Ozito ZLDDK-150

This is a really good basic drill for jobs around the house. I wasn't expecting much for $50 but have just installed heavy duty drawer runners on a whole kitchen with no trouble at all. Also went well attaching a panel into tough hardwood. Obviously it's not for proper tradesmen but it's great for the home and comes with a rechargeable battery so really good value.

Adequate For The Home Handyman – Lets be honest, you will never see a tradesman with Ozito branded anything - they're just not up to the job. For the home handyman though, it's a fair compromise between cost and competence. It's not often you need to be driving 8" batten screws into hardwood in the home environment, but small construction jobs, hanging pictures, driving screws into the walls - the Ozito handles those sort of jobs without a problem. It does have a 3 year warranty on the drill (1 year on the battery), and I absolutely expect to be using that warranty because I have already heard some worrying clunks and clatters from the gearbox - I guess time will tell.

Overall, for less than $50, this is an adequate drill - just.

Ok, but very basic – Right at the beginning I need to say that I understand that this is an extremely inexpensive tool. Currently (Aug 2018) the regular price at Bunnings for the drill driver, one 1.5mAh battery and the charger is a few cents under $50. So everything needs to be seen in that light. I am far from a handy man and only now and then work around the house. My previous Ozito drill that I had bought in 2008 had given up, so off I went and got this one as a replacement. My batteries that I had from the old drill were still perfectly ok, so kudos to Ozito, after 12 years. They were Li-Ion batteries and for them to last that long is quite amazing.

But I was pretty disappointed to see that the two new ranges of power tools (the 12V and the 18V range) both had now different batteries. So much for having a set of batteries and just getting different tools as required.

There are things I want to mention for this new 12V drill I have. First the Pluses:

Truly inexpensive.

Light and nice fit in my hand.

The battery pack contains three 18650 cells and the charger takes it to exactly 12V (so 4V each cell). These cells take up to 4.2V each, but charging them above 4V means a significantly reduced life span (but bigger charge, hence they would last longer without the need to be charged. I prefer the batteries to last longer, plus points for this.

3 Year replacement warranty.

Things that could be better (without having to cost much more).

It is quite loud and at least for me the noise it makes has quite an unpleasant frequency.

The charge indicator light might as well not be there. I cannot determine what the charge status of the battery is.

Talking about the battery, the 1.5mAh runs out really really fast. If you are planning on working any longer than a few minutes, get some extra ones. It takes between 2 and 3 hours to charge, but one battery most certainly does not last 2 hours of average work.

The LED light that is supposed to light up the work area is placed poorly, so the drill head casts a shadow exactly where you are trying to drill.

There is no magnetic strip to briefly attach screw and little bit to the drill handle.

I am still amazed how anyone can produce, package, ship, market and sell a tool for this price. So, overall, its an ok, cheap drill driver that could be made better easily. For a few Dollars more you can get the 18V range (called the Xchange range). Have a look at those while you are at Bunnings looking for a drill.

Edit 5 Oct 2018: fixed typos