I bought it last month, and it’s a great drill. It’s far superior to the old Craftsman drill it replaced.
All of the other top-rated drills (including the top-ranked Hitachi 18V drill) were much heavier, so I went with the Panasonic. (Plus I got $25 off from Amazon, along with free shipping.)
Farther down the list was a recommended Bosch 14.4V drill, for those who wanted something even lighter.
I guess I forgfot one other thing to consider…storage space. I don’t have enough space to store 2 or more of everything I want to use. I’m not trying to pick a fight with you here, but most mechanics and professionals I know would rather have one high-quality tool than several “bargain” priced units.
Agreed fully. Thankfully I have a large Basement shop so I can afford a mixed environment of Quality and Quantity. The Cheap but multiples works best for the home hobbiest/DIY people with a good size shop. Actually a major part of my house shopping last time was having a large shop area. My first house had no room and I was indeed far more likely to buy one high quality tool at that point.
I also have accumulated a large amount of hardware to minimize trips to the Hardware store for small projects and repair jobs.
Well, I made a decision.
I decided to stay with DeWalt, and step up to 18 volts. Doing some serious digging through Amazon.com I came up with one of their sellers that was offering a brand new 18V DC987 drill driver with 2 batteries for $20 less than Amazon was selling the same thing refurbished. WOOT!
Anyway it was $187 + shipping (which is roughly the same as sales tax would be)
I think the thing that tipped the scale for me, was that I can buy a 6 1/4" circular saw to go with for under $100. Cordless saws are way handy.
I’m not sure about way handy they certainly don’t compare to a plug in saw. They are nice when going to lumber yards and stuff and you don’t have time for the guys to cut things to fit your vehicle.
18 volt is the way to go if you want battery compatiblity. Me personaly any cordless tools I buy come with their own batteries that I try to keep dedicated to that tool.
Very nice price for a 987. Good drill, too. The saw is pretty cool too (DC384 I think, or something like that) – great for trim work 'n stuff. I wouldn’t go trying to cut rock maple with it, but for most other small tasks it’s great. You should have tried to see if they had the 988 hammer – does everything the 987 does and has the hammer option for masonry/cement drilling. I regret not getting one myself as I’ve already had several projects when I really needed one.
Any cordless drill-or cordless tool, for that matter, could emerge from the box with a hosed battery. You don’t say if yours was DOA or quit after some time of ownership. If the latter, it may have been your pattern of usage, as NiCd batteries can develop memory based on your charge/discharge cycling. NiMh and LiIon batteries are a major improvement over NiCd technology.
Another DeWalt fan here. I’ve been very happy with the 18 V hammer drill I bought three years ago as a step up from the 12 V DeWalt I had for six or so years previous that just didn’t have the oomph and run time for some of the stuff I get into.
Just for giggles, a couple weeks ago, we were striking the set at an outdoor festival, and four of us had the same T-handle 18 V hammer drill. Thankfully, I was one of the smart ones who puts their name on their tools - two guys were handing batteries back and forth trying to reconize them as theirs or not.
Just a note, I wanted to buy a Dewalt cordless drill, but at that time I went to buy it I just couldn’t justify the price since I could get the Royobi 18V 2 battery drill, circular saw, sawsall, (and light) for less then the single Dewalt drill with one battery.
After buying I felt bad and refused to open the case for a while thinking I did bad and should return it, but eventually I opened it. The more I used them the more I was impressed with the 3 tools (and the flashlight was OK too).
With their semiexclusive use for a 3 major remodeling jobs, including a kitchen where all walls, floor and ceiling were ripped out and redone, all 3 (and that flashlight) were still going very strong. Only about last year did the NiCd batteries start to slowly die out, which I replaced with a new 2 for $35 and all 3 tools (and the flashlight) are back to their fighting strength. The orignal batteries lasted for 4 years.
I am very impressed with this tools.
Also a word about batteries and tools:
NiCd’s deliver a great deal of power on demand due to very low internal resistance, and also hold much of their charge during storage. With these tools it is common to run them till the battery is drained, then recharge, this is what NiCd’s love. They also have a very high cycle life.
Nimh - have greater power then NiCd’s but have more internal resistance, so can’t deliver as much energy at a given time. Their cycle live is less then NiCd and don’t hold a charge in storage as well as NiCd. They are also less shock resistant.
Li-ion - This was new when I researched battery technology and was not a option for the application I needed, but the life of a Li-Ion is determined by mainly 2 factors, 1 is the number of cycles, the 2nd is the date of manufacture as the electrode will slowly eat itself as soon as it is manufactured causing increasing higher internal resistance.
I’ve got an 18v Makita 6347D, screws, drills and seems to have outstanding battery life. Dropped it a couple of times and it just kept on doing an outstanding job. If it were lost or stolen I wouldn’t hesitate buying another.
FWIW, I have both the DeWalt 12V and the Makita 18V LiIon. I like them both. They hold a charge and do whatever I ask of them. Of course the DeWalt seems a little lighter but the Makita is more versatile. They are both good tools. I believe that quality pays off in the long run. I also have a Makita 9V that is old and primitive in its design. It doesn’t have the feel and balance of the newer models but that sucker won’t quit. I’ve done everything to it that should have trashed it.
That being said, I’m done with Ryobi. They made a good tax write-off when I donated them to the Salvation Army.
I’ve had very good luck with black&Decker-just got an 18 volt drill 9its a miter heavy). Can anyone comment upon the BOSCH line of cordless tools-they look well-designed. i’m particularly interested in a smaller/lighter drill. How are the BOSCH units priced-do dealers discount them?
Bosch makes some pretty amazing dishwashers and their “gravity stand” portable table saw is a really slick bit of work, so I’d like to think their portable tools are also great stuff.
That said, I once picked up a Bosch drill at the store once and something about it just didn’t quite agree with my hand - probably grip size vs big hands. This was about two years ago, so it’s entirely possible they’ve re-designed.
WOOT!