My 12v Hitachi cordless drill died , what should I buy?

[dennis thompson]

My 12v Hitachi 3/8" cordless drill died. Is Hitachi out of business?
I'd like to replace it with the same thing, batteries are still good, but I can't find it.
So what should I buy? I mostly make small models and toys so I don't need a lot of power.
Thanks

[kent borcherding]

I think Metabo bought Hitachi. If you are familiar with Menards stores, google Menards , they have some 12 volt Hitachi.
Hitachi 12 volt lithium - ion cordless 3/8" drill driver kit
Model DS10DF12 menards SKU2414410
kit includes 2 -12 volt batteries -1-25 minute charger- case $68.52 lifetime tool warranty - 2 year battery warranty
John Menard the owner lived next to my aunt in EuClaire , Wi. The Menard children are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. Paul Menard that is the NAScar race driver is a very nice person.
I am sure the Menards store would also ship it.

[dennis thompson]

So I'll answer my own question. It looks like Metabo took over Hitachi. I can order their 12v drill with two batteries for about $100 and my Hitachi batteries will probably fit. But I can order the Ridgid 12v drill for just a little less so the price doesn't matter but with the Ridgid I also get two batteries and lifetime replacement for the batteries if they go bad. I have seen several good comments about the Ridgid here on the creek so Ridgid it will be.

[Lisa Starr]

I replaced my Hitachi 12V in December. After looking at everything available, I settled on the Milwaukee system. I find many drills too large in diameter to be comfortable in my hands, but the Milwaukee is great. So far, I really like it and the batteries seem to go a very long time on a charge.

[Bob Coates]

Dennis,
I have the ridgid and it works great. Have had batteries replaces several times, no problem. However MAKE SURE YOU REGISTER THE BATTERIES AND THE TOOL.

[Frank Pratt]

The lithium batteries last a lot longer than the old NiCad. I have a boat load of Milwaukee M18 batteries, at least half a dozen as old as the M18 system, and I've never had one go bad, or even have reduce capacity to the point where I've noticed.

[Larry Frank]

I have the Milwaukee M12 with several of the tools and very happy.

[Andy D Jones]

I have Milwaukee M18 and a few M12 tools. Both work really well, especially "Fuel" (brushless) series ones.

-- Andy - Arlington TX

[roger wiegand]

I have both Bosch and Milwaukee 18v Li-Ion brushless drills and drivers and have only trivial complaints about each, both systems work astonishingly well. (How hard would it be to include someplace on the tool to keep a torx, phillips and Robertson drive bit handy?). I briefly had a DeWalt, but it was relatively big, heavy, and clunky and the battery life was terrible, so I ditched it.

[Rege Sullivan]

The Ridgid was a great choice! Two of my sons use Milwaukee at work and highly praise them but their go to for home use is Ridgid. I'm a Makita fan not so much because I think they are superior in any way but because they offer a couple tools I can't get from the other manufacturers without having multipal platform's.

[dennis thompson]

I went to Home Depot this morning intending to buy the Milwaukee for $99. I had it in my hand and noticed that a replacement battery was about $120. I then looked at a Ridgid which included a drill, an impact driver and two batteries for $99 . Given the lifetime guaranty for the tools and batteries I bought the Ridgid. I may put the impact driver, no battery just the bare tool, on Craigslist since I have never used the one I have, would a price of say $35 be OK?

[Jim Becker]

I'd keep the impact driver, Dennis...they can be handy to have and other than the small amount of space to store it, it's not going to cost you anything to hang onto it. That's a nice set, BTW. If I didn't have the stable of drill/drivers I have, I'd seriously consider the Ridgid set, too.

[Larry Frank]

I really use my impact driver. It is much better than the drill for driving long screws and deck screws. It is much easier on my bad wrists.

[dennis thompson]

I'd keep the impact driver, Dennis...they can be handy to have and other than the small amount of space to store it, it's not going to cost you anything to hang onto it. That's a nice set, BTW. If I didn't have the stable of drill/drivers I have, I'd seriously consider the Ridgid set, too.

I guess I'll keep the Ridgid and sell other one, a Panasonic I found on the street a few years ago which I have never used,although when I tried it this morning the battery was stiil good.

[Jim Becker]

I think that's a better plan, Dennis...keep the nice new one and unload the "found" tool.

[Mark Daily]

Dennis,
I have the ridgid and it works great. Have had batteries replaces several times, no problem. However MAKE SURE YOU REGISTER THE BATTERIES AND THE TOOL.

Ditto- I too have it and it has been very reliable. Free batteries can’t be beat!

[Jim Dwight]

I have two 18V Ryobi drills and one impact driver. I like them because they don't turn themselves off if I need to bore a large hole. My 12V Milwaukee does as does my 12V Bosch. I broke one boring a 2 1/8 hole to put in a lockset but they are pretty cheap. I'd rather have a tool that completes the task, even if it may break, than one that protects itself but doesn't finish the task.

You may want to look for an adapter to use Hitachi batteries in Rigid tools. Apparently they are available on Amazon and other places (adapters in general at least).

[Frederick Skelly]

I have the Milwaukee M12 with several of the tools and very happy.

+1. I have some M12 Fuel tools and they are great stuff!

[Mark Bolton]

What you should buy is a drill with a cord and enjoy the endless productivity that is gained from not dealing with dead batteries. The cord will take seconds as compared to floundering around with dead and swapping batteries and you will work about 40% faster all day long.

[Scott Winter]

What you should buy is a drill with a cord and enjoy the endless productivity that is gained from not dealing with dead batteries. The cord will take seconds as compared to floundering around with dead and swapping batteries and you will work about 40% faster all day long.

Until you need to use it somewhere you don't have easy access to a plug. I would never go back to a corded drill unless maybe a specialty one like an impact drill that I may not use that much.

[Mark Bolton]

Until you need to use it somewhere you don't have easy access to a plug. I would never go back to a corded drill unless maybe a specialty one like an impact drill that I may not use that much.

Hogwash. You'll run cordless for a while and then the day you have a need to to some real work you'll string a cord and plug in a real tool and the revelation of how much time you've been wasting with low speed, low power, and battery changes, have cost you years of life with regards to production. Learn the hard way if you choose. I'm drowning in cordless tools. They are handy where they are handy. No one is saying string three miles of cord out into a field or up into an attic fo run three screws.

But a day to day shop tool. The batteries are a joke and a time suck.

[roger wiegand]

That (corded for productivity) seems to be inconsistent with the conclusion of 90% of the pros who have to be efficient to make a living at this (I'm not one of them); I can't remember the last time I saw a guy on a job site or in a shop I've visited using a corded drill other than a drill press. The drywall guys with screw guns, yes. Other than for deck building I seldom, if ever, need to change batteries on an impact driver or drill during a day, or week.

For most of us building furniture drilling and setting screws isn't a very common activity. For example, I just finished a Greene and Greene style coffee table that took several weeks; it has six drilled holes, two for the drawer pull and four for holding the top on. There's no way the speed of my drill was rate limiting! I can imagine that for a different kind of work (the woodworking equivalent of hanging drywall) that a corded drill would absolutely be the right answer; that's not what most people do.

[Dave Sabo]

What you should buy is a drill with a cord and enjoy the endless productivity that is gained from not dealing with dead batteries. The cord will take seconds as compared to floundering around with dead and swapping batteries and you will work about 40% faster all day long.


Hogwash. You'll run cordless for a while and then the day you have a need to to some real work you'll string a cord and plug in a real tool and the revelation of how much time you've been wasting with low speed, low power, and battery changes, have cost you years of life with regards to production. Learn the hard way if you choose. I'm drowning in cordless tools. They are handy where they are handy. No one is saying string three miles of cord out into a field or up into an attic fo run three screws.

But a day to day shop tool. The batteries are a joke and a time suck.

Mark - we're glad that that corded tools work for you in your shop. Your advice however, is going to fall on deaf ears for the vast majority of guys here. It's also quite shortsighted , shows your lack of understanding of the current cordless tool market , and more importantly doesn't really take into account what Dennis
wants to use it for.

First , Dennis is already using and is used to a cordless drill in 12v and 3/8" capacity. - Hardly a workhorse production tool.

Second, he uses it for small models and toys and doesn't need a lot of power ! What part of his requirement made you think needs or wants the power that a corded drill affords ?

Third, a drill isn't just for drilling holes! Many cordless drill/driver buyers use them to install screws too. How comfortable is holding your big, heavy
corded drill going to be when Dennis uses it for installing a pair of brass hinges with #4 screws on one of his toys ? Does your drill even have a sensitive enough trigger and a torque limiting feature to handle delicate screws like that without camming out or over driving them ? No, it doesn't.


I suspect the disdain for cordless is rooted in last century's technology. Low voltage NiCad batteries of yore certainly couldn't last all day and weren't able to generate copious amounts of power. Things have progressed exponentially since then. LiIon battery platforms and used by the big boys now offer huge power and long run times. When mated to brushless motors, the runtimes are unbelievable. Some manufacturer's even have tools that produce more power in the cordless variants, though this isn't the norm.


My guys an I used 12v drill drivers on cabinet and closet installs daily. Their 6 Ah batteries last several days between charges. With two batteries - there is practically an endless runtime without a cord lying about for people to trip on. Or coil and uncoil. And if you're still not convinced that battery power is subpar take a look at this tool:

https://www.dewalt.com/products/power-tools/drills/angle-drills-and-specialty-drills/60v-max-mixerdrill-kit-with-eclutch-system/dcd130t1

in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l6VwXDHfxM


This is usually the proving ground for corded drills and I' have personally burned out a few in my career doing just this. Is your drill up to this task ? Doubtful. And even if it is, it's going to handle like an overweight pig trying drill a 1/16" hole in a toy.



It really comes down to the two age old sayings: choose the correct tool for the job, and you can never have enough tools. . The correct tool for Dennis's job is not a corded drill.

[Mark Bolton]

Dave,
Again, my shop is loaded with cordless tools from very new Lion Makita LXT's, Milwaukee 12'v tight quarter right angle chuck drills and impact drivers, and so on. Cordless impacts are used daily.

My point is that I personally dont feel Im antiquated, I moreso feel you have likely fallen into the trap of self deceit with regards to "modern cordless" productivity. When you see entire crews running around cordless and with cordless circular saws, mitersaws and likely soon will be cordless jobsite table saws, for daily production, there is one immutable fact... its slower. Always has been, and regardless of technology likely will be for the foreseeable future. But yes, it, and its cost (slower), has become the acceptable norm.

I was a cordless fiend for a long time, and still of course am using it. But years ago I tired of the grief (and cost) of it all (as Ive stated here before) and made the switch back to corded and it was NIGHT AND DAY. I dont care what battery technology or brushless or whatever, I will out run you on my worst day six ways to sunday with a corded tool day in, day out, 12 hour days, non stop. Is a cordless too handy? Absolutely.

Doing ground up turn key construction the day the cordless came back to the cord productivity went through the roof. Sadly in a home or production shop environment corded impact drivers are harder and harder to find because the borgs have dominated the market.

While it may work for you, thats fine, I would gladly have a run-off with anyone, any day, with a corded skil saw, miter saw, drill, driver, recip, saber, and I will guarantee you the most current technology will loose which means its slower. **PS** lets not go down the road of cordless nailers that are at about a %15 snails pace and ungodly increase in cost...

Sure, stringing cords sucks, and in an install where the cordless works fine. But if my crew cant learn to pick up their feet and step over a cord Im probably sunk out of the gate.

[dennis thompson]

Interesting how this has evolved from " what cordless drill should I buy" to a cordless vs corded debate.
We sure do like to discuss tools, sometimes I think we talk "tools" more than " woodworking "

Anyway I bought the Ridgid and used it for an hour or two. I have Deputrens contraction on my pinkie so when I hold the drill the top of my pinkie is against the drill handle. The Ridgid has a very rough surface, I guess to prevent slipping, but the rough surface was very painful on the top of my pinkie, so much so that I could not use the Ridgid. I returned it and got the Milwaukee, no impact driver but I don't use an impact driver much and I do already have an old Panasonic should I ever need it.

Note that I very carefully repacked the Ridgid and was worried they might not take it back because I had discarded some cardboard packing pieces. I went to Home Depot returns and she didn't even open it, just credited my credit card and we were done☺

[Jim Becker]

Dennis, thanks for the update. Every tool does indeed have a "feel" to it and you made a good decision to make the exchange if you were having discomfort from your original purchase.