I’ve been using the Makita LXT211Lithium-Ion 2 peice combo kit with a 2 speed 1/2″ hammer driver-drill and a variable speed impact driver for a few months now and thought I’d take a minute to give you my impressions.  The previous cordless drill I was using was the Rigid 18volt hammer driver-drill, I had been using this drill for the past 3-4 years and it has always treated me well but it began to show it’s age when the new crop of lightweight, lithium-Ion powered drills came to market about 6 months ago.  You can click the links to get the full pecs on the drills from the manufactures websites but read on for my impressions.

There are three main things about the Makita drills that I really like, Weight, Power, & Battery run time.

Compared to my old drill I would estimate the Makita hammer drill to be about half the weight, this may only equal a pound or two but when you use them all day you’ll really start to appreciate the difference, most of which I think comes from the improved battery, when comparing to other lithium-Ion drills on the market I would say these are roughly 10% lighter/more compact.  the weight is a big help but so is the compact size, you really can squeeze them in places you never would have been able to with older drills.

Next is the power, before I bought this drill set I used one that our framer had on a job-site where we were building a deck, when I first picked it up I thought it was a kids toy, it was so small and light it didn’t feel like it could handle a full day of work, boy was I wrong! Hands down this drill set easily outperformed my old drills, it was almost comical how much more torque was behind these things.  The impact driver delivers 3x the torque of the drill and is even more compact, very handy when your installing long lag bolts or screws.  I haven’t had much time to play with other brands of lithium-Ion drills on the market but i would expect similar results.

Finally the batteries have always been the biggest drawback to cordless tools, with limited run times, long charge times, and overheating issues.  I can safely say that the Lithium-Ion battery packs are a vast improvement, in my real world use I’ve found them to last atleast twice as long at about half the weight.  the charge time for my set is 30 minutes which hasn’t improved drastically over my old ones that took about 40 minutes but after a full discharge with my old set I would have to wait 15-30 minutes to let the batteries cool down before they would even take a charge, I have yet to experience that with my new set.

There are some draw backs though, even though the cost is coming down you can still expect to pay a 30-50% premium for the new drills, and I would have like to see more in the box, like additional drill bits or screw drivers, also my kit included 2 drills and 2 batteries but only a single battery charger, having a dual charger would have been great.  After a few months of use I would highly recommend this or any other Makita set for a fellow contractor or even as a Christmas present for a do-it-yourself-er.  If you have any additional questions or experiences with other drills please leave a comment below.