Important features Cordless drills
A "smart" charger recharges a drill's battery in about an hour or less, compared with three to five hours or more for a conventional charger. Smart chargers also extend battery life by adjusting the charge as needed. Most smart chargers switch into a maintenance or "trickle-charge" mode as the battery approaches full charge. One drill has a dual charger that charges two batteries at once.
Most cordless drills 12 volts and more have two speed ranges: low for driving screws, high for drilling. Low speed provides more torque, or turning power, than the high-speed setting, which is useful for drilling holes. Most models also have a variable speed trigger, which can make starting a hole easier, and an adjustable clutch, which lowers maximum torque to avoid driving a screw too far into softwood or wallboard, or mangling its head.
Most drills have a 3/8-inch chuck, but some higher-voltage models have a 1/2-inch chuck, which can accommodate drill bits up to 1/2 inch. (Large diameter bits with a reduced shank will fit in smaller chucks.) Today's models are also reversible, letting you more easily remove a screw or back a drill bit out of a hole.
Still other features make some drills easier to use than others. Some models have a second handle that attaches onto the side of the drill so you can use two hands for better control when driving large screws, for example. All but the least expensive drills come with two batteries, letting you use one while the other charges.
Most cordless drills run on nickel-cadmium (NiCad) batteries, which can be recharged hundreds of times. Once they're depleted, though, NiCads must be recycled, since cadmium is toxic and can leach out of landfills to contaminate groundwater if disposed of improperly. Incineration can release the substance into the air and pose an even greater hazard. A few models run on nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) batteries, which don't contain cadmium and are friendlier to the environment. In recent tests some NiMH-powered models ran longer than many 18-volt and 14.4-volt NiCad-powered models, yet weighed about the same.
Some drills are bundled with other cordless tools and sold as kits. The package typically includes a circular saw, a reciprocating saw, and—often—a flashlight and carrying case. Some kits are a relatively good deal. But as our reports have shown, cordless circular saws tend to be far weaker than corded models. And some kits are merely a collection of mediocre tools.
Cordless kits: More tools for less
POWER SHARING The use of the same cells and charger to power several tools allows retailers to sell those tools in kits for far less than they would cost separately.
Rising performance makes cordless kits an even more appealing way to give handy homeowners on your gift list four tools for the price of two.Most of these tool kits include a rechargeable drill, a circular and reciprocating saw, and a flashlight for roughly half the price you'd pay for those tools a la carte.
The batteries and chargers that provide that power account for the savings. Because all the tools in each kit share the same two cells and charger, you avoid having to buy these pricey parts with each tool. That helps explain why many cordless drills are now sold as part of a kit, rather than separately.
Cordless tools are getting better as well as cheaper. You'll also find better batteries and smarter chargers that work in an hour or less, rather than three hours or more for conventional chargers.
Cells with more stamina. How long a tool runs on each charge can be almost as important as how well it works. Makita is the latest among a handful of brands to stretch that time by trading the usual nickel-cadmium (NiCad) batteries for nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH).
Besides eliminating toxic cadmium, which should be discarded at designated collection centers, NiMH cells weigh less than comparable NiCads and outlast them in our tests. For our top-scoring Makita kit, that came to 13 percent more run time for the drill, 23 percent more for the reciprocating saw, and 39 percent more for the circular saw than we got from its closest competitors.
