I Need A Good 1/2 Cordless Drill

Even though I'm a fan of dewalt, Home depot sells rigid tools with a lifetime guarantee, including batteries. Not sure if there are others with lifetime. I would go for a lifetime over brand names, especially when sooner or later the battery will need replaced.

BIL bought Rigid tools, except for the right angle grinder which sounds like something HF would sell, the rest were good.

geo.
 
I have Sears 19.2 volts, Dewalt 18 volt, and Makita 18 volts 1/2 drills.

The cheapest is the Sears 19.2 but it actually is not a bad drill. If your just an average do it yourself type person then the Sears would not be a bad choice.

The Dewalt is the heaviest drill of the three. It has been a pretty rugged drill. I have had issues with the chuck. Some times you will get things stuck in the chuck. Meaning you can not get it lose by hand.

My favorite is the Makita drill. It has just about the same power as the Dewalt but is lighter. The balance is just better if you do much drilling with one hand. It is also more rugged than the Sears. Draw back is cost. The Makita is three times the cost of the Sears and $100 over the Dewalt.
 
The Rigid life time warrenty is only on tools bought at Home Depot and you need to register the tool the charger and the battery's to be covered. Not a problem but must be done to be covered.
 
Decide now whether you want to go with Dewalt, Milwalkee, Makita or other, Buy your drill with charger and battery. Then start shopping other tool sfor that charger and battery. I have six dewalt tools, one charger and two batteries. I bought all the tools online for way discount prices as stand alone items. And my batteries don't sit for weeks unused.
 
Hitachi gets the highest grades from Consumer Reports magazine. Available at Lowes, on sale this week.
 
Just be sure to do your paperwork RELIGIOUSLY on these "lifetime warranty" Ridgid tools. I use cordless tools every day (just not the Ridgid brand) and I talk to some of the owners of other tool brands. With the Ridgid warranty, you must register it. Any replacements must also be registered. I've run into people who have registered them and the registration somehow gets "lost", so you've got to keep your paperwork on everything registered. Some owners have told me that the service center might not be a Home Depot store, but instead a store several miles down the road. I've also had owners tell me that only the owner can take their warranty work in for replacement, you just can't give it to a buddy because he is going to a store and wants to take yours along to help you out.
 
Probably not going to be much help here, but I wanted to add my experience FYI.

We sold Panasonic cordless tools for a while where I work. The drills and drivers were light weight and fit nicely in the hand. I bought one of each for myself, mainly because of the convenience and access to batteries and accessories. That was almost ten years ago. I still have them and can't seem to wear them out. 14.4 volt but will do just about anything an 18 volt DeWalt will do. Half inch chuck as well but the overall size of a 3/8's drill. Greenlee sold them for a while under their name and label. I later added a hammer drill and a circular saw to the set, all using the same batteries. They were not cheap, but we did sell a fair amount of them to various electricians and some to the city as well. Most of them are still in service.

I don't know that they are available anymore easily. Parts and batteries are. I have replaced batteries after about six or more years, but I can go out to my truck (they have a place in my tool box) and know that either of them are ready to go with a good charge without having to do anything extra.

Really reliable units but not enough push and name recognition to compete with the big names.
 

Just for an example, recently I found myself in need of a hammer drill. Had a gift card from Lowe's, so I went shopping. I THOUGHT I wanted it to be cordless, and I wanted it to use the same batteries as my other cordless tools. Didn't take very long to realize that my other cordless tools are on the brink of being obsolete, and finding a cordless hammer drill with those same batteries was impossible. Did a little soul searching. Came to the conclusion that a hammer drill would see very little use, so I bought the least expensive, corded, Black and Decker that Lowe's had. It performed flawlessly. Drilled 6 holes in concrete. I cleaned it up and put it away. I may or may not ever need it again.
 
I would check into all details, hoops you need to jump. Reply remains get a lifetime warranty especially on batteries. Which will need replaced before the tools.
 
I have Makita and love them. They are a lot lighter than Dewalt and perform just as well. They also have a hook to hook them on your belt which is very convient. I use these drills every day and would not consider another brand.
 
We use our cordless drill/drivers every day, all day long. The best Panasonic is the dual voltage 14.4V/18V with the 18V battery. I've had many Panasonics. This one is by far the best. Another top of the line is METABO 18V from METABO Germany (squared off look), not METABO America (Primer bubble look). These two specific cordless drills have been used hard, and still going strong. You can find both at AMAZON.COM
 
JD, I second your comment about the chuck lockups on the DeWalt drills. I had two that became unusable. The DeWalt repair shop here in town said that those "Father's Day specials"--drill, charger and two batteries for $99 have bad (cheap) chucks but are otherwise good drills. I spent $50 each to have new Jacobs chucks put on, and they have worked great since.
 
MAKITA!!!! They just made their battery warrantee to 5 years, and make everything but a grease gun.....my only complaint!

Good tools.
 
I second the Makita recommendation. They are strong and lightweight, I hang one on my tool belt most of the day. The price has come down, about $200 for the set with two batteries and an impact driver. They recharge in about 20 minutes. I have had my original one for about 7 years and only bought a second one because I needed an impact driver, it was cheaper to buy the set. Half inch chuck and will twist your wrist if you are not paying attention. It gets used for everything from framing to trim work. I would never buy anything else.
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I like my DeWalts but never used anything else.
gotta be careful though. A lot of the big-box DeWalts are lower-grade and not well made. They're for the yuppies and weekend picture-frame hangers. Look for the higher quality dewalts - evidence by less plastic on the housings.
 
Ryobi works for me and especially like the 18v LiIon batteries. A lot cheaper than popular models but does the job for me BUT I am not a commercial user so I can't attest to that.

Whatever you do, go the LiIon route. You will pay a little more up front but you will get it back over the life of the battery and performance improvement is a plus.
 

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