Milwaukee 0617-24 14.4-Volt Ni-Cad 1/2-Inch Cordless Hammer Drill/Driver Kit

 (2 customer reviews)

I owned a Black & Decker cordless NiCd drill before this one. I used it for about 3 years until the batteries started to fade. Instead of buying new batteries I decided to buy a new drill.

I wanted something less plastic and more manly. Off all the drills I picked up in the store, this one felt the best. The metal chuck is awesome. You can tighten the chuck with just one hand, without spinning the drill.

I also wanted a drill that more consistently met its torque settings. That is, its tightening torque would be predictable and not sloppy like the B&D. This one seems to me to do a much better job of that. I did not test it with any special equipment. Just my impression.

I wanted a drill whose charger told you when the charge was finished. This one does.

I decided on the NiCd because I did not want to pay the extra cost for Lithium or NiMH. One other impression I have is that NiCd works better when its ben left out in the cold all...Read more

I bought this drill, and have had it for several years, but as a homeowner, it got very little use. I had charged the batteries less than a dozen times, and one of them died completely! It wouldn't even make the light come on on the charger!
Milwaukee won't return emails, phone calls, (even though they promised to have a supervisor call me)they are just all around a company that doesn't seem to care about their customers, and like to give you the run-around!

They are owned by the same Chinese company that owns Ryobi, and Rigid, so I guess making cheap junk is their only priority.

Next time, I'll buy Panasonic or Makita.