DIY novice ! I could really do with some help in knowing what cordless drill to buy please

[bizzey]

Hi..need to get my house looking more like a home !

I need a drill to mainly put shelves up and picture frames and stuff .
But the walls in this house are tough.
I think I know I need a combi ?
One that has the hammer drill included ?
But that is as far as my research went .
I want a drill that comes with all the different bits and attachments.
Any suggestions ?
Thanks.
Ohh budget under £100.
(100 is absolute max)

go have a look at some....pick them up and see if the buttons are in the right place for your hands.

hammer drill option is great for brick/stone walls

we've a few drills, the two most used are the little aldi battery job, nice and light, doubles as a screwdriver and the BIG BOY...which is a Bosch I think...much heavier though and mains powered.

get a decent set of bits while you are about it, they get lost and broken for a pastime in this house.

All the joiners I know use makita drills. Usually makita everything. I think you can get a set of 2 drills for about 130. I got oh a 2nd hand set for 50 about 8 years ago and they are still going strong.

Cordless combo hammer drill

Look at Screwfix this one is lightweight and should do what you need

www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-ecd18-li-2-18v-4-0ah-li-ion-ext-brushless-cordless-combi-drill/265fv#BVQAWidgetID

Makita are what the trade use but for diy and not daily use you don’t need to spend over 100£ I think

Make sure it's comfortable in your hands -- I have relatively weak hands & can't comfortably hold heavy drills for long.

You may need budget for the drill bits themselves -- or do they all come with big selection and new drill now?

Bloody hate cordless drills.
I never plan ahead in enough time to charge them....

You need to check that you can get the battery in and out. The one I inherited from my late DH is geared for a man's hand (mine are not small by any means) and it's a bugger to get my fingers round to the release buttons, as both have to be pressed simultaneously.

I also have a have a corded drill, as DH liked to have all bases covered. :o

@haggistramp

All the joiners I know use makita drills. Usually makita everything. I think you can get a set of 2 drills for about 130. I got oh a 2nd hand set for 50 about 8 years ago and they are still going strong.

I'm a chippy and most of my stuff is Makita, however it is overkill for an occasional DIY-er. As it happens, I had to buy a new cordless last week after my well-loved 13yo Makita finally bit the dust. £130 is very optimistic for one of their drill and impact driver sets. I went for the more powerful batteries, but my set of 2 cost ~£240.

OP if you are mostly needing to drill into masonry (solid walls), it would be worth buying a corded drill. The cheap cordless combi drills don't have enough guts to do the job. You will be there all day to drill one hole.
Avoid SDS chucks though, as they won't allow you to fit a screw bit without an adapter.

Thank you all ,,this is really helpful
I had not thought about corded,as I am someone who gets tangled up in the Hoover lead !

Re weight, I have very small, pathetic hands and wrists ,so I was planning on that bit to be done by DS.

Thanks again.

Skanking is right -- battery life is not enough for masonry.

Cordless is really useful for tradespeople using them day in day out in various locations and conditions. Personally for a DIY'er I'd spend the money on a corded mains drill, especially as you say the walls are 'tough'. You run the risk of either spending too much or lacking 'power' to do the job with cordless. Be prepared to spend wisely on the drill bits.

for light DIY like you say, get an 18v cordless combi drill (not a drill/screwdriver) with TWO batteries.

this is lighter than one big batt, and you can charge one while you are using the other.

Screwfix Titan is a budget brand, but they usually have a 2-year guarantee, so you will get (at leasr) 2 years use out of them

Wickes, Aldi and Lidl own-brands are much the same, and fine for DIY. They often have the same design of battery that can be swapped with other tools in the range. most of these budget tools are similar and made in probably the same a factory in China.

A plastic kit-case is very handy.

Don't worry about getting a set of bits with it. You can easily buy sets at the retailers I mention for modest price.

You will probably end up using only about three of the drill bits, so splashing out on a set of 80 is mostly money down the drain.

you can use a combi drill as a screwdriver, but a drill/driver is not much good as a drill.

I have a corded masonry drill which is the nuts and gets through my solid walls, and a small handheld rechargeable drill/screwdriver from ikea. I think the two of them cost me less than £40 combined and I've renovated most of a house with them 😁

If the walls are tough then you will need an SDS.
Try drilling with a normal hammer drill and then do it with a SDS, the difference is amazing and what professionals (and wise amateurs) use.
As for corded or battery, they both have a place in your toolbox. I have a selection of both and choose the most suitable one for the job in hand but I could only have one it would be corded.

SDS+ is useful if it is dense concrete. Unusual in an ordinary domestic house except the lintel above modern windows. The tool is expensive and very heavy, and unlikely to be needed for the DIY jobs described.

It does not drill an accurate hole, and due to its weight, difficult to hold unless you are strong and working below shoulder height.

I would probably go for the £81 Einhell with two batteries on
www.wickes.co.uk/search?q=Drill%3Aprice-asc%3APower+Type%3ACordless%3AType%3ACombi%2Btwin%2Bpack%3AType%3ACombi%2Btwin%2Bpacks%3AType%3ACombi%2Bdrills&text=Drill&Combi+drills=Combi+drills#

Unusually for a budget brand, you can buy spare parts online once the guarantee expires. It helps if you can speak Gernan as the website is not in English. IIRC Lidl tools are made by Einhell.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply .
I really appreciate it.
(slightly in awe that PigletJohn has replied to me !)
(I do follow these threads !)

I was thinking of a pistol type SDS (Bosch GBH range for instance), all the efficiency of an SDH without the weight. Had mine for years and it is excellent.

I was basing my suggestion on the fact the walls are described as tough.
Our house (built 1955) uses lightweight blocks only for internal walls, the inner skin is hard brick (don't know what type but they are almost like granite!) on which a normal hammer drill makes little impact but the Bosch does the job with no fuss.

@Dougieowner @SkankingMopoke My cordless Bosch has just died but it was useless on my walls. I’m looking for a corded drill to get through my mixed 1920/1990’s walls, they are impenetrable. I was going to look at makita and Bosch but do I need to look at a minimum v/power level? Or anything else I should factor in (I’ll try for weight and handling but it’s the mechanics I don’t understand). Thank you (and sorry for hijacking OP!).

[quote Beesandthings]**@Dougieowner* @SkankingMopoke* My cordless Bosch has just died but it was useless on my walls. I’m looking for a corded drill to get through my mixed 1920/1990’s walls, they are impenetrable. I was going to look at makita and Bosch but do I need to look at a minimum v/power level? Or anything else I should factor in (I’ll try for weight and handling but it’s the mechanics I don’t understand). Thank you (and sorry for hijacking OP!).[/quote]
Any of the Makita or blue-branded (professional) Bosch SDS drills will make light work of a few holes in any wall. I have a Bosch that I bought as an apprentice and is now ancient but still going strong. It was entry level as it was all I could afford at the time, but I have never felt the need to upgrade as it continues to perform well. I have not been kind to it either... it has been used for chasing walls and breaking concrete too a good many times.
Do you need something to put in the screws too once you've drilled? For that you you'd either need a separate cordless drill/driver (ideally this) or a keyed chuck adapter to fit the SDS. I wouldn't recommend the extra chuck option as it makes the drill very cumbersome and unbalanced, and tightening with a key is a PITA. However, this may not be a problem if it is for occasional use. I have a keyed chuck adapter for mine, but I only use it as either a back up to my cordless (such as last week when the cordless finally gave up on life) or when doing a lot of heavy duty drilling through timber eg bolting together roof timbers.

That’s brilliant Skank, thank you! I will be replacing the cordless itself as well, the house will take years to do (with my budget) so having both is justified.

I have more tools than you could shake a stick at, but the 18v cordless combis get more use than anything else. I can't think when I last used a corded drill apart from my giant SDS+ (last used on reinforced concrete)

My cordless drill was an 18v Bosch combi, PigletJohn, not super expensive but it was over £100. Wouldn’t touch my walls at all. It was very handy for everything else though! Sadly it blew last time I used it, it was about 4 /5 years old.

@PigletJohn

I have more tools than you could shake a stick at, but the 18v cordless combis get more use than anything else. I can't think when I last used a corded drill apart from my giant SDS+ (last used on reinforced concrete)

I've recommended corded over a cheap entry-level cordless as the the cordless will be underpowered for the application OP describes. Trying to drill into really solid masonry with an underpowered drill will be a time-consuming and frustrating experience. £100 tops doesn't buy enough cordless power for OP's needs.

I have a smallish cordless Bosch drill which was £80 4 years ago. I thought for years that I'd made a mistake and it wasn't powerful enough for drilling into concrete or harder materials. Then recently I bought some really good drill bits and like magic my little drill is amazing and can drill into anything.

Agree that you need to check you can remove the battery - despite being a lighter weight model I have to push mine against my thigh to get it loose as my hand power alone is not enough.

But the drill plus really good drill bits is my favourite piece of equipment I own. I rate Bosch highly based on experience of various Bosch electrical things.