I have managed to get to middle age without ever owning a drill! I now need to confirm my masculinity by buying one to put holes in the walls of the house I have just bought.

What is the drill du jour? Is mains or cordless the preferred power method? And which brand – still recall the Black & Decker ads from my youth?

Use will be basic DIY rather than Kevin McCloud Grand Design renovations.

You need two drills. A SDS for drilling into masonry and a cordless for other jobs.

Dispute what some may say you do not need a magdrill but they are useful.

Hilti

You need an SDS for proper drilling and building work. You need an 18V cordless with hammer action for general bits and pieces. You need a corded hammer action for when the 18V won’t cut it and the SDS is too much. And you’ll want to consider a low voltage cordless driver and some sort of bench drill for good measure. Or, since you’ve gone this long just continue without. Brands? Hilti, makita, Bosch, dewalt, whatever’s on offer at tool station or Screwfix.

Had my makita lxt 18v cordless a few years and it’s ok but Id still not be without a good corded drill
I don’t do much with brick so not bothered with an sds

Also for diy an impact driver Is very good

If you are not doing hefty diy work you may not NEED an SDS drill.

An 18v hammer cordless will do all the putting rawlplugs etc in the wall many people need.

An SDS is really only an essential for big diameter masonry bits (10 mm +), core drills etc. If you’re in the trade and doing smaller work day in day out then the extra ease and grunt might be worth it but they come at a size and weight penalty. I will get a corded one at some point for larger masonry fittings.

As a regular diy user I prefer battery Li ion and a decent brand.

The Li ion batteries seem to not mind being left for av week or two unused

Battery because if i am any doubt about whether I am drilling n near power I can switch the whole house off and still use it.

Main brand because every cheap option drill I have bought has had crap performance or battery life.

I have a de walt 18v cordless hammer. Its performance is good although the weight distribution is a little odd. others will be along with current best brands soon I am sure – I saw hilti mentioned above.

I also have a smaller drill driver for other jobs that has just died and will soon be replaced.

I like having two drills on hand – hammer/rotary drill for drilling, and a smaller drill driver (or impact driver) for screws saves a lot of bit swapping time on all but the smallest jobs.

Do not scrimp on bits either. Crap masonry bits in particular.

If you are not doing hefty diy work you may not NEED an SDS drill.

This. I have only ever once used an SDS & that was to drill some big F.O. holes in the garage floor for a ground anchor. Always managed ok with a decent hammer action & good quality bits even for engineering bricks. (although I did get through some MasonMaster bits putting some shelves up!)

18V cordless will do for pretty much all DIY stuff – drilling holes in walls for rawlplugs or bolts, stuff like that. I’ve just changed over from DeWalt to Makita at the shop, both good brands.

I’ve got one of these Hitachi jobs, which is rather good.

Mainly as it shares batteries with one of these
grinder thingy

From your post it doesn’t sound like you need an SDS so just get a quality 18v combi from dewalt, makita or metabo.
I’ve used all 3 over the years and get a hell of a hammering without much problem.
Although the dewalt gave up after a year of drilling 25mm holes through old joists. Even fitted a 1m long 25mm SDS bit in it to drill through an old stone wall. Got there eventually!

lots of offers on at the moment for drills due to fathers day.

Makita (make sure it’s LXT not the cheaper one at b&q), Bosch (blue), DeWalt, Metabo. Hitachi also decent.

18V lithium battery not nicads. 3 or 4Ah batteries are best but a couple of smaller ones (2Ah, 1.3 is a bit low) is still okay and a bit easier to handle.

I did see Worx have a 20V one on offer this weekend which might be okay. Just picked up one of their F30 multi tools on clearance from B&Q for £58 and it seems well built.

You NEED a Hilti TE5,top of the range makita 18v cordless and a makita impact.
You will then be quite manly.
I need all of the above but in Hilti flavor but i’m in the building game. 😉

If you’re not using them that often, then corded could make a lot of sense- batteries have a finite life, so if it sits on the shelf for 360 days a year you might not actually get a lot of use out of it before the cell dies. Whereas a corded drill, at that rate of use, your grandkids could be using it. Provided we’ve not switched to incompatible 240b electricity or something.

Basic DIY doesn’t require expensive kit and might actually be best done with cheaper stuff. It’s great to have a quality cordless though, as much for putting screws in things as for holes.

Also, my green bosch 18Vs were terrible, put me right off green bosch. Though I did get a lot of stuff on warranty.

I’ve been using a Bosch chorded drill for the last 20 yrs and it is still going strong (used it today to drill into Masonry- at least 10 holes). Of course it has only been used for light DIY jobs – a mixture of masonry/Hammer action stuff and light other material drilling action. You really don’t need professionally kit like SDS or Hilti. just a good chorded or cordless drill with hammer action. Of course if you are more than the average DIY’er then you might want something more manly/expensive.

Hilti TE5a is what I use most out of the various Hilti Makita and others at work. Pretty versatile, battery lasts ages and it has coped with 10mm holes into thick steel, masonry etc. just look after the batteries as they aren’t cheap.

If you see yourself doing a lot of DIY now and near future 18v li-on bosch, dewalt, makita, ryobi , black and decker …. However i did manage to build a the whole decking with Worx 12v li-on as my Bosch (blue) died, was impress with the Worx little drill if only it has 2 batteries so i dont have to wait 30min charge.

Also, my green bosch 18Vs were terrible, put me right off green bosch. Though I did get a lot of stuff on warranty.

In contrast my little Bosch green 14V has been fantastic. Now about 6 years old, bought on sale for £50 and has been used for decking, sheds, flat refurb etc etc. Battery still gives very good life but the chuck is starting to give me problems were I need to re-tighten after the first use following a bit change. I have not been very kind to it either. Just make sure you get a lithium battery and keep it charged between uses, don’t store it flat.

I would get an 18V next time as the torque is better for driving big screws and the 14V struggles with 6mm wood screws into timber pulling joints together without a full depth pilot hole. But to be fair I really need an impact driver for those jobs.

i would set a budget of £100 and you should get something very decent for that.

Got a makita cordless Nicad battery thing. Does everything drilling, and screwing with a hammer action. Has struggled recently with a 6 mm bit into concrete but for a diy tool that’s not surprising. Drill bits slipping in the chuck too.

Anyone know why drill bits are round unlike driver bits? Seems daft to me.