PeterW Posted November 4, 2017 Share Posted November 4, 2017 Right ... so the trusty pair of Makitas have finally let out the last of their electrical smoke today and they are on their last legs. I’m looking to replace them both with a single unit that has to : 13mm chuck hammer function lots of torque 30 min charge ideally this would be a Makita but I’ve also looked at Fein - over 15 years the only tools that have never let me down have been my Makita stuff and the trusty multimaster so I’m not really interested in swapping to Dewalt or Bosch. I’ve also considered Milwaukee but don’t have any experience of them other than the sparky swears by them. Anyone got any recommendations ...?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nod Posted November 4, 2017 Share Posted November 4, 2017 5 minutes ago, PeterW said: Right ... so the trusty pair of Makitas have finally let out the last of their electrical smoke today and they are on their last legs. I’m looking to replace them both with a single unit that has to : 13mm chuck hammer function lots of torque 30 min charge ideally this would be a Makita but I’ve also looked at Fein - over 15 years the only tools that have never let me down have been my Makita stuff and the trusty multimaster so I’m not really interested in swapping to Dewalt or Bosch. I’ve also considered Milwaukee but don’t have any experience of them other than the sparky swears by them. Anyone got any recommendations ...?? Milwaukee are far superior to all the above there on par with Hilti traverse perkins have a kit with three batteries on offer at the moment 250 including a flash light go on utube and look under drill wars Some guy connecting Milwaukee dewalt and makita together and seeing which one burns out Rach to his own it made me chuckle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted November 4, 2017 Share Posted November 4, 2017 @PeterW If it's just the drills dead then you still have the batteries and chargers so why not just buy another naked drill ? ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpd Posted November 4, 2017 Share Posted November 4, 2017 Makita DHP481Z 18 V LXT Li-ion Brushless Combi Hammer Drill cost me £140 from amazon in May and i have been amazed by it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted November 4, 2017 Share Posted November 4, 2017 Black Friday is 24 November. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daiking Posted November 5, 2017 Share Posted November 5, 2017 2 hours ago, Ferdinand said: Black Friday is 24 November. Talk about the pot calling the culturally misappropriated kettle black indeed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Construction Channel Posted November 5, 2017 Share Posted November 5, 2017 5 hours ago, nod said: Milwaukee are far superior to all the above there on par with Hilti traverse perkins have a kit with three batteries on offer at the moment 250 including a flash light go on utube and look under drill wars Some guy connecting Milwaukee dewalt and makita together and seeing which one burns out Rach to his own it made me chuckle so you're a milwaukee guy eh...... this is always a fun one on site. AFAIC its pick a colour and invest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted November 5, 2017 Share Posted November 5, 2017 Zer iz nussing vrong viz ze Bosch. Ja! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpmiller Posted November 5, 2017 Share Posted November 5, 2017 green or blue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney12 Posted November 5, 2017 Share Posted November 5, 2017 2 minutes ago, dpmiller said: green or blue? Always blue. Three year warranty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted November 5, 2017 Author Share Posted November 5, 2017 9 hours ago, Nickfromwales said: @PeterW If it's just the drills dead then you still have the batteries and chargers so why not just buy another naked drill ? ? @Nickfromwales it’s on the old 14.4v batteries and they have done great service but are getting long in the tooth. Have considered LXT so I can buy just the naked units in future. 1 hour ago, recoveringacademic said: Zer iz nussing vrong viz ze Bosch. Ja! Errrr ... Bosch corded have always been fine, my one Bosch cordless ended in disaster and I don’t want to tempt fate ...!! 5 hours ago, Construction Channel said: this is always a fun one on site. AFAIC its pick a colour and invest. That’s been my philosophy for a while although I did buy the £25 Wickes Makita clone a few months back as a stop gap and I’ve been impressed ..! Downside is their other stuff gets rough reviews so I’m not sure about anything else joining the driver. 8 hours ago, Ferdinand said: Black Friday is 24 November. And that is a consideration ..!!! FFX normally have some really good deals but I can see that ending with me buying a lot of stuff I just don’t need...!! Lots to consider !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeSharp01 Posted November 5, 2017 Share Posted November 5, 2017 21 hours ago, daiking said: culturally misappropriated oh er! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crofter Posted November 6, 2017 Share Posted November 6, 2017 I found the best deals were on eBay. Brushless LXT impact and driver kit inc 2x 4ah batts and charger, in hard case, for around £280 IIRC Can't recall the name of thr seller but they were a German outfit, so the charger is a two pin plug. However they would deliver anywhere in the UK for a flat rate and it worked out much cheaper than buying from a UK seller, all of whom wanted a small fortune to deliver up here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpmiller Posted November 6, 2017 Share Posted November 6, 2017 When I was looking for my TD021 (7.2v mini impact driver, superb tool) the cheapest was the german site Alternate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted November 6, 2017 Share Posted November 6, 2017 I've heard mixed reviews about Milwaukee. Apparently they used to be top drawer, but were bought out several years ago and quality may have suffered. AvE has covered this in passing more than once on his Youtube channel. His review of one of the largest Makita cordless drills is here. By coincidence, I'd already bought the Makita DHP481Z, which is either the same as the one he reviews or very similar. This thing is a serious bit of kit. Amazing torque. I used it to drill about 30 x 12mm holes through softwood to the full depth of the bit, and the motor speed didn't drop even when being pushed hard with the bit buried to the chuck. I burned out a cheapo corded drill from Homebase doing something similar. One thing though: it's heavy! I wouldn't want to be spending a lot of hours holding it overhead or at odd angles unless you have more masculine wrists than my dainty things. Looking back, I seem to have gotten a good deal (£105 delivered) from FFX when I bought it about 18 months ago. I also have the basic model Makita LXT impact driver, which again is amazing. I used it to drive long galvanised carriage bolts into the holes drilled above and again the whole experience was effortless. These were the first time I'd ever spent money on decent tools and there's just no way I could go back to cheap tools again. I'm sure you'd get a similar experience from DeWalt and others, but I'm very happy about having gone down the Makita route. Oh, and I use generic 4AH batteries, and they're brilliant. To be honest, unless you're drilling all day, you'll be hard pressed to empty one of these of charge in a hurry. Takes only 25 mins to charge from empty as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crofter Posted November 6, 2017 Share Posted November 6, 2017 One thing I may add is a little 1Ah battery, or whatever the smallest available one is. I could do with a third battery and if you're just drilling pilot holes or other light duty work, it would reduce the weight of the tool. The 4Ah batts go on for days unless you're using the circ saw, grinder, or sander for long periods. But in the drill and driver you'd have to have a much better work ethic than I do to empty one in a day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted November 6, 2017 Share Posted November 6, 2017 1 hour ago, Crofter said: One thing I may add is a little 1Ah battery, or whatever the smallest available one is. ... it would reduce the weight of the tool. Not a bad idea. I wonder whether it would leave it feeling top-heavy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpd Posted November 6, 2017 Share Posted November 6, 2017 @jack i agree with everything you say about this model, i have been putting it through some big jobs with no bother, yes it's heavy and i expect most of this extra weight is due to its very good masonry hammer drill function. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CC45 Posted November 6, 2017 Share Posted November 6, 2017 I keep some 1.2 dewalt batteries charged - they are handy to fill the gap while I wait for my big ones are charging. Crofter is right about the weight - sometimes you just want something light and easy to move. I've got 18v Dewalt kit - no issues at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpmiller Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 Best thing I ever did was acquire a couple of XRP lithium batteries for the Dewalts, they're very long-lasting and pretty light too. Bought both as faulty- one had a broken weld inside the pack(easy fix), the other was discharged far enough that the protection circuit "switched it off" and the normal charger would ignore it. Put a DC power source directly onto each cell for a moment and it then accepted a charge and hasn't looked back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted November 10, 2017 Author Share Posted November 10, 2017 So by way of update I’ve gone with the Makita LXT 18v and have both drill and impact driver. I priced up getting the individual components (just after I gave @Ferdinand my spare LXT rapid charger....) and unless I bought pattern batteries I couldn’t match an offer from Screwfix that included two genuine 3Ah batteries with a standard charger. I’ll probably add a couple of pattern batteries and a rapid charger and then the circular saw. Its not like I didn’t need a nice early Christmas present to myself anyway ... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 2 minutes ago, PeterW said: So by way of update I’ve gone with the Makita LXT 18v and have both drill and impact driver. I priced up getting the individual components (just after I gave @Ferdinand my spare LXT rapid charger....) and unless I bought pattern batteries I couldn’t match an offer from Screwfix that included two genuine 3Ah batteries with a standard charger. I’ll probably add a couple of pattern batteries and a rapid charger and then the circular saw. Its not like I didn’t need a nice early Christmas present to myself anyway ... Standard / rapid charger? Don't they only do one? All COLD 3ah batteries should charge in 22 mins or so ? @JSHarris had a link to his tried and tested Micky mouse ones . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted November 10, 2017 Author Share Posted November 10, 2017 Nah they do two chargers still @Nickfromwales - one is “up to 60 mins” for a 4Ah battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 For £60 I got the dual battery charger with USB power port. Never looked back. Cheers for the heads up, didn't know about the 1hour charger. Maybe that has no fan cooling so takes longer than the intelligent temp sensing one Ive got. Ill see if my spare is a rapid and if it's working. Fyi the 4's take a LOT longer even in my dual rapid. My prob is I'm always putting them into the charger when they're hot / warm and the charger blows cold air through them until the thermistor says it's cool enough to start charging. Sometimes that's a good 15-20 mins before charging actually commences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted November 10, 2017 Author Share Posted November 10, 2017 Yeh I saw that one on t’Bay for about £54...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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