18 Volt Lithium Ion Cordless Drill/Driver Question

Jonny85

My brother in-law and I have a construction and services company that we started up a few years back. At that time we both had acquired a modest collection of power tools. He had a Bosch Brute 18 volt drill/driver/hammer drill, and I had a Makita 14.4 volt NiMH drill/driver. His Bosch burned out shortly thereafter and we both agreed that my Makita was a bit underpowered for most of the work we did so we bought a Porter-Cable 18 volt for $80 or $90 at Lowes to replace his Bosch. I forget what happened to the P-C but it too needed to be replaced. A year ago January ('08) we bought two Ridgid 18v hammer drills and have been greatly disappointed by both the performance and the longevity or lack thereof. The first drill died four months after we bought it. The second just burned out last week. My Makita is still a trooper even if it is underpowered for our work (over three years have passed and it still does a fine job on cabinets, sheetrock, etc.). Our question now is what do we buy? I have heard a lot of hype about the newer lith-ion battery drills but other than a Milwaukee 18v, I havn't been around any. We are kind of wary of Bosch stuff now, it seems they have gone the way of DeWalt and are building crap tools and living off of their reputation and charging through the nose (we have basically had to replace every DeWalt and Bosch tool in our collection after three years). I would like to know if anyone out there has found a reliable tool company.
I realize I have probably offended many Bosch and DeWalt fans, but based on my experience they havn't held up to normal wear and tear very well.

Thanks for any advice.

WarnerConstInc.

Go Green!

Double-A

I'm surprised that the Bosch let you down, as we have several and the only thing we've had to do to them is replace the batteries after 5 years, and put new brushes in them.

Did you check the brushes?

__________________
"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

BKFranks

I've been seeing a lot of the Makita 18v Lithium-ion. Get the blue ones, not the white ones. Not that there's anything wrong with either, just the blue one's batteries last longer and have a little more juice.

Hammer Drill
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...01+501461+1240

Impact Driver
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...01+527286+1240

If you buy them at HD and don't like them you can return em within 90 days.

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Quiglag

If you have gone through that many drills, maybe you are expecting too much from them and putting them through more then they should be used for. Example would be using them to drill a bunch of holes in concrete when you should be using a roto hammer.

StormExteriors

HI Jonny
As a certified Dewalt contractor during extreme tempeture changes ie: cold / hot the reg yellow top batts dont hold a charge as long this I agree but as far as power n life exp they are the toughest out there if you seriously have that much problems with them I give you two choices one is contact dewalt directly or the nearest dewalt owned service center or let me know if ya havin troubles at the ave and I'll find your area rep and have him contact you
hope this helps
John

WarnerConstInc.

Go, chase that storm.

WarriorWithWood

Yeah, I bought the Makita's and sold my entire dewalt collection (for 50 bucks after collecting dust for a year in my garage) after about the 6th freakin battery went. I've been kicking the Makita's a$$ and it keeps on running.

__________________
-Dennis
www.bowmanch.com

WarriorWithWood

Festool or Hitachi?

__________________
-Dennis
www.bowmanch.com

Cole82

I do like my hitachi better than my bosch it drives screw much faster than my bosch.


Maybe this

WarnerConstInc.

Festool, and go red, Hilti. I like the Hilti Impact driver.

FowlOne

Cant go wrong with either.
Still love my makita's

__________________
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves. - Ronald Reagan

wolffhomerepair

Makita has been holding up for me. I did have a problem with the drill and the sevice center replaced almost everything but the casing and chuck for under $70.

__________________
http://www.wolffhomerepair.com


" Of course I don't look busy, I did it right the first time "

buildenterprise

Oh, poor you! If I could get three years out of my heavily-used cordless tools I'd be happy!
As someone said, check the brushes. They are replaceable and usually the first thing to go bad. Don't blame the tool for operator ineptness when it comes to maintenance.

That being said, I started with a Bosch 18V Brute tough hammer drill and should have stuck with that. It truly was a brute! Ridgid had a clearance sale and I switched over to their 24 volt li-ion lineup back in early '07. Great tools but the batteries were horrible. I lost count of how many I had replaced. I finally got fed up last month and switched over to big yellow. We'll see how they perform. If I can get a year and a half out of a battery that's used daily I'll be happy. If DW fails me I will pony up the dough and go back to Bosch, they still are my fave.

plastersurgeon

Recently bought the 18V Ridgid hammer drill from Home Depot - the new one with the li-ion battery. Quite happy with the performance of the drill so far, but having a problem with the batteries.

Right from the start, I've had problems getting the battery off the drill. The only way to get it off is to use a hammer!

Took drill back to HD, they don't have any in stock anywhere in Ontario apparently, and I was told HD Canada would no longer be carrying this model. They told me to contact my Ridgid dealer directly. They will allow me to return the drill, but they don't have anything comparable in quality in the same price range, and I'm feeling stubborn about it... of course, I can buy a much more expensive drill but I got this one on sale at a good price and I'm hoping to just be able to replace it.

Anyone else had a similar problem with the batteries on this drill? Would like to know if it's a common problem before I contact Ridgid.

Thanks!

__________________
Get 'er done!

buildenterprise

I started to have problems getting my batteries off all my Ridgid tools, so I believe it's a battery problem, not a tool problem.

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Jonny85

Thanks for all your input. Believe it or not we did have a tool wiz check out our brushes on the Bosch. We aren't so stupid as to use our battery drills for concrete work, however I'm sure we are responsible for shortened life of our tools.
Our Ridgid batteries did seem to be the main problem, however the smoke and overheating kind of sucks too!
I am interested in knowing how the Lith-Ion batteries hold up, as far as how long does the 25-45min charge last before recharge?

WarnerConstInc.

I will catch heck for this but, I still dont like Lithium batteries.

The problem with the rapid charge is the heat generated by that almost instant charging. The key to good battery performance is the battery charger itself.

buildenterprise

The Li-Ion technology still has some bugs to be worked out, such as horrible cold temp performance. They hold a charge as long or longer than a comparable ni-cad battery, and the charge stays full until dead, it doesn't slowly wind down like a ni-cad. Li-ion batteries can also be charged more times than a ni-cad, if they last that long.
Ridgid definitely needs to improve their li-ion batteries, or stop using them.
There are companies that will rebuild your ni-cad packs with higher mah rating batteries so they run longer than the stock setup. I think volt-man is one, and there are a few that sell on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/WE-REBUILD-YOUR-...3286.m20.l1116

PS. I used my Bosch 18v hammer drill function all the time-that's what it's there for! I replaced the brushes after about a year, they pretty much fell out of the case when I opened it. NEVER had a battery issue with them.

JLTrim

I had that problem with my impact driver... there's a notch in the gun's handle that has a small lip that prevents the middle battery hook from lowering when you press the release buttons. Shave it w/ a knife or sandpaper and you're good to go. Don't hit it, just makes it worse.