bmaurice

Im in the market for some cordless tools. drill,circular saw, sawzall. Anyway my question is, Lithium Ion is it worth the extra buck?

Warren

Yes Yes Yes.

The cost is not that much more, and in my opinion they last longer and hold a better charge. I have been using the dewalt lithiums since they came out about a year and a half ago. I also have the bosch 12v impact/drill but haven't used it yet. I have used the nicads from dewalt ridgid milwaukee and hitachi. Almost all of my nicad batteries died before their 2nd birthdays.

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Inner10

If it ain't lithium ion I'm not interested. I have DeWalt, Ridgid and Hilti all are quite good. I like the Hilti the best then Dewalt then Ridgid although after using a friend's makita lith-ion set I was impressed.

As long as you stick with a good name you will be happy, there are no golden nuggets and no real turkeys.

RobertCDF

Go makita Lithium Ion. Be aware of the cheaper ones that have smaller batteries. These will not last as long, although they are still impressive and very light.

I have 3 sets of the 10.8V makita lithium drill and impact kit. As well as the full size 18V tools and love them.

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charimon

I love my Makita lithium 10.8 Drill & Impact combo kit..
Craig

WarnerConstInc.

I still like Nicad's for the cold weather.

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angus242

Cold weather sucks the life out of my Milwaukee 24V batteries.

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bmaurice

well i guess my mind is made up. 2 people from work told me that it was pointless because it really wasnt a big difference. last time i listen to them for advice. in fact i still dont know why i listned to them. their not the brightest i have ever worked with. Anyway thanks a lot for the advice once again. this site defiently decreases the wrong decisions i make. Glad you guys are here.

XanadooLTD

not to mention i think all of the tool makers are dropping production of nicads and going straight lithium ion. Battery goes good luck finding nicads. I know hilti is going to stop making nicads.

WarnerConstInc.

Thats just because Milwaukee has yet to make a decent battery.

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angus242

yeah I was on a Milwaukee kick a few years ago. I learned my lesson. I kept the 24V stuff strictly for the circ saw. It's nice for cutting out vinyl floors...and that's about it.

I'm very happy with my Makita drills & drivers.

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72chevy4x4

I made the switch over from dewalt NiCad's to lithium ion batteries and have almost every cordless dewalt tool and use them often in my work-the biggest joy is decreased charge time. I have a dual port charger and can start charging one NiCd and one lithium at the same time and the lithium is fully charged first-possibily b/c the Li batteries stop when the charge is low (doesn't run down like NiCd).

stp57

Yea, and the lithium doesn't have to cool down before recharging either.
Steve

A-RON

I bought the Makita impact drill, plows screws. Best impact drill! I bought the cheaper one (200$) that's white, charges in 15 minutes, lasts around 3 hours straight if I recall correctly.

As for circular saws Mikita, DeWalt, and Hitachi are my favorite. The only reason I didn't get a Mikita circular saw is because Lowes don't sell them.. I ended up buying the Hitachi, strong, inexpensive, durable (so far still good). I don't like the Hitachi blade, not used to it much I guess, fish tales a little. I'm a DeWalt construction blade guy lol.

I'm going to buy a reciprocating saw, either the Milwaukee super sawzall or a Mikita AVP (I heard mixed reviews about the Mikita AVP though..) I only use Milwaukee.

I only like corded tools. Cordless, I will always use Lithium Ion.

crovello

I have been puting off switching because I have so many 18v DeWalt tools so I only have one type of battery to deal with. Plus it runs my radios.

I have used the new Makita and I loved it. Time to take the leap.

Also I see Home Depot is running a deal. Bring in your old cordless and get 15% off new ion battery tool. I have a bucket of old cordless drills that I would be glad to get rid of.

Greg Di

Chevy all the way...

For the love of God, please use the search function...This might just be THE most discussed topic here.

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rebornjw

Yes. Shorter charge time and charge lasts 2x that of other battery power.

J F

Did you run outta beer greg?

Yeah, there are lots of threads regarding this.

Has anyone bought/used the panasonic drills (or any other tools)? They've always rated extremely well, with a lot of it having to do with their battery technology....I've just never tried 'em because....it's just weird to me, to think of "panasonic" when it comes to power tools.

crovello

I have had two Panasonic cordless drills in the past. They worked well but both broke in the same way. Stripped gears in about a year of moderate use. These were older modles so perhaps they are more durable now.

Dave

Phillip Marsh

With NiCad batteries the trick is to recharge them at the end of the day and not let them sit after they have been used and then recharge them when you need them. Even so they do not provide the performance of lithium-ion batteries, but the lithium-ion come with their own problems. Early drill models using these batteries could explode when dropped and new models have cut-off circuits to keep them from overheating but in turn cause the drill to stall in high torque situations.

We have been testing drills out as we plan to replace our drills with a single model for all the trucks. We tested using Blue Boar TCT hole cutters up to 6-1/4" diameter on Advantech OSB, Sturd-I subflooring, and Hardie panels over 5/8" OSB. The results were interesting as we found that the Hitachi would cutout throughout the hole cutting and performed the poorest. The Makita were the least likely to cutout but also were only marginally better than the Hitachi in performance. The two best drills were the new Makita M18 and the DeWalt DCD970 models.

The Milwaukee M18 has an overly sensitive protective circuitry that makes it necessary to start slowly and add power gradually to keep it from cutting out. You can use this drill the same way you would use a corded drill. The DeWalt XRP has a 3-speed gearbox which I did not think much about prior to our testing. What became clear very quickly was that the extra low speed range enabled the DeWalt to cut more smoothly and without any stalling with the toughest tasks as it better balanced the power draw to the power profile of the battery pack - a bit like using a gear selection on a car to keep its engine within its optimum power range.

I also realized how important it was to select the right hole cutter when using a cordless drill. With a corded drill a ordinary hole saw is slow but there is no battery discharge involved. We tested a brand new Milwaukee Ice 2" bi-metal hole saw on OSB and it took 40 seconds to make a hole that the Blue Boar TCT hole cutter went through in 3 seconds. The big difference though was that the M18 drill's battery pack took more than half an hour to recharge after a single hole with the hole saw.

Now we know that upgrading to the new TCT tungsten carbide tipped hole cutters with their large teeth and large gullets is going to produce better results than upgrading our drills and that is of little value to buy a new modern lithium-ion cordless drill and then continue to use old fashioned hole saws. With the new Blue Boar TCT hole cutters our guys seldom use the Hawg stud drills anymore as the can usually get by just fine with the 18v cordless drills.