dewalt tools : Our tester compares 10 cordless drill (2)

Balance. Once a drill/driver gets over 14.4 volts, battery location, orientation to the motor housing, and handle length can affect a tool's feel and balance. The motors on the DeWalt, Panasonic, Porter-Cable, and Craftsman models are parallel to the horizontal battery and each, except the Craftsman, has fine balance. The Craftsman's balance gets thrown off by its large battery, which is way out at the end of its long handle. The Bosch, Hilti, Hitachi, Makita, Metabo, and Milwaukee tools cant the battery down, creating an angle between the motor housing and battery, which provides a little better balance for me; I find those tools more comfortable to use.

Battery Exchange. Metabo wins the blue ribbon for easy battery exchange. Depressing one large button on the back of the handle with your palm releases the battery, which then literally falls out. Nothing is easier. Craftsman's and Milwaukee's front-slide batteries exchange nicely, too, and Milwaukee's battery is reversible. Porter-Cable's system is a rear slide-in that takes some practice to get right.

The 18-volt Hitachi and 15.6-volt Hilti use long vertical batteries. The extra-long Hitachi release tabs are easy-to-reach and the battery slides out nicely. The short Hilti tabs are hard to reach from underneath, so you must access them from the rear of the tool, making battery exchange slightly more difficult. The Panasonic, Bosch, DeWalt, and Makita have the typical “pinch-and-pull” system that has worked well for years.

Switches. All of the trigger switches felt secure and solid. I prefer large triggers, which are easier to use when wearing gloves or in awkward positions. All but the Hitachi model provide nice oversized triggers.

The reverse switches on all the drills were located at thumb level. The Bosch, Milwaukee, Hitachi, Craftsman, and Porter-Cable switches are big and easy to press. The DeWalt, Makita, and Panasonic are a little too small for my liking, but are pretty easy to press. The Hilti switch is tapered to match the tool body's curvature. It worked fine, but I didn't feel like I had solid contact with it when I used it. The Metabo switch was too far forward, making it hard to reach.

Chuck & Clutch

Chuck. Keyless chucks have seen some serious advances in recent years. Milwaukee, Porter-Cable, Bosch, DeWalt, Metabo, Hilti, Craftsman, and Panasonic have chucks that easily ratchet down and lock onto the bit. This means no more burned palms from cranking the chuck to insert or remove a bit. Bits don't jam nearly as easily, either. The Hitachi and Makita models still use older designs that don't tighten and release as surely, and this resulted in some bits jamming during the high-speed drilling test.

Plastic chucks can cause problems, too. I've cut raised grooves into several of them by inadvertently drilling too close to a proud nail head or hunk of metal. The grooves are sharp and make tightening the chuck downright painful. The all-metal Milwaukee and Porter-Cable chucks—the only all-metal, ratcheting/locking chucks in the test—won't have this problem and seem indestructible. The Bosch, DeWalt, Craftsman, Panasonic, Hilti, and Metabo drills all have ratcheting/locking chucks, but they aren't all metal, they're a plastic/metal combination. The Makita and Hitachi chucks are mostly plastic.

Clutch. All the drills have a multi-position clutch ranging from 16 positions (DeWalt) to 22 (Hitachi). Personally I don't see the need for more than six positions. The Makita requires you to press a tiny button to bypass the clutch for the drill position on the clutch dial. It wasn't easy to use barehanded and was impossible to use with gloves on. Hilti's black-on-black clutch settings are almost impossible to see.

By Rex Cauldwell