Higher voltage has a drawback though: the battery is more difficult to charge. Unless the battery pack and charging circuit is very sophisticated, you run the risk “charge imbalance” occurring among the cells.
Interesting. That reminds me of another thing about tool batteries. Be careful about getting 3rd party batteries. They may not be made as well as OEM batteries and may have a greater risk of catching fire. They are typically much cheaper than the official batteries, but it may not be worth the cost savings. That goes for the high power batteries in general, like the ones in scooters, bikes, etc.
This test on Pro Tool Review show a 3 to 23% improvement in drill performance using bigger batteries (mostly tested with 2 vs 5 Ah). The tougher the task — like using a big hole saw — the more advantage with the big battery.
A more comprehensive test on Project Farm that included higher amp tools, like recip saws, had the bigger batteries performing over twice as well. A 2 Ah battery took 15 secs to make a cut that a bigger battery managed in 7. Interestingly, in a couple of tests the very largest batteries were a disadvantage, driving a saw blade too fast for efficient cutting.
Yeah, I can’t remember the last time I pulled out the corded Bosch. Maybe for wire brush work. I’ll still use the long corded hammer drills for brick work, but beyond that it’s all cordless.
Going to Amazon just now it was surprising to see how little corded drills have changed in 40 yrs. They don’t have clutch settings, chuck keys are still common, and the 3/8” chuck rules the roost.
Heh. I had a corded 1/2 Rockwell drill. Variable speed - On or Off. It could take you for a ride. No clutch of course, you had to respect the hell out of the thing. I used it to drill the holes for spikes in a retaining wall I built out of rail road ties. 100 of them (ya get them in batches of 20). I counted. I’m not that young anymore and I did just give the drill away.
How about a statistic where you’re using a drill and there’s no outlet anywhere near? I find that happens almost constantly. For me, the cordless drill is a godsend – a thing that drills where I need it to drill, regardless of power outlets, including anywhere outdoors. I think this is why they’re so popular.
That makes the corded ones even worse. I mean about the clutch – 3/8" might be adequate for most home needs. But as to corded, no thanks!
This is an oversimplification, and not very true these days. Most higher capacity batteries have a higher overall output in terms of amps, and there is a notable difference in many tools between running with a 2ah battery vs a 4ah battery. If you’re skeptical about this head over to the Torque Test Channel on YouTube where he will show you the power output of many different brands and types of tools, so it’s not just drills but saws, grinders, impact wrenches, etc.
I have the Milwaukee 12v Drill +Impact driver kit bag mentioned above. It is a workhorse set, even more so if you buy it and watch for a sale on higher capacity batteries around Christmas time. And Milwaukee’s 12v ecosystem has a lot of available tools that hold their own vs 18v tools so you can expand if you want. I’ve had mine for 10+years and it’s still going strong.
Nothing against the ryobi 18v tools but because of their old style battery they tend to be really bulky and awkward.
My cousin is an electrician, and he said a major advantage to cordless tools (among other things) is safety: there’s no risk of shock or electrocution when working in wet/damp areas.
Not to “one up” ya, but about ten years ago I needed to drill a 2.5" hole through my barn’s concrete floor (to run some plastic conduit for the electric going to the main panel). I went to a rental store and rented a hammer drill and hole saw, the latter designed for masonry. Let me tell ya, that hammer drill was big and heavy. I didn’t even have to push down on it… just the weight of the drill was enough. It was an impressive piece of machinery.
Why would that make a corded drill a better investment? Looking at home depot they’re basically the same price.
I’ve no real deep feeling about it but I prefer my corded drill to my cordless just because it’s always good to go and no worries about charging/losing batteries or the charger when you’re only using it once every eight months or so, if that. I know my corded drill will be good to go at full power when I want for as long as I need.
Mind you, all of my drilling happens in my house/garage or just outside so I’m always near an outlet. Other people’s situations might be a better fit for a cordless drill (no outlets, use it frequently, etc)
When I was 19 I installed a sprinkler system in my moms yard. We where a little tight on cash. I needed to drill a 1" hole through a 6" thick concrete foundation wall in a crawl space. I did not rent a hammer drill. I did it with a 3lb sledge hammer and a hand held star bit, while laying on my side in the dirt in a dark crawl space. Took at least 8 hours, and thank god I didn’t hit any re-bar.
Getting through was possibly happiest times I’ve experienced.
But that’s what 500’ extension cords are for! String about 4-5 of them together, and my corded drill can reach anywhere in the neighborhood!
Of course, the fact that it takes a good hour to unpack and another hour to repack them should be ignored.
As Jophiel suggests, because it won’t become obsolete or die. If the “18 minutes” is even close to correct, then for MOST people I’d argue that spending a few more minutes running an extension cord will be more efficient in the long run than replacing your drill every few years because the battery died and a replacement is unavailable or not cost-effective. I (and I suspect many others here) have been through that with any number of cordless devices.
Having said that, I own both corded (inherited) and cordless drills. Because reasons. Well, my cordless actually shares a battery system with a cordless vacuum, so I do get some cross-efficiency there. Though I’ve replaced the battery a couple of times, so my original argument may apply!
I have a very nice corded DeWalt hammer drill.
It hasn’t been out of its box for a decade, since I bought my cordless hammer drill. I probably use my tools a lot more than the average homeowner, but I can’t imagine buying a corded drill these days. I even was recently forced to admit that my cordless circular saw is better than my Brobdingnagian worm-drive Skillsaw, for 90% of my tasks.
So you’re saying the article claimed that people wanted to use a drill more than 18 minutes, but because the battery was dead, they just didn’t do whatever job they had? They didn’t recharge the battery and then use it?
I find that implausible. I think the likelier explanation is that people only have 18 minutes worth of drilling they need done in their lives and a corded drill wouldn’t make any difference.
I’d buy that if I hadn’t owned three or four cordless drills in my 64 years. Point is, they die. Corded ones don’t. And for that 18 minutes of use per several years, the extension cord route is probably more cost-effective. Again, not that I live this!
I was amazed how much nicer it was to work with the cordless circular saw I picked up on a close-out sale (because it used the battery I already had).
I took the material out of the garage to prevent making a mess, it buzzed through it like Shit through a Goose, and no cord to get hung up on stuff or in the way. Very happy with it!
If you’re only doing 18 minutes of drilling in your lifetime[1], I’d personally prefer a corded drill because I won’t be doubling my lifetime allowance of drill-minutes by looking for/charging batteries. Sort of the same feeling I have with my desktop PC mouse – I’d rather have the benefit of it never needing to be charged or going out at a bad moment since the “inconvenience” of the cord is very minimal to me.
If you’re drilling for an hour a day or have a whole tool ecosystem then you have a very different use case and should base your decisions on that. In reality, I assume for most people it doesn’t matter on balance and buy whichever style you want. I ain’t about to tell a woodwork hobbyist how to buy tools based on my hanging a shelf once a year.
…then you should just borrow a drill… ↩︎
When we first moved into this house my late wife bought me a set of Ridgid cordless tools I’ve used ever since and been very happy with, IIRC, the set had a drill, an impact wrench, circular saw, reciprocating saw, shop light, charger and 2 batteries.
For sheer hours of use, the shop light wins. I’ve never charged that battery and it still cranks out the lumens 8 years later.
I don’t agree with this. My Ryobi cordless drill is well over 20 years old, and of the two batteries it came with, one is still good and the other was replaced with a 3rd party battery from Amazon that I think is actually higher capacity than the original and works great. And what good is a corded drill if, say, you need to work on a section of fence in a distant corner of the back yard? Would you even have an extension cord long enough? Of all battery-powered tools – and there are so many of them now – a cordless drill seems to me to be the tool where cordless portability makes the most sense.
Potentially a better reason to opt for a corded drill if you rarely use it is that the battery or batteries may be dead or weak just when you need the drill. But this hasn’t happened. As I mentioned, when I needed the drill recently it had been sitting in the basement unused for well over a year and had plenty of power to drill into sheet metal.