18v or 14.4v combi drills?

[ishmail]

Has anyone had any experience of the two different voltages in professional drills?

I have an aging 18v but need to replace it with a high quality professional drill- I favour the MXT range of Makita drills, but also like Bosch, and maybe DeWalt. The newer 14.4v ranger generate huge torque- with less than 10nm between some of the 14.4v and 18v models.

Has anyone any practical experience, ie. how do they differ in reality and in use? Are the advances in 14.4v batteries enough to equal 18v models from a few years ago? And what does that extra torque actually mean in use?

Any grounded advice and guidance would be appreciated....

 

[Deluks]

What do you use it for though? For building work and drilling bricks, steel etc you want the most powerful you can get. If you are into woodwork then 12 or 14 will suffice.

If you only buy one drill make it an 18v, if you own more than one then get a 14 or 12v for lighter jobs.
It must be stressed though that a good quality (Makita, Bosch, Dewalt, Metabo, AEG, Hitachi, Milwaukee) 14v will beat any cheapo 18v or 24v (I'm thinking Woolworths here )

 

[big-all]

high torque come from lower gearing so in general its a compromise more torque for slower progress

so if you only occasionaly require high torque go for greater rpm to allow faster working in general

or if you require lots off torque all the time go for high tork but with slower general progress

and hammer [percusion ] action is required to make good [any ] progress in harder material

other considerations

the a/h amp hour of a battery any thing below 2 ah is restrictive the ah is the fuel tank the lower the ah the sooner your down the ladder to change batteries

 

[gcol]

Get yourself a makita mxt - I have an 18v mxt combi and it's the best thing i've bought.

 

[arctic]

Depends what your using it for, for me (i have a 12 and 18 dewalt and a 10.8 bosch) its all down to the weight, you dont want to be plasterboarding ceilings with an 18volt if you can do it with a lighter drill.

The bosch 10.8 pocket driver is without doubt one of the best tools I've ever used (along side my festools plunge cut circular saw).

Kev

 

[eggplant]

I like the dewalt XRP 18V range, very powerful indeed, what is also worth thinking about is if you have other tools, it makes sense to get the same so the batteries are compatible and you dont end up with half a dozen different chargers/battieries.
Also a factor as well as Ah rating is the recharge time, my one does 15 mins, of course if you have 5 bateries and the recharge time is an hour then it wouldnt be a problem - but probably would if you had only one battery.
Back to the original question, I dont own a 14V but often use a 12V - needless to say the 12v is less powerful but lighter. My 18V kicks ass out of 36V B&Q "pro" tools.

 

[Thermo]

ive got a lot of dewalt 18v tools and they take a good beating out in all weathers. Ive recently bought a hitachi 14v hammer drill. Its powerful, but not totally convinced its better than the dewalt and it doesnt seem as well balanced, although i think its better engineered.....

pay your money and take your choice!