NO!

An impact driver doesn't push down on the screw at all - it 'taps' the screw in using a rotary hammer (ie one that taps round in circles applying a torque rather than one that taps towards the screw like a hammer drill would).

It's difficult to explain really, but you can think of an impact driver working like a spanner attached to a bolt, and you use a hammer to tap on the end of the spanner to apply a torque to the spanner. A hammer drill (like a combi, impact drill, whatever you want to call it) is the equivalent of just hitting the end of your screwdriver with a hammer (which won't do anything useful!)

I've seen some animations of how the different types work - I'll try and dig them out as this explanation is a bit crappy...

Combi's and Drill/drivers make great screwdrivers though, but they can struggle with high torque screws and they do impart more torque to your hand/arm so they are more tiring to use than an impact driver.

edit: for those that are interested, this youtube clip shows a cut-away impact driver in slow motion so you can see how the mechanism works: youtube clip

You are aware those dimensions are for the diameter of the hole drilled, not the depth? When will the average DIYer (or most tradesmen) need to drill a hole more than 3cm wide into wood? If they do then they'd be using a more powerful combi or a more specific tool for the job. Even high end £400 combi drills still only have a capacity of 13mm in steel.

Good find OP.

Bought one of these at the full price last week. Great bit of kit. Very pleased with it.

Heat added!

Wait for a double battery deal as you'll regret it. Great product but you want two batteries nearly every time

ok, somebody remind me of the basics please... difference between a combi-drill and impact driver?
I was thinking of getting the Bosch PSB 1800 LI-2 for £80 on amazon with 2 batteries.

I'll be using it for very basic drilling/screw driving but prefer something half decent.

why can't there be a similar deal on impact drills...

How much is a second battery and how long does the first one last? Never needed a spare for any other drill I've had - and this seems cheap for this?

Update - saying that, just seen it's usually only £86! I thought these were like £150 usually!

A combi-drill is a drill, usually with hammer action, that drills holes. It can be used, badly, as a screwdriver.

An impact driver is an electric screwdriver. It allows better control and considerably more torque - allowing screws to be driven into hardwood without much effort. With a drill you just end up damaging the screwhead.

thanks, I guess i best stay well away from this dewalt and possibly the Bosch too.

Great idea but I'm desperate to get on and need a new drill, would love a 2 battery deal any you know about?

Are you really going to get a 2 battery deal at this price?

You may as well get the 2 battery version from Screwfix - http://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dcd776c2-gb-18v-1-3ah-li-ion-cordless-combi-drill-xr/17648

I doubt it but I guess someone knows of a good 2 battery deal???

What about the Bosch Dynamic Series Cordless 18V Li-Ion Combi Drill 2 Batteries 0615990G6W at amazon?

I have one of these and use it often. The second battery get's used almost every time unless I've planned ahead and charged the battery in advance.

Can be had for £99 with a spare battery at Screwfix which is the standard price.

This is a good deal if you're far more organised than me :stuck_out_tongue:

Really good offer, most of the deals sneekly have the 10V Dewalt

Best trick is to buy a good two battery drill deal and then buy a bare (no battery) impact driver to match which uses the same battery type. Best of both worlds then at a value price.

bought one of the last time they were on offer at the same price. not a bad drill for the price . works well and battery last well. only complaint is the chuck seems to slacken off quite a lot but worth it for £68.

One thing to mention (that may be obvious), is that most impact drivers will not have a clutch to adjust the torque of the screws. If you're paying enough attention, that shouldn't be an issue, but it's something to watch out for - I've occasionally ended up whacking a screw in 10mm deeper than I anticipated because it's just too damn easy to screw with an impact driver. That's entirely down to the user though! :-)

Brought this from screwfix last week 2 batterys .a case and there is a 3 year guarantee for £99

If you can, try and get a bigger amp hour battery, the 1.3ah are ok but 3ah is sooooo much better, I have 2 in my Makita kit between an hammer drill and an sds drill and have had them for 5 years, still going strong now,

Why bother having two batteries?
- have you ever gone to use your drill and found that the battery is flat?
- have you ever found the battery has run out part way through your job?
If the answer to either of these is 'yes', then buy a two battery version and charge the second one as soon as it has gone flat.

Don't think of buying a spare battery later - when sold separately they are usually nearly as expensive as buying a new tool.

Comment about higher capacity batteries is true - on the downside, the tools with higher capacity batteries are much more expensive, and the larger battery adds weight. Unless you are using the tool professionally, it's unlikely to matter.
The Screwfix offer linked is the two battery pack version for £100 against £68. Code SFG125S32 should give you 15% off (until 22 May), bringing the price down to £85. Or you could have the Bosch from amazon for £80.

Toss a coin.

NO!

An impact driver doesn't push down on the screw at all - it 'taps' the screw in using a rotary hammer (ie one that taps round in circles applying a torque rather than one that taps towards the screw like a hammer drill would).

It's difficult to explain really, but you can think of an impact driver working like a spanner attached to a bolt, and you use a hammer to tap on the end of the spanner to apply a torque to the spanner. A hammer drill (like a combi, impact drill, whatever you want to call it) is the equivalent of just hitting the end of your screwdriver with a hammer (which won't do anything useful!)

I've seen some animations of how the different types work - I'll try and dig them out as this explanation is a bit crappy...

Combi's and Drill/drivers make great screwdrivers though, but they can struggle with high torque screws and they do impart more torque to your hand/arm so they are more tiring to use than an impact driver.

edit: for those that are interested, this youtube clip shows a cut-away impact driver in slow motion so you can see how the mechanism works: youtube clip

Your code does not work?

£95 with an extra Battery Home Delivery only,
Thou the battery on the Dewalt drill I have lasts really well, and only takes less than half an hour to recharge.

https://www.diy.com/basket?prev_page=/departments/dewalt-cordless-18v-li-ion-combi-drill-1-battery-dcd776c1-gb/765799_BQ.prd&fromPage=prdDetailsBundleFlow&_requestid=9154985#

Got this last time it was on offer and I like it a lot.

Got the attachment set for £20 also which compliments it well.

Dont waste your money on this crap. It might be a dewalt but you are buying a BMW with a 50cc two stroke engine. AVOID

Please explain.

Dewalt rate this drill for 1.3cm max into masonry/steel and 3cm max into wood.

Translation is : this is no use for general DIY but would be great for someone doing light duty jobs (eg kitchen fitting, decking etc)

How does this compare to the Worx 20V 2AH 3-in-one with SDS so many of us just had delivered for £55 from Amazon?

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/worx-wx390-20v-3-1-h3-max-lithium-ion-rotary-hammer-54-99-amazon-2441785

You are aware those dimensions are for the diameter of the hole drilled, not the depth? When will the average DIYer (or most tradesmen) need to drill a hole more than 3cm wide into wood? If they do then they'd be using a more powerful combi or a more specific tool for the job. Even high end £400 combi drills still only have a capacity of 13mm in steel.

Sorry about that. Received this code by post and email and doesn't mention any exclusions. Maybe worth trying giving them a call or even ordering by phone.

A better translation is: you don't know what you're talking about. Even the best non-SDS cordless combis can only do ~16mm in masonry, and you're looking at £300-ish for those. 13mm in masonry is more than enough for most professionals, let alone for DIY use.

If you need bigger holes than that you want to be getting an SDS drill anyway.

this is better for 'general' use (screwdriving, small holes for pictures, shelves, light fittings etc), the SDS is much better for drilling larger holes in brick and concrete but is poor at screwdriving and more 'subtle' tasks.

I got one of the Worx SDS's and I'm keeping it, but I also have a small combi and a big corded SDS to completment it. This DeWalt is really the better all round drill if you just want 1 in the house.

Budget range drill, batteries are only compatible with tools in the same range...which are quite limited.

Aghghghghgh! 13mm is useless for anything but light DIY. Buy something that will do everything or buy a 20 quid argos cheapie.

15/40mm is what you need. Then you can actually do some plumping too :P

Now that sounds useful. Loads of bare body impact driver's available on amazon. Just wary of getting correct battery as even with same brand, the part numbers vary and it's difficult for a novice to know about compatibility.

​Absolute rubbish.

In what normal DIY situation would you need a masonry bit larger than 13mm?

The Bosch drills are colour coded. A blue battery will work on any blue tool. I bought a blue Bosch professional drill with two batteries from Screwfix and have since bought a bare impact driver from Amazon and a bare circular saw from eBay. Best price for each by shopping around, 3 tools, 2 batteries to share around as needed. Charge one whilst using the other.

Out of interest, how does the circular saw perform? I've got a lot of Makita LXT stuff and thought about a circular saw, but I read that the 18v ones were a bit under powered. I ended up getting a 240v one instead.

I used it to board my loft and it was great, although I was only cutting chipboard which isn't much of a challenge. I've cut a bit of LDF/MDF too but nothing major.

Only thing I did notice was it did use up battery fairly quickly. I have the Bosch wireless battery charging system and there is a battery charge indicator right on the battery itself allowing each checks - it goes down rather a lot quicker than it does with drilling or driving. I'm using 2.0Ah batteries, which lasted OK during the loft job, recharging during breaks, but most people recommend 3.0Ah batteries as a minimum for circular saw use.

Alternatively...

Homebase have a Stanley branded drill with similar spec and two batteries for £74.97 here

troll? or idiot?

dont buy with the extra battery, a 2ah battery can be had for £28 delivered on ebay

i know because i bought one last week

Thats what I did when I bought my Dewalts a couple of years ago and to be honest they are the best tools I've bought along with a quality torque wrench many years ago. The impact driver is fantastic for the jobs it was designed for and makes mince meat of screwing into virtually anything. The drill also can handle much bigger jobs than i thought it could and the batteries seem to last for ages and charge quickly. So much better than the Ryobi peice of junk that preceded it in my tool box.

I'd be all over this if I hadn't already got a DeWalt 14.4v version. I bought it new about 8 years ago, and am still impressed with how it handles. We did our back garden a few years back and used it to drill into railway sleepers - went out and bought the biggest drill bit we could find, it only just managed to fit into the chuck and drilled into 3 sleepers high at a time. Did about 12 holes like that on a single charge no problem.
My mate's Black and Decker 650W plug in drill started smoking after the first few inches in the first hole.

Amp rating only 1.3Ah, sorry but very very cold for me, you need bigger.
This is why they are on offer, they will loose stored power quick hence the comments about needing two batteries.

I would say this is ok for diyer's but for trade use I wouldn't go less than 4ah batteries bearing in mind you can get 6ah batteries now

Clearly aimed at casual DIY'ers unless your a tradesman with no idea.

Beware of buying these "on offer" battery drills from the big sheds, they usually have a special battery/charger which is different from the pro version that the company normally sells. You then end up paying an arm and a leg for a new battery if the old one fails. Better to buy the pro version second hand on eBay, the models hardly every change and you'll be able to get replacement batteries really cheaply.

These battery drills have around double the torque of the old electric drills

Good bit of kit. I love mine and use it regularly and the battery lasts longer than I expected. It charges fast too! For my needs it's perfect (not a tradesman, but keen DIY'er).

Replacement batteries are £32 available from B&Q or Amazon, don't really see them any cheaper on eBay for new ones

This drill is part of the Dewalt XR range so will take any of the XR range batteries upto the 5Ah battery which nearly all Dewalt 18V tools use.

Only thing I can think of is to drill a hole to run a full size double or shotgun sattelite cable through, but then you can just/probably will just drill two single smaller normal holes or run thin shotgun cable instead as a DIYer.

Good deal, another alternative is the Hitachi drill at screwfix. Slightly bigger battery at 1.5ah and faster charging. Well reviewed on screwfix website.
http://www.screwfix.com/p/hitachi-dv18dgl-jc-18v-1-5ah-li-ion-cordless-combi-drill/8652f

Stanley and DeWalt = same (parent) company

Excellent drill for the solid DIYer. Better batteries would be recommended for the very regular user though,

Homebase still have the one with 2x2.0Ah for £84.95 or the 2x1.3Ah for £74.97... http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/stanley-fatmax-cordless-hammer-drill-with-2-x-20ah-batteries---fmc625d2---18v-322538

Why not try to put a proper link instead of just returning back here ?

This too
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2272692.htm

do you really want to buy dewalt over £80 bosh 18v with 2 bats????
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bosch-PSB-1800-LI-2-1-5/dp/B00L3XK06C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463811029&sr=8-1&keywords=bosch+18v

brilliant vid.....thanks

Just note that the argos Stanley Fatmax driver comes with the old NiCd slow charge battery which also make the drill significantly heavier.

Personally, even though Dewalt rate this as 13mm for masonry, I think you'd struggle to drill through a red brick wall with a 13mm bit. And doing this too often isn't going to do the drill much good. Personally, for diyers, I'd pair one of these with a corded bosch or dewalt sds which can be had for about £90 without a case. Probably seems expensive to a diyer, but I doubt you'd ever have to replace the sds.

That wasn't the Stanley Fat Max one though.The "Worx" one. But a point worth mentioning all the same

Hot

I think I'm going to get this from Wickes.

Looks like to provide the best value so far.

great drill but batteries can on these appliances die and(?) not recharge if left unused over a period of time

recently looking through a recent order a school made they paid over £280 for one with a spare battery

bargain

Went through Quidco, and used my £5 off a £50 spend voucher with my B&Q club card to get the two battery version for £90 delivered (plus whatever cashback I get).

Thanks OP - Heat. :smile:

Guess who wanted to buy this today, last night was still on offer, guess what wasn't on offer today

ARGHHHHH :confused:

Has anyone bought one of these?

I'm struggling to get more than a minutes use when on the hammer function. :confused:

I've been on and off trying to wall mount my TV for hours now, it's getting ridiculous!

I guess I should've bought an additional battery. :disappointed: