its that time again, wifes asked what i want for christmas and this is all i can think of as ive got some DIY coming up…..

any good deals anywhere at present? and whats the recommended drill/set these days? drill only or drill/driver?

id guess budget would be up to £200.

thanks

10.8v Dewalt or Makita kit around £150
Just replaced my Dewalt after 4 Years of hard graft. The impact driver will put in any screw in your Trade box.
I only replaced after a cockup trying to recharge a 10.8v battery in a 18v charger and thinking the batts were stuffed.
The Makita was on offer at Screwfix.
18v is fine for drilling hard masonary but to heavy for constant use.
Another tip is to get Impact bits because you break loads of standard ones.

I picked up a blue Bosch 18v Combi drill from Plumbcentre / Wolsey half price last month. Worth a look.
Decent size batteries and better than the two cheap things I night before that, both dead on first couple of uses.

Makita lxt stuff here. I’d get both a drill and driver. eBay has 10% off on tools at the moment.

I’m planning on picking up a second drill so I don’t need to faff about with changing bits so often and speed up jobs. I think the 453 can be picked up for sun £50 bare

I got a 10.8V DeWalt set for £150

I think it’s widely available. The drill is so-so but the impact driver is excellent

Dare I say most of the big name tools will be pretty good.

I’ve got 18v Makita. It’s fantastic. You might like to add to your kit in future so get something that does what you need.

The 10.8v stuff is very powerful now but there is probably more room for additional cordless bodies in 18v. If you’re just doing a bit of diy though then that probably doesn’t matter.

I have a 10.8v makita kit (think it was £100 5 years ago), then an sds drill for when I need a hole in some serious masonry. I’d say the portability offsets the power, especially if you have something else if the going gets tough. It’s never failed to get a screw in, struggles a little with m10 coach bolts into big bits of wood (just gets a bit slow and hot)

You can still pick up 1.5 or 2Ah batteries for the Makita stuff, makes them much lighter for when you’re not doing hundreds of holes or screws. If lighter duty and you’re not likely to buy more cordless tools (or don’t care about battery sharing) then the 10v stuff is really nice too.

Aldi specials their tools are surprisingly good.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/18v-li-ion-drill-%26-driver-kit/p/085571226226600?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=DIY&dclid=COPNiqL1k98CFcKzUQodrQYJOw

I got an 18V DeWalt with two batteries for £150, bargain. Hammer thingy copes well with most masonary. DC790 IIRC
Done a whole house renovation with it and it’s been excellent. Only time it’s really stuggled was with the whisk on it mixing a bucket of concrete, it could do cemete OK but put some lumpy bits in and I had to use the corded drill, other wise no complaints. Shop around and you should be able to get the 18V for a sensible price.

10.8v dewalt here too, the impact driver is incredible.

I’ve always gone with Makita drills/drivers as mine get a lot of use. Also as mentioned, if you buy the drill with a couple of batteries and a charger, you can then get everything else you need as a bare tool which works out pretty cheap in the long run. I’ve now got the drill, impact driver, jigsaw, multitool, angle grinder and most importantly…. the DAB radio.

I have a Bosch ixo mini screwdriver jobbie for little jobs. that’s great too.

picked up a 1.5mah battery for £20 from wickes a couple of weeks ago to reduce weight when doing plaster board. quite a lot lighter than my 5mahs.

as a beginner with impact drivers I’m still learning not to mash the heads of screws

Makita 18v LXT twin kit can be got for £200 with 2 x 4.0 amp batteries and case (see B&Q). A lot of lads on site seem to be going for Millwaukee so might be worth a look.

Last year I bought for myself a Hitachi DV18DBXL/JX 18V. Incredible piece of kit and batteries last ages. I’ve done quite a few jobs using it all day long since and I’m impressed.

Trying to post a link to a Screwfix twin drill set at £179. This crappy forum won’t let me so just Google Screwfix Drill Set!!!

Just to echo what others have written, the makita system is great to get into. There is a massive range and you can pick up bare tools very cheaply. The drills and impact drivers are excellent, especially if the budget will stretch to brushless. The fast charger works well too, meaning you don’t really need a spare battery.

as a beginner with impact drivers I’m still learning not to mash the heads of screws

Don’t buy either cheap screws or cheap drive bits – Screwfix tradepack and proper DeWalt PZ2/PZ3 bits will make a huge difference. A nice even pressure on the driver, keep the thing perpendicular to the surface, and you can’t go wrong.

I have lots of drills as I make furniture. My impact driver is a cheap Erbauer I picked up a few years back before I knew how much better a driver was than a combi. I haven’t felt the need for a better one. The drill I grab most often is the tiny 10.8 Festool which is a beautiful thing to use and has a surprisingly useful right angle attachment. A bit over budget though.
I only ever use Reisser or Spax screws. I also use the De Walt screwdriver bits in the tic-tac boxes. Short pz2 and ph2, long Pz2. Also a box of Bosch assorted bits for all other sizes.

One of these kits by Milwaukee should tick all the boxes. Have used one of their 3/8″ impact drivers at work for the last couple of years bolting steelwork together – have been very impressed by robustness.

Any of the major brands are more than adequate for DIY use, just get whatever is on offer when you’re buying.

My cordless combi drill (some Makita that was on sale a decade ago) is dying so I’ve been replacing it with better tools: a cheap corded SDS drill for masonry work (if you’ve never used SDS it’s like the wall is made of butter), a cordless impact driver, and shortly a cordless drill (without hammer). The three-in-one combi is convenient but definitely jack-of-all-trades: SDS is at masonry, impact is lighter/better at screwing, and if you have a drill/driver then you don’t have to swap bits if you’re drilling/screwing repeatedly.

if you’ve never used SDS it’s like the wall is made of butter

ooh i forgot about SDS. is it only really worth looking at SDS if its corded, so just stick with normal drill bits for cordless? at some point i may have to drill through some floor tiles laid on concrete, to fix wooden battens to floor. do you think an SDS drill would be needed for that?
is 18v a lot heavier than 10.8 then, so if i get SDS drill for masonry then 10.8 would be better for furniture etc?

aldi looks interesting too, im not a brand snob so dont mind buying from there if its good enough to do the job. how does the spec compare for aldi vs the main players?

looks like a decent spread of recommendations across all makes, so ill start googling some of the specific model numbers.

do they all have compatible batteries across the whole range of tools, or are some makes better than others for that. may end up being a consideration altho i dont plan to buy a whole range of tools. yet 😀

thank you.

Trying to post a link to a Screwfix twin drill set at £179. This crappy forum won’t let me so just Google Screwfix Drill Set!!!

There you go.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dcz298s2t-gb-18v-1-5ah-li-ion-cordless-combi-drill-impact-driver-twin-pack/9801T?tc=EB1&ds_kid=92700022882478106&ds_rl=1241687&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1244066&ds_rl=1248184&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1247848&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI15Dw3rCV3wIV5hXTCh0RwwqNEAQYASABEgIOz_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

That’s the one. How did you get that link in? Just came up blank for me.

Hitachi twin pack £145, i’m a convert from Makita.

That’s the one. How did you get that link in? Just came up blank for me.

Copied from the address bar then pasted in. Works better than using safari share link.

Was trying the link function. GRRRR.

Personally I’d avoid the Aldi/Lidl stuff. Are they likely to provide spares and support the battery platform as long as the ‘proper’ tool brands?

Oh, no matter, it’s cheap so just throw it away and get another? Nah.. Get something decent and it’s a joy to use and will outlast cheap stuff, less cheap electrical in landfill, plus you can add to the family easily down the line.

Regarding the weight of 10.8 versus 18. As mentioned above somewhere, most of the weight is in the battery so if it bothers you, get a 1.5ah battery or something instead of a 5ah and it’ll be much lighter. Most impact drivers are teeny tiny anyway. Amazing tools.

I use my 18v stuff all day and find it ok. It’s sooooo good having lots of cordless tools I can just pick up and switch batteries. 👍

I also have the lxt sds and it has plenty of grunt. mostly used for chasing and tile removal so far. my house has those horrible solid black breeze block things which are impossible to chase by hand

The Aldi stuff is actually well guaranteed, I just take a photo of my receipt on purchase and email it to myself in case of need. I’ve only sent one item back a leaking generator, they fixed and returned it all at no cost. 3 years warranty..

I’ve a few Aldi power tools, as well as Makita, they are great for the money.

Yeah for a home DIY they’ll be spot on.

https://www.toolstoreuk.co.uk/bosch-lsgsbgdr18li-18v-twin-pack-with-2x15ah-batteries/p1479

The other tip for bits (I find the screwfix pz2 own brand impact sets last fine), is to understand the difference between Phillips and pz. Use the wrong one and get instant fail.

If you’re trying to use plasterboard fixings avoid using an impact driver, the force is strong enough that it simply chews through fixings (spinning them in the board and making a mess)

As mentioned before, Makita make other equipment that works with their 18v LXT batteries, but they also do 18v non-LXT drills, so beware.

There’s not much to pick between the top brands imo, users of each will still say theirs is the best though. I use dewalt personally.

For diy I’d say something like ryobi or eurbaur would be a good bet a fair bit cheaper

as im finding out….. theres not a lot between the main players. the hitachi suggestion was twice the price of the others tho!

couple of questions if you dont mind while im googling away. as google is fine-tuning my ads now, im seeing ads for ‘impact drill bits’. what are they? the way i was understanding it, you use the ‘combi-drill’ for drilling (and screwing if you so wish) and the impact driver for screws. are these impact drill bits used for drilling with the impact driver only?

The other tip for bits (I find the screwfix pz2 own brand impact sets last fine), is to understand the difference between Phillips and pz. Use the wrong one and get instant fail.

er…… go on then, tell me 😀
ive googled it a bit and do know theres a difference, but its not clear to me. i wouldnt now the difference if i picked up a cross-head screw, so is there a simple rule of thumb?

thanks for all the tips, ive got em all written down and im going through them….

Impact drill bits have a different shank which fits into the driver but you can still use them in a combi drill.
I rarely use my combi drill as now my impact does everything. It’s also lighter and smaller for tight spots.

Second the milwaukee recommendation, have been using impact drivers and drills for two years on site and would not use anything else.
We also use the bigger battery tools like grinders and sabre saws every day and they are spot on.

I have just finished an 18 month project using a pair of Dewalt 18v brushless impact driver/drill driver and they’ve been fantastic.
Can be bought for around £250 for the pair with charger and batteries. Like many have said, use impact resistant bits in the impact driver. I found the Reisser impact bits with the blue band more durable than the Dewalt impact bits so I’ll always go for them instead now.