I'd like a cordless drill for general stuff around the house = drilling into walls (plaster and brick), driving screws into wood, feline lobotomy etc. I have a corded hammer drill for anything major.
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I've got £100-150 to spend and want something of decent quality that will last (DeWalt, Makita, Hitachi, etc.). I am limited to buying from B&Q or Amazon (I have vouchers).
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What should I be looking for? A combi-drill, a drill-driver, a hammer drill? Do I need 12V, 14.4V, 18V? Do I need two batteries? There's too much choice and it's doing my nut in.
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Ta.

The makes you mention are good
go for a hammer, 18V & spare battery

2 batteries, Makita 14.2 volt or more.

Avoid dewalt, ryobi, and any of the cheaper makes.

Band Q where doing a 14 volt twin pack Makita for 80 quid, i bought one 2 drills and 2 batteries with a sturdy case.Y.

1 battery, Bosch and forget the hammer action in my experience.

what's the difference between a combi-drill and a drill driver?

multiple batteries allow you to keep working whilst one is on charge.

I have one of these:-

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/51221/Power-Tools/Cordless-Drills/Bosch-18V-Li-Ion-Combi-3-batteries

which is super pimp, and is the subject of drill envy, but I paid 160 for it from screwfix when they had a sale. back up to full price at screwfix now, but you may find it or similar somewhere on offer. It's amazing what it will do! one battery lasts long enough whilst another is charging, and then there is a third as a spare to cycle through.

I also discovered that with a torx adaptor, it's ace at undoing and doing up disc bolts, making changing discs sooo much less faffy.

combi-drill is hammer action no?

Not all batteries are equal – you still see drills being sold with Ni-Cad sometimes. Makita rock.

How much drilling are you really going to do? Forget the expensive ones buy a mid range bosch and spend the rest on your bike/missus.

yeah – good point on batteries. You don't want ni-cd's as they wont last long (as in wont take many charge cycles and loose their charge holding ability quickly, particularly with sporadic use drills often get.

ni-mh would be a minimum IMO, and Li-on nice to have.

How much drilling are you really going to do? Forget the expensive ones buy a mid range bosch.

loads, at least once a month 🙂

spend the rest on your bike/missus

I've got vouchers which I can't spend in any bike shops 🙁
the missus has her own vouchers to waste on makeup and shoes

Makita Li-Io definitely way to go. Makita are totally reliable and indestructible. Li-Io don't lose charge over time like Ni-cad. Makita charges from empty in 30 mins so only 1 battery needed. IMO you do not need hammer facility, especially if you have corded for heavy duty

what about this one?

Makita 18v

Weight was an important consideration for me, and another reason to get Li-ion batteries. It depends what you want it for – I have a decent corded drill for heavy duty jobs, so mine is just for the odd bit of drilling into wood, and mostly a very good screwdriver. If you don't need hammer action then I'd miss it off – it adds to the cost and weight and won't be of any benefit.

I ended up with a Panasonic EY7440LN2S which is really excellent, but probably not available from B&Q or Amazon. But an equivalent Makita would be just as good if not better. There are loads of DeWalts but as far as I can remember you have to spend vast amounts to get one with a decent battery.

I've had a bosch 'green' 24v cordless drill for about 10 years, it's had a very hard life and is still going strong (batteries are probably about dead though, only hold a charge for half the time they used to) it has drilled 20mm holes through double skin brick walls, mixed plaster and been used for loads of woodwork.

On amazon here

what about this DeWalt

there's some half price deals on AEG drills at B&Q, they look good on paper

Ive been looking at this and it seems good. Only one battery mind but it is a good price.

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=10256483&fh_view_size=10&fh_eds=%3f&fh_location=//catalog01/en_GB/categories%3C{9392094}&fh_search=bosch+drill&fh_refview=search&ts=1282308691990&isSearch=false

I bought a Makita 18v Li-ion in the end 😀

Bosch uneo. Got given it as a Xmas present and was a bit dubious.

It's brilliant. Light, powerful and battery lasts for ages.

http://www.toolstation.com is where it's at now, Screwfix is part of B&Q and no longer so competitive on price.

why would someone say avoid dewalt? there tools are very good. providing you can get them on offer there no more expensive than anything else but last i have had the same 5 piece kit for 3 years and only just broke 1 of the tools but even that can be repaired as everything is serviceable.

IMO any makita that is not the LXT stuff is not that great i have burnt 1 out and my impact driver batteries are now depleted after just 12 month's.

Blue professional Bosch stuff is the best as well as Bosch warranty which is brilliant as well never broke 1 of there tools and the batteries last an age. If you can afford it go for bosch professional

That Makita looks good, avoid the DeWalt like the plague. With cordless drills there are two key things to look for, battery type, Li-ion is what you want and the AmpHours Ah rating of the battery. The higher the Ah figure the longer the battery will last in use. The Makita is 3Ah which is pretty good, the DeWalt is 1.1 which is rubbish.

Watch it with branded tools, not all Makitas etc are worth having. I recently bought a Hitachi 18V with 2 3Ah batteries, cost a lot but was really worth the money, nearly got suckered into buying an on offer Makita from B & Q, glad I didn't, NI-Cad batteries and only 1.3Ah.

The voltage is only important if you're going to be using it for heavy duty drilling, if you have a corded drill it's not such an issue. An 18V will go through most things but a corded drill will be more powerful.

Weight can be a consideration, I bought the lads at work some nice Makita 14V ones but made sure the weight was low as they use them all day. So far they've been excellent (again 3Ah batteries).

Mike G – you can recover NiCD batteries. Reports on some forums indicate good results – Google http://ysuusy.com/easybatteryfix.html

I haven't tried it for my (dead) Bosch NiCDs yet, but plan to very soon, may use eye protection and have the batteries outside the garage though (I have no idea how safe it is).

I've got £100-150 to spend and want something of decent quality that will last

Heard on the radio today, Screwfix are doing a Makita cordless drill on offer for £149, down from £249 (iirc). No other details than that, I wasn't paying much attention because I didn't know there was going to be a test.