Best Cordless Hammer Drill Reviews

A step ahead of a typical drill is a cordless hammer drill. Technically, a hammer drill is a conventional drill also known as rotating drill but with a hammering stroke and action. The hammering strokes help in rapid drilling without much effort and are capable of quickly pulverizing the hard material.

These are basically the lower powered machines and are accustomed to ‘cam-action’ or ‘percussion’ mechanism. It turns out to be a perfect tool for the people or professionals who desire immediate and easy hammering action on what so ever project they work on, be it hard, brittle or light material.

The best cordless hammer drills can be easily used it different fitting projects, and since there are no power cords, ensures greater portability to reach out to otherwise hard to reach areas. They are also known to offer a good amount of endurance during your projects, and optimum power usage.

Advantages

Here are some of the things that you would love if you buy a cordless hammer drill.

1. It possesses a unique clutch that makes it capable for spinning the drill bit and then punches inside and out.

2. It has a high hammering rate i.e. thousands of blows per minute making the action quite swift.

3. Ideal for drilling holes in masonry, building material or stone.

4. The hammer drills come equipped with a switch that locks the distinctive clutch and then coverts the special hammer drill into a typical drill, ready to be used for the wood or any other material work.

5. It is far more rapid in terms of action than an ordinary drill.

6. Capable of drilling holes in concrete footings and concrete floors as well.

7. The larger and more powerful hammer drills can also be used for dowelling which is basically the rhythmic drilling of anchor holes.

8. It is used on a large scale by not only DIY’ers, carpenters or masonry workers but also by electricians and plumbers.

9. Some come with a benefit of just using the machine as a hammer by turning off the drill.

Disadvantages

The problem with a cordless power drill though, is that often, it is not as powerful as you would want it to be. So, if you are looking for a hammer drill that can fit in to your power intensive tasks, this might not be the best bet for you.

1. The force in blow per minute is lesser than you expect it to be.

2. A little more expensive than the conventional drills.

3. Heavier than the regular ones making it a little difficult to handle.

4. It works on batteries, which will gradually expire and you’ll need to replace it.

How to buy?

Buying the best cordless hammer drill can be a very tough job as the market is full of great options and the competition is real tough. Well, here’s a guide for you:

1. Use:

What exactly is the reason for you to buy hammer drill, what is the purpose – one must think about it deeply before buying. If you need to do that job which requires constant changing of drill bits or for specially drilling in masonry or walls, hammer drills can be chosen accordingly.

2. DIY or Professionals:

Whether you’re a DIY’er or a professional affects the ‘how to buy’ very crucially. For the DIY’ers, hammer drills powered by batteries are the best. And for the professionals working in a large workshop or in construction should chose electric drill.

3. Switch or Lever:

There are many hammer drills in a higher category which come equipped with a switch or lever in it. This special switch is capable of switching the clutch off and converting it simply into a hammer or into a conventional drill, accordingly.

4. Cord:

The hammer drills are either corded or cordless with similar functionality. If you need to port your drill into places where the electric supply is hard to find then go for the cordless drills. The cordless hammer drill is far more popular and easy to use for obvious reasons.

5. Power:

The hammer drills are available with varying power of motor. Go for high power motors if you need to do extensive job else go for the lower one, the performance varies consequently.

Top 5 Cordless Hammer Drills

Your choice of cordless hammer drills will depend on the features it offers. Here is a look at the top 5 choices you have today.

Milwaukee 2407-22 M12 3/8 Drill Driver Kit

The Milwaukee 2407-22 is a 12 volt – 275 lbs torque cordless hammer drill. It is designed ergonomically especially the handle in order to increase the comfort of using and making it more handy. It comes equipped with a metal ratcheting chuck which increases it durability, an onboard LED light and a fuel gauge. The powerful M12 cordless drill comes with lithium ion batteries.

Things We Liked

  • Chuck: This M12 Milwaukee has a metal single sleeve ratcheting chuck which gives great grip over bit.
  • LED: It comes with a onboard LED light and fuel measure that makes it more efficient and easy to use.
  • Battery: The batteries are real good and last for a long time.
  • Performance: This machine has a great speed and torque control which makes it very good in performance.
  • Recharge: The batteries charge in no time.

Things We Didn't Like

  • Battery: Even if the batteries charge rapidly but then you have to charge it very often.
  • High speed drilling: When you drill on a high speed, the chucks begins to loosen and ultimately falls out.

Bosch HDS181-02 18-Volt Lithium-Ion 1/2-Inch Compact Tough Hammer Drill Driver with 2 High Capacity Batteries, Charger and Case

The Bosch HDS 181-02 is an18 volt cordless hammer drill weighing 7 pounds. It has a 4 pole high power motor which gives a great performance in a compact size and an electronic battery fuel gauge. Both DD and HDD power systems are compatible with this drill. It works using Bosch Lithium batteries offering 50 percent more runtime over standard lithium batteries.

Things We Liked

  • Electronic gauge: This machine is equipped with an electronic battery fuel gauge that helps you in determining the best power for the job.
  • Soft grip housing: The handle is designed ergonomically and a soft grip wrapped housing which gives great handling.
  • Battery: The batteries are quite reliable. Even if you go back to the batteries after a long time, the batteries won’t discharge.

Things We Didn't Like

  • Chuck: The chuck keeps loosening and wears out while using it as a hammer in the hammer setting.
  • Brush: The brushes tend to spark excessively when used for long.
  • No holder: The machine lacks the holder for holding the screw.

DEWALT DCD995B 20V Max XR Lithium Ion Brushless Premium Hammer Drill Bare Tool

The Dewalt DCD995B is a 20 volt compact cordless hammer drill with a maximum power of 650 unit watts out. This Dewalt model is a 3-speed-high performance drill with a LED light and with a 20 second trigger release delay providing better visibility in dark. The all metal transmission is available for fast application speeds and to give a better run time. It consists of XR Lithium batteries which provide 33 percent more capacity than the regular ones.

Things We Liked

  • Weight: This dewalt machine weighs only 4.3lbs making it very lightweight and easy to handle.
  • XR Lithium batteries: This machine come with XR Lithium batteries where XR refers to Extreme Runtime and offers 33% more runtime.
  • Brushless: This drill being brushless increases battery life by 58% automatically.
  • Handle: Than handling of the handle is swift. It is very easy to put on or remove the handle according to the job.

Things We Didn't Like

  • Clutch: The clutch is not dependable or reliable. It may break off easily and sooner than you can expect it to.
  • Drill: The drill tends to slip out of the drill mode every now and then.
  • Chuck: The chuck keeps loosening every time you do a job. After the chuck has been used for a very long time, it might lock itself up completely.

Makita XPH012 18V LXT Lithium-Ion Cordless 1/2-Inch Hammer Driver-Drill Kit with One Battery

The Makita XPH012 is a 18 volt cordless drill which weighs only 4 pounds. It has a keyless hunk, belt clip and a built-in LED light. It also has a variable speed i.e. it has two speed ranges which provides a wide range of working on applications. It is quite a powerful drill for its size and is built of 4 pole motor that delivers 480 lbs of torque.

Things We Liked

  • Charge time: This machine has a fast charging time. It charges very quickly as compared to other products in the same range.
  • Large case: This Makita product has a large case for accommodating charge as well as spare batteries.
  • Chuck: The chuck is huge and is very easy to tighten down and release.

Things We Didn't Like

  • No indicator: This machine isn’t equipped with an indicator that would tell how much battery is left.
  • LED location: The LED is located above the trigger which is why the actual drill spot is in the shadow of chuck which makes it a slight difficult to see.
  • Battery life: The lifespan of the battery is not much and is expensive for the time it lives.

DEWALT DC725KA 18-Volt Cordless Compact Hammer Drill/Driver

The DeWalt DC725KA 18-Volt cordless compact hammer drill is widely used for construction. It weighs 4.9 pounds which is a little more for a tool to be handy. It possesses 1/2-inch single-sleeve ratcheting chuck which reduces bit slippage to a great extent and a frameless motor that delivers maximum power of 410 unit watt out, thus gives a good performance and also contains a LED work light. The battery composition in DeWalt’s case is NiCad.

Things We Liked

  • Rotating time: The cordless drill has a fast rotating time, in turn increasing its speed.
  • LED: The efficiency of LED light is great. In dark or minimum light, too the visibility is good.
  • Chuck: The designing of chuck is great. It neither wobbles nor loosens while working.

Things We Didn't Like

  • Shafts: The shafts do maintain a constant position. It tends to slip forward and affect the working.
  • Battery: The battery life is not much. They die early as they are NiCad and not Lithium. And also fails to work continuously for more than 60 minutes. It then has to be recharged again.
  • Weight: Because of the heavy NiCad batteries, this machine becomes a little heavy and is difficult to use it continuously for long hours..

Which one’s the winner in that tough completion above?

The Milwaukee 2407-22 M12 3/8 Drill Driver is clearly the best of all. It is one of that top class tools which provides performance, which is unbeatable and in the best possible and the most affordable price. It offers a great speed and perfect torque control, which makes it real good in terms of performance. Because of the ergonomically designed handle, the grip increases to a good extent and handling becomes very easy.

Moreover this cordless hammer drill only weighs 2.7 lbs along with the battery and the rest of the items attached to the machine. The onboard LED light and fuel gauge are additional but extremely useful features.

The batteries charge real quickly. It doesn’t take more than 30 minutes to reach 100% although they don’t last long which is almost the only disadvantage. But the performance offered by this machine in the price it takes, makes up for that slight shortcoming. All in all, this hammer drill is almost perfect to deal and work with.

If you'd like to evaluate some further options, make sure you check out our cordless drill reviews as well.