Realised mine is a tad underpowered so looking for an 18V li-ion powered jobby.
Any recommendations or ones to avoid?
TIA

http://www.screwfix.com/p/hitachi-dv18dsfl-jc-18v-1-5ah-li-lon-cordless-combi-drill/43195?kpid=43195&cm_mmc=Google-_-Product%20Listing%20Ads-_-Sales%20Tracking-_-sales%20tracking%20url&gclid=CNvDrZL9nroCFcTKtAodIlEAXQ

http://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-bhp453rftk-18v-3ah-li-ion-cordless-combi-drill-w-101pc-accessory-kit/20547

I am sure I’ve seen this (the 3Ah model) even cheaper somewhere lately.

Again, seriously? Must have had more what drill threads that what tyre threads this year!

I have the Makita one after reading a similar thresd last yesr. Very good.

Makita, just launced a new 4ah battery.

Look for a company called Folkestone Fixings or FFX. They will probably be one of the cheapest if not the cheapest.

I use a drill etc every working day.
I wouldn’t have a combi drill. It’s sds for drilling holes and driver/impact for screws.
If your drilling into soft block a combi will be fine but try on hard brick or concrete and it will struggle.
I currently have :-
Hilti 36v sds
Dewalt 240v sds
Bosch 10.8v drill and impact driver
Festool T18v drill
The dewalt and the impact get used the most when fixing to brick etc.
The hilti if there is no power and the festool for generally everything else.
FFX get the thumbs up from me also.

To what does the ‘combi’ designation refer?

This Makita was reduced to £89.99 in B&Q yesterday (still full price online):
http://www.diy.com/nav/fix/power-tools/drills/-brand-Makita/Makita-18V-Lithium-ion-Combi-Drill-with-2-Batteries-12988839

They also have 15% off Bosch drills currently.

Both Screwfix & B&Q also have a Dewalt for £99.99.

To what does the ‘combi’ designation refer?

There’s a hammer/no hammer option.

EDIT: Or that it’s a drill and/or a driver.

To the OP, Makita LXT. Mine gets a lot of use and abuse. SDS and impact are useful, too, but the lxt is a good all rounder for general use.

After putting in hours of research and wandering around playing with all the available options, I plumped for this one:
Makita BHP456RFWX LXT
http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p48669

It’s not the cheapest (it was £50 over what I wanted to spend), but when I was looking the only one available for £100 was the hitachi. I fancied something that was part of a system.

It only has one battery, but the charger is the top-of-the-range Makita 22min charger. Plus the battery lasts a long long time too (more than double my previous drill). 5mins in the charger was enough to put all my shed rafters and purlins in.

It feels really well balanced, but that means you have to push it a little (my last drill was heavier at the front meaning it required a little less wrist action).

Only rubbish thing is the light on the front. unless you’re using a long drill bit, it shadows. They should have put it where they are on the Bosch ones.

molgrips – Member

To what does the ‘combi’ designation refer?
Hammer as well as drill/driver

There’s a hammer/no hammer option.

EDIT: Or that it’s a drill and/or a driver.

You’re right the first time – its the addition of a hammer option

Makita, just launced a new 4ah battery.

Thats great but…. Li-ion bateries achillies heel is they can be duffed from under-use. Not using or charging a battery for months on end knackers them. My neighbour has a nearly new 18v hitachi driver with two stone dead li-ion batteries for just that reason. Unless you are using a drill driver at least weekly I’d actually try and get lower capacity – 1.5ah batteries or NiNH ones- and discharge and charge them more frequently.

makita

caveat; I don’t own the 18V – I have the 10.8V combi drill driver, as the 18V was heavier than I wanted and I already have a bigger SDS job.

its superb for general diy use, as it’ll stick a 10mm hole into brick and it’s lighter than the 18V. I found the twinpack with impact driver (pretty tidy in its own right) batts & charger for £140

Li-ion bateries achillies heel is they can be duffed from under-use.

best stored at around 40% charged in a fridge

in a shed is probably ok at this time of year (would get too warm in summer) – fully charged in a heated lounge, not so good.

if you have one – and its fine for most things.

get a corded drill – much more useful.

18v combis are still crap at drilling into stone and dense block – copes fine with the light cinder blocks though.

Makita, just launced a new 4ah battery.

Thats great but….

Why is it great ? Unless you are working in the wilderness far from an electricity supply I really can’t see the point. Changing a battery takes approximately 2 seconds. A 4ah battery will be heavier, more cumbersome, and more expensive to replace.

18v combis are still crap at drilling into stone and dense block

Mine will put a 10mm hole into dense block in a few seconds. Bigger holes, or if I need to do a lot then it’s worth getting the SDS out but for a quick job the LXT combi is perfectly fine

Thanks folks reckon it’ll be one of the Makita drills.
Bear, it will be from one of the 4 shops on the strip there in park Farm, not sure which yet!

best stored at around 40% charged in a fridge

in a shed is probably ok at this time of year (would get too warm in summer) – fully charged in a heated lounge, not so good.

Not sure if you can tell if a battery is 40% charged by looking at it. Should you weigh the battery empty and weigh it again when its fully charged then do the maths? Of can you just squeeze it like an advacado?

A 4ah battery will be heavier, more cumbersome, and more expensive to replace.

The 4ah makita ones are the same weight as their 3ah, and only cost a tenner or so more at present if you shop around. The amount of extra work they do is pretty moot for drill driving, for circular saws and angle grinders though they’re more useful

Bear, it will be from one of the 4 shops on the strip there in park Farm, not sure which yet!

Toolstation and Screwfix are both there too. Spoilt for choice 🙂

The 4ah makita ones are the same weight as their 3ah

That’s impressive. Although Hitachi do an 18v 5ah battery if size means everything to you. Personally I prefer smaller batteries – the 1.3ah Li-ion batteries on my Hitachi combi usually last me for the day and allow easier access in restricted spaces.

Just spotted THIS ONE doesn’t seem a bad price?

Not sure if you can tell if a battery is 40% charged by looking at it.

Of course you can’t tell by looking at it, so that was a fairly daft response. Still, you could –

Buy a torch to fit the battery (or any other method of draining it) figure out its run time on full charge, and run it for about 60% of that – or stick a voltmeter on it if you have one, individual cell voltage is almost linear with charge level between 3.6V and 4.2V IIRC.

Or hook it up to a decent charger/balancer which can prep batteries for storage.

Just a couple of ideas, I’m sure there’s other ways.

granny_ring, IMO dewalt are as good if not better than makita

or if your using your battery gun that infrequently that you have to worry about storage – just buy a corded one.

I just don’t see the point of a combi drill unless your fitting blinds for a living.
A corded sds drill will drill a 5mm hole right up to a 25mm through three courses of solid brick with out breaking a sweat.
Buy a a combi and at some point you’ll need something bigger.
The chucks are terrible after a while, try using it for fiddly stuff when the bit is wobbling all over.

A corded sds drill will drill a 5mm hole right up to a 25mm through three courses of solid brick with out breaking a sweat.

Except that they are fairly useless for drilling pilot holes for screws, or a hole through a front door to fit a Yale lock. And usually an overkill for fitting stuff like a bog roll holder.

But is that not what your cordless drill is for?
Agree it might be overkill but why limit yourself to only being able to drill small holes?
I’ve had a combi drill, I think it’s still in the garage somewhere, but the batteries are shot, just as the batteries will be shot on all cordless drills after you’ve had them for a few years.
I use mine 5 days a week, if my batteries are dead in a year I’ve had my monies worth. If I’d used it half a dozen times I’d be a bit naffed!
My sds is ten years old.

Agree it might be overkill but why limit yourself to only being able to drill small holes?

😕 How do you know it will be the OP’s only drill ? And how do you know what he intends to use it for ?

He said : Which 18V combi drill? Realised mine is a tad underpowered so looking for an 18V li-ion powered jobby.

The suggestion that cordless combi drills are somehow obsolete because of the existence of SDS drills is nonsense. IMHO

I think the general consensus is that it’s best to have two drills.

One corded SDS for drilling into stone, concrete with ease precision and 240V of power and one cordless drill driver, where you’ll never really use the hammer setting unless say, as ernie mentioned, you have to go into plasterboard and breeze block or something like that to hang something very light.

This combination has worked for me for around 12 years. My Bosch SDS (not more than £100 around 12 years ago) and 18V NiCad, then 18V Hitachi LiIon when the NiCad died has never let me down.

I don’t know if it’s his only drill, but I do know what he intends using it for – drilling holes in block/brick/concrete/wood and screwdriving.
So his is underpowered? I’ve a 10.8v impact that will drive screws better than most 18v drills, so it’s not about being underpowered it’s using the right tool for the job in hand.
And IMHO, a sds is the best tool to drill holes in brick etc.
Most people I work with (kitchen fitting/joinery/building) use sds/impacts for 90% of their work.
My father in law was looking for a combi about 4 years ago and I pointed him towards an 240v sds/12v driver deal at screwfix for about £150. He still uses his sds.
And if a 1.3ah battery last all day you can’t be drilling many holes into brick! I can kill my 3ah 36v in a couple of hours.
Trail rat is on the money, if I was buying one drill it would be corded and a long extension lead to go with it.

Granny with FFX make sure and look up the online price before going into the shop. Tell them you’ve got the online price and they will match.

And if a 1.3ah battery last all day you can’t be drilling many holes into brick!

If I want to drill holes into brickwork all day I use my Hilti drill. I use my combi drill for what it’s intended to be used for.

I don’t know if it’s his only drill, but I do know what he intends using it for – drilling holes in block/brick/concrete/wood and screwdriving.

So you recommend an SDS drill for screwdriving ?

It maybe user error russ 🙂

Putting the shed together my drill was stuggling a bit compared to the 2 different 18v drills the others were using so have gone for the Dewalt one from B&Q.

Maybe a lower volt impact driver would be better for that application but and 18v drill would be better all round for what I need?
Have a corded and sds drills also.
Cheers all for the advice.

I have one of those tiny Bosch 10.8v impact drivers and a meaty DeWalt 18v impact driver. Two different impact drivers for different jobs. The Bosch 10.8v is excellent for small stuff like fixing striking plates, handles, kitchen worktops, etc, the DeWalt 18v would break the screws and be cumbersome. And the DeWalt 18v is excellent for driving 4 inch screws into door frames, the Bosch 10.8v can’t handle them.

“So you recommend an SDS drill for screwdriving ?”

Not at all? I said I know what he will using the drill that he intended to buy.
He intended to buy (and has) bought a combi drill.

Granny – I’m sure it’s not user error:-), but I bet you would love a impact driver!

makita all the way. i’ve got some of the new white coloured lxt 18v kit and its stunning. loads of power, superb control and overall much nicer feel than my dewalt stuff. just feels more solid and well crafted.

Hitachi, Bosch, Dewalt, Makita are all decent as long as you don’t buy the £100 stuff they sell in B&Q with little nicad batteries,
Screwfix have got a nice 18v Bosch with one 4ah battery for £150, which would be my choice for all round DIY. If it’s mainly for driving screws an impact driver is a lot better. Lighter, more powerful and less likely to round out screw heads.
SDS drills a better for hammer drilling, but pants for drilling wood – a powerful 18v on low speed makes a lot more torque.
I’ve got Bosch 18v stuff – impact driver, a drill driver, and 36v SDS which covers the majority of jobs. My 110v SDS rarely comes out of the van vault unless I’ve got a lot of big concrete fixings to put in.

I decided to get a drill with 2 x 1.5ah batteries rather than one with just a 3 or 4ah as I can always have the spare one to hand and can’t afford to get 2 x 3or4ah batteries! For what I need it for it should be enough.
Have used Brother in laws 18V Impact driver and it’s a lovely bit of kit!