Power drill buying mistakes that cost you the job

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Half the lads I know on site are using the wrong drill for the work they actually do. Not their fault — they bought what was on offer at Screwfix three years back, or what Dad had, or what looked impressive when an Instagram tradesman waved one about. Then they wonder why the battery dies at lunchtime or why every overhead screw fight ends with a cramped wrist.

This isn't a list of "best drills." It's a list of mistakes I see chippies, sparks, and brickies make when they buy one, and what to do instead. We've cross-referenced manufacturer spec sheets, T3 reviews, Screwfix Community threads, and a few hundred Amazon reviews to back the points up.

Mistake one: buying on voltage alone

"It's an 18V, it'll be fine." Honestly, no. Voltage is the headline number — it tells you which battery platform you're locked into. It tells you almost nothing about how the drill performs.

What actually matters is torque (Nm), which manufacturers publish in two numbers: soft and hard. Soft torque is what the drill will deliver into wood with a screwdriver bit on a low setting. Hard torque is what it'll deliver into masonry or hardwood under load.

Compare a few real drills:

• DeWalt XR 18V Brushless Combi Drill (DCD778): 65Nm hard / 26Nm soft, 340W UWO, 0–500/1750rpm two-speed, 13mm chuck
• Makita 18V Cordless Combi Drill (DHP484): 54Nm hard / 30Nm soft, 21 torque settings, 13mm chuck, all-metal gear housing
• Bosch Professional GSB 18V: a quieter, smaller-bodied unit with stronger soft-torque control — better for cabinet work than masonry

An 18V drill rated 30Nm hard and a 12V drill rated 30Nm hard will both struggle with a 6mm masonry hole. The voltage tells you battery runtime potential, not raw power.

Lesson: read the Nm rating in the spec, not just the headline voltage. If you're going into brick or hardwood, anything under 50Nm hard torque will frustrate you.

Mistake two: skipping brushless to save £40

"Brushed drills work fine, my dad used one for thirty years."

Sure. But you're not your dad. A brushless motor delivers more torque per battery charge, runs cooler under load, and lasts roughly twice as long mechanically. The £40 you save buying brushed evaporates the first time you replace the drill in three years instead of six.

If you're a hobby user drilling shelves on Saturdays, brushed is fine. If the drill is going on site Monday morning, brushless is the only sensible choice. The Bosch EasyImpact 18V-38 is brushed and around £80 cheaper than the brushless equivalent — but the Bosch EasyImpact 18V-38 will be sitting in a recycling bin two years before its brushless counterpart.

Mistake three: getting locked into the wrong battery platform

This is the big one. The drill is the cheap part. The batteries are the expensive part. And once you're three batteries deep into one platform, switching is painful.

The big four on UK sites:

• DeWalt 18V XR. Massive range — drills, saws, lights, radios, vacs. Premium price.
• Makita 18V LXT. Probably the widest tool range of any platform. Slightly heavier batteries than DeWalt's modern compact ones.
• Milwaukee M18. Best heat-tolerant batteries for hard outdoor use. Premium pricing. Strong on impact tools.
• Bosch Professional 18V (blue). Don't confuse with Bosch DIY (green). Pro-blue is on a separate platform.
• Ryobi ONE+. Cheapest entry, big tool range, weaker individual tools but the platform breadth is genuinely useful for a one-man-band.

Pick a platform. Stick with it. The Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless Combi Drill kit is great value for someone starting out — but if you'll eventually want a 9-inch grinder and a track saw, check the platform has those before you commit.

Lesson: the platform is a 10-year decision. The drill is a 5-year purchase. Choose accordingly.

Mistake four: buying a body-only kit when you have no batteries

Body-only deals look cheap. The DeWalt XR 18V Cordless Combi Drill Body Only sells for around £80–£100. Feels like a steal — until you realise an 18V XR 5.0Ah battery is £85+ and a charger is another £40.

If you're already on the platform with two spare batteries kicking around in the van, body-only is the right move. If you're new to the brand, you almost always want the Bosch EasyImpact 18V-40 with 2 x 2.0Ah Batteries or equivalent kit. The kit price per Wh of battery beats the buy-separate price every time.

Mistake five: ignoring the chuck

10mm vs 13mm chuck. Most cheap drills are 10mm. Most quality combi drills are 13mm.

Why does this matter? A 10mm chuck won't accept a 12mm masonry bit, full stop. The day you need to drill a 12mm hole for a frame fix and your chuck won't open wide enough, you'll wish you'd spent the extra £30.

The DeWalt DCD778, Makita DHP484, and Milwaukee M18 BPDB all have 13mm chucks. Don't go below that on a main drill.

Mistake six: confusing combi drill with impact driver

This one trips up apprentices on day one. They're different tools.

• Combi drill. Rotational only. Used for drilling holes (wood, masonry, metal) and driving large screws into resistant material. Has a chuck for bits.
• Impact driver. Adds rotational impact pulses. Used for driving screws fast and breaking out stuck fasteners. Takes hex-shank bits, not chucked bits.

You need both eventually. Most chippies and sparks I know carry both, on the same battery platform. Buying one and trying to do the other's job is the classic apprentice mistake — your wrist suffers and your screws strip.

Mistake seven: oversizing the battery

"I'll get the 9.0Ah, more is better."

Not on a drill. A 9.0Ah battery on a compact combi drill makes the tool nose-heavy, awkward in tight cupboards, and drags your wrist. For a drill you use for hours overhead, 2.0Ah or 4.0Ah is the sweet spot.

Save the 9.0Ah pack for circular saws, grinders, and the demo drill. They actually need the runtime.

Mistake eight: assuming the freebie kit case will protect it

The cardboard-and-foam kit case is for shop-shelf display, not for surviving in the back of a van. Within six months, the foam crumbles, bits rattle around, and you'll lose the chuck key (assuming the drill still has one).

Buy a proper modular system case if your platform has one. DeWalt's TSTAK, Milwaukee's PACKOUT, Bosch's L-Boxx. Around £40–£60 for the empty case. Pays for itself the first time you don't lose a charger.

What we'd actually buy on £200 today

For a chippy or sparky starting out, with no platform commitment yet, and a budget of around £200:

• Makita DHP484 18V brushless combi drill, kit with 2x 3.0Ah batteries and charger, around £180
• Add a basic Makita TD171D impact driver later (body only, around £100) to share the same batteries

The reason for Makita over DeWalt at this budget is platform breadth — Makita's tool range is the widest of anyone, which matters if your work is going to expand.

If you're already on DeWalt with batteries kicking about, the body-only DCD778 plus a TSTAK case is around £130 and gets you a brushless combi without rebuying batteries. Same logic for Milwaukee or Bosch Pro.

One last thing

The drill that loses jobs isn't usually the cheap drill. It's the wrong-platform drill — the one whose battery is dead because all your other kit is on a different brand. Pick the platform thoughtfully, read the Nm spec, and don't skip brushless. Three rules. They'll save you a few hundred quid and a lot of swearing.

Two more drills worth knowing

A couple of others that show up regularly in the buying conversations:

• Milwaukee M18 BPDB — solid mid-range Milwaukee combi. The platform's strength is the wider M18 range — particularly the heat-tolerant batteries and the impact wrench lineup. If you do any vehicle work alongside your trade, Milwaukee makes more sense than Makita.
• Bosch Cordless Combi Drill EasyImpact 18V-40 — Bosch DIY (green range), not Pro. Aimed at home users, but capable enough for occasional site use. The brushless version of the EasyImpact is roughly half the price of a comparable DeWalt or Makita and gives up only a little on torque.

Bosch DIY (green) and Bosch Professional (blue) are different platforms. Don't mix them up at the till — the batteries don't fit between the two ranges, and Bosch will cheerfully sell you both without warning.

Where to buy and not get stung

Quick guide to UK pricing as of early 2026:

• Screwfix and Toolstation are nearly identical on price for the major brands. Click-and-collect from either is sound.
• Amazon often beats both for kits with batteries included — particularly Makita and DeWalt during quarterly promotions.
• FFX, ITS, and PowerTool World do trade-account discounts that beat retail by 10–15% if you spend £200+. Worth registering even if you're a one-man-band.
• Cheap-as-chips brands on Amazon (Teccpo, Galax Pro, Avid Power) — fine for occasional DIY use, will not survive site work. The reviews look great because hobby users aren't stress-testing them.

One thing to watch: parallel-import drills. Sometimes a "DeWalt DCD778" listing on Amazon is a US-spec version with a US plug and no UK warranty. Check the model code suffix — UK-spec DeWalt usually ends in -GB or -SFGB. Makita UK uses -RFE or similar. If the listing doesn't say which region, ask the seller.