Porter Cable 18 volt Lithium drill at Lowes

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Hi All, Lowes has this drill for $129 which looks like a deal to me. But is Porter Cable any good these days? I really don't know. Bosch also has an 18 volt lithium for $30 more. Which would you buy? BTW the Bosch claims a higher top speed and more torque if you can believe those ratings. Thanks. Alan

[Thomas Williams]

I am not sure which Bosch, but in the long run the $30 will no doubt be well spent. I am at the point where I will not buy consumer grade tools anymore.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

I hear you on that Tom.

[george wilson]

I'd vote Bosch.

[Rich Engelhardt]

The Porter Cable, Black and Decker/Firestorm and Harbor Freight Drill Master all use the same "lip" design to hold the battery in place.

In the case of the Firestorm, which I have, that lip quickly got chewed up by the vibration of the tool. Once it got too deformed, it would no longer be able to lock into place.

I had to toss at least two, otherwise good, batteries because they would no longer lock into place.

I strongly suspect, due to the designs, that all of the above mentioned tools originate from the same source.

Other than the annoying and expensive battery problem, I liked my Firestorm 18V NiCad quite a bit. While the run time of the batteries is/was about half of what my 18V Dewalts, the FS has/had a little more "guts" to it.

IMHO - you'll be sorry you bought the PC due to the design fault of the battery.

[Homer Faucett]

I think if you look at the Bosch near the battery area, it says "Made in Switzerland". I have an 18v Bosch hammer drill (NiCad era) that is still going strong with the same stamp on it. I am sorry to say that I don't trust new PC tools, only the older models. It's a real shame. Personally, I would spend the extra $30.

[Bruce King]

Hi All, Lowes has this drill for $129 which looks like a deal to me. But is Porter Cable any good these days? I really don't know. Bosch also has an 18 volt lithium for $30 more. Which would you buy? BTW the Bosch claims a higher top speed and more torque if you can believe those ratings. Thanks. Alan


I bought a 24V Bosch drill at a tool show back in 2000 when even 18V was considered a new item. It had amazing torque which is why I bought it, I used it to wire a new house and detached workshop. That drill was used and abused for a year. I dropped it from 8 ft on concrete and it was damaged some internally at the chuck end but it did not get too loose to use until about 8 years later. Its too heavy to use in the workshop anyway.

The expensive drills are nice but cost too much to repair so it comes out the same if you buy cheaper ones, take care of them and toss when they break.

I still have it as a backup but bought two Porter Cable 18V nicads so that I would have plenty of spare batteries. Lowes has these for $89 now including a saw. No problems with the battery latches on these nicad ones.

[Ray DuBose]

I have 2 Bosch Drills (one full size and one pocket) and a Dewalt that I use. I've seen the porter cable drills at lowes but haven't ever used one. If I were going to purchase a new drill it would be another Bosch right now.

I don't know if Panasonic still makes drills but they use to get good reviews as well, just don't see them anywhere.

[Greg Portland]

Panasonic makes great drills, they just don't sell through the big box stores. If you look at the Makita Lion drills, you'll notice a striking similarity to the Panasonic Lion (Panasonic's came out 1yr before the Makitas). This is fairly common with each generation of drills... I think Panasonic is more concerned about selling batteries and leasing technology to the big name manufacturers vs selling drills.