Austarion

Hey Guys,

My wonderful missus is going to buy me a new 18v cordless hammer drill for my birthday next month. Currently have a $99 GMC shitta.

We looked around today, and it comes down to either Ryobi or Makita unit. Now I know the makita has the better 'trade' name. But keep in mind this is for around the home. And I like the price of the body only units for the rest of the Ryobi 1+ units.

Opinions?

As a builder of 33 years exp I can tell you from a trade point of view the makita is the better option, you can buy just the skins too for makita drills. Nothing wrong really with ryobi either, even makita is made in taiwan these days.

I bought a ryobi 4" grinder a month or so ago.............. The head on it is too big!!! The cutting disk wont fit into the space that my old (20 plus years) Makita one would!! And I only killed the Makita by stripping 2 machines back to metal! All the paint dust stuffed it :(

I know your after a drill, so not really helping but, I'll buy a Makita anything next time!

Having said that, a mate of mine has a ryobi impact drill that goes well...

Did that help

They are both good. If it's just basic home use get the one you like better.

I got a ryobi 18v impact wrench a few months back, it has completely changed my job.
There is cheap ryobi stuff and trade quailty stuff, would recomend it anyday + the batterys fit all their tools which will be handy down the track.

i use 18v cordless all day every day a mix between bosch professional and makita, i have never used ryobi but i can tell you most of the tradies i know stick to makita... to through something else in the mix i hear the new panasonic drills and impacts are pretty good

moz

bigmoz wrote:i use 18v cordless all day every day a mix between bosch professional and makita, i have never used ryobi but i can tell you most of the tradies i know stick to makita... to through something else in the mix i hear the new panasonic drills and impacts are pretty good

moz

Yeah i have heard Panasonic make the best cordless drills on the market.

I replaced all my ryobi stuff with Makita's.

I'm not a professional so I couldn't justify spending huge dosh on dewalt etc.

My mak's are now 4 yr's old and many abuses later still going great :)

A Dewalt will never again be in my possession...

But I still have a blue Bosch 9,6V drill, going on 15 years...
Kind of hard to get new batteries... (One cell is bypassed on the first battery so not realy 9,6V anymore, but working!)
And a smaller blue Bosch Lithium at work, very handy!

The Makitas are looking good.

I have been using Panasonic cordless hammer drills for years & still can't kill em. However, I've broken Ryobi, De Walt, Makita, & Bosch.
A lot of the tradies round here have now switched to Panasonic. Bit dearer, but worth if your using it all the time.

Thanks for the input guys.

It appears I will be going with a Makita unit for $358 at Bunnings atm. They have an offer on to get a 3rd battery by redemption atm.

I had also considered a Hitachi (as we sell them at work) even though they are a very hi end unit, they are priced accordingly and are only available through limited outlets.

Where as there is plenty of places to get Hitachi in sydney.

makita and ryobi are not even in the same league.
makita and hitachi round the house will do the job for years and do it easy.