DeWalt DC720KA 18V Compact for $99 - good deal?

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
I semi-swore I wouldn't get another cordless drill.
LOL! Oh, well so much for that eh?
The borg has a DeWalt DC720KA 18V compact 1/2" on sale on Black Friday for $99.00 w/two batteries and a charger.
From what I can see, this is a very good price.

Anyone have any comments on the price or the drill?

[Josh Youngman]

I would check to see that it accepts lithium ion batteries, if not you might want to go with a different brand / driver that will accept Lion. I know Hitachi drivers are forward compatible (ie, a nicad drill will accept lion batteries).

[Roy Hatch]

My 14.4 V DeWalt is 8 years old and still going strong. So, if you can't get one for free, half price sounds like a deal.

Roy

[Andrew Catron]

i have the compact 12v that i paid that much for a few years ago, its a great drill. i have the larger 18v, about 5 years old, still my go to drill.

the good news is that dewalt has release an 18v lithium ion battery that is compatible with most 18 v tools going back to 1998. i have a ton of 18 v dewalt so i will be getting that in the near future.

Drew

[Eric Haycraft]

I would check to see that it accepts lithium ion batteries, if not you might want to go with a different brand / driver that will accept Lion. I know Hitachi drivers are forward compatible (ie, a nicad drill will accept lion batteries).

All dewalt 18V cordless accept their new Lithium-ion batteries (which have hit the streets by the way - which probably explains why a retailer is blowing out the old inventory for 99 bucks) I just got a new impact drill with 2 lithium ion batteries because I was down to 1 good nicad battery - which my mother is borrowing. The new Lithiums work perfectly with all of my old tools. They are also very light and gave new life to my old cordless tools. The other really nice thing about them is that they hold their charge between uses much better than their old batteries.

99 bucks is hard to beat, but I can't see myself going back from lithium ions. Also, if you get a new lithium driver, it has a work light built in :)...but you can't find one for 99 bucks.

[Prashun Patel]

Where are you finding this deal? I'm gonna pick one up.
- p

[Bill White]

Which borg? Can I have one too? Copy of your invoice?
Bill

[Bill White]

Mine (14.4V) is also about that old, but I'm seeing some loss in battery life. Just makes me sick to have to spend $70.00 + for batts.
Bill

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello Shawn and Bill,
The borg is Lowes.
The $99 price is from their "Black Friday" (this Friday after Thanksgiving) ad which has leaked out.
Most of the Black Friday websites have been told to pull the ad by Lowes and have removed it.

gottadeal (dot) com, still has the ad in their forums section under "Other Retailers".
Actually, iwhen you go to the home page for gottadeal (dot) com, look on the left side for "Message Board" - click on message board, then go down to the Store Specific forum. Under that forum is a thread titled Lowes.

You have to register to view the threads. Registration is free, and they don't bug you year round with emails.
matter of fact, they are so low-key about it, I forgot I had registered already and when I plugged in my email address, they said it was already registered.

Re: The Li/Ion tools. Most of them are at least twice the price right now. I've seen Ace advertise the same drill for ~ $150, so I figured $99 was a decent price. I guess the "good news" is that when the batteries go, I can always upgrade at that point since they're compatible.
Thanks for that tid bit of info!

[Bob Slater]

One 18V Nicad cost more than that at Home Depot in Canada. I am happy with my Nicad performance overall. I suppose lighter is better, but the Dewalt XRP has nice balance as is.

[Louis Brandt]

I just opened the Lowe's sale paper today, and the DeWalt 18v drill is listed as was mentioned, at $99. But, based on what the ad says, the drill is a two-speed drill, not a variable speed drill. The ad that I'm reading says "1,500 rpm, 2-speed". Is it still a good buy if it's only a two-speed model?

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
I believe the ad is misleading somewhat.

The drill should have a high and a low setting (2 speed). The low setting is 0 -500 RPM /high torque for driving, and 0 - 1700 RPM/reduced torque for drilling.
Home Depot appears to have the same drill for $97.

Neither store actually comes right out and says what model number it is. I tracked down the 18V cordless models DeWalt makes, and the DW 720KA is the only one.
If that's the case, then the specs on it are dual range, not 2 speed per say.

[Mike Henderson]

I went out and bought the DeWalt drill this am, primarily to get the two batteries - I already have an 18V DeWalt drill. The drill is essentially the same as the one I already have. It's variable speed, two speed ranges - just a bit lighter than my existing one.

[wrong information in this paragraph - see added note] The one disappointment is that the batteries are not the XRP batteries but the older batteries. I didn't think they even sold the old batteries any more - maybe they had a warehouse full of them and are using this sale to get rid of them.

But I suppose that since I got the drill with the batteries it's not a bad deal. If I decide I don't need a second drill I can always sell the bare drill (without batteries) on eBay.

Mike

[added note] Oops, I was wrong about the batteries. They are XRP batteries even though they don't have the orange tops. I went to DeWalt's web site and looked up the DW9099 and it is an XRP battery.

[Mike Henderson]

I'm bumping this because I put wrong information in my note (above) and wanted to make sure that people who already read it find the correction.

Please see my posting above with the correct information.

Mike

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello Mike,

I went out and bought the DeWalt drill this am, primarily to get the two batteries
That was my concern - that a lot of people were going to buy the drill simply for the batteries & charger - and there'd be a "run" on them.
I thought about it myself and picked up a second one, just for the batteries & charger.

Turns out my concerns didn't seem to be an issue.
My wife and I stopped by Lowes around 7:30am -well after the "rush" - on our way home, and they had a pile of them sitting on the floor.

Thanks for the info on the XRP batteries. That makes the deal a bit sweeter!

[Rick Gifford]

The home depot webpage has the drill for $97. I dont think it is a Black Friday deal only. So its not too late...

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello Rick,
I noticed that also.
HD only had about 2 dozen of them though on the floor.
When the BF ads first hit the BF websites about 3 weeks ago, the HD ad didn't have the drill, and HD didn't list it on their website.

The Lowes BF ad did have it for $99, but Lowes got all cranky and told the sites to pull the ad or face legal action.

Later copies of the HD ad were reposted on the sites, and the drill was added to thier website about a week ago.
I suspect HD caught the Lowes ad, and bought up enough of the drills from somewhere to put a few in each store.

Anyone still interested, if HD is out of it, Lowes probalby still has it for $99 - through at least Sunday. Lowes had a big pile of them.