I have burnet out two ryobi cordless drills putting down a deck at my house. After the second one went I asked them for money back. If you use them a lot, they tend to melt a bit. Same goes for a ryobi jigsaw, that wasnt under warrenty though, ended up buying a bosch.

[QUOTE=Booga]
Panasonic FTW - but probably beyond budget.[/QUOTE]
+ 1 Panasonic awesome drills

In my experience the best by far are in order

Pannasonic
Milwalkee (Atlas copco)
then
Hitachi, Makita
Bosch, Dewalt

We have a Makita hammer drill at our bakery, which has been used every now and then for the past 15 years...never missed a beat.

Our home one is a GMC, and its still working well also after about 2 years of occasional use. Bought it because it was on sale for around $29 if I recall, which is damn cheap in my books.

I have a Bosch Ixo cordless screwdriver with Lithium Ion batteries, and it works a treat....beats having to use a normal screwdriver when assembling furniture!!

If you not going to use it much and for a small project just go the GMC range, they are good value for money and you will get your moneys worth out of them. If you want to use everyday then save up and get a HILTI.

be carefull with the Makitas we have had a few drills blow (one blew in my hand) but it was just that model, just got this Makita 18v MXT which is made in America and the Battery is made in Japan has metal gears and im impressed so far! also not impressed with the ryobis.

[QUOTE=Kato]Kinda off topic. What are everyone's complaints with the Ryobi's and the like?[/QUOTE]

Battery life & charge time :mad:

That and a lack of torque

u get what u pay for.. ive had my Dewalt 18v for bout 4yrs still as good as the day i bought.. i jus bought a the new lithium ion makita impact drivers.. battery lasts forever.. but again for lithium ion your lookin at $500..

[QUOTE=urabus]I bought a Hilti Hammer drill for work. Then the boys finally blew it up cause they did not know what they were doing. I went and bought a shitter from Big W and it was indestructible. When it did finally die I bought an identical one. Did not last one day. Yes I could have returned it and gone again but my point is that the cheap end of the market is very hit and miss. I went and bought another hilti.

As for cordless Panasonic make most of the top end batteries so I would go either with them or with the new lithium ion range from makita. A lot more than you wanted to spend but for peace of mind they are unbeatable.

One of my idiots (after specifically telling him not too) put a new makita battery charger on a generator and funnily enough it shat itself. Dropped it off to our local hardware store and within two weeks we got a brand new charger. 100% not their fault but no questions and replaced with no dramas.

Just do not go with dewalt. They look great and tough etc but use one that is a couple of years old compared to one a makita or panasonic and it is chalk and cheese.

Brendon[/QUOTE]



Agreed ^^^

At work we run dewalt cordless drills through the whole workshop. Constantly taking the things back for warranty repairs. Have had it all, from chucks falling apart, gears getting stripped, motors seizing and even had one that caused the battery to start pouring smoke out of it...
They are getting used pretty much 8 hours a day 5 days a week but for the price of them i dont think they live up to their name...

As for ryobi, anyone tried getting parts?? Got a drill press at work that was out of action for 3 months waiting for a new power button to be sent from sydney.

for the cheapies i have a gmc does the job works great gotta get at least 18volt though. i also find the black and decker fire storm range are very good prob bit better than the gmc .

i currently use a arlec though came in a big 5 piece kit works great.