Ryobi ERH-650 feedback and other SDS drill questions

[xyz321]

hi

basic Diyer here. Am looking for a new drill after my troubles with drilling into masonary with my current 12V Black & decker. Will need to put up a few curtain poles in next month or so and hence will need to do more masonary drilling.

any idea if this is any good. A mate will let me have it for £40. but i cant find any details of it. also does anyone know if this has the clutch to help prevent any injuries? another silly question, can such a drill be used with one hand? it has a handle at the front but not sure if one can always use two hands on drill, especially when working on ladders?

any other recommendations / tips also welcome. am not looking to spend above £75.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I've owned an ERH650 in the past, after I had my blue Bosch nicked. I intended it only as a get me by tool until I had enough spare cash to buy another Bosch - in the end it lasted me 3 years before I sold it secondhand to another tradesman.

Overall, not the best SDS, but equally not too bad, either. Definitely a step up from using a cordless or any impact drill. The only downside to my mind was that it had no rotation stop, so it couldn't be used for chiselling - although that really isn't a huge loss - had I spent amother tenner I could have got the ERH750 which has that feature - identical apart from 100 watts more power and a rotation stop if you want to check the features (and it's been discontinued and replaced by the ERH710RS).

As to clutch, yes the ERH650 has one, but it is in no way suited to using with large core drills. IMHO no 2kg class SDS is. Can it be used with one hand? Not really - you need both hands on an SDS to start any hole accurately. Once you're off and drilling then you could use it one handed, although your accuracy won't be great and if it catches on anything you'll potentially cream cracker your wrist or if you're up a ladder you may end up coming off. I wouldn't use an SDS drill that way. Better to hire/buy a hop-up or small scaffolding tower than work on a ladder. Much safer

What I would say is that you can pick-up ERH710 SDS drills brand spanking new for litte more than your mate wants, like this one on eBay at £49, or £58.50 including the postage.

 

[xyz321]

I've owned an ERH650 in the past, after I had my blue Bosch nicked. I intended it only as a get me by tool until I had enough spare cash to buy another Bosch - in the end it lasted me 3 years before I sold it secondhand to another tradesman.

Overall, not the best SDS, but equally not too bad, either. Definitely a step up from using a cordless or any impact drill. The only downside to my mind was that it had no rotation stop, so it couldn't be used for chiselling - although that really isn't a huge loss - had I spent amother tenner I could have got the ERH750 which has that feature - identical apart from 100 watts more power and a rotation stop if you want to check the features (and it's been discontinued and replaced by the ERH710RS).

As to clutch, yes the ERH650 has one, but it is in no way suited to using with large core drills. IMHO no 2kg class SDS is. Can it be used with one hand? Not really - you need both hands on an SDS to start any hole accurately. Once you're off and drilling then you could use it one handed, although your accuracy won't be great and if it catches on anything you'll potentially cream cracker your wrist or if you're up a ladder you may end up coming off. I wouldn't use an SDS drill that way. Better to hire/buy a hop-up or small scaffolding tower than work on a ladder. Much safer

What I would say is that you can pick-up ERH710 SDS drills brand spanking new for litte more than your mate wants, like this one on eBay at £49, or £58.50 including the postage.

thanks for the advise. will look into eRH710. that one on ebay doesnt come with warranty and two reviews on amazon are not particularly useful with both saying product broke within one day.

in any case probably i will never be doing chiseling..am looking for a basic drill only to use around the house. would have bought a hammer drill but as mate offered SDS for around the same price, i thought lets buy that.

couple of questions. can SDS drill be used to drill wood (mdf) and tiles or is it too powerful for wood? does this drill have individual option to stop hammer and SDS actions to drilling to wood.

and finally do i need a special drill bit set with this? thanks a lot for your help and happy new year in advance.

 

[cajar]

SDS drill will drill wood with the hammer action off but you'll need a special SDS chuck adaptor since you can't buy wood drill bits with sds shanks. Tiles you can drill with your sds masonary bits but again with the hammer action off.

I second jobandknock's opinion of the price your mate's offering - £20 would be fair, the drill's not worth £40 second hand.

 

[xyz321]

Thanks.

I just went down to homebase to look at other things and saw some drills. They only had one SDS drill (1200W) and that was VERY heavy. so am having second thoughts about getting SDS drill

Will a hammer drill be ok to drill into masonary? as i said earlier, i dont do a lot of DIY and my major upcoming task is putting up curtain rodes in all the rooms. so was looking for a new drill. may be a hammer drill will do??????

 

[cajar]

Hammer drill will do the job, SDS is just much much better at it. The stuff you get in homebase and the like is heavier than the better brands. I know your budget is £75 but for £99 you can get http://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-2kg-sds-drill-gbh2000-240v/87453

and it's all the drill you will ever need for your home. I had one, used it nearly every day for 12 years before it got nicked, promptly bought another. I don't know how long the homebase special would last you.

 

[joe-90]

Or this.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gbh-2-18-2kg-sds-hammer-drill-240v-gsr-3-6v-screwdriver/51145

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Hi again. I just put up the eBay example to show you that there are cheapish deals out there. A quick Google and I found 4 sellers under £80 together with an old stock ERH650 at £50 on Amazon which may put your mate's price into perspective (BTW I got £30 for mine and that included a 1/2in drill chuck and SDS adaptor). What I would say about eBay/Amazon is that if you buy on a credit card you get protection from faulty goods, etc through the credit card company. As far as warranties go you'll find that the Sale of Goods Act and Distance Selling Regulations give you better protection, but that's a whole different area of discussion. OK, two bad reviews isn't positive (although one is in the USA) however I do wonder how many of these tools Ryobi sell in a month through B&Q alone. My own experience of Ryobi kit is that whilst it isn't quite as well finished or designed as the top brands it is generally fairly robust and reliable. My old ERH650 never missed a beat in 3 years of fairly heavy trade use (i.e. 10 or so hours a week, every week). Can't say about other Ryobi SDS drills from personal experience - just my own experience of the brand being generally reliable and fairly robust. Check this forum (and others) for Big-All to find other comments about Ryobi

As cajar says SDS drill can be used to drill wood, BUT, an SDS drill with a chuck in it is a big, unwieldy beast and weighs pushing 3kg - alright for drilling out lock mortises, but not really useable for drilling pilot holes! It's a matter of scale. In fact you can get wood auger bits with SDS ends on them for heavier work, but you won't see spade bits or twist drills. Those augers do work - that's the set I have - but the SDS MUST have a reverse rotation switch on it to deal with jams, etc. Cajar's comments about tiles are also spot on - turn the hammer action off!

I don't know if you are aware of it but there are quite a few SDS accessories available these days for use in rotation stop mode such as tile lifters, mortar rakes, brick removers, scutch combs, electrical box sinkers and even a square mortise chisel set. For a tradesman or keen DIYer that means it makes sense to consider the rotation stop option so long as it doesn't cost a lot more than a tool without rotation stop

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I just went down to homebase to look at other things and saw some drills. They only had one SDS drill (1200W) and that was VERY heavy. so am having second thoughts about getting SDS drill

Avoid the cheap cast-iron Chinese crap at all costs! A reasonable SDS drill will have a weight of 2 to 3kg and has the balance to allow you to use it above your head into a ceiling or concrete beam if needs arise, like the Ryobi you originally enquired about (circa 2.8kg). For comparison an 18volt cordless combi drill with a metal gearbox (deWalt/Bosch/Makita) weighs in at 2.5kg or so but feels heavier than an SDS when used single handed (SDS is a two-hand grip)

Will a hammer drill be ok to drill into masonary?

I think you are confusing terminology, here. SDS drills ARE hammer drills - other drills like cordless combis are IMPACT drills (And staff in big box stores who are idiots who don't know the difference). SDS drills go into heavy masonry between 4 and 10 times as fast as equivalent sized impact drills (depending on the impact strength - measured in Joules) - which is why almost all tradesmen use them these days.

 

[xyz321]

Thanks for all your replies.

I was just browsing and found this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1JQ43Y1T7QDCJCZJJWDY

i am sure the one from screwfix would be a bit more powerful but its also £20 dearer. for that much i can get the drill bits. it looks like this one from amazon can do everything so i can maybe sell my B&D 12V for few bobs. Or shall i keep it for lighter work around the house?

any thoughts welcome.

finally, do i need separate drill bits for wood / masonary / tiling with this SDS drill? if so any recommendations?

 

[joe-90]

You want a Bosch blue - not green.

 

[xyz321]

You want a Bosch blue - not green.

if you dont mind me asking, is it a big difference? i am able to get bosch green £20 cheaper and with an extra year's warranty.

 

[joe-90]

The green is DIY. The blue is pro. I've still got a blue Bosch sds that I've had for over twenty years - and it was old when I got it second hand. Still works as new.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

You want a Bosch blue - not green.

if you dont mind me asking, is it a big difference? i am able to get bosch green £20 cheaper and with an extra year's warranty.

As DIY tools go Bosch green are pretty good, but their bearing/motor/switch life is still measures in tens of hours rather than hundreds. What Joe says about blue over green is true - my first Bosch SDS (a blue D-handle one) was bought new in about 1983 and finally died in 2003 or so because I couldn't get a replacement electrical part for it - the motor, gearbox and bearings, etc were all still spot on, although it was on its' third or fourth set of brushes. It's demise encouraged me to buy a rotation stop drill which turned out to be worth the extra for me as a tradesman. I regard Ryobi tools as fitting somewhere between DIY stuff from "brands" and the trade stuff from the likes of Bosch, Makita, Hitachi, etc

 

[xyz321]

Hammer drill will do the job, SDS is just much much better at it. The stuff you get in homebase and the like is heavier than the better brands. I know your budget is £75 but for £99 you can get http://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-2kg-sds-drill-gbh2000-240v/87453

and it's all the drill you will ever need for your home. I had one, used it nearly every day for 12 years before it got nicked, promptly bought another. I don't know how long the homebase special would last you.

any thoughts on whether to get that screwfix one or to get:
any thoughts on the screwfix deal (99.99) or this:

http://www.directbrandtools.com/Detail.asp?qsFullScr=Yes&qsProd=GBH 2-18 RE&qsCat=2&qsSubCat=10

also some feedback on my questions re drills would be helpful.

thanks for all your replies. i really appreciate it