Best power tools? Not Bosch!!!

[oldplumber]

I bought a bosch combi drill 13 months back, now one af the NimHd batteries is already shot (despite running it flat prior to charging). Bosch offered a 3 year warranty on the drill but its not muchgood if the batteries die after 13 months, and you find the batteries arent part of a 3 yr warranty. what really ****es me off isIve got 3 NiCad batteries fm Bosch that are 4 yrs old and as good as the day I bought that drill, which is now back in the van. It seems that the more tools cost now the less they last, especially if the makers add "Professional" to the title


Any opinions on the best kit to buy nowadays, Milwarkee seems to be top of the polls in my area

 

[tracygg]

i think so, any boby have some good idea about it

 

[shaunhighcock]

dont you mean yellow black and decker and makita lol

yellow black decker? when did they get so good? lol

 

[Richard]

I am a De Walt man. Best stuff by far. XRP drills with Ni cad batteries, (you can interchange DeWalt batteries) just last and last. I used to buy Makita but I never got on with it. My 18V makita drill cost £350 and is ****e badly balanced and gets very hot. Corded Makita tools have enough lead to get to a Japanese ceiling ie about 5 feet Useless! The fences on all makita saws and routers are worse than useless. I just don't know who designs them. Reliable maybe but crap to use. De Walt as I suspect is Milwaukee seems to be designed by tradesmen. My De Walt chop/mitre saw is just a beautiful piece of engineering The Makita one is a joke by comparison. Abbeypower have an ebay shop for De Walt. They have sold De Walt for years before ebay and converted me. Nimh batteries just do not seem to work on power tools. I haven't tried lithium but my De Walt NiCads have lasted for years and go in all my cordless tools old and new. My Makita NiMh batteries have all been repaired and do not last half as long as De Walt Ni cads despite what the amp hour rating says.

 

[rooman]

Metabo - is what i use up on roof is robust, light and reliable...and of course i dont pay full price i dont make that much money but if can afford it well worth it! Also festool, and i had a go on a fein multimaster other day...perfect for everything.

 

[Gray0689]

It's a wide range and we all gave our fav tools but mine is still Bosch 36volt lithium all the way lol

 

[tamz]

When i was younger i used to love my Unifix drill. Can't remember the model but it was a big heavy powerful percussion thing. That relationship came to an end when the bstd broke my wrist when i hit a reinforcing bar. (no clutches in them days) Never used that again

 

[turnpin]

got a dewalt 18v xrp good alrounder for me got an older 24v bosch still good.. for the really hard concrete I`v got a hilti te17 have to use with caution has no slip clutch eats through concrete also in reserve have a spit 123 hammer drill trouble is it only takes spit bits have all paid for their keep over the yearsregards turnpin

 

[tamz]

And i thought i was the only one still to have a spit hammer with the tri shank. Never used it for years but it was a good gun. Still got a 321 that works somewhere. Was the first sds i ever had in the 80's.

 

[Bernie2]

Hmm!

I like Hilti, good stuff, but dear. I once had an old Wolf drill that weighed a ton but could drill all day long and did for years until it went "walk about!"

Today I would still regard Hilti as good and so is the Japan made Makita, I am unsure as to the Makita's made in other places. Never used Metabo but seems good.

Black and Decker I think took over Kango a well known workhorse and good stuff, they then as far as I know started to use Kango technology for De Walt.

There was also a US made Black and Decker that was very good. But now days the ordinary Black and Decker seems to be DIY and not very good. I think De Walt is possibly going the same way on some tools.

Bosch industrial seems to be good stuff as well. Usually though the workhorse is Makita.

 

[Rodreguez]

it might be jus me but i got all hitachi cordless had over 2 years and never had a problem.

 

[Avatar]

You lot are fixated by cordeless drills - if you use a cordless all day, it will die on you!

The best thing is to get a nice 2kg sds plus, and use it for 90% of your masonry drilling - oh and get a corded one!

I have a £300 Makita lithium combi and it is the dogs bits, I do not drill holes with it all day long, and even have a 10v bosch driver and impact driver to deal with screws.

look after your gear and dont be lazy!

if you buy cordless the make sure the batteries are 2.6 amp plus, and lithium only . . .

 

[oldplumber]

since starting this thread my bosch charger blew up with a very enthusiastic bang, nice an scary, of course this isnt covered by the 3 year warranty, so when I saw a new charger costs £85 I went and bought the bosch site radio/charger £150. we'll see how it goes but the gofer/apprentice will be happy as its very loud, but only gets radio 2/4 , when im around

 

[Plucky]

I have an 18v Metabo with 2.2ah Li batteries. It is 7 years old and is as good as the day I got it!

I have a bocch 36v cordless SDS and well chuffed with it so far. It does get hot quickly though

 

[Bad Religion]

Got a Hilt 36V Lith and 14.4V drill driver, they haven't missed a beat in two years. Would only ever use Hilti stuff now and Protool, Festool's first fix sister company. If I couldn't have afforded the Hilti stuff at the time would have gone for either Bosch or Milwaukee

 

[Ockyvines]

Try working on a building site with no power with your corded tools.
People who dont use cordless are usually the lazy ones,prob on the cards working for someone else and dont care if it takes 10 mins to roll out a lead to drill 1 hole.
This is 2010, cordless rules if you are prepared to pay for quality and keep drills etc sharp

 

[Vic Cowell]

i thought theywere on yhe same par as makita

They are made made by makita, but they're the budget line version. i'm a hilti man myself. i know i hear the cries of how much, but ya pay for what ya get.

 

[fuzzy]

ive had a black and decker 14v for nearly 10 years and its still great, very surprised

 

[bcp]

Milwaukee for all my power tools. Drills are metal gears and that makes a huge difference.

 

[muggles]

All my tools are Bosch, and almost all 36v or 10.8v cordless, only had one warranty issue with a drill chuck that wasn't gripping, sent it to Bosch who sorted it with no quibbles at all. The secret is not to return it to where you bought it from, but to deal with Bosch direct using their warranty hotline, you call them on day one, they'll collect from wherever you tell them to on day two, they have 48 hours to repair or replace and it's back to you on day five.

I'd look at Hilti if I could afford it, having said that I'm not convinced it can be all that much better than Bosch.

 

[MDH.PLUMBER]

hilti never lets you down

 

[GussyFinknottle]

Hilti Te6 Fab
Hilti Te25 Fab
Hilti Te 56 Fab
Hilti Te 76 Super Fab
Hilti Te 6a Super Duper Fab
Hilti DD160 Fab
Panasonic 15-6volt 3.5ah nothing even comes close
Rems Accupress Super fab
Rigid r300 also super fab
I have all of these for the last few years with no problems doing industrial pipework .They get dogged but are well looked after

 

[markproperjob]

all ive used for years is makita.
bomb proof.
expensive, but my gear has survived loads of site use, domestic use, being run over by a 5 ton manitu use, and falling off a 3 story building roof onto concrete use.
ive got the 18v ni-cad impact driver, jigsaw, combi hammer drill, cabinet driver and 18v li-ion combi hammer(my fave!!) and circular saw. the li-ions charge last forever, but are delicate in comparison to the ni-cads due to too much circuitry inside batteries. dont use them as hammer when youve left yours at ground level!
all my 110/240v kit is makita, router, buiscuit jointer, jigsaw, sds plus hammer drill.(this drill is without doubt the best drill iv ever used! it drills anything like youre dipping the bit into custard!! B+Q sell them at around £100 now.
ive also got a de walt 14v drill i use to wind down my caravan legs......oops that'll upset my yellow and black loving mate!!

 

[Avatar]

yeah - my dewalt drill now has slowly made its way to its place in the scheme of things - my home DIY kit, where it belongs!

 

[mboshier]

Makita LXT 600 KIT. the perfect plumbers kit! i have noticed tho that they have gone up in price. i managed to get mine for £510 two years ago but now they like £750 +