being a tradesman, and one who always has to disconnect the power in order to work, I use battery drills A LOT.
I bought a GMC 18v kit with 2 batts. It worked fine for 6 months, then both batts died. Lessons: cheap batteries dont last long. cheap chargers kill batteries through overheating and overcharging. the gears were fine, torque was comparable to a panasonic 12v drill I once used.
I then decided to replace it with a new GMC drill, hoping the batteries were the same. They werent. The new drill has a slower gearbox without a gear shift. It had bugger all torque also. My time is worth $1 a min so when it takes an extra 30 seconds to drill every hole, it doesnt take long to work out that I was better off buying a new fast drill.
Last week I bought a 18v ryobi drill ($129). It has good quality batteries, and a real good charger.....I left the charger going for 3 days and the battery did not get hot...a real good sign. I also looked at the Aldi 24v crapper which looks like it would not handle more than 3 charges or a drop from the coffee table. Very happy with the Ryobi drill, though I should really buy a dewalt drill, but I always seem to leave them on top of the ladder where they fall off so Im scared to spend $800 on something I could break the next day.
I have heard that a cheap 24v drill will produce the same torque as a 12v dewalt drill.
my advice:
- buy one with 2 batts - make sure it has a good quality charger - DONT just go by higher voltage - go for a good european brand
I now have 4 drills.....2 died because the batts gave out after 6 months......one still works but is too slow for trade use, the other works hard.
