Bosch PSB 500 RE Impact

Cheap drill but very light duty only and quality not as expected – I already had a Bosch green cordless drill and driver which I was happy with but the cordless drill did not have a hammer function so I bought this to fill that gap. I figured this would be the same quality and my other Bosch tools and the price was reasonable. For drilling basic holes in metal and wood this drill was great, but don't bother if you need torque for mixing grout as this is far too gutless, or if you need the hammer function as the drill internals are too fragile.

The depth rod and front side handle are made of very cheap plastic. The depth rod won't stay straight - it's too soft, and the red knob for tightening up the front handle stripped out after only a couple of uses because it is just soft plastic cast onto a bolt.

18 months after purchase (and maybe only a dozen uses) the drill seized while drilling an 8mm hole into concrete. After freeing up the the drill something in the gearbox was really broken (metal on metal grinding) and it had no reverse.

At least the failure was within the 2 year warranty period.

The perfect small drill – I have a large 2 speed drill for heavy duty work, but wanted a small drill mainly for pre-drilling of hardwood decking. I'd originally bought a $35 Ozito for this, but burnt it out using an 18mm spade bit. The choices for more serious drills at Bunnings were a 700W AEG, a 650W Makita, a 650W Bosch and this drill. I went for this drill because it was the lightest of the lot, and at $79 was a good price. So far I haven't been disappointed. I haven't used the hammer function yet, or spade bits, but it seems to be perect for light duty drilling. Anything serious I'd use my 1000W 2 speed drill. Very light weight, good value for money, performs well Nothing wrong with it, although I wish I'd taken note of how the drill was packed into the hard plastic case, because I can't seem to get it back in there.