A cordless drill is an essential item – everyone needs one around the house for those odd jobs! If you’re a handyman or professional tradesman, you probably know all about cordless drills, but not everyone is so lucky! Like most things these days, there’s a lot of jargon around drills that can be confusing if you’re not really into DIY. This no-nonsense guide will walk you through everything you need to know about cordless drills and drivers so you can make the right choice without paying over the odds.
Drill Bits
Bits are the things that fit into the end of your drill. You can broadly divide them into two categories; drill bits and screwdriver bits. However, there are many different types of drill bit and screwdriver bit out there, so for more detailed information on this, check out our guide to drill bits. It goes without saying that choosing the right bit for the job is absolutely vital!
Chuck
The chuck is the thing that holds your drill bit. By tightening the chuck, you make the drill grip onto the drill bit. By loosening it, the drill will release the bit so you can swap it out. Picking a drill with a quality chuck is important as cheaply-made drills can have weak chucks which can slip while you’re drilling. This can damage your drill or, more likely, whatever it is you’re working on!
Most cordless drills have keyless chucks that simply need to be twisted like a bottle cap. Some drills need a special key to turn the chuck, although these tend to be old or specialist drills.
Torque
Torque is the force that drives your drill. The more torque you have, the more force it produces to turn an object (usually a drill bit or a screw) and the more powerful it’ll be. So you should always want the most torque possible, right? Not exactly. If you’re working on wood (or another soft material such as plaster), drilling with too much torque can cause it to split. This means you should look for a drill that has lots of different torque settings as well as high maximum torque. This’ll let you turn your torque settings down if you find you don’t need all that extra power!
Torque is measured in newton-metres (N-m). For everyday DIY jobs, you’re unlikely to need anything higher than 30N-m. For smaller screwing and drilling jobs, between 5-15 N-m should be fine. Torque is only half of the story, however – you also need to look at your drill’s speed.
Speed
The speed of your drill is measured in revs per minute (RPM). You’ll often see a drill speed referred to as “no-load”. The no-load speed is the maximum speed a drill can reach when it’s just spinning without drilling or screwing anything. You control the speed of your drill by squeezing the trigger – it’s a bit like pressing the accelerator in your car.
Torque and speed are inversely proportional; what this means is that the more speed you have, the less torque you get and vice versa. Drilling is about finding the right balance between speed and torque. If you’re working with a softer material, you want more speed and less torque. If you’re working on a harder material such as steel, you’ll want more torque and a slower speed.
Gears
Gears are the things that spin the drill. Some drills have a multiple-speed gearbox which lets you switch it into a higher gear. Just like a car, these higher gears will allow your drill to reach a higher speed, so it’s a feature that’s well worth looking out for.
All cordless drills come with a reverse gear as standard, too. This does exactly what you’d expect – it reverses the direction of the drill so you can use it to unscrew as well as screw.
Battery Life
Almost every new cordless drill you’ll find uses a lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery. This is because they last longer and hold their charge better when not in use. They’re also much more affordable than they were a few years ago. A decent quality Li-ion battery should give you up to 1000 charge cycles and should be able to cope with a few hours of use.
Charging Time
No matter how good your battery is, you’ll need to charge it eventually. When that time comes, you’ll want it to fully charge as quickly as possible. If you only use your drill very occasionally, this might not be too important to you, but if you do a lot of DIY or woodworking it’s worth asking about before you buy.
Weight
This isn’t really something that people look for when buying a drill, but it should be! When you’re doing DIY around the home, chances are you’ll be holding your drill out at all sorts of unnatural angles. This can put a surprising amount of strain on your muscles if you’re working in a tricky spot! This means that if you’re using your drill for any length of time, you want it to be as lightweight as possible so it’s practical to use in any situation.
Features
All of the above features are things you should look out for as standard – every cordless drill should have them. However, you can also find drills with a few other extra features to make your life a bit more comfortable. Our Compakt drills include an LED spotlight to help you work in low light as well as a battery life indicator so you can always see how much power you have left. Be sure to look out for these extra features and make sure you get more for your money!
