Why is my drill so slow in brickwork?

[mrrusty]

Not much to add, except if you are going for an SDS drill, you might be better with a mid-range one around 2J impact. The big Titan (I have one) is a beast, and will drill through anything. It's downside is it is so powerful, that if the mortar is a weak lime rather than cement based, it will likely loosen the brick and knock it inwards as well.

Cordless drills have their place, but not for drilling masonry. Some bricks had all sorts of stuff in them in the past. I had some in one house that if you cut them with a disk, would produce melting drips like glass. They were as hard as hell.

 

[robinbanks]

My eldest daughter has the same drill. It's s hit.

Bosch cordless tools come in two variants - green, for diy/consuner/noddy use and blue, for trade users that need their gear to take a battering..

I really rate the blue stuff I have, the green I haven't bothered with since giving away the first mis-purchase

But all that said, there does seem to be a combination of factors (including user/setup errors) frustrating the drilling efforts here and I too would recommend an SDS drill; the way the hammer mode works on such a drill is completely different (and an actual hammer striking the bit like it's a chisel) to hammer mode on a regular drill or combo cordless (which is more like a wheel running over a bumpy surface to vibrate the drill bit slightly)

 

[ajrtd]

Green Bosch are useless for drilling holes or driving in screws. No more need be written.

 

[cdbe]

Toy drill. Try working up in bit size (kit or selection from Screwfix) start with 4mm. If that bounces off a better drill is needed.

 

[Scally-Ho]

This may sound old fashioned to some, but if encounter a particularly stubbornly hard brick etc, I use a good old Rawlplugging tool (size12) and a club hammer to break through the hardened spot and then carry on with the SDS. A few good determined whacks and the glazed spot soon surrenders.
In my early days all we had was a Rawlplugging tool and arms like Popeye

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Flive.staticflickr.com%2F65535%2F40821266593_8d61a561e6_z.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=09cfc09900338061ec6dfa89bcd6ad8dec472ef51ff69ff49eb89b821cabc355

 

[ajrtd]

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

A few good determined whacks and the glazed spot soon surrenders.
In my early days all we had was a Rawlplugging tool and arms like Popeye

I agree with that, but I've never come across any sort of masonry, which cannot be easily drilled by sds.

 

[evdamadiynot]

I installed a lovely new modern cube shaped toilet.
Looked great but the cistern wobbled about on the coupling seal-no fixing holes!
Had to drill some myself.
An sds would have definatley not been the tool to use.
Masonry drills in a non percussion mode would not even scratch the fired ceramic they just burned out.
In the end I bought a diamond tile drill which did the trick
Haven't had another job for it yet-perhaps one could be used to drill through to a softer inside of the brick

 

[Notadecor8ter]

Get yourself an SDS, I'll be honest mines been used a dozen times but it will cut through what you need.

 

[aveatry]

Have a read here https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/drilling-into-very-hard-concrete.626552/
the Bosch Professional Exper CYL-9 was well spoken about and I have used it since the thread about and can confirm that they are very good in just a hammer action cordless. I have an older dewalt cordless and a new one and the new one is faster and made it easier.

 

[PolarNorth78]

I have hard bricks and blocks (medium density ones) in my house. The cordless bits do work eventually but as others have said, a SDS drill is super useful and will drill much quicker.

If you're going for a SDS drill, do invest in good quality bits. I use the Bosch 5X or 7X. The 5X are really affordable and both series come in a range of sizes. A 6mm 450mm long bit is super useful when screwing a floor cabinet to a wall for example.

Just don't get a super powerful one. They're good bits of kit but you can do a lot of damage. If you can get one with rotostop, that's good for getting tiles etc up too.

 

[Scally-Ho]

There are some low priced SDS drills about and from a swift look in Amazon, prices start for less that £50 delivered, so must be worth a punt as all new purchases must be guaranteed for the minimum of 1yr. Thinking about it, the hire of one for a week must be at least £50 if not more, so it makes sense to buy one while prices are low. Mine was about 50ish a good 10yrs ago and the machine has taken some punishment in that time yet still preforms well.

 

[GhostIntMachine]

I keep seeing people recommending those massive Titan, Erbauer or noname monsters, and I struggle to understand just why. Certainly they are cheap, and they are powerful, but they are also SO heavy. I can understand that if you need to do a lot of demolition or breaking out at or near ground level then they are a really cheap alternative to a full size breaker or SDS Max hammer drill/breaker, but for ordinary drilling tasks they are simply too heavy and too bulky to use, especially if you intend to use them above waist height, and their weight means they aren't much use for other tasks either, such as wall tile stripping floor to ceiling, full wall height chasing, notching-out timbers, electrical back box sinking or mortar raking (you can get SDS tooling to do all that and more). For most drilling and light chiselling work a 2 to 3kg (the so-called "2kg class") SDS drill is far less tiring to use, especially for extended periods as well as being more accurate, but either way I can endorse the recommendation to choose a model with rotation stop (chiselling mode) because it is so handy to have that.

Before making their choice I urge the OP to consider exactly the type of work they envisage doing, and if it isn't at least 50% heavy breaking, to go for a lightweight tool. At one time these were expensive, but looking this afternoon there a few 2kg SDS drills in the £50 to £60 range which boast an impact strength of 2J (joules) or above - and you ideally need 2J or more for a drill to be usefully fast and be able to undertake chiselling work

A last note about SDS drill bits - in trade use 90% of the holes I drill will be for brown plugs (7mm) or red plugs (5.5mm), so a couple of different length bits in those sizes will generally suffice. If you need any other sizes, e.g. 10mm for injection DPC work, 14mm or 16mm for resin anchors, etc it's best to just buy as and when needed. They are readily available at SFX/TS and many oter places, but note that a good quality bit, such as a Heller TriJet drills a lot faster and will last a lot longer than a cheap Silverline one in the same size

 

[JohnD]

I keep seeing people recommending those massive Titan, Erbauer or noname monsters, and I struggle to understand just why. Certainly they are cheap, and they are powerful....

The answer is in the question.

 

[GhostIntMachine]

The answer is in the question.

But a lightweight 2J SDS is pretty quick, without needing muscles in yer spit to use it at or above shoulder height - you know, like you need to do if you are hanging kitchen cabinets or installing door casings. A 2kg class tool can also do chipping, scraping, channelling work etc.