10.8v versus 18v

[Monkey Mark]

Well my has makita LXT (black & white, the green are rubbish) has died, and I find myself wondering what to do.

I still have the charger and a couple of batteries so could replace it for about £80. Alternativlye I could get a Makita drill and driver combo for £135 in the 10.8v format (£80 if I went with titan which I've always found to be good, £100 for erbaur).

The 10.8v seem to be getting good reviews recently, but how well do they compare to the 18v and will an impact driver really be that beneficial?

Opinions please. Cheers, mark.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Intended use is I think the critical distinction here. If you're a roofer driving 4" screws and don't want to be forever running up and down scaffolding with chargers everywhere then you need more volts. If you're a hobbyist on a garage bench or in the trade but with less demanding needs the 10.8V tools are fabulous because of the lighter everything.

 

[paulm]

As Rob said Mark, depends what you want to do with it, horses for courses and all that.

Bit confused also, Makita don't make green stuff as far as I know, their normal colour is blue, and the quality and specs of that gear is the same as the limited range of black and white they brought out, they just changed the colour for a while for some anniversary or such like I think.

Bosch do a blue professional quality range and a green diy range, maybe that's what you're thinking of ?

Anyway, wouldn't expect 10.8v gear of any make to drive larger screws or drill bigger holes, and the the batteries wouldn't last as long in use for anything demanding, but for smaller, occasional work say putting hinges on flatpack wardrobes or kitchen cabinets for example could be fine and a lot more compact and lighter to use. For general use around home. workshop or site I would go personally for 18v and yes, an impact driver is great for driving larger screws if you have many to do, but unnecessary if only an occasional few.

Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers, Paul

 

[eatthis]

Intended use is I think the critical distinction here. If you're a roofer driving 4" screws and don't want to be forever running up and down scaffolding with chargers everywhere then you need more volts. If you're a hobbyist on a garage bench or in the trade but with less demanding needs the 10.8V tools are fabulous because of the lighter everything.

the voltage has nothing to do with run times, its all about the ah.
iv used a set of 10.8v dewalts (including impact driver) and 18v too and tbh th 10.8 was seriously impressive, they weigh bugger all but have ALOT of power for the size.
id say their limit is something like 70mm 5s straight into fresh timber, that will maul the drill/driver but the impact driver puts direct drive fixing bolts into brick no problem at all

 

[MickCheese]

I really like my 10.8v Makita set. The impact driver is actually quite powerful and the lack of weight make things a little easier. Battery life seems very good too.

I am just a hobby woodworker/DIYer but I have a family member who is a roofer and he uses one most of the time.

 

[Adam9453]

As said voltage equates to strength/power whereas amp hours (ah) refer to run time. I just bought a nice dewalt 18v combi drill with 3 batteries from screwfix for the bargain price of £140. The batteries are only 1.3ah but as there's three of them I can always have at least one charged. Plus by going for the 18v tool, I can buy the bigger 4 or 5 ah batteries if I find the 1.3ah ones run down to quickly. Although I used it most of the day on Thursday and didn't run even one battery out. The 18v tool is heavier than the lower voltage versions but I find it's not too heavy, nicely balanced and the ergonomic grip make it comfortable to use.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

The reality is that all this modern crop of lith ion batteries are absolutely amazing. When I think back to overnight charging and then two farts and it was empty, it wasn't that long ago. It wasn't that long ago when my trusty Yankee was the tool of choice either!

I think those 10.8V tools are an absolute marvel, their power sort of defies belief on one level, specially when you were brought up using a yankee! If roofers are reporting that its working for them then I'd be inclined to give it a go frankly. I've built 2.5 houses and the trade definitely err towards the whole 18v world from what I've seen but then the last build was 7 years ago and things have moved on since then. I appreciate the technicality about volts by the way, I was meaning "grunt" more than anything else

 

[CHJ]

Don't use Battery Powered enough to comment on them in a work (what is that by the way) environment but to me a lower voltage set of cells has to provide a much higher discharge current than the higher voltage set to provide the grunt expected of it, therefore working harder.
All depends upon the current capacity of the cells I suppose and whether those in the 18volt versions are reduced in physical size to fit in the battery pack dimensions.


Having said that my old 9.6 volt Bosch Ni-Cad cells died gracefully after a long and useful life and they provided 6 amps + according to the power pack the drills are now run on in the shed. The 18v Lithium packs in my no longer available Axy drill have a habit of turning up their toes in a matter of a few uses, don't know if that is cell current failure or electronics though.


Impact driver and screws, my limited experience around the plot is knowing where along the usefulness is the crossover of added driving effect of the impact and the brittleness of the screw and it's propensity to shear off halfway in if you haven't pre-drilled.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

my rule of thumb is if its hardwood or close to an edge, I pilot hole first.

 

[Monkey Mark]

Bit confused also, Makita don't make green stuff as far as I know, their normal colour is blue, and the quality and specs of that gear is the same as the limited range of black and white they brought out, they just changed the colour for a while for some anniversary or such like I think.

Bosch do a blue professional quality range and a green diy range, maybe that's what you're thinking of ?

The black and white.where indeed anniversary issues continued due to popularity. The others, the typical Makita colour (which I would call green) are supposed to be the same internals but IMO don't perform the same.

At work we ordered 6 black and whites. 3 years later we ordered 6 greens.
Now after 4 years 1 black and white stolen, 1 broke and 4 still going.
The greens which are only 1 year old, 3 are faulty.

The greens seem to struggle and produce smoke when the others continued merrily. Perhaps a bad batch but they also don't feel as heavy or well built.


At home I'm leaning towards the 10.8. It will be mostly hobby use. I still have some old ryobi tools including a drill driver and hammer drill (work fine but batteries don't last) as well as corded drills for bigger jobs (b&d hammer, an sds and two makitas).

 

[No skills]

I've been using 10.8v since xmas (metabo), they have been surprisingly good for what they are.

The impact driver will do 3" screws in softwood no problem, you can use some bigger screws with it but if I am I'll pre-drill first or just wander back to the toolbox and get the 18v impact - no point killing the tool for no reason.
The drills good as well but if I'm drilling much bigger than a 16mm spade bit I will again go and get an 18v drill to save time.

If your going to use the 10.8's a lot then get some extra batterys, a lot of them are only 1.3/1.5ah - one reason I went metabo is the kit I brought had a 2ah and a 4ah battery, plus the quick change chuck which I find handy sometimes.

I'm tending to pickup the 10.8's over my 18v stuff more and more and I make sure the metabo systainer is always on top of the stack. In fact I'm not happy with my new 18v drill, might change for something else - will use it on a few more jobs and see.

FWIW