Hitachi DS18DL

Average drill – Have gone through 2 skins in about 2 years.1 Fell off the tail gate of my ute and snapped in half where the handle meets the body. I bought a second skin and after 6 months the low speed gear doesn't work and when using hammer, it vibrates the selector back to drill in about 3 seconds so I have to hold it or put tape around it. On both drills the… Read more

chucks would always come loose, which can be a nightmare when your drilling an internal wall and when you punch through the stud the bit drops out.

Was going to swap the motor out of my first skin so I could have low speed again but before I got to do it I noticed another crack in the second skin, in the same place. It has almost snapped of now, but I have thread a zippy tie through the screw bit holder and around the body.

On its very last legs now. Great battery life. Still got impact driver, which is great!

Going shopping for a new drill today but will not be this one again.

No battery life – This is the first drill I have owned, I work in a group of 7 two of us have hitachi and the rest have makita. Both hit his if used heavily will last till morning tea, while the makitas will last a full day or two.

It's okay – I used this on a daily basis until it fell from around 1.2m and snapped in half. Compared to other trade quality drills it's probably on the lower end of the scale. The chuck was poor since day one as you have to keep tightening it or drill bits eventually loosen and fall out. As for power and speed it's not bad I just think the build quality of… Read more

Hitachi tools is a bit cheap compared to other good brands such as Dewalt, Milwaukee etc.

The batteries however are still going good 3 years on.

Perfect – Use this drill for work have tried alot of other brands. Milwaukee, metabo, makita, dewalt, panasonic and aeg. Hitachi is by far the best battery has the longest life compared to other brands especially AEG. I have not got a bad thing to say about this drill i use it all day no problems.

Follow up review – Motor great. really have to over do it to get the safety cut out to kick in. I use mine to drill 20mm holes thru ancient hardwood. Had it smoking a few times. Keeps going. Chuck still a let down. Lost too many augers down walls. Hammer drill is brilliant. As stated before, I give it hell. Crunching gears, over loading, Gearbox hasn't missed a… Read more ·  1

beat. Never replaced brushes. Work light and belt clip still a pain. They should ditch them. Never used the S and P as it has variable speed. Just a useless marketing gimmick that weakens the casing. Not a bad buy for the price. Medium professional. Other tradies have said they would buy nothing else though. Power and reliability. Chuck useless and S & P switch a gimmick.

Great drill – Had it for a year now I use it a lot around the home, heaps of power simple to use, fits well in hand and I really recommend this and other 18v cordless hitachi gear, it's well priced too and hitachi stuff seems to go on forever and are strongly built Easy to use, feels great in hand, battery life good  Show reply

Sometimes it pays to buy brandname stuff – Being a cheapskate, I bought some really cheap no-brand drills first. Some were underpowered (9.6V), another fell to bits, the third still lives but its battery is flat in a couple minutes on the job or a few days even if not used. After a while I bought the Hitachi 18V cordless drill piecemeal on eBay, and ended up paying not that much less… Read more

than if I had bought a kit - and not that much more than I had spent on cheap rubbish. It was well worth it: the drill just feels so good in my hand, well shaped and well balanced. The lithium battery holds charge well and long: for non-professional use the option of a smaller size is excellent (lower weight, but rarely used all up in one job).

I recently bought two cheap OEM Hitachi NiCad batteries for it, and they are a revelation. They hold the charge forever, unlike the no-brand ones, and the same charger charges them as the lithium one. A powerful torch using the same batteries was a handy addition, and there are many more tools in the family that look very attractive. Reliable, batteries of high quality and long life, feels very good in my hand

The TOOL-MAN gives this the thumbs up – Before I bought this drill i owned a Panasonic and it was brilliant, the battery was second to none, so I went looking for another one, but in the mean time I happened to run into one of the Dewalt reps and he was kind enough to inform me that Panasonic are making batteries for Hitachi drills, now I am only going on what i was told, so don't take… Read more ·  1

this as fact but I thought I would give it a go, and all I can say is brilliant, they are powerful, well balanced and batteries are excellent, I have been running it for about 2 years now and the batteries have not dropped in power output or life.

You really can't go wrong with the Hitachi cordless gear. It just works when you need it Expensive, but worth it

Excellent – Bought one a month ago and i think it's fantastic. As an electrician i use my drill a fair bit. It's really light, when i first started using it i thought it felt like a toy but it's no toy, it's tough. Batteries get last a while and are fast recharge. Highly recommended. Light, powerful, well balanced.

Excellent – I am an entry level home renovator that needed a cordless drill. I did my research and after previous experience with NiCD drills opted for something that actually is ready for whenever you want to use it. The NiMH batteries are good bit the Lithium batteries are very hard to beat. This allows a light weight drill that can be used for a long time… Read more

and doesn't end up with a memory. Previous to owning a cordless drill I was ripping the heads off of tech screws with a corded unit. Not to mention the hassle with having to run a power lead everywhere.

The Hitachi unit purchased was selected because its massive torque (in some reviews it is written as wrist snapping torque and I would agree), and the fact it had a Lithium battery. It was cheaper than the Metabo and Makita alternatives at the time. Although not as compact as the metabo unit, the product servicing and backing with replacement parts and batteries was a lot easier to come by in regional WA than what was available with the Metabo unit.

I have found the batteries even when held in storage for 2-3 months hold their charge and as such are ready to use when you are ready to work. charging on the battery charger is also very fast. Like Ryobi the one battery is capable of operating several different Hitachi tools. I am yet to branch out into other cordless tools but will be looking very closely on what is on offer with Hitachi tools prior to parting with cash for substandard cordless tools. Lightweight, powerful, really fast recharging, Keyless chuck a breeze to use. Light in carry handle handy for small jobs in the crawlspace of a roof. Comes with a second battery. Has replaceable bushes that are repairable by the everyday bloke. When battery is going flat the drill doesn't slow down it just stops. thats not really a bad thing though. Quite expensive.