Cordless Power Drills

Our website provides information on cordless power drills that will help you to decide on what are the key features you need for your next cordless power drill.  

Cordless power drills perform to nearly the same performance levels as corded power drills, due to the improved technology that has been developed. This power is achieved by high levels of torque being delivered at high speed. Torque is the force that the drill applies to an object to turn it. Cordless power drills are becoming smaller in size but still produce the same power as larger drills, due to improvements in torque. These drills are achieving increased power through the use of all metal planetary gears in the motor. The power rating of the drill is usually expressed in voltages (v). The 9.6v drill is probably the smallest you would invest in for jobs around the home, whilst commercial users of a cordless power drill would select one upwards of 24v. Commonly a home user would use a 12v or 14v, whilst commercial user would be using a 18v or 24v. 

The weight of a drill is important if you are using it above your head for any period of time. The battery is a main contributor of weight and there is now a growing list of compact and sub-compact cordless power drills that are becoming very popular. These drills utilize the lightweight Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) or Lithium ion (Li on) batteries which provide good power and there is now also half size batteries being used with drills to lessen the weight further.  Older style drills have batteries made of Nickel and cadmium (Ni cad). Whilst they provided good power, they were very heavy. You should ensure that you have a backup battery when you purchase your drill with a suitable battery charger. A good battery charger will not over charge the battery, which if it happens lessens the life of the battery. Some cordless power drill kits now also include half size batteries as well, for smaller jobs. 

A cordless power drill should have an adjustable clutch so that when it reaches a certain level of resistance, it will disengage the driveshaft thereby it won't cause any damage to the drill. Quite often you will find drills that have up to 24 settings for the adjustable clutch. As a standard feature the drill should have variable speed for when you need to go slow and fast, plus you should always have the option for reverse.  Having the reverse option makes the removal of screws very easy.  Most drills these days should have a keyless chuck to tighten and loosen drill bits. Usually only the very cheapest drills have a key chuck these days.    

When you are looking at which drill to buy, pick them up and see how they feel in your hand.  They will most be shaped in the traditional pistol style or the more modern T style which are usually better balanced. If you are using a drill for a considerable period of time, it has to fell good both vertically and horizontally.

The price of a cordless power drill does vary substantially depending on size, power and quality. You need to decide on how often you will be using the cordless power drill, will you require a lot of power in the work you are doing, will the drill have to fit into tight spaces and what is your budget for the cordless power drill. Check on whether you currently have other power tools of the same manufacturer where you could swap batteries with and was the performance of these tools up to your expectations. If you rely on the cordless power drill  for you living, you may consider a heavy duty drill with an extended warranty, upwards of 5 years. The price of the cordless power drill  is often a very good indicator of the quality of the drill, you need to decide do you need that level of quality, for the type of work that the cordless power drill will do and how often will you be using the cordless power drill.

All the big manufacturers of power tools make cordless power drills, these include Makita, Bosch, DeWalt, Milwaukee, Panasonic, Hitachi, Skil, Black and Decker and many more.