Cordless Drills from US

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Shanemc

65 posts

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#136647 4-Dec-2013 14:53

Looking for some advice around purchasing a cordless drill/ or impact drill combo from the US/Canada.

Been looking at something like the Makita or DeWalt 18v drills or combos, but the prices in NZ are ridiculous compared to prices overseas.

Has anyone had any experience ordering from Amazon and using something like Youshop? Are there any issues with shipping the batteries?

I have family that regularly come from Canada, so could get them bring something down. I'm not sure if there are issues with taking the batteries on planes.

As far as I can tell the battery chargers don’t seem to work with 240v, so I assume either getting a step-down transformer or even a 240v charger would be needed. Anyone had experience of doing this?

Many thanks for any help

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timmmay

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#945438 4-Dec-2013 15:53

There are definitely regulations around taking LiIon batteries on planes. You may be under the limits, but you need to look at it.

The chargers may be multi voltage/universal. If not you might be better off buying the charger in NZ, though they can be expensive as you've said.

Youshop works fine for everything I've tried. They have a policy around batteries you should read.

andrewNZ

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#945453 4-Dec-2013 16:05

I wouldn't touch Dewalt with a very long stick, but that's just my opinion.

Is the loss of the consumer rights, the potential GST, and the likely more difficult/impossible warranty process worth it?

kiwitrc

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#945695 4-Dec-2013 21:27

And I have had a great run with dewalt. Was recommended by a couple builder mate's.

richms

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#945727 4-Dec-2013 22:30

$49 bare hitachi tools on amazon, and they will often directly ship to NZ. Beats the $300+ for a bare tool locally.

I have bought one total kit over naively assuming the charger would be multi voltage. They aren't. No issues with battery shipping as they are not bare cells and the kit I got was below the threshold for youshop as they were just 1.5Ah packs, not the larger 3Ah.

I could get no answer from them about bringing in the batteries on their own as that is an ambiguous area in their what is allowable since its not bare, it is in a battery but they at the time seemed to use cell and battery somewhat interchangably on their list.

Im off dewalt at the moment since a horrid run on gearboxes in drills. Have some hitachi 18v gear but its all the old style batterys with the post like the old NiCd packs, which seems to be end of line now. I got a couple of pieces of ryobi one plus gear for a project, and it really seems good enough for me now so once my hitachis are dead I will probably just get a ryobi one plus drill.

Richard rich.ms

timmmay

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#945822 5-Dec-2013 07:16

How much did it cost to ship to NZ? I could add to my cart... lazy.

I've wanted a cordless drill for a couple of years, but they're expensive ($120 for the cheapest LiIon) and my cord drill works fine when I use it - around twice a year. If I could find a good quality, good value drill that was likely to last a good long time I might get one.

andrewNZ

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#945842 5-Dec-2013 08:05

My first (good) battery drill was a little bosh green 9.6v. That little drill did about 12 years of trade use, I lost count of how many times I let the smoke out of it.

I now have a 14V bosh blue, and it's just as great. I smoked it accidently the first week I had it (drill grabbed, spun the drill and wedged it, twisting the case and jamming the trigger on), could even hear crackling and popping while I was trying to turn it off. It's still going great.

Fred99

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#945984 5-Dec-2013 11:52

I've got a pair of DeWalt 10.8V drill and impact driver. They are decent quality, very light-weight, convenient to get in to small confined places, and for such a tiny impact driver, plenty of torque for 99% of jobs I ever need to do (about 100Nm IIRC). I find it very convenient to use the two tools together, drill bit in the drill, socket in the impact driver, both have clips to fit in your belt, no mucking around with changing bits when needing to pre-drill then drive screws etc, you just drop the drill in the belt, grab the driver etc. I do a bit of trade work part-time - much of it involves drilling and driving fastenings, often working from step-ladders etc. I use his tools, Panasonic 18V combo drill/driver using hex-shank bits, I keep meaning to take my toy drill and driver set out on a job, as I'm confident they'll be better to use all round and save time - battery life the only real limiting factor.

Shanemc

65 posts

Master Geek

#946405 6-Dec-2013 09:33

Thanks for the comments

I’m not particularly set on any brands, just want to get above the junk. I use for home DIY, so they don’t get heavy use, but can be used for a wide range of purposes. The prices in NZ just seem far too high, even for the Ryobi range. The Hitachi drills looks quite reasonable on Amazon, so I’ll have a look into that.

I don’t mind losing the convenience and taking a risk on the warranties for saving a few hundred dollars. I don’t think I’ve ever had a warranty issue with a tool.

Richms, did you get a NZ charger or use a step-down transformer for the gear you brought in?

richms

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#946480 6-Dec-2013 11:29

The charger that came with the kit is in the garage on a stepdown I have for a few other US sourced tools. I use the 230v charger elsewhere when needed. Not a total loss getting it but not as useful as a universal would have been.

There is no car charger for the hitachis which is annoying, I do have a 110v inverter I have used on the imported charger once but as that and my 220v inverter both have universal sockets I can forsee the time I plug it in wrong and blow stuff up.

Richard rich.ms

chevrolux

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#946541 6-Dec-2013 12:48

Look at I-Tools.

They are NZ based and will sell either the full kit or bare tools. Means you can buy, for example, the full drill kit with batteries and charger and then just get the 'bare' impact driver for next to nothing!

I personally wouldn't buy anything but Dewalt but know plenty of tradesman with Milwaukee and Makita who swear by that.
I would stay clear of Bosch simply because I had a bad experience with one of their drills. The low end Bosch stuff is cheap crap but the high end 36V stuff is nice.

raytaylor

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#947567 8-Dec-2013 17:49

I recently purchased an had shipped to me a milwaukee M18 angle grinder - works with my M18 batteries from my drill i purchased locally. Works well.

Ray Taylor

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oxnsox

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#947611 8-Dec-2013 19:34

I've purchased power tools in USA wgen there and carried them back. Like Richms the supplied charger was 110v. Fortunately I'd purchased tools compatible with units I had back here so could use the local 240v charger.

If I were buying more now I'd get bare tools (no battery) and use with what I've got, as this is one of the many buying options you can get in the USA

Fred99

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#947627 8-Dec-2013 20:25

These days, Milwaukee is to Ryobi as DeWalt is to Black and Decker. Through takeovers, same parent company, but clearly defined brand targeted at specific markets. With the home handyman ranges, you won't get more than you pay for. To save a $ IMO it's probably better to buy a less "featured" product from Hitachi or Makita - even the lower end stuff is still very decent quality (I'd rather have a decent quality 500W drill that sometimes struggles a bit, than a 750W Ryobi with chuck jaws made of cheesy steel, where the drills slip or the chuck jams because you've had to beat the crap out of it to try to stop the bits slipping).

webwat

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#955797 21-Dec-2013 13:19

Yup, I give my 20V Dewalt a hiding and it works great, think I paid $500 or so. Apparently they have a different form of Lithium battery thats more stable too. If it snags in a hole it does have an overload cutoff so u won't damage the battery by drawing too much power. The American Dewalts seem to be 20V but you can buy them here from places like Loven Tools (who sell on trademe too) and they come with NZ plugged chargers.

Previously had a Ryobi that was rubbish but still use its batteries on other tools. If I had bought decent sized batteries for the Ryobi it would have cost more than the Dewalt and still be a rubbish drill.
Quite a few of my workmates use Dewalt too and wouldn't use anything else.

Time to find a new industry!

Fred99

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#955800 21-Dec-2013 13:32

webwat: The American Dewalts seem to be 20V but you can buy them here from places like Loven Tools (who sell on trademe too) and they come with NZ plugged chargers.

The US DeWalt versions "20V" and "12V" are called "18V" and "10.8V" here, voltage determined by number of lithium cells (3 and 5 respectively). Pretty sure it's just a marketing thing - I mean 20V just has to be better than 18V...

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