Are more expensive drills really worth it?

I get a lot of pushback because of the fact that I use entry-level drills in my workshop you'll either see me using this Ryobi drill or this Craftsman drill and frankly I'm quite happy with them they do the job that I need them to do and they didn't break the bank I can already hear you now but you own a saw stop for Christ's sakes yeah I do I didn't choose these drills because I'm cheap I invest in plenty of high-end tools when I think the added benefits are worth the costs but when it comes to drills I just don't think that more expensive is better Am I Wrong well today I'm putting some of the most popular brands in the test to find out and I can tell you now you'll be surprised by the results thank you so today I'll be testing out six different drills starting from the very low end entry level drill all the way up to the high end on the price scale so how did I pick which drills to test well first I went to the big box stores to scope out the most popular brands and models on the market today next I did some online research to see which drills Come Out Among the top performers I wasn't surprised to regularly see Milwaukee and DeWalt drills at the top of these lists but the more I read the more confused I got I mean the specs on these drills were all over the place comparing 12 volt models with 18 volt models and some even had hammer drill settings I mean come on it's like comparing apples with lemons on top of that a single brain can have so many different drills that look exactly the same but have really different specs so it's kind of hard to tell what these sites are actually testing so for now I'll keep it simple and summarize by saying that all the drills in this test were 18 volt or 20 volts and by the way 18 and 20 volts are actually the same 20 voltages Peaks when it starts at 20 volt and then drops down to 18 volt I didn't test any 12 volt I only tested 18 or 20 volt because that's what most Woodworkers will have in their shop all of these drills have a half inch Chuck note that you can get a 3 8 check that'll cost a bit less the entry level drills have brushed motors whereas when you get into the more expensive drills they're all brushless not surprising as the price goes up you're more likely to find a brushless motor these days none of these drills have a hammer drill setting now there's a Milwaukee fuel model that has a hammer drill setting that's really popular but I didn't include it in this test to make the comparison Fair last but not least all the batteries are entry-level batteries between the 1.3 and 2 Amp Hour range this one being the lowest at 1.3 1.5 222 note that you can get batteries that are much higher amp hour like four or five and they'll last you a lot longer that's the case for Festool but having a bigger battery also adds extra weight now Festool being in a league of its own doesn't come with an entry level battery it comes with a 4.0 amp hour battery but I really wanted to include Festool because of how polarizing the brand is among Woodworkers because of its price tag it isn't a league of its own and I really wanted to test it out to see if it's worth it and if the price is Justified all right with that said let's take a closer look at the drills I'll be testing today so here's a lineup I'll be testing on the low end of the scale both coming in at 99 and by the way these prices are in Canadian dollars we have the Ryobi 18 volt and the Craftsman 20 volt now these are actually the same drills I happen to use in my shop on a regular basis but these ones are brand new and they both have brushed motors in the low to mid-range at 149 dollars we have the rigid 18 volt drill with the added value supposedly being its brushless motor and subcompact design it also comes with two two amp batteries which is a step up from the 1.3 and 1.5 amp hour batteries that come with the Craftsman and Ryobi drills in the mid to high range we have the extremely popular Dewalt drill this one is the 20 volt Max XR it has a brushless motor and comes with not one but two two amp hour batteries and sells for 259 dollars now the Milwaukee M18 is very comparable to the DeWalt it's a compact brushless 18 volt that has the same features and same brushless motor and also comes with two 2 Amp Hour batteries and last but not least on the high end of the spectrum some would even say premium I decided to include the Festool t18 which used to be popular among Woodworkers and Carpenters the tool alone is 425 dollars or a whopping 739 dollars for the kit which comes with two 4 amp batteries and its charger it's of course got a brushless motor and is the only one to come with two different Chucks a standard one for drilling and a quick change Chuck for driving screws so there's our lineup would you pay almost three times more for Milwaukee or seven times more for Festool I've placed my bets as to which will come out on top but for now they've all got a Fighting Chance all right before we begin I just want to point out that every single one of the tools I'll be testing is brand new and yes I even went out and bought a new craftsman and a new Ryobi even though I have a couple sets back there because I wanted to make sure that the age of the tool and the age of the battery didn't come into play now if you think I used Too Many drill driver Brands already well now I have even more by the way I just want to make it clear that I bought each of these drills with my own money and that none of the brands are sponsoring this video in any way and all opinions are my own so how exactly am I going to test these tools well first I'll evaluate the obvious physical features of each the weight overall size and clearance required grip Comfort ease of use and all the official specs listed on the package next I'll subject each of these tools to various stress tests to evaluate the speed torque power and longevity of each I'll drill a bunch of holes and drive a bunch of screws and tally up all the results I'll use a brand new drill bit for every drill I test and start with a full charge to eliminate any potential buys and by the way I'm not here to judge which brand is better because each of these brands has a range of drills at different price points the goal here is really to see if the cheaper models perform as well as the more expensive ones and if it's really worth paying more for a drill all right let's get started the first things I noticed after unboxing with a difference in size and weight I weighed each tool one by one with the battery and compiled the results most drills were between three to four pounds with Festool being the heaviest at 4.1 pounds and rigid was actually the lightest of all at three pounds in terms of length and clearance needed I was surprised to see such a dramatic difference within the group Craftsman and Festool were among the longest while Milwaukee and DeWalt were the most compact along with rigid after measuring each and rearranging them in order here are the results you basically have the compact on the left namely DeWalt Ridgid in Milwaukee and the Not So compact on the right including Festival now each tool has an LED light but they aren't all equal Ryobi and festools lights turn off almost immediately while the others stay on for anywhere between 10 and 20 seconds like DeWalt placement of the LED light also varies and this can be an issue for some Festool Milwaukee and Craftsman have a light right under the Chuck which can cause some Shadows while Drilling and make it harder to see Ryobi and rigid on the other hand is close to the battery which helps prevent Shadows that's also the case for the world but this led isn't a class of its own not only is it bigger and brighter you can control it with a switch either always off stay on for 20 seconds after you stop using the drill or always on top of that you can change the direction of the beam for optimal lighting control did I mention it's super bright I compiled the specs on the boxes namely the Max RPM and torque one thing I've learned through this research is that when it comes to speed or RPMs and torque more isn't always better there's an ideal balance between the two and every manufacturer has to make a decision on what they want to pack into their tool so here's how they compare the world definitely packed all the muscle they could into this drill with the highest RPMs in both gears and the most torque by far its neck Above the Rest Craftsman on the other hand scores lowest all around with less than half the torque of DeWalt speed and torque of the remaining tools is roughly in the same ballpark but with Festool surprisingly being on the lower end of the scale but this is all theoretical so let's dive into our tests and see how they actually perform [Music] I'll be using 1x6 Pine boards for all the tests the first challenge will be to see how long it takes to drill 10 holes through the boards using a one inch spade bit the drills will all be used in gear 2 at maximum speed I started with the Craftsman drill and immediately had problems the drill struggle then stalled unable to make it through it would consistently get stuck and just wasn't powerful enough to power through I kept going regardless to see how long it would take to drill all 10 holes foreign number eight something happened keep your eyes on the top of the screen above the drill suddenly I realized there was smoke coming out of the drill I had not expected that luckily this didn't kill the drill completely but it was clearly a fail for Craftsman I didn't want to go through that again so next I grabbed the DeWalt oh man not again it's getting stuck but not due to lack of power rather too much power the RPMs are just so high on this Dewalt drill so immediately I switched it to the lower gear and the results were amazing smooth consistent holes one after the other perhaps a bit slower in the lower gear but we'll see soon enough in just over a minute I had drilled all 10 holes I had high hopes for the Milwaukee and it didn't disappoint it wasn't perfect either though I powered through the first four holes at high speed like a champ but on the fifth pool the drill got stuck in the bottom I switched to the lower gear at this point but quickly switched it back to the fast gear as I felt that it could handle it I was able to finish drilling all 10 holes at high speed only getting stuck momentarily once more along the way in the end I was 10 seconds under my time with a DeWalt drill not bad at all next up rigid I'll be honest I was expecting this one to go like the Ryobi or craftsman test but I was pleasantly surprised things were going pretty good maybe not as fast as some of the others but he's in power then I got stuck on the bottom of hole number five I tried to re-engage the drill but the motor just wouldn't turn I switched to the lower gear at this point which worked great but was really slow not long after I switched back to high gear and finished drilling all the holes only getting stuck one more time along the way foreign make me proud nope I got stuck immediately couldn't make it through a single hole I switched to gear one and slowly drill each hole one by one using all of my body weight to pressure through I gave it another try at high speed but the drill just couldn't do it so back to low gear and after a brutal minute and 48 seconds I was through alright Festool this better be good oh yeah I could immediately feel the difference here it felt powerful but not overpowering just smooth and in control I did get stuck at the bottom of two holes with the drill giving me some audible cues that it was stuck but I was quickly able to adjust and carry on they're still finished baths of them all drilling 10 holes in 46 seconds so here are the results of the speed drilling test so far the more expensive the tool the faster it drills but this isn't over yet [Music] for this next test I went to Princess Auto to pick up some 8x3 screws a lot of screws this next test is all about battery power I'll start with a fully charged battery and keep driving screws until the battery runs out and count how many I made it to since the batteries have different capacities I'll tally up the results at the end and level them out so we're comparing Apples to Apples or in this case amp hours to amp hours in random order I started with Ryobi this time at first things were going really well but I started to struggle once the battery was half empty I really had to apply pressure on The Grille using my body weight to dry the screws and prevent the drill from skipping I made it to 156 screws before the 1.5 amp hour battery died next up was Craftsman the feeling with this one was similar to Ryobi after halfway I started to struggle and really had to apply a lot of pressure with this being the smallest battery at 1.3 amp hours I wasn't expecting to get as many as with Ryobi at 120 screws despite some last-ditch efforts it gave up alright moving on to the 2.0 amp hour batteries I'm expecting an output of at least 200 screws for DeWalt Milwaukee and rigid DeWalt did not disappoint in fact it was so smooth and so powerful I could easily tweak the depth at the end with gentle control unlike Craftsman and Ryobi the grip wasn't painful that being said it's a little top heavy which made me hold it differently and used my middle finger as a trigger finger which was a little awkward in the end I managed to drive 208 screws before the battery ran out okay so let's see if the rigid can beat DeWalt I'm not counting on it myself but you never know the Ridgid feels slow to me but really smooth too there's no skipping and the driving is consistent at half empty that started to change as it started to run out of power it began to skip quite a bit my hand also really started to hurt at the base of the thumb the more I used it one I thought I would give up it just kept going he made it all the way up to 223 screws before it finally died take that DeWalt can Milwaukee do any better oh let me tell you that Milwaukee was incredibly smooth no skipping and I could even use it with just one hand no problem the grip was really comfortable too driving screws felt like a breeze and quick too in the end Milwaukee beat the Wall by four screws but managed to drive 11 less than the rigid drill did last but certainly not least is Festool with a 4 amp hour battery I'm expecting to be able to drive over 400 screws before it runs out this is going to be a long night I mean I already feel like I should give it extra points for the soft boring sound it makes but it's not perfect it provides slow control but it tends to skip if you don't apply downward pressure on the bit I initially forgot about the centrotech Chuck but then I swapped it in I couldn't figure out why my bit wouldn't fit only to realize that you have to use their adapter I eventually got annoyed of having my bit slip out all the time so I switched back to the regular Chuck to finish the job about halfway through I feel like the drill lost is dry I really had to push down on the drill with my body weight to drive the screws and prevent skipping given the 700 price point I would expect better not to mention this drill is heavy and really hurt my hand by this point I kept plowing through and eventually managed to wear out the 4 amp hour battery after driving 446 screws phew I need a break so here are the results of the battery longevity test with its larger battery Festool was able to drive way more screws a total of 446 on a single charge but when we level the playing field by dividing the number of screws driven by the size of the battery we get the number of screws per amp hour we can now see that the rigid battery performed as well as Festool did relative to its size of course Milwaukee takes the third position followed closely by DeWalt and Ryobi for this final test I'll be driving lag screws the goal is to drive as many lag screws within 30 seconds for this test I'll first drill some pilot holes then position the screws to minimize any loss of time fumbling around with screws ready go I started with Festool and while it certainly felt smooth and Powerful I didn't notice the audible feedback from the tool each time I reached the bottom telling me it couldn't give me the power I needed I managed to drive seven lag screws in 30 seconds but if you look closely they're not fully seated honestly I would expect better from a 700 tool next up DeWalt ready so DeWalt certainly packs a lot of torque almost too much torque it took me by surprise and I kind of hurt my wrist on the first one even after that when I knew what to expect it was hard to control the kick at the end you can see how much deeper this one drives the lags compared to Festival and despite a few seconds lost to the wrist twist I managed to get 8 lag screws fully seated beating Festival by one Milwaukee was next Milwaukee also packs some serious power but I didn't get the same risk-breaking kick at the end that said it did feel a tad bit slower than DeWalt and this was confirmed by side by side comparison nevertheless I managed to also Drive eight last crews in just the nick of time Ridgid is up next but the bar is high let's go definitely slower despite that kick of torque at the end it's surprising for the 149 price point but not in the second league as DeWalt in Milwaukee ultimately I didn't quite make it to seven and I ran out of time two left to go but I'm not expecting any surprises here [Applause] both Craftsman and Ryobi were underpowered and slow with maybe the slightest Advantage for Ryobi yeah both managed to fully seat only six screws before the time was up so here are the results of the time lag screw test both DeWalt and Milwaukee perform the best with the welt being slightly faster but again the extreme torque in the DeWalt drill is almost too much to handle even though Festool took third place its performance was underwhelming barely powerful enough to fully seat the leg screws which may be explained by its relatively lower torque and RPM specs okay so after all the tests I've tallied up the results so I finally get it I've been living in the Dark Ages this whole time with these two drills the difference between these entry-level drills and the more expensive ones is obvious I mean there's no way you could work in the trays using one of these they're just not powerful enough that being said I don't have the same needs as an electrician or plumber or deck builder I only use drills on occasion to build pilot holes and drive a few screws do I like the Milwaukee or the wall better than the ones I have yeah for sure but do I need them not necessarily so I'm not going to be one of those people who does a review and then doesn't name a clear winner I will say it depends on your needs but if I were to pick one of these drills to use in my shop from here on out it would have to be either the Milwaukee or the DeWalt I think both are really strong contenders and have their minor advantages and drawbacks at similar price points the specs on the DeWalt take the cake but they're almost Overkill causing potential wrist injuries I do however like the oversized LED with a switch to control it it's a tad heavier than Milwaukee though so again minor trade-offs I think ultimately I'd have to look at the entire tool lineup for both Brands and decide which tool line I'd rather buy into for the long run Festool is indeed in a league of its own so powerful and smooth but it didn't always perform the best overall its torque is actually slightly underwhelming it's also the heaviest and one of the biggest drills I tested which is a big turn off for me and the price tag is way too high so Festool is a pass for me rigid was a pleasant surprise though it performed fairly well overall given this price point and probably the best value for money in my book Craftsmen performed the worst overall and Ryobi didn't do much better as I'm sure most people won't be surprised to hear they lack speed and Power in most tests and they're bigger and clunkier than most competitors that said a drill is usually just a gateway to the entire line of tools I've always liked that Ryobi and Craftsman have a whole line of entry-level tools that run on the same batteries and I already own many of these tools so is the added value of the DeWalt or Milwaukee drill enough to make me want to switch over I'm not so sure But to answer the question are more expensive drills really worth it absolutely the high-end drills definitely pack more power than the entry-level drills as they say you get what you pay for hey I hope you enjoyed this video let me know your thoughts in the comments below until next time thanks for watching see you soon

Channel: DIY Montreal

Views: 139,137

Keywords: Are more expensive drills really better, Are more expensive drills really worth it, Expensive drills vs cheap drills, Drill test, Drill testing, Best drill, Best drill of 2023, Drill test 2023, Which drill is the best, Best cordless drill, Best cordless drill of 2023, Drill head to head comparison, Drills, Dewalt, Milwaukee, Ryobi, Ridgid, Festool, Craftsman, Drill torque test, Drill RPM test, Torque, RPM, Drill power test, Milwaukee M18, Dewalt Max XR, Festool T18, Drill review

Id: xiYQ3QtRqNY

Length: 25min 15sec (1515 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 05 2023