If you want to do DIY work, fine carpentry or high-strength constructions, wireless cordless drills are very useful because they make it easy to do a lot of work. The cordless drills are a tool that allows drilling on various materials and surfaces.
Its main feature is portability because when working with a battery and not wired, they can be used anywhere. Also, the cordless drill has an inverse operation function that allows you to attach several elements with screws and then remove them.
So, if you’re thinking of buying one to add to your tools, we tell you everything you need to know about them to make the best choice. Here we review 5 best cordless drills that offer great performance in budget value.
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5 Best Cordless Drills
Here are the 5 best models in each price range, so that your budget doesn’t stop you from getting hold of one of these useful tools.
1. DeWalt DCD771C2 Cordless Drill Driver
DeWalt DCD771C2 20V cordless electric drill includes everything important to start using an electric drill. It is a high-end compact electric drill/screwdriver combination tool and equipped with a charging station and a cloth cover that is easy to carry. It has a medium-sized drill that makes it lightweight for users. It has an ergonomic handle, which can be used comfortably for a long time.
It comes with a variable speed trigger, and the speed of a 300W motor can reach 0 to 1500 RPM, which is very suitable for most applications. There is also a built-in LED light next to the DeWalt cartridge. You can use these LED lights if you are working in dark, awkward places. It is the best drill in this list, but we notice two issues that are not very prominent.
The first is the battery, although the engine is durable, the battery still cannot withstand the heavy workload. If you do trivia around the house, it might be fine. However, if you are building a deck or doing another strenuous exercise, you may notice that the battery is quickly draining. The price is another matter because if your budget is limited, this tool is not for you. Otherwise, this is one of the best cordless drills on the market, and most people like it.
2. WORX WX176L.1 Switchdriver 2-in-1 Cordless Drill
If you are looking for an affordable drill that comes with a powerful design, then the Worx WX1761 is the best option. The tool is equipped with a rotating double chuck, which can not only speed up the drilling but also is very safe, that means you can get the job done easily. You can also change the modes of this drill by just pressing the one button. You can easily rotate the dual chuck can at 180 degrees clockwise and counterclockwise.
The power-sharing 20V battery can also be used with other tools manufactured by Worx. Another benefit of this drilling tool is that it comes with two speeds of transmission, allowing you to choose the power you want to use, which ultimately saves power and money. The WORX switch driver weighs just over 3 pounds. It is the best tool for fastening and drilling in the low-weight cordless drill category.
The ergonomic design and rubber grip can reduce vibration and provide the best comfort during the drilling. When working in a dark and narrow space, you can use the built-in led light, regardless of the space and lighting, you can complete your work with the highest accuracy and confidence.
3. BLACK+DECKER LDX120C Cordless Drill
If you’re looking for best cordless drill under then $100, then you should pay special attention to the BLACK+DECKER LDX120C Cordless Drill. If you want high-quality features at a reasonable price, then this might be the best tool on the list. We add this drill in this list due to its useful features and excellent buyer’s feedback.
It comes with a lightweight design that offers great ergonomics strong enough to meet the needs of most workplaces. The battery-operated drill works on 18V. Its lightweight and compact design makes it very portable. The drill is ideal for many purposes and compared with other cordless drills on the online market; this practical cordless drill is ideal in the price range.
You can also easily find tools for this cordless electric drill in the store, which is also good. It comes with a strong grip that prevents sweaty hands from slipping. However, if you are drilling on harder surfaces such as bricks or concrete, chances are you want a more powerful drill, especially since this wireless drill does not have enough speed to perform this task.
4. DEWALT DCD777C2 MAX Cordless Drill
The DEWALT DCD777C2 cordless drill is the powerful, lightweight and convenient tool that comes from the famous brand Dewalt. It has a brushless motor that runs at two high speeds: 1750 rpm and 0-500 rpm. The tool is ergonomically designed and has a handle for optimal control and the perfect balance of the tool.
Compared with the powerful motor of an electric drill, the battery can quickly run out of power. To avoid this problem, it is recommended to fully charge the battery before using the tool. It is very lightweight, that means you can easily travel with the drill machine.
It is specially designed for working in narrow spaces because it comes with a bright white LED (which allows you to see where you are going), steel band hook and magnetic drill holder, which can be accessed anytime, anywhere.
5. Makita XFD11R1B 18V Cordless Drill
The Makita XFD11R1B is another best cordless drill that comes with exquisite design and utilizes a huge maximum torque of 350lbs, which is an exception for the ultra-compact drill. The XFD11R1B has two-speed transmission outputs 500 RPM at the low end and 1,700 RPM when driving at a higher speed at the high end to cope with a wide range of applications.
The brushless compact motor offers excellent performance and allows you to handle a variety of materials with almost no obstacles. The large-capacity lithium-ion 2.0Ah battery is another good feature of this XFD11R1B drill. The large battery provides a good backup battery while drilling.
Its handle is associated with powerful rubber material that increases comfort and offers a strong grip. It is made with the refractory plastic molded black coating material that not only protects the drill from heat damage but also prevents cracking under extreme high-temperature conditions.
Shopping Guide: How to Buy Best Cordless Drill
Choosing the right cordless drills a difficult task, because there are a wide variety of drills in both the offline and online market. The new person cannot easily buy the best option in the market. That’s why here we add a detailed buying guide about the cordless drill that help you about how to buy the best cordless drill by using few points.
1. Power
The power factor refers to the ability of a cordless drill to work, in a short time and energetically and decisively, a wide range of different materials, and is decisive in the choice of its tool because it influences its versatility, resistance, effectiveness and final price. The power of a cordless drill can be considered as the result of the sum of the following elements.
Voltage
This value is considered as an index of the actual power possessed by a cordless drill, and its value can range from 9 to 36 volts. The ideal value should be at least 12-14 Volts, although this figure depends a lot on the use you have to make of your own tool (including also the materials you want to drill with the drill), which is why a 9 V cordless drill is not to be considered not as powerful as, rather, suitable only for small jobs.
The most popular and required voltage is 18 volts, as a power suitable for medium and large applications, combined with a structure that still remains quite handy and light, and therefore perfect for home use. As we will see later, in case of the need for very large applications or to work very hard materials such as concrete, you will need a more powerful and cumbersome percussion model from 24 to 36 Volts.
Variable speeds
The ability to set the speed of rotation of the drill is important to adapt the number of turns to the material that you have to drill or to act progressively on the screws to be loosened or tightened.
The most sophisticated models and also used by professionals, also have six different speeds to select from, but most models for home use come to a maximum of three, as, for DIY jobs at home, already two speeds are to be considered sufficient.
Rounds per minute
This unit of measurement is an expression of the processing speed of the drill as it describes how many rotations per minute the device is able to perform. As the voltage increases, the laps per minute usually increase, which can start from about 600 to over 2000.
Depending on the use you have to make of your tool and the type of materials you will find to work, it will also vary the speed required to the screwing drill which, to be considered a quality model and powerful enough, should reach at least 1000 rpm.
Drills at a medium or medium-high rotation speed, in fact, offer from 1200 to 1800 rpm. The blows per minute, on the other hand, are a given concerning percussion drills, which we will deal with in the next paragraphs and whose speed is much higher, by about 20,000 strokes per minute.
2. Performance
It is also essential to consider the performance factor, which describes the actual ability of the instrument to perform its dual-task that is to drill and screw (or perhaps unscrew) in all the conditions and on the most different materials.
It is good to analyze in detail the characteristics that describe the performances of the two uses separately so that you realize the technical specifications of the device both as a screwdriver and as a drill: in the following two paragraphs you find all that information that you should check to ensure the purchase of a valid product for both functions.
Drill
The first element that affects the performance of a drill is its percussion type. The difference is that the percussion models are equipped with a spindle that performs a double rotational and swinging movement, thus also acting as a hammer, a movement indispensable for drillings very hard materials, such as cement or stone.
You will then need to check the maximum drilling diameters that the selected model offers, because this data, combined with the type of drill (standard or percussion) affects the range of materials that you can work with.
To get an orientation idea, a medium power drill should have at least 20 mm in diameter to pierce wood and about 10 mm for steel or other metals. At the same time, if you plan to drill concrete, you will necessarily need a beating model (then you will also have to consider the blows per minute, which should be at least 15000).
Screwdriver
The performance of a screwdriver is given by the presence of two fundamental elements, the first of which is the reversibility, that is, the possibility of reversing the direction of rotation that the tip can make. Most of the last generation cordless drills allow a rotational movement in both directions (usually editable via a stick on the machine body) so that the user can not only use screw but also screw or correct any screwing errors.
The second element that affects the performance of the tool is the maximum tightening torque, which is an indication of the force that is applied to the screw and is always expressed in Nm, which is a newton per meter. Connected to the tightening torque is the presence of the adjustable clutch, which serves to spin the vacuum engine when it has reached a certain effort.
3. Structure
The physical structure of a cordless drill is a factor that plays a decisive role in the choice of the tool to buy, because this affects the practicality of using the tool and must adapt well to the work needs, amateur or professional, of the user who will handle it. Let’s look in detail at what are the technical specifications to consider when choosing a screwdriver drill:
Handle
The presence of an ergonomic grip is an important factor to consider. The ideal is to make sure that the drill has an ergonomic handle, comfortable, soft and preferably covered with non-slip materials, so that the grip is safe and easy in all conditions, even with sweaty or wet hands.
Holding the cordless drill in the most appropriate way results in better execution of the work to be done. To do this, you will also need to make sure that all the controls are comfortable and easy to reach with your fingers while holding the instrument.
LED light
Some models are characterized by the inclusion of an LED light that allows the workspace to be illuminated while using the screwing drill in conditions that require greater light.
Weight and measures
Considering that this tool is dedicated to DIY and manual work, sometimes even prolonged over time, it must necessarily have measures and a weight that can guarantee certain handling without tiring the user.
It is better to choose a structure that does not exceed two kilos of total weight, always tending to the point that lighter and more compact models because these are suitable for every day and less complex jobs, while higher-performance screwing drills involve a more robust structure.
4. Accessories
A cordless drill can include a variable quantity and type of accessories are not a factor to be underestimated absolutely because these expand the versatility of the device, make the use easier and also, when already present in the package at the time of purchase, offer the great advantage of not having to spend additional money to obtain separate pieces necessary for certain works.
Variety of screwdriver bits
First, the number of batteries included and in a possible base to recharge and store your tool. We also find a variable number of tips (to drill the metal, stone, wood and other materials), a variable number of bits (i.e. the tips for screwing) with a well-worn holder, we can find a rack spindle and self-driving spindle, or other tools such as cutter, flexible meter, compasses and sets for tiles.
The carry case is another important factor because you can store the drill and all its components or collect all the drill and screw tips along with other parts. Usually, products placed in higher price ranges tend to include real well-equipped accessory kits, while the cheaper ones include only a few spare tips and at most an extra battery.
5. Power
The power factor is decisive in choosing your cordless drill because it affects its performance both in terms of power and autonomy of work. Most of the most popular and popular instruments on the market include a rechargeable internal battery, which can be of various types that we will soon describe in detail.
It must be specified that there are also electric drills, that is, equipped with the cable connected to the power outlet and therefore able to guarantee high performance, but that involves the disadvantage of being dependent on the proximity to an electric outlet and having less freedom of movement than cordless battery models, and are not in high demand today by DIY lovers. Below, a list of the types of existing batteries, with their features, advantages and disadvantages.
Lithium-ion battery
Cordless drills that provide this type of power are more expensive as the lithium battery is the most cutting-edge currently on the market. This type is characterized by a greater lightness and higher performance, as well as being free from the “memory effect” and a very advantageous ratio of autonomy and charging times compared to other batteries.
The lack of the “memory effect” results in the use of the drill, even from partially charged always with maximum power until the charge is completely exhausted.
Battery NiCd
This type of battery is very widespread because it is the one that requires the least care (in terms of attention to the charging phases) and that with great difficulty suffers damage, even if the battery is left dead and unused for a long time. However, batteries of this type are more susceptible to “memory effect”, which makes them qualitatively less valuable.
NiMH battery
These batteries have an intermediate quality, which is exactly halfway between the two technologies seen above. Compared to NiCds, they have twice the lifespan, and one is less prone to the “memory effect”, but the performance is lower than those of lithium, which remain the longest-lived. The price of tools that have these batteries is medium or medium-high.
To realize the real performance of the battery, the values to take into account are the power (the Volts, as we have seen) and the autonomy (which is expressed in Ampere-hour, with the symbol Ah) to ensure the purchase of a model with a battery that cannot discharge in the middle of its work; you should prefer drills with batteries of at least 1.5 Ah.
Although some manufacturers provide charging times and battery life, judging this parameter (for each of the types of power described above) is not very simple, as it depends a lot on other variables such as frequency and intensity of use.
Summary
As you can see, cordless drills are an essential tool for home improvement and should be available to you. I hope now you can buy the best cordless drill by using our points. But if you are still confused and looking for the best recommendation, if your budget is high, our recommended drill is Dewalt DCD771C2 Cordless Drill Driver. It is a very powerful and lightweight drill on this list that offers great performance on different material. But if you are looking for a cheap model, the BLACK+DECKER LDX120C Cordless Drill is the best option. If you like this article then also shares with those friends who are planning to buy a new cordless drill.
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Founder of HandymanGuides.com and self-proclaimed “Mr. Fix-It”, Mike has countless years of experience building and tinkering with everything under the sun. He works as a local repair guy near Santa Monica, CA and when he’s not spackling drywall, he enjoys spending time with his wife and 2 daughters.
