Lithium ion tools

[monkeyelectric]

Hi everyone, i have a dilema, at present i have a hitachi 18v drill/driver that has been great up til now, nice and light and powerful but the batteries have given up, they only last about 5 or 10 minutes and they're flat so in travis perkins they have a makita drill and impact driver 10.8v li ion with a free vaccum cleaner for £125+vat, i'm very tempted but does anybody on here use them? are they any good? or are there any better alternatives for similar money or less would be good? i don't know if 10.8v will be powerful enough, cheers

 

[Lucas]

I probably wouldn't bother with it if its only 10.8V. I only use Makita Li-ion and they are all excellent. Recently I brought the Makita 6 piece kit from screwfix and its the best thing I've ever brought!

I know in Screwfix they are selling a kit comprising of a combi drill and impact driver for about £200 but its Ni-Cad batterie's

 

[martysparky]

maybe the price for two pieces plus battery suggests something as the 18v with 3 Ah batteries are abou for times that price. the Li-ion batteries alone are about £100 smaks.

My guess is people are buying the 18v

Never used the 10v so cannot comment.

 

[Mark_Burgess]

I will never ever buy anymore cordless tools that are not lithium, not owned the Makita 10.8v stuff personally, but if it is on par with the Bosch 10.8V lithium stuff which I have, I am sure it will be good.

Good thing with lithium is charge at any point, no need to wait until flat and usually charge faster than NiMh.

If you want to use it mainly for screwing and drilling in thin metal and wood, i'd say go for it, they are also light and dont get so tiresome after a long day.

 

[eskimo39]

I use the Bosch 10.8 stuff which is bombproof but don't expect too much heavy use out of it. I recently bought a panasonic 14.4v Lithium SDS drill for working at height and it is amazing. All my other gear is Bosch so I was a bit dubious about buying Panasonic but I was stunned with how well it drills for it's weight/size.

It cost £250 with 3 x 3ah Lithium batteries, a 30 minute charger and case, it drills red brick & concrete far better than my 36v Bosch combi.

The other problem if you buy the 10.8v stuff is it is nowhere near powerful for large diameter holesaws for downlights. The ideal combination would be a good combi/sds drill with a 10.8v screwdriver.

Hope this helps

 

[monkeyelectric]

Cheers for the info, i have a 24v boschammer sds, for the heavy drilling, hitachi sds for chasing so i just want something for screwing, drilling like such things as downlight holes and that makita set felt good in the hand, very light. Screwfix have a bosch 10.8v set too for £110 but not sure whether to get a higher voltage set, loads of choice and i want to get it right as i hate wasting money

 

[ICE]

I work in a commercial environment and I have a Makita 18v and makita 10v. 18v is perfect for general work and 10v is good for isolators and dist boards it is a handy size but not suitable for hole cutting. my 10v came as a pair 1 normal and 1 impact, great little set for what they are

 

[sparkie]

iv seen a 18v makita combi with one 3.0a li on battery for £140 inc VAT at trade point. awesome little drill but there is only one battery :S

 

[monkeyelectric]

I've bought the makita 10.8v kit and its superb, so powerful for something so small, just a shame travis ended the free hoover deal at the end of july but apparantly it was pants anyway, will probably get an 18v a bit down the line for heavier work though, cheers

 

[cossie400]

Have just bought the Makita 18v lxt lithium combi drill and Jigsaw set, with free hoover for £295+ vat from electric center, great bit of kit!