Help narrowing down an SDS purchase

[benjy_b]

Hi all,

I'm wishing to buy a corded SDS drill with isolated chisel function for the following tasks:

- Chasing radiator pipes, plug sockets and wiring into a block wall
- Removing cement render from the exterior of our property

With a budget of around £100, I've narrowed it down to the following:

Bosch GBH 2-26 DRE @ £95
https://www.howetools.co.uk/bosch-gbh-2-26-dre-240v-sds-hammer

Has anyone any experience with the above drill?

Could anyone recommend anything else?

It seems that Bosch drill is quite competitively priced at the moment.

Thanks in advance, Ben

 

[chappers]

yeah had one for years(in fact still have it somewhere) before I switched over to cordless

 

[JBR]

I bought this one a couple of years ago (I think).

https://www.howetools.co.uk/bosch-gbh-2-24df-240v-sds-hammer

It's 700W rather than the 800W model you link to, but it did come with interchangeable chucks - SDS and standard for non-SDS bits - which I found a very useful addition. Much more convenient than those adapter things that you insert into the SDS chuck. Mine was more expensive at £118, but perhaps that accounts for the cost of the additional chuck?

Anyway, I've found it to be very good for everything I need and reliable too. I think you'll find that most people on here find Bosch Blue products to be excellent.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I think you'll find that most people on here find Bosch Blue products to be excellent.

Agreed. I had a GBH2400 (basically a slightly down spec version of the GBH2-24 for a number of years and it was a really good drill
Went cordless last year and sold mine to a colleague who has used it heavily on chasing out, through drilling stone walls, etc. His team have killed three new DW SDS drills over the last 18 months whilst his GBH goes on and on. You really can't better a blue Bosch

 

[benjy_b]

Thank you.

I really appreciate you taking the time to post.

I shall be buying it tomorrow

 

[phatboy]

I got that drill in November after I killed a Makita one. Really good drill for the tasks you want. Chasing is of course easier with a 4KG unit, but if you aren't doing loads of it a 2KG is fine and a lot easier on the back.

 

[chappers]

Its a good drill but one thing I would say is that if it's chisel function is more important to you than its drilling function, I would consider going for something a bit beefier

 

[LongEarsShortLegs]

Realise you may already have bought one but I recently purchased a £69 titan one from screwfix with a bunch of drills/ chisels to go with it.

Used it 3 times so far and it knocks spots off the £180 dewalt one of my mates I've been borrowing previously ( although his has seen some abuse and is lighter so a lot nicer to use up a ladder when installing a satellite dish )

It's got a 2 year guarantee and the drills/ chisels are probably worth £30ish so by my reckoning If it goes bang in 2 years I get a new one. If it doesn't then it's coat me £70 and I've got/used £30 of accessories.

It's 6kg and 1500w so packs some power

 

[muggles]

If you're going for the Bosch, buy the DFR version with the interchangeable chucks - if you're using plain-shank drills you can't use hammer action with a DRE and a chuck adapter, whereas you can use hammer with the 13mm chuck that comes with the DFR

 

[muggles]

Realise you may already have bought one but I recently purchased a £69 titan one from screwfix with a bunch of drills/ chisels to go with it.

Used it 3 times so far and it knocks spots off the £180 dewalt one of my mates I've been borrowing previously ( although his has seen some abuse and is lighter so a lot nicer to use up a ladder when installing a satellite dish )

It's got a 2 year guarantee and the drills/ chisels are probably worth £30ish so by my reckoning If it goes bang in 2 years I get a new one. If it doesn't then it's coat me £70 and I've got/used £30 of accessories.

It's 6kg and 1500w so packs some power

These are also good

 

[Deleted member 174758]

It's 6kg and 1500w so packs some power

So in other words completely bloody useless for extended drilling operations, e.g battening out walls, drilling concete ceilings (suspended ceilings, etc), add in fact any sort of work where balance and fatigue might be a factor (such as up a ladder). It's basically a breaker with a drill function and not the other way round. Wattage doesn't count for much in SDS drills either - some of the 700 to 800watt industrial models drill faster than 1200 watt SDS Max units and the lighter weight of the smaller unit doesn't leave you feeling drained at the end of the day

The other suggestion about impact drilling with an SDS drill and a conventional chuck seems a little pointless to me. SDS drills work best as masonry drills when you use them with SDS bits and when all said and done they aren't that expensive - even better quality bits such as Heller, Bosch blue and deWalt aren't hugely expensive and they outperform the cheap (Silverline etc) SDS bits by a long way (last longer, too). SDS drills are too big and bulky to use for the majority of conventional drilling, not to say slow (at 900rpm max). That makes them suitable for just one other type of drill bit - large-diameter auger bits - and they can be had in SDS shank form as well

 

[LongEarsShortLegs]

Aye... it's certainly not my go to drill that gets used daily and short of a couple of holes at 10 foot height I wouldn't fancy using it in the air at all. But considering the OP was purely asking about chiselling tasks I commented on stuff that's good for chiselling and I was presuming ( maybe wrongly ) he already owns a cordless drill

I found my mates corded 240v dewalt sds with chisel to be largely unwieldy to use as a regular drill but also pretty underpowered for chiselling tasks ( well I didn't till I used my new one ). Granted I'm sure there's an application it's ideally sized for ( maybe as you mentioned drilling overhead) but jack of all trades and master of none come to mind

As in given the choice I think I'd rather have the £70 titan for hammer and heavy drilling and then a cordless drill with hammer for general drilling duties. Means I'm getting more work done quicker when needing a chisel ( less fatigue, less blisters, less annoyed neighbours) and I can swing my cordless makita round all day when I need to drill small holes in brickwork/ work off a ladder where's it perfectly adequate.

 

[JBR]

If you're going for the Bosch, buy the DFR version with the interchangeable chucks - if you're using plain-shank drills you can't use hammer action with a DRE and a chuck adapter, whereas you can use hammer with the 13mm chuck that comes with the DFR

I didn't know that. I have the DF, not the DFR, but with the interchangeable chucks. Does that mean I can use the hammer action using the non-SDS chuck without causing it any damage?

 

[muggles]

I didn't know that. I have the DF, not the DFR, but with the interchangeable chucks. Does that mean I can use the hammer action using the non-SDS chuck without causing it any damage?

Provided you have the proper Bosch interchangeable chucks you can use hammer action with both - it's the SDS chuck adapters that shouldn't be used with hammer action

 

[JBR]

Provided you have the proper Bosch interchangeable chucks you can use hammer action with both - it's the SDS chuck adapters that shouldn't be used with hammer action

Thanks for that Muggles. I'll try that. Can I take it that the piston inside actually strikes the non-SDS chuck?