Best electric drill

[thetemptationofchocolate]

I'm heartily sick of feeble battery powered drills and am thinking of buying a corded drill. I would want a combi one that can hammer drill as well as rotary. I would really appreciate it if anyone could recommend a good make as I don;t buy many power tools so not really sure what's the best.
Thank you.

any budget in mind? somewhere between £12 and £200

Will you want to drill for anything bigger than a kitchen shelf fixing screw? Eg a 2-inch hole in a wall or joist for a waste pipe?

I have just received a small legacy so my budget is bigger than it usually is. I don't have to opt for the cheapest brand this time anyway.
Yes, occasionally I need to drill bigger holes, sometimes into concrete, and I'm finding the battery drill I have is underpowered.

Makita drills are great

Love my little makita cordless drill & driver set. Hasn't let me down yet.

If you want to drill into concrete for anything more than a few screws, you will need an SDS+ drill. They are heavy and rather large, and not suitable for drilling wood, even though you can get an adaptor to fit twist drills. Any mains hammer drill will put small holes into concrete, but it will be slower.

For example my SDS+ weighs over 5 kilos so you would not want to be holding or carrying it around if a smaller drill would do the job. For most jobs a corded 12mm is more than enough.

Is it pipe holes you have in mind? How big? How many times a year?

If you are feeling prosperous, Makita and Ryobi are very good. The Bosch range with blue bodies are designed for the trade, and quite fair.

In your position, I think I would go for an 18v cordless combi with two Li-on or Ni-MH batteries, which IMO is about as powerful as a cordless can go while still being handy, and if you are sure you need to drill big holes in concrete, a corded SDS+

I am nervous of spending hundreds of pounds on a drill if you use it seldom. If it goes wrong after the guarantee runs out, you will feel cheated if you have only used it once.

Thank you.
I'm planning on visiting the shop and trying them out for weight, but at least now I have an idea of what to look for :)
I used to have a Bosch drill years ago and that was brilliant.

I second all Bosch electronic tools - the corded ones, I mean. Don't have much faith and/or confidence in battery tools. I'm still using today the green Bosch PSB 400-2 that I bought in the late 1980's. I bought this because of its lighter weight in comparison to another Bosch 700-watt drill that I have that proved to be an overkill. These days I buy all Bosch blue (professional) electronic tools instead of the green (DIY) ones. It's slightly more expensive but it's worth the extra.

We have a Makita that has seen some pretty heavy duty use and it's been great. Most of the builders/carpenters that I've come across use those or Ryobi.