B&D 550w impact drill with a 13mm chuck, purchased last September & little used really.

It died in a plume of smoke last week so I returned it to B&Q along with receipt. (I'm sufficiently organised to write the date of purchase on the box of a power tool so I know where the receipt is filed).

Droidette looked at receipt & said that since it was over 90 days old I would have to contact B&D.

I politely told her about my contract being with B&Q and not B&D & the sale of goods act, which clearly went straight over her head. Manager droid arrives. I explained again & he reluctantly agreed to a refund - I suspect mainly because it was 3:45pm & he wanted to close the store.

Do they train these people? Or is it deliberate policy to palm off the gullible?

Anywho, decided to buy something decent & put another £20 into buying a Hitachi FDV16VB2 which is also a 550w jobby with a 13mm chuck. What a nice tool, very light, plenty of welly, very positive chuck.

[David in Normandy]

Black and Decker (shudder). I've stopped buying anything with the "B&D" warning label on it. Many years ago it used to be a reasonable quality brand, but over the years their quality has become awful. My last B&D drill decided to turn the hammer on whether I wanted it or not - it just sort of vibrated itself on. The B&D drill before that refuses to hammer unless it is doing so vertically downwards. Nowadays I tend to buy Bosch. The quality / price range matches my needs. Though I do have an

18v Ryobi drill and impact driver which are excellent (special offer from screwfix for the two with two batteries and a carry bag for under £100).

What happened to the B&D brand? Did it get sold to some third rate Chinese manufacturer or what?

[Andy Burns]

Maybe you should be thankful ...

"If your Black & Decker product becomes defective due to faulty materials or lack of conformity within 24 months from the date of purchase, Black & Decker guarantees to replace all defective parts, repair products, subjected to fair wear and tear, to make sure of the minimum inconvenience to the customer, unless:

· The product has not been used for trade, professional or hire purposes" ^^^ Actually reading the wording on B&D website it's such that only trade/pro/hire qualifies for the warranty!

[David in Normandy]

You have to laugh. I suppose that is how they can seemingly offer such a good warranty - catch22. Only trade customers qualify provided the goods haven't been used for trade use. :-)

[RubberBiker]

Why? As a pro user, if you're buying a cheapie tool because you don't use it much - at least buy something with a hope - like a new brand that's trying to establish itself in the pro-tool foodchain. Or buy a discounted/discontinued/ebay decent-brand model.

B&D spend all their money advertising their useless devices to the gullible - not on manufacturing.

le of goods act...

Good ploy - though sometimes the manufacturer support can be better than the retailer support (though I find that unimaginable in B&D's case - I would expect it to be as bad as their tools)

[RubberBiker]

I suspect anyone that knew anything about engineering was moved over to DeWalt/Elu

[RubberBiker]

I'm curious what role this has for you. I have a chunky combi cordless (or use the impact driver with wood augers) - or an sds with an interchangeable 3-jaw chuck (which rarely gets used, only for really heavy timber drilling like holesaws) - I don't have a role for a mid- size corded drill.

[Pete Verdon]

Nope - t'other way round. The words Andy quoted said they would repair or replace *unless* the goods had not been used for trade.

Pete

[YAPH]

I have a 'Sparky' core drill with a key-operated Jacobs chuck. I also use it for serious metalk drilling since I can get the chuck tighter on a HSS drill bit than the hand-tightened one on my cordless.

[Owain]

Yes, and yes.

Owain

[Clot]

> "If your Black & Decker product becomes defective due to faulty

Out of curiosity in went on to the B & D authorised service locator site and suddenly found that Britain had grown until I realised that the distances were in kms.!

[Steve Walker]

Snipped

I don't know what they're like now, but my father bought a Hitachi hammer drill years ago (can't remember the model number) to replace an AEG that was stolen and it has been very good and reliable for many years.

SteveW

[The Medway Handyman]

I do. I have a 12v Mak driver & a 14.4v Mak combi which take care of most options, two Mak impact drivers one mains, one cordless mainly used for decking - I don't consider an impact driver suitable for drilling and two SDS drills - one 'clean' green Bosch for posh interior use & one 'badgers arse' Wickes/Kress for rough outside work.

The mains drill is for use with larger holesaws, big auger bits, large flat bits or anything else which would knock seven bells out of a cordless, but is much smaller than an SDS with a chuck adaptor.

Doesn't get over used, but comes into its own when needed. Battery drills simply don't have the sustainable welly of a mains.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Things like drilling out a door for a mortice lock. That will kill a cordless in short order.

[meow2222]

If you want a basic mains drill for occasional use, ancient B&Ds are dirt cheap and pretty good reliability wise. Such things are good when drilling & screwing a lot of holes, multiple mains drills saves changing bits all the time. Also useful for teamwork jobs. OTOH having far more decent drills plus the time it takes to dig the old ones out means they dont see a lot of use.

NT

[dennis]

I wish you had said that earlier.. I used my cordless to do a mortice lock a couple of months ago.

I used it to put a 110 mm core drill through the wall of a Smiths house in November and it only took three batteries. (I would have used my SDS drill if I had known for certain that it had a clutch but I didn't fancy a broken wrist)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I meant kill the battery if that wasn't clear.

Doubt many could be bothered waiting for the battery to re-charge. Or have three.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:

Of course. You'd be surprised how many people fall for it.

[The Medway Handyman]

Dunnit makeya spit! Went into my not so local but very large B&Q today where they had a pole of Makita mains drillf on clearance for £34!

Nuffin wrong with the Hitachi (apart from looking like a Star Wars prop), but I could have had the Mak & saved £15 :-(