Milwaukee

For various diy type things. Occasional brick and concrete but mostly softer stuff. The received wisdom seems to be get a cheaper 12V combi, and a corded heavy duty drill if required. However any decent 12V drill with a couple of batteries is approaching this ones’ price – which seems a good bargain; the cheapest I’ve found it elsewhere is about £220.

Anyone seen any other bargains recently?

Cheers!

I’ve never owned a Milwaukee drill, I consider Milwaukee power tools to be overpriced, although I suspect the quality is very good. I think the 2x4ah batteries in your link is an overkill imo, it shouldn’t take that long to charge a modern battery, there’s no need for 4ah batteries. It sounds like a typical American marketing attitude – the bigger the better.

Good quality corded drills are cheap so if the corded option is viable I would definitely consider that.

For an 18volt combi I would personally look at Hitachi – their 18volt combis are excellent value for money. I think 12volt drills are too much of a step down with regards to power imo – you’d notice the difference.

If you decide to go for the Milwaukee and are happy to pay that sort of money then I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. I’ve known other tradesmen to be happy with them.

Lovely made stuff powerful and quality unlike dewalt , which some feel cheap and nasty, but it has a nick me tag if used on a site, acording to a neighbour who works on sites.Should be ok for domestics though

For home use I’d look at a Hitachi or Bosch from Screwfix … £100-120 depending on 1 or 2 batteries.

Thanks chaps. It is oh-so-tempting to go bigger and better by looking at £ per aH or whatever. I hadn’t realised Hitachi were a decent brand in powertools, so will check them out – I’d assumed similar to DeWalt, which seems fairly crap at the cheaper end of the scale.

I’ve been using Milwaukee drills for the last 20 years, since they were re-badged AEG, and the quality has been second to none ( Caveat: My youngest is 8 years old, on 2nd set of (expensive!) batteries).
I also have a ten year old Hitachi drill, a good hammer, powerful, still on the originsal batteries (but 2nd bushes) and the batteries are still going strong. THe chuck, though, is absolute pants. It has a tendency to come undone after a few minutes.

Given the option, I’d choose Milwaukee drills over any other. Hitachi for planers, circ saws and routers, Bosch, still, for Jigsaws, but if they were still going, ELU for just about anything. DeWalt are toys, and Makita have let me down far too many times to keep my custom…

Just for balance, my Milwaukee has been back for warranty on 4 separate occasions for a wobbly chuck. It was replaced on each occasion and cured it for a few DIY uses before it returned to wobbly. I bought a Milwaukee as the lads in the factory all used to have them and they seemed quality. Maybe I just got a duff one. Ignoring the chuck, it is good in all other aspects.

Metabo (and Festool) are also good.

Just for balance, my Milwaukee has been back for warranty on 4 separate occasions for a wobbly chuck. It was replaced on each occasion and cured it for a few DIY uses before it returned to wobbly. I b

How old is it? It would be sad if they’re dumbing down.

4Ah is total overkill for DIY. My Bosch has two 1.2 Ah Li-ion batteries and it’s pretty rare that one DIY job ever flattens one of them.