should I buy a rigid 18v drill or a panasonic

[primokona]

Im about to climb up a tall building and toss my dewalt 18v kit out the window..

its a peice of #@#$...

Battery life is horrible...bla bla bla you know the rest..

I have a builder who refered me to the 18v panasonic said its battery life was awsome and had great torque..

But I have a freind who just bought the ridgid 18v drill to replace (you know it)the dewalt he had and he loves it...
Said ridgid is offering a lifetime warranty if bought before 1/1/2004

In comparison with the 2 drills the panasonic has ni-mh battery and the Ridgid has a nicad battery.

Not sure where the advantage is there?
but will do more research.


any help with the comparison would be greatly appreciated..

cause I would like to purchase a kit soon

Thank you


great forum

primo

[ 10-19-2003, 03:40 AM: Message edited by: primokona ]

[daveferg]

Personally, I don't like buying the first of it's kind tool---I'm sure the Ridgid works great---it's in the long run that would be of concern.

I'd do some research before buying the Panasonic. I remember reading that they had some sort of recall problem.

I've owned two cordless drills----a Black and Decker which was next to useless, and a Makita 14 v. which after 12 years, hasn't quit on me yet. I use it almost any day I'm in the shop or doing honey-do's and it's been fantastic.

[woodslayer]

Primo

Within the past year I read a 12V Drill/Driver comparison on all the major brands. The Panasonic claimed the top honors in battery life and it was attributed to the fact that all the other manufactures use round cells in their battery pack while Panasonic uses square cells, effectively filling all the voids between the cells with more reserve power.

Woodslayer

[Rafael]

ni-mh will go longer between charges, cost alot more and run hotter. What Any other disadvantages of nimh are, I don't know.

[Mark Fischer]

Check out a Milwaukee.

Mark

[hammerman]

Hey there primo. I own 2 dewalt 18v 5-packs, and 3 18v drills, and I haven't even looked at any other drills, but there are going to be 3 ridgid 18v packs under the tree this year. If you buy them or any ridgid tool before xmas they all come with lifetime guarantees. INcluding the batteries, so save your receipts.. and that came from the TTI/RYOBI/RIDDGID rep. So its a no brainer for me. He even gave me his cell no, an it works.

[jon]

my panasonic is a awsome cordless drill. i work on every brand. the milw. is a good one to. the dewalt is not all that bad, bosch so so portacable so so the only thing that i think ridge has going for it is that lifetime warranty on the batterys and drill until the first of the year(i might get one just for that)when it gets into the field i think it will be just so so. they talk about inovation what did they inovate(more rubber on the tool, air holes in the battery witch i hope there is a screen in there other than that the technology was already out there. so buy them up noww before the new year.