Makita drills

[chicken_house_man]

I've recently tried 18v makita drills from Screwfix. 1st one duff battery, second one gearbox broke in high speed, 3rd broke gear box in high speed. Changed it to more expensixe impact driver.

14.4v drill driver bought in NOv/Dec. Electronic brake has just stopped working.

12v makita drill /driver still going strong - will now break tommorrow.

Previously I've used Dewalt but found the batteries had a short life and the motors wore out on the 12v.

What next?

 

[DeanN]

Blue Bosch - I've had a 14.4V for nearly 4 years, and in almost daily use. I've had to buy a couple of new batteries as they were not holding charge. I'm now thinking of upgrading to the 18V, or may look at an impact.

 

[chicken_house_man]

i'm looking at the GSR14.4VE23

 

[paulm]

That doesn't sound too good !

I've got a few Makita 12v's, couple of drill/drivers, impact driver and a trim saw also, love them to bits !

They have lasted for years and a good balance of power versus ease of handling. Once I had a few decent batteries it made sense to stick to the same kit and haven't had any problems at all. Probably doesn't make you feel any better though !!!

Have a couple of Metabo's too and they are very well put together and feel very solid and high quality, 12v again though.

Be interesting to hear if others are having problems with Makita stuff like some of the more recent DW stuff is reputed to have fallen drastically in quality, something to do with manufacturing being moved to China I think I heard but don't know if it's true or accurate.

Cheers, Paul.

 

[pooka]

I recently bought myself a Panasonic 15.6V and I like it a lot. I haven't used it enough to say whether it is better than my Makita 12V though, but the Panasonic is more compact (which is very useful) and is about the same weight despite the heftier battery.

I have read some very good reviews of this Panasonic in the past, most of which claimed that it out-performed all other drills on the market (some of the drills it was compared against were 12V though, against which it should fare well, while others were 18V). Not so long ago I was in a local Festool suppliers and they had a hand-written table on a board showing the results of comparisons between the Festool drills and some others. They rated the Festool TDK 15.6V as the best performer (based on the number of screws it drove in on one charge), with this Panasonic in second place. While the Festool drills are very appealing, they are close on twice the price of the Panasonic which was one of the things that lead to my choosing the Panasonic.

I bought mine from Rutlands (http://www.rutlands.co.uk/cgi-bin/psPro ... EY6432GQKW) but that was when they were selling for £180 and they are now back to £199 there so they may be available cheaper elsewhere.

 

[pooka]

One thing I forgot to mention about the Panasonic is that it has a high pitched sound to it which I haven't encountered with other cordless drills (it is probably only a little more shrill than my Makita, but enough for the difference to be noticeable). It gets drowned out by the noise of the bit boring the wood, but it is a slightly annoying sound. I got used to it quite quickly and don't really notice it now, but for the first few times I used the drill the noise grated a bit.

 

[Gary M]

They have lasted for years

Thats the problem. Makita stuff is no where near as good as it used to be. You only need to look at it to realise that.

Be interesting to hear if others are having problems with Makita stuff like some of the more recent DW stuff is reputed to have fallen drastically in quality, something to do with manufacturing being moved to China I think I heard but don't know if it's true or accurate.

I use Dewalt gear. Its about 2 years old, imported from the states with no problems at all. Very reasonably priced
I find Dewalt gear pretty rugged and can take daily abuse. Everything interchangable on 18v is great.
I can thoroughly recommend Panasonic or Hitachi they are top quality too.
I have 2 Panasonic cordless drills (15.6v now redundant as there is so much Dewalt 18v stuff available) and have used a 14v Hitachi on numerous occasions. Both are quality drills with excellent battery life.

Pooka, i haven't heard any High pitched sounds from my Panasonic's. don't like the sound (no pun intended) of that ??
HTH
Gary.

 

[seaco]

I have an 18v Dewalt that I've had for 9 years and it's still going strong it's been dropped several times without problem, 18 months ago I had to buy 2 new batteries but still use the originals just they don't hold charge as long as the newans... :wink:

 

[neilyweely]

i have a makita 14.4v mxt cordless, been battered about on site now for a while and seems to be good as new, however i also use a couple of ryobi 18v one plus combis as i am not so bothered if they get nicked or abused by someone else on a job. they seem to be ok, but the nicad batts don't last as long as the nimh makitas. the build quality on the mxt drills seems to be a lot better than the other makitas without replaceable brushes.

 

[pooka]

Pooka, i haven't heard any High pitched sounds from my Panasonic's. don't like the sound (no pun intended) of that ??
HTH
Gary.

Hi Gary,
I checked my drill again this evening, just to see if I was overstating the noise. I probably was a bit. The noise kicks in when you press the trigger, but even the sound of the chuck spinning is enough to drown it out. My other cordless drills generate a noise too, but the noise from those is a slightly lower pitch - it is a different pitch per drill, but the others are all just low enough to not quite grate like the Panasonic does.

It's not a big issue though, by any means, and I may be unique in finding it even noticeable