Hitachi DV18DGL/JC 18V combi drill

[wine~o]

Currently only available from Screwfix... http://www.screwfix.com/p/hitachi-dv18d ... rill/8652f

Had a decking job, removing old rotten decking and replacing with proper deck boards.

Knowing that my old Ryobi kit was on it's last legs I treated myself to the above (£99.99 at the time of writing)

Comes with 2 x 1.5 Ah Li-ions which charge in 40 mins, charger and carry case. First job was to remove as many of the well rusted screws as possible, I was thankful that the Hitachi has 55 Nm of torque as this was needed on some of the screws. The rest of the old deck came out with a wrecking bar...

Old deck removal (1)copy.jpg (605.36 KiB) Viewed 15322 times

Old deck removal (2)copy.jpg (498.51 KiB) Viewed 15322 times

Once that was all up and disposed of it was time to construct the frame. No fade at all putting 60 odd 100mm x 4.5 screws into the framework. (Pilot holes were drilled)

Recharged battery and next day started the deck boards, 75mm x 4mm screws, newly charged battery.. I reckon I did 140/150 screws (No pilot) before noticing any significant loss of power from the battery. Given that you get 2 and each battery only needs a 40 minute charge then you can't really run out of juice on a job like this...

Deck finished (4)copy.jpg (470.4 KiB) Viewed 15322 times

Today I needed to drill through a block wall, double skin, 6mm masonry bit. It did it in no time.

Overall very happy with it, comfortable to use, 2 x 1.5 Ah batteries are perfect for a Handyman such as myself (The charger takes all of the bigger batteries as well should I feel the need to upgrade) sturdy case and comes with a 3 year guarantee..

[rough cut]

i won one of these in a comp' at trade point and was really impressed with it, its a great little buy at £100 but i no longer have mine as the brother who's only 16 has started a plumbing apprenticeship so i donated it to him and its still serving him well a year later

[wine~o]

Just to add a little more...

I've had this for 3 months now, never missed a beat..

According to the manual it will only drill into masonry max 13mm diameter and 30 cm.....

Well I bunged a 20mm Titan masonry bit in it today to fit a cctv camera..

Outer skin of the wall it struggled, but then I can't see the blocks, they seem to made of flint and pebbles..

Inner skin is standard blocks, the combination of the Hitachi and a cheap drill bit it went thru in seconds...

http://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-masonry ... 00mm/88178

Above fits a standard 13mm chuck......

[philprime]

We have two of these at work one to replace an ageing Makita and a dewalt that someone thought it was a good idea to fill the charger up with water after cutting a copper pipe with out checking if it was still live!!!!

For the money they are great drills, with a good battery life for general day to day use.

I recommend it for someone who needs a drill for home use or handyman

[Bill Darr]

I'd recommend it for general trade use too - mine has been used and abused almost daily for about two years and has never failed in the task it's been set and has carried out everything admirably - it's been left out in the rain, dropped off scaffolding and tall steps etc and still works just the same as the day I bought it.

I recently had to overboard a quite large ceiling (26 sheets of PB) using 75mm drywalls and it out performed my mates Makita equivalent going through two batteries to the Maks three.