Time for a Makita drill?

[newshound]

The 8391 18 volt NiCad combi kit with two batteries is featured in CPC today for £90 + vat (so actually the Screwfix offering at £99 including VAT is cheaper).

I have an old (non hammer) Ryobi 14.4 which is still working fine, but I have already re-celled one battery and the other one now needs doing. Views on the NiCad Makitas? This one comes in a nice box with a full set of drills, drivers, etc. In my experience drill sets are often bargain basement and barely worth having, but are the Makita ones OK? If so, that would probably swing it.

Only for (serious) DIY use, not heavy pro type duty.

TIA

[newshound]

In fact the CPC one has the drills, the Screwfix doesn't. So perhaps the CPC is worth considering (for the convenience of a single box with a good selection of standard accessories).

[John Rumm]

They are often 1.3Ah cells, so not massive capacity, but they are usually decent quality. So to will take a hammering and give years of good service. (the charger is also a proper Mak one as well, and so good quality. It will also charge any Mak (non Lithium) battery of equal or lower voltage or any capacity and NiCd or NiMh.

Probably no more than "adequate", but then again that is often adequate! As the drill bits need replacing, then substitute some bosch multimaterial bits which are the mutts nuts for cordless use.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If it really is Ni-Cad, I'd guess it's old stock. Can't remember seeing any latest model using Ni-Cad.

[Lobster]

I got one a few years back and I love it to bits. Mine came with three NiCads and although the drill doesn't get massive use, the batteries show no sigh of deterioration. (I'm maybe a bit OCD, but I labelled mine 'A', 'B' and 'C' and use them in strict rotation each time they need charging, to even out their lifetime).

David

[The Medway Handyman]

I used NiCad when I first started up, they lasted around 3 years of heavy use.

I thought I was the only one who labelled batteries :-)

[Gazz]

3 xmas's ago me and my dad got makita drills, i got the li-ion one with one battery, dad got the ni-cad one with 3 batteries, as he thought that was the better of them..... 3 batteries... one on charge, one in use and one spare for when the 2nd dies and the first isnt charged yet.

Earlier this year he got a very large flat pack shed delivered, and asked me over to help him assemble it, so i took my drill with me when i went over, think this shed came with screws instead of nails, but we've always screwed sheds together rather than use nails.

He immediately said i'd made a mistake not bringing the charger for my drill, but i told him i'd charged it just before i came over and it'd be fine.... of course he didnt believe me.

you can prolly guess the rest.... through out the day he got through his 3 batteries and was using the first one again which i believe had only just finished charging when he needed it.

my drill was still going strong, and i knew that when i got home, it'd take a max of 22 minutes to fully re-charge,

So if you can afford it, spend the extra and get the li-ion version, you wont regret it.

[John Rumm]

Well for 3Ah compared to 1.3Ah, that is not too surprising - especially as the Li-ion self discharge far less in the box.

More and more of the Mak range is going Li-ion though, so its a tough call...

One option would be a deal like:

[GMM]

+1 to that. I bought the 3Ah Li-ion Makita last year and it's been superb.= Far ahead of any drill I had before and the 22 minute charge is just a lo= ngish tea break. Of course, it's pretty expensive but so much better than = going to use the drill only to find that it's leaked all its charge and the= n takes an age to charge up before you can use it. That's probably more of= an issue for DIY than for trade, where batteries can be charged on a const= ant rota.

[newshound]

A tough one, this is all good advice. Until recently I would have said I was never going back to NiCad after the NiMH Ryobi, but I'm getting such good performance out of my B&D 18 volt NiCad chainsaw that I've just got a hedge trimmer with another battery of the same type.

In fact I'm going for the cheap Makita option. I can't do a full days physical work any more, so the Makita NiCad which is supposed to recharge in half an hour should be OK anyway. I realise it is only 1.3 AH (but it's also a bit lighter than the higher rating NiCad or other batteries). If it were going to be my only drill, or if I was in trade it would all be different.

So many thanks to all for the, as usual, stimulating and helpful advice.

Steve

[The Medway Handyman]

The latter is a good point - I've got 3 a/hr NiMh on my Maks and they are heavy!

[fred]

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Some years back I bought a Makita twin pack. cordless drill and impact driv= er. It came with three plastic boxes of accessories. Drill bits (Spade and = lip and spur) engineers drill bits and assorted driver bits. All are of acc= eptable quality.

I also recently bought a set of Makita driver bits from Axminster

they are of quite good quality and fair value for money.

Like others I also succumbed to the three battery 12v offer. Three batterie= s are comforting but they really don't last too long