ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Problems with Dewalt

Well, here's my cordless story;
I had the Makita 9.6 in the early 80s. State of the art then. Not too powerful and short on battery life but sure beat a brace and bit setup. Picked up a B&D Cyclone 12V at the supply house around 93. It was a marked improvement over the Makita 9.6. B&D got stolen around 96 so I replaced it with (2) Dewalt 14.4V because the 2 GC crews I was working with most of the time all used Dewalt 14.4 and thewre was always plenty of extra batteries and chargers on the jobs and we all marked our batteries and used what was available throughout the day and collected our own at quitting time. Pretty handy setup. I was lucky to work with a great bunch of guys on both of the GC crews. Moved to a long-term project at a new factory and had the Dewalts stolen off of the job the 3rd week there. Quickly replaced stolen drills with Porter Cable 14.4V because they were the only thing I could get my hands on right away and get back on schedule. I was very impressed with the PC drills right away. I was shooting tek screws into steel purlans to hang 3/4 EMT all day and never ran a battery down in one day. That job lasted 22 months and was indoors and climate controlled @ 72 degrees year round. I was sold on PC 14.4V cordless. Then I moved on to another job in the dead of Indiana weather working outside in the cold. I soon found out that PC chargers would not charge a battery pack if the temp was below 40 degrees. I would charge my batteries in the motel room at night but run out of batteries before the day was over. In desparation to get done and go home I bought a Milwaukee 14.4 at a nearby supply house. It would not only charge in 40 deg temp but it charged up faster. I bought 2 more Milwaukee 14.4 drills and sold my PCs to a cabinet guy who I had worked with for years . He said the cold wouldn't be a problem for him because he didn't/wouldn't work in the cold anyway. So that's where I'm at now. I do still use a Dewalt cordless recipro saw because I don't like the feel of the Milwaukee Hatchet. I'm sure it is a good tool, just doesn't fit my normal application which is cutting pipe and strut one handed.

I'm happy with my DeWalt 24 volt tools, and contrary to e57's opinion, mine is that these are as strong as their corded counterparts.

We have the hammer-drill, reciprocating saw, and circulart saw, along with extra batteries and corded power supplies (battery eliminators).

DeWalt has a line of 36 volt tools on the way. More power! Arrgh, arrgh, arrgh!

I've been using a dewalt hammer drill( not cordless) for about 6 years and have been more than happy with it. The only problem I've had is with the chuck recently not locking onto the SDS bit but it was still completely usable and is only in being fixed at the moment because I happened to be passing their service centre.

After using a few brands of cordless I've been looking at what brand would be best to go with from now on. After checking the websites of the various brands I've been most impressed with the industry support from Makita in Australia.

Larry, I do like the idea of the cord for when the battery is out.

Sorry to pick this apart, but 36V is ridiculous!

"DeWalt has a line of 36 volt tools on the way." It's about time. A new system every calander year?

"More power!" What does that mean? Torque, run-time?

"Arrgh, arrgh, arrgh!" A hammer-drill, that wieghs 6.9 lbs? How much of that is battery? 2.4lbs - 35% Battery to tool. RPM 1600, BPM 27,200 Torque (not mentioned? :rolleyes; )

A 24 is 8.7 lbs, battery 3.6 lbs - 41% Battery to tool. RPM 2000, BPM 34,000 Torque 550 in-lbs

A 14.4 is 5.25lbs, battery 1.8 lbs - 34% Battery to tool. RPM 1800, BPM 30.600 Torque 450 in-lbs

About the same, right? No, one wieghs almost 2-3+lbs less and probhably does the same job for the same amount of time. For something most people use to drive SCREWS!? (Occassionaly a small dril bit?) And cost a lot less...


Pretty soon, you'll need a back pack battery, and invertor. At what point do you need to ground yourself as a seperatly derived power source?

Anyone used Hitachi, Bought the 18v one for just over half the price of the dewalt we have at work and have found it to be just as strong with as much torque and battery life. Feels like a quality tool when in your hand! Sometime s tools just feel like rubbish and when they feel that way they usually are.

e57, the best comparison I could suggest is to see how many holes each can make on a charge, and in how much time. For example, using a 1" auger and drilling through a 4x4, I'd be willing to bet that the 24v will drill almost twice as many holes, and in about the same time.

Plus, for the 18v to have almost the same torque, the chuck RPM at max torque would have to be quite a bit lower. This is simple physics. A small 4-cylinder engine can produce gobs of rear-wheel torque if you gear it low enough.

My only problem with DeWalt is the keyless chucks.
The jaws of the chucks tend to grab the points of a hex shaft instead of settling on the flats. [I know. Only when you’re in a hurry and don’s set it up precisely before inserting the tool, but who takes the time to do that?]
Then, in use, the shaft rotates to the flats and comes loose. I’ve dropped hole saws and bits down into cavities this way.

I’ve used and abused the 18V system since it came out about 10 yrs ago with no other complaints.

Larry, I went head to head with one of my guys one day - hate to say it - He got [b]ONE[b] more hole than I did. (1/2" carbide hole cutters in gutters and panels. ~300 holes between us on that job. Forget how many we did that day.) Not that this little excercise ever shut him up about it.

This was with brand new drills.... Well, the 18v was about a week older....

Both me and one of my underlings at the time got new drills about 2 years ago. He started bragging about it one day. "Oh, you can't handle the power huh?" When it was all over, he claimed his bit was dull. Since then, I dont buy the more power idea. All I know is that takes a lot more physical energy to lug a heavier tool around all day.

Edit to add: Anyone ever open any of these us to any degree? I would not be surprised if the motors are the same, with a Zenor Diode in the trigger to level the voltage to the same.......

[This message has been edited by e57 (edited 05-02-2006).]

I own a number of DeWalt tools, and, while they may not be the cats' meow, they serve well enough.

I would feel better, though, if they didn't come from the factory with the following sticker on them:
"Inspected whit pride..."

That's right; there is a mis-spelt word on the inspection sticker!

e57, to me, they're not all that heavy. But then, I'm 6'3" and over 300 lbs. I can drill through solid framing with one hand on the drill with my arm extended straight out.