How Much Amp/Hr Recommended for 1/2" Cordless Drill/Driver?

[Don Stephan]

Time to replace my old 18V cordless 1/2" PC drill/driver. Looking at DeWalt offerings at one big box store, one model includes two 1.6 Amp-hour batteries and charger for $99, another includes just one 5 amp-hr battery and charger for $199 (brushless motor). No label on my PC battery so I don't know its Ah rating. Seems like quite a difference between the two batteries. Would they have comparable power to drill a 1/2" twist drill hole in wood, just different run times?

[Ed Mitchell]

I recently got a 20V dewalt which included 2 batteries and a charger for 99 bucks. It barely functioned, returned it, replacement barely works....I mean, I can chuck a bit, and start to drill a 1/8" hole in 5/8" pine but it craps out before making it all the way through. No more yellow trash with small batteries for me.

[Jason Ost]

Ive had the Dewalt 20 volt drill/driver set for about a year and a half and it's been a great set. The batteries are 2 ah and seem to last a long time. Enough power to twist it out of your hand when it gets caught. I also have the 12 volt drill/driver set and I use them a lot, mainly cause they are nice and light Good Luck.

[Kevin Jenness]

Same power, different run times. I have 2 A/hr batteries on my Bosch 18v drill/driver set and they work fine. A 5A/hr battery would be nice for work out of the shop, but with a charger at hand I would just as soon have two smaller ones with the spare always charged.

[Dave Sabo]

For an 18v drill I wouldn’t consider anything less than 2Ah. Especially if it’s a regular sized drill. 2Ah seems to be the sweet spot for “sub compact” sized drills but there are balance / ergonomic issues on the reg. larger size drills paired with smaller batteries.

[Dan Rude]

It really depends on what your wanting to do. I have mostly Milwaukee M12/M18. I have a full range of Batteries My oldest M18 1.5 Amp Hr. are toast now I think I got that set in 2008. Now I have several newer 3 Amp Hr. that are small and much lighter. My friends with the Dewalt like the 3 Amp Hr and up as well. The deal with the larger batteries is the tool can pull more power from them. I have recently started getting Ridgid tools from Direct Tool Outlet. If you watch for sales you can get Factory Blemished that qualify for their Lifetime Service Agreement. They also have Factory Reconditioned at a lower price, but do not qualify for the LSA. They also carry Ryobi as well. Dan

[Richard Coers]

You can drill a 1/2" hole with the tiniest battery Dewalt sells. But how many you want to drill is the decision.

[David Bassett]

... (brushless motor). ...

You ask about the batteries and I agree with the replies. It depends. I can say I prefer a smaller battery, for a lighter more compact drill, in most cases. (But I'm not shooting 1000s of drywall screws each day.)

Since you're shopping I wanted to highlight "brushless". I find that to be a huge improvement. (Though I don't use DeWalt.) Not only do they claim more power with more efficiency, which seems true though I haven't tried to measured it, I find they seem to have taken more care with the other bits and pieces too. E.g. while officially the same chuck, mine has less slop and is nicer to work with too.

[Tom M King]

3 ah is plenty for a drill and driver, but once you get to other tools, such as a reciprocating saw (Sawzall) the 3's are not enough to do much work, and probably hard on the batteries. If you need more than 3, go to 6 ah.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

We use Dewalt and Milwaukee tools on the field, they run whatever batteries we use in the other tools. Because the saws need 6ah or more, the drivers use those. You don't have to change batteries for a few days that way either. IMHO 2ah batteries of any make are useless.

[Greg Parrish]

M12/M18 user here. For light weight the M12 with 6ah battery is great. For heavy tasks the M18 with 5 to 8ah battery has enough torque to almost break your hand and bust your knee. Ask me how I know. LOL

[Rich Engelhardt]

Makita here.

Drill/driver - 5.0AH for the full sized hammer drill/drill/driver and impact
Same for the multifunction tool and the track saw - and the small 5 3/8" saw.

The small cordless router is so, so, so, nimble and sweet to use with the 1.6AH and the 2.0AH.

Ditto that for the sub compact 18V.
Honestly - It's really hard for me to see any advantage a 12V drill/driver has over the Makita subcompact.
I had a nice Milwaukee 12V - it does have a nice tiny profile with the slide in batteries - but - it's old and I can't see any real use for 12V anymore.

[Greg Parrish]

Rich, if I had still had a Makita system, I would have the subcompact units alongside the full size just for the lighter duty around the shop usage. Unfortunately, I don't think Milwaukee offers a comparable sub-compact 18v setup like Makita and I'm too heavily invested in Milwaukee at the moment. I use 12v at home, and 18v at our farm for the most part. But I do have a few of each voltage and both locations. One of my favorites is the 18v fan.


Makita here.

Drill/driver - 5.0AH for the full sized hammer drill/drill/driver and impact
Same for the multifunction tool and the track saw - and the small 5 3/8" saw.

The small cordless router is so, so, so, nimble and sweet to use with the 1.6AH and the 2.0AH.

Ditto that for the sub compact 18V.
Honestly - It's really hard for me to see any advantage a 12V drill/driver has over the Makita subcompact.
I had a nice Milwaukee 12V - it does have a nice tiny profile with the slide in batteries - but - it's old and I can't see any real use for 12V anymore.

[Dennis Jarchow]

I have the Dewalt XR drill driver and impact driver combo along with probably a half dozen other Dewalt cordless tools. My set came with the 1.3ah batteries but I also have 3ah and 5ah batteries as well. For most tasks the 1.3ah batteries work fine, especially if you have your charger nearby and have multiple charged batteries. The larger, and heavier higher capacity batteries are handy at times depending on the tool, and I am glad I have them, but for most tasks I do, multiple smaller batteries are fine. If I were doing construction all day long I might have a different opinion.

[Jim Dwight]

I will just agree with the other comments. I usually put a little, 2 amp hour or smaller, battery in my drills because it makes them lighter, it is enough battery for a drill most of the time but is not very useful in a saw, and I have several. My 18V drills are Ryobi but I also have 18V Milwaukee tools, a 12 V Milwaukee drill, and a 12V Bosch drill. On the rare occasion I want to use a self feeding bit to drill through multiple 2x4s (running wires), or drill 1/2 inch holes repeatedly in thick steel, or put in a door lock, I want at least a 3 or 4 amp hour battery so I don't have to change it so often. Sometimes the small battery will not even do one tough hole like this. But for the vast majority of what I do, the little battery is just fine.

[Jim Becker]

I use the 3 and 5 AH batteries with my Bauer 20v tools. The only time I use the small 1.4 ah units that came with some of them is when I want/need more compact/lighter/quick work.

[Mike Stelts]

There is no noticeable weight difference between a 3 and 5 A-Hr Makita battery, making the only decision price vs. longevity before recharge.

[Derek Cohen]

Time to replace my old 18V cordless 1/2" PC drill/driver. Looking at DeWalt offerings at one big box store, one model includes two 1.6 Amp-hour batteries and charger for $99, another includes just one 5 amp-hr battery and charger for $199 (brushless motor). No label on my PC battery so I don't know its Ah rating. Seems like quite a difference between the two batteries. Would they have comparable power to drill a 1/2" twist drill hole in wood, just different run times?

I have a 10.8v (Festool C12), which is rated 12v in the USA. I think that this has 1.5 ah batteries. This is perfect for a workshop, for drilling and driving, with two batteries. 10.8v may sound low, but it is effectively the same power as 12v. I also have a Festool DRC 18/4, which is 18v. It is a powerhouse. Once again, 18v is the same as 20v. Just marketing. I use 3.1 ah batteries here as they are light and hold a charge for as long as I need (very big difference between 3 and 5 ah in size and weight with Festool). And again, if working from a workshop, just keep another on charge. A bigger battery will not give more power.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Alan Schwabacher]

As Derek pointed out, it depends on what you’re doing. In the shop I prefer the smaller 12v/10.8v Bosch tools (some are labeled each way, but they are the same. It’s just a question of whether you measure voltage just after charging, or average). Outside where I need more power and want the charge to last longer it’s mostly M18 fuel. Large amp hour batteries are particularly helpful with saws and routers that draw more power.

Think of it this way: you are paying for the batteries, and they throw in the tools to sweeten the deal. If you need more batteries it will cost almost as much to replace them as their original cost with tool. (With what I’d call standard brands of Bosch, Milwaukee, Makita, Dewalt. Festool may be a different story.). The pricing you list makes sense that way: a 5 AH battery is more than double two 1.6 AH batteries, and the tool doesn’t add much cost. So get the batteries now that you want to use.

Brushless is worth it in my opinion.

[Greg Parrish]

The best time to buy Milwaukee tools is when the rep is at the store and they are throwing in free batteries. I got a ton of batteries that way, which of course ties me to their brand, but also means I can go a long time before needing to buy batteries. This is the hook that got me to switch from Makita. Went for a replacement battery and ended up switching tool lines because as mentioned, the batteries cost more than the tools. Free batteries were hard to resist. LOL

[Todd Bender]

I run a two man cabinet & trim carpentry business, and own various Makita and Dewalt cordless tools and have minimal complaints with each brand. My brother buys only Milwaukee because of their customer service and repair department. He runs a 15 man metal fab business and regularly sends out of warranty tools back to Milwaukee which get repaired or replaced at no cost. If I were re-tooling I'd be buying Milwaukee.

[Charles P. Wright]

For my Dewalt 20V drill and impact driver, I use 1.5 to 2AH batteries as they are lighter. I have plenty of 6AH flexvolt and a 4AH and 5AH that came with other tools. I will sometimes use a 4 or a 5, but very rarely. As a DIYer, the small batteries tend to last as long as I do for the few hours I'm working. The impact is more likely to run out for me driving lots of screws; but I always have another battery available, so don't really get annoyed by it.

[Donald G. Burns]

My 18v Makita LXT drill and my 18v Makita LXT impact driver both came with 3.0 amp/hr batteries. The impact driver has enough power to destroy DeWalt driver bits when extracting stuck old stainless screws from weathered aluminum. Meanwhile my older12v Ryobi lightweight drill came with unknown amp/hr OEM NiMH batteries that long ago died and have been replaced with Chinese Li Ion batteries of suspect real ratings. I believe they claimed 3.0 amp/hr but they don't weight as much as the Makita 3's. I would never attempt to drill a 1/2" hole with that drill since it weights about 1/2 of either Makita tool. But it is handy for a couple of quick smaller holes in soft wood. Somewhere in the back of my tool cabinet is an old old AC powered Craftsman drill that for years I used for heavy duty drilling. The thing is a beast, you had better have a tight grip on it, but it of course suffers from the cord's overall 6' length.

[andrew whicker]

Hitachi Metabo for me

I've thrown a LOT at the 1.5 Ah / 18 V batteries and they were fine (8+ years). I upgraded a few years ago to their 36v / 18v 2.5 Ah batteries (because I picked up a cordless nailer and cordless circular saw).

The latter batteries (36v / 18v) are beasts and will definitely "wake up" your drills and drivers. But that doesn't mean the small ones aren't good enough for a drill and driver. Again, I've thrown a lot of things at these drills over time (metal and wood) and the small batteries are totally fine, esp for hobby / house project use. The ONLY downside is charging time vs charge run down time, but with the new 'fast' chargers that's no longer a big deal. This aspect is probably different brand to brand.

I honestly don't think any brand is worth complaining about. I've used other people's super small DeWalts, Milwaukees, etc and they were awesome. I doubt any mainstream brand is a bad brand. Maybe a Harbor Freight version, idk. I don't buy that crap.