# DeWalt Drills



## TurboDIYer (Dec 3, 2011)

Heyyyy,
I've wanting to get a new drills and I don't get why Dewalt is charging me more for a 18v while I can get the 20v for like cheaper. That doesn't make sense in my la la land. You guys wanna help me find the answer to this weird thing stuck in my head? (here's a link for comparison)
http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/...965746&prod2=907315&prod3=913221&prod4=980422


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## cjm94 (Sep 25, 2011)

The twenty volt is made in china.


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## titanoman (Nov 27, 2011)

They are all made by B & D, China or wherever.

Sent from a Samsung Galaxy S2


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

I would not buy a new Dewault anything.
We started out using them about 5 years ago. Some failed the first day we bought them. Since that time all of them have had failed switches, bad brushes, non rechargable battery , stripped gears. There now all in the trash.
During that same time period I bought a cheap set of Ryobi tools just to keep in my truck for service work, all of them still work and I still have the same batterys. And it cost me less then 1/2 of what the other brands cost.
If your a weekend DIY I'd suggest the Ryobi 18V.
If your a tradesman then look into the Mikita, Porta Cable, Millwaulke or Bosch.
Before I spend money on any tool I go on Amazon.com and look up the tool, at the bottom of the page there's coments from people that have bought the tool. There was lots of comments from people about the same drills I had that had failed shortly after they had bought them.
I also go on CPO.com there a tool supply house with great prices, they also carry reconditioned tools with a full factory warrenty.
I bought a Porta Cable random orbital sander on there for $25.00. It came with the case, manual, and looked like brand new.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

And the "20v" is not really 20 volts. These batteries are still nominally 18 volts. Li-ion cells are 1.8v per cell, 3.6v per pair of cells. Battery packs have 5 pairs of cells=18volts. When you pull a battery pack off the charger it will read 20 volts for awhile reflecting the actual voltage that the charger was pumping into it hence they get away with this charade. There is even an asterisk on the packaging and some fine print to this effect. Kinda like saying a new car battery that is put on a charger for awhile could be sold as a 14v battery. It will be for a little while....


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## titanoman (Nov 27, 2011)

IMO, they were a good tool before Black and Decker bought them. The price and quality went down.
15 years ago, I lost my temper and threw my 12volt drill, hard, from the top of a 16' ladder. It hit a big landscaping boulder and the only thing that happened was the battery flew out.
Me and my buddies got a laugh out of that (and made me cool off from my temper tantrum), and thought that would make a good video to send to Dewalt.
So the next day, my buddie brought his JVC camcorder, and I repeated throwing the drill down again (it was time to buy a new drill anyway if I broke it).
This time the battery didn't come out, but the bit did!
I sent the video to Dewalt, and today I still have that same drill (with a new battery), and the 14 volt drill they sent me free because they liked my video.
I'll bet right now they will outlast that new 20 or 18 volt.
If they built them like they used to, I think they would still be the best drill money could buy.
Sorry about the dull story. But I love my Dewalts (and their chop-saws too).

Sent from a Samsung Galaxy S2


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## 95025 (Nov 14, 2010)

TurboDIYer said:


> Heyyyy,
> I've wanting to get a new drills and I don't get why Dewalt is charging me more for a 18v while I can get the 20v for like cheaper. That doesn't make sense in my la la land. You guys wanna help me find the answer to this weird thing stuck in my head? (here's a link for comparison)


All bets are off regarding why certain tools are certain prices at Home Depot. Sometimes they put tools on clearance only because they're making room for new inventory.

I bought such a set several years ago. 18v, includes drill, sawzall & circular saw. I've worked the heck out of them and have had no problems at all.

Just keep in mind that DeWALTs are NOT really a "contractor grade" tool anymore. More of a "better" consumer grade.


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Dewault bought out Black and Decker not the other way around. 
Black and Decker used to make two grades of tools with two differant colors on the cases.
For a while some of the home owner grade tools made by B&D and the Dewaults used the same parts. Then they decided to have B&D only make home owner tools and Dewault make the contractor grade tools. 
I used to work in a huge place that sold over a million dollars worth of Dewault tools and we also owned a tool repair center. After the two companys merged our repair center work load just about doubled. Cheap switches and tiny brushes that wore out to soon were the main problums. 
It got so bad people stopped buying as many tools and we had to add Millwaulke to the tool line.
Just hold the brushes next to each other the millwalke is almost twice the size.
Not trying to bash your tool that you have had good luck with or trying to get you to change brands. Just stating what I have seen and dealt with.


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## titanoman (Nov 27, 2011)

No Joe. Your wrong. Look it up.
http://www.imgur.com/xLztH.jpg 

Sent from a Samsung Galaxy S2


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Makes no differance in your story really, just the way it is.


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## TurboDIYer (Dec 3, 2011)

Stanley Hand Tools own DeWalt,Milvakee and Black and Decker lol


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## TurboDIYer (Dec 3, 2011)

raylo32 said:


> And the "20v" is not really 20 volts. These batteries are still nominally 18 volts. Li-ion cells are 1.8v per cell, 3.6v per pair of cells. Battery packs have 5 pairs of cells=18volts. When you pull a battery pack off the charger it will read 20 volts for awhile reflecting the actual voltage that the charger was pumping into it hence they get away with this charade. There is even an asterisk on the packaging and some fine print to this effect. Kinda like saying a new car battery that is put on a charger for awhile could be sold as a 14v battery. It will be for a little while....


so that means that 18v is like 16?


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## titanoman (Nov 27, 2011)

TurboDIYer said:


> Stanley Hand Tools own DeWalt,Milvakee and Black and Decker lol


Read post #9 lol.


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## TurboDIYer (Dec 3, 2011)

titanoman said:


> IMO, they were a good tool before Black and Decker bought them. The price and quality went down.
> 15 years ago, I lost my temper and threw my 12volt drill, hard, from the top of a 16' ladder. It hit a big landscaping boulder and the only thing that happened was the battery flew out.
> Me and my buddies got a laugh out of that (and made me cool off from my temper tantrum), and thought that would make a good video to send to Dewalt.
> So the next day, my buddie brought his JVC camcorder, and I repeated throwing the drill down again (it was time to buy a new drill anyway if I broke it).
> ...


Yea, All my tools currently are DeWalts right now but I use them for my heavy duty home building jobs their starting to worn out and I wanna buy a new set.


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## TurboDIYer (Dec 3, 2011)

joecaption said:


> I would not buy a new Dewault anything.
> We started out using them about 5 years ago. Some failed the first day we bought them. Since that time all of them have had failed switches, bad brushes, non rechargable battery , stripped gears. There now all in the trash.
> During that same time period I bought a cheap set of Ryobi tools just to keep in my truck for service work, all of them still work and I still have the same batterys. And it cost me less then 1/2 of what the other brands cost.
> If your a weekend DIY I'd suggest the Ryobi 18V.
> ...


Just saying but I have bought the Millwaulkie,Poter Cable numerous times and it couldn't last me a long time in my contracting jobs. It broke just like with your experience with the DeWalt. But my favorite tool will always be Makita!


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

What it means is that all batteries are *rated* at their nominal charged voltages and that is determined by the cell type and how many there are in series. And ALL batteries will display a higher than rated charge when pulled off a charger. By definition the voltage of the charger HAS to be higher than the battery to induce the charging current flow. It takes awhile for the battery voltage to drift down after charging. 

Batteries also will ALWAYS display a lower than rated voltage when they are discharged. The amount lower depends on the type of battery and the level of discharge.

In the case of the Dewalt 20v the "20v" is merely a product name, not a battery rating... an intended confusion that they are happy to encourage. They are using the fact that the battery will read close to 20 volts for some period of time after charging to try to fool you that the batteries are rated at 20 volts when in fact they are not. Read the fine print on the box.



TurboDIYer said:


> so that means that 18v is like 16?


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## TurboDIYer (Dec 3, 2011)

titanoman said:


> Read post #9 lol.


Oh,Sorry about that!


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## TurboDIYer (Dec 3, 2011)

Buut none of you have given me a true answer what's the difference of the 18v vs 20v compact drill.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

Not sure there is any difference with XRP sieries. Hard to tell w/o taking one apart. It might have a bigger motor that that will make more torque by drawing a little more current. It might have a somewhat different transmission and/or some other details. Hard to say....


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

Here is the blurb from Dewalt on their voltage sleight of hand for the 12v Max and 20v Max lines. The key word to remember is "Max". In the case of the 12v Max the real voltage is 10.8 volts which is 6 1.8v cells (3pairs)in series.

With respect to 12V MAX*: Maximum initial battery voltage (measured without a workload) is 12 volts. Nominal voltage is 10.8.
With respect to 20V MAX*:Maximum initial battery voltage (measured without a workload) is 20 volts. Nominal voltage is 18.

Sorry, correction... individual cells are 3.6 v so 10.8v packs have 3 in series, 18v packs (including 20vMax) have 5 in series. These packs (esp the 3.0 amp-hour size) usually have pairs of cells in parallel (for higher capacity) that are then connected up in series. 5 pairs for 18v and 3 pairs for 10.8v. Of course this applies to typical li-ion. Other battery types have different per cell voltages.


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## ratherbefishing (Jan 13, 2011)

Your link didn't work for me. But, aren't the 18V Dewalt tools NiCad and the 20V Lithium Ion? If so, there could be other construction differences or maye DeWalt is just encouraging people to move away from NiCd. If you look at the Dewalt website, the banners are promoting the 12V & 20V LiIon lines: http://dewalt.com/Home.aspx. Or you could just call them, *1-800-4-DEWALT*


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## woodworkbykirk (Sep 25, 2011)

the new 20 volt lith ion batteries is just another bs marketing scheme by dewalt if you ask me... i dont know how many times they have marketed their tools as " the biggest revolution in cordless, mitre saws, table saws..etc..." yet their on average 4 years later putting out tools to match the latest technology. makita and milwaukee came out with lithium ion technology in 2004, shortly after bosch, hitachi and metabo.. then dewalt came out with their 36v batteries which were nothing more than giant nicads... which turned out to be garbage,,, then in 2008 they release their nano tech batteries.. also turned out to not last thus being crap.. then their 2nd gen of nano tech batteries.. that never caught on.. and now they have their 20 volt. 

ive been in the high end renovation and custom home construction industry for 9 years now, in that time ive used countless power tools and spent close to $25,000 on my own gear... in my experience.. dewalt is one of the weakest pro grade tool manufacturers.. if your looking to buy a high quality cordless drill. makita makes one of the 3 best on the market next to festool and panasonic, not far behind is bosch. seeing how makita were the ones who originated the cordless drill, you cant go wrong with them the only problems ive ever had with my makita and bosch drills were when i went to grab it and wasnt there... one of the other guys on teh crew snagged it when i wasnt looking to drive some screws while setting a door.. the dewalt stuff would be left untouched sitting in the jobsite tool box


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## woodworkbykirk (Sep 25, 2011)

and as for who owns who...
stanley bought out/merged with black and deckers tool division a little over two years ago.. so they now combined have,, all stanley lines of hand tools, bostich, dewalt, black and decker, porter cable and delta

TTI owns, milwaukee, rigid, ryobi, stiletto, and i believe husky

Robert Bosch is, Bosch tools, dremel, skil, american vermont

singularly owned tool companies are, makita, same goes for hitachi and metabo and festool


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## 95025 (Nov 14, 2010)

woodworkbykirk said:


> *and as for who owns who...
> stanley bought out/merged with black and deckers tool division a little over two years ago.. so they now combined have,, all stanley lines of hand tools, bostich, dewalt, black and decker, porter cable and delta*
> 
> TTI owns, milwaukee, rigid, ryobi, stiletto, and i believe husky
> ...


I don't know about who owns who, but I have a Stanley 18 gauge finish nailer, and it's a twin to the Bostich I have.


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## Rob1975 (Apr 30, 2011)

TurboDIYer said:


> Stanley Hand Tools own DeWalt,Milvakee and Black and Decker lol


Milwaukee is owned by TTI.

http://www.ttigroup.com/en/our_brands


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

They may still offer NiCds and/or NiMHs, also but there is an XRP 18 volt lithium line. One example here. The last Dewalt that was advertised honestly.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200384746_200384746?cm_mmc=Google-pla-_-Power%20Tools-_-Cordless%20Drills-_-334746&ci_sku=334746&ci_gpa=pla&ci_kw={keyword}



ratherbefishing said:


> Your link didn't work for me. But, aren't the 18V Dewalt tools NiCad and the 20V Lithium Ion? If so, there could be other construction differences or maye DeWalt is just encouraging people to move away from NiCd. If you look at the Dewalt website, the banners are promoting the 12V & 20V LiIon lines: http://dewalt.com/Home.aspx. Or you could just call them, *1-800-4-DEWALT*


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## Phillies48 (Jan 6, 2012)

Unfortunately, I am unable to answer your question about the pricing, but after reading the comments I will say, that I have used DeWalt EVERYTHING. Almost all of my tools are DeWalt brand, and if they're not, when they need to be replaced, they will be. I have only had one problem with one of my drills which is nothing if you knew how many DeWalt tools I own. I highly recommend their products, however I still can not explain why the price is as such.


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## EvilNCarnate (Jan 27, 2011)

TurboDIYer said:


> Heyyyy,
> I've wanting to get a new drills and I don't get why Dewalt is charging me more for a 18v while I can get the 20v for like cheaper. That doesn't make sense in my la la land. You guys wanna help me find the answer to this weird thing stuck in my head? (here's a link for comparison)
> http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/...965746&prod2=907315&prod3=913221&prod4=980422


 Specs....
One has a 30 minute charger, XRP is extended run time and touts an all metal drive system.... basically it comes down to the features. Think of the new camaro's they may all have the same body but some have a V6, some have a V8 and some are an SS with all the bells. 

Oh and your other 18v ones have an LED light on them.


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## TurboDIYer (Dec 3, 2011)

EvilNCarnate said:


> Specs....
> One has a 30 minute charger, XRP is extended run time and touts an all metal drive system.... basically it comes down to the features. Think of the new camaro's they may all have the same body but some have a V6, some have a V8 and some are an SS with all the bells.
> 
> Oh and your other 18v ones have an LED light on them.


Well think of this, the V6 is more expensive than the V8 in this case.


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## woodworkbykirk (Sep 25, 2011)

another thing is though the xrp batteries charge faster, they dont last as long in terms of overall life. i know many tradesman that have bought the xrp drills only to have the batteries completely die rather quick, they then replaced just the batteries with the regular nicad's which lasted longer.. i believe fine homebuilding had a thing on just this in one issue . it had to do with the quick charge


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## msaeger (Mar 1, 2011)

I don't know anything about the models you are taking about but my 12v lithium ion Dewalt is awesome.


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## sevenlol (Aug 8, 2011)

TurboDIYer said:


> Well think of this, the V6 is more expensive than the V8 in this case.


no.

look at it this way, the 20v series is for homeowners, and the 18v (no plastic guts and the battery quality is likely the big difference here) is the "pro-grade".

i don't know if you're trolling, stupid, or just have poor reading comprehension, but your question has been answered a few times.

i've never seen anyone on a jobsite (except maybe some duct guys) with one of the 20v tools. just because the outside looks the same, doesn't mean the inside is.


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## woodworkbykirk (Sep 25, 2011)

the 20 volt line is simply dewalts latest tech for cordless gear.. and its not homeowner grade.. 

the tools dewalt has now made their "homeowner grade" is simply the out of date nicad models from 5 or 6 years ago..


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## iamrfixit (Jan 30, 2011)

Yeah, Nothing homeowner grade about the new 20 volt. It's cheaper because it is the new model and they want to encourage you to choose it over the old.
With the huge amount of users they could not simply abandon the old 18v so Dewalt says it plans to keep the 18v around as long as there is a market for it. They could not have two incompatible systems both called 18 volt, so the new drills were called 20 volt max to avoid any confusion.

It is only 18 volt and was designed to address complaints about the old 18 volt line. With the old 18v pod style battery some say the handle is too large, and the battery can be hard to remove, the 18v lithium packs don't work great in the cold and have lower amp hour ratings than other comparable brands. The 18v lithium packs had to be designed to work on the old tools. That carried over the same old problems and created some new ones. The 20 volt is a fresh start.

The 20v slide on pack is a much better design and allows the handle to be more ergonomic, the packs come off easily even with gloves and work well in the cold. The drill was designed from the start to use lithium packs so the smart circuitry for the batteries could be built into the tools instead of every battery pack.

You don't see "everyone else using them" because they haven't been available very long, released in July but only widely available since mid September. I have thousands invested in the 18v, but I also have a new 20 volt set. The 18v have always been very reliable, my only complaint is the battery attachment. 

My new 20v is very smooth, powerful, runs longer between charges and I love the slide on pack. If you don't already have an investment in tools that use the old style batteries, then go with the 20v. The 20v has a 2 year warranty on the tool and a 3 year warranty on the packs and a 90 day money back guarantee if you don't like it.


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## TurboDIYer (Dec 3, 2011)

iamrfixit said:


> Yeah, Nothing homeowner grade about the new 20 volt. It's cheaper because it is the new model and they want to encourage you to choose it over the old.
> With the huge amount of users they could not simply abandon the old 18v so Dewalt says it plans to keep the 18v around as long as there is a market for it. They could not have two incompatible systems both called 18 volt, so the new drills were called 20 volt max to avoid any confusion.
> 
> It is only 18 volt and was designed to address complaints about the old 18 volt line. With the old 18v pod style battery some say the handle is too large, and the battery can be hard to remove, the 18v lithium packs don't work great in the cold and have lower amp hour ratings than other comparable brands. The 18v lithium packs had to be designed to work on the old tools. That carried over the same old problems and created some new ones. The 20 volt is a fresh start.
> ...


Your now my best friend lol.


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## woodworkbykirk (Sep 25, 2011)

funny you bring up the warrenty.. no matter what the brand its only as good as the person you deal with trying to get something fixed for free. 

ive heard countless horror stories from guys who have bought a new tool only for it to fail within weeks of purchase. they take it in for a replacement or repair only for the store to tell them they cant honor the warrenty along with the manufacturer to say the same thing.. some dewalt service centers are notorious for this, i've had this problem with milwaukee. bosch has given me perfect service though. no complaints other than the bad mustache on the guy at the guy at the counter


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## TurboDIYer (Dec 3, 2011)

I picked up the 20v Max Lithum last night since I was bored after dinner ( I live right beside a HD). Luckily I found a De-Walt promo guy at some De-Walt stand. I ask him why is the 20v cheaper than the 18v. The guy at the stand said " it's because the battery is more cheaper to manufacture". I left without saying anything because I don't think it was cheaper . I then drove home..even though i live 30 secs away. I was like a baby un-wraping my drill and VOLA! IT'S THE BEST DRILL I EVER USED! I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! Never drill have I used have anything been anything close to this (maybe because I was using Craftsmans) but it's awesome. I was planing to just finish off my basement with my drill. Totally Reccomendto everyone.


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## Jay 78 (Mar 2, 2011)

After a lot of shopping, I just 'pulled the trigger' (pun intended) on the new DeWalt 20V hammer drill (model #DCK290L2) last week, and I absolutely love it. :thumbsup:

LowesDepot wants $300 just for the drill/charger/one 3Ah battery. I picked up the drill/impact combo with two 3Ah batteries on Amazon for $20 more, with free shipping and no tax (although as of yesterday, the same combo was going for $300, but through a different seller). 

There seems to be a lot of DeWalt bashers here, but even though I can't speak for any of their previous-gen drills, _this_ drill is the real deal. If, for whatever reason, I change my tune about it, I'll be the first to report it, but the drill and impact are rock-solid tools and I expect them to last a long time.


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## Beanfacekilla (Jan 7, 2012)

TurboDIYer said:


> Just saying but I have bought the Millwaulkie,Poter Cable numerous times and it couldn't last me a long time in my contracting jobs. It broke just like with your experience with the DeWalt. *But my favorite tool will always be Makita*!


 
Amen! It is my favorite brand as well.:thumbsup:


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## woodworkbykirk (Sep 25, 2011)

cant go wrong with cordless makita. they invented it and they perfected it... some have come close.. such as bosch.. dewalt failed miserably..


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