New Dewalt 20V MAX Cordless Compact Drill Driver Kit

This purchase has been a long time in the making. I didn’t want to have to buy a new drill gun because I thought my old Black & Decker was still fairly new, but the truth is, it’s years and years old.

As far as I can remember, I bought my first cordless drill back before 2005. I know it was then because that’s when Laura and I purchased our first house. I needed it to do all sorts of repairs. The drill didn’t last long and some time before 2008, when we moved out, she got me the Black & Decker for my birthday. I’ve had that one ever since.

Just as luck would have it, I popped one of the “freshly charged” batteries into the gun last week during some drywalling to discover there was no charge whatsoever. Nothing. Not even a click of the motor. Over the next few days, I tried different angles for changing it and it still provided the same result. That battery was gone.

It wasn’t a surprise. Both batteries have faded through the years to the point of becoming quite annoying. If memory serves, I went through this once previously and had to replace both of them. This time, I decided to move on and head to Dewalt. The Black & Decker is great, but the Dewalt offers the lithium battery and I wanted to get me some of that. That was my street talk.

From what I understand, the new lithium batteries take much less time to charge and offer more power output. Each charge also lasts longer. I suppose this is what you get with advancements in technology.

I was browsing around at the specs for my old drill and there are many complaints about the old style NiCad batteries. Like I just mentioned above, that’s the only issue I have with mine. The drill is fine. But, at $30 to buy new batteries (again), I’m just not interested.

This Dewalt drill weights 3.9 pounds, which is much less than the 7 pounds of the Black & Decker. I know people who used to purchase the smaller 12V drills simply because of the weight issue. When you’re putting a deck together and are working outside all day, these heavy tools can do a number on your wrists. This drill is probably as light as they’re going to get.

I took a few photos of the drill. When I was looking around at photos online, I really couldn’t find any taken of the “less than obvious” places, such as the batteries themselves, the items included in the kit and the electrical connections where the drill meets the battery. I’ve got all these spots for you below. By the way, I paid $120 for this kit, which includes the drill, charger for a single battery, two lithium batteries and a handy carrying case.

First off, we have the box. This is what everything is inside of.

Next, once you open the box, you can pull out the carrying case, which has all the goodies enclosed inside.

In this photo, I’ve removed each component of the kit and displayed them exactly how they were stored inside the case.

This is where the bottom of the drill handle meets the battery.

And this is the battery itself.

There are two speeds to choose from on this cordless drill. This is the switch that controls them.

There’s also a switch the controls which direction the drill is turning – forward or backward. The small black button is this switch. The power trigger is also included in this photo.

I connected the battery to the drill. This is what it looks like. The disconnect button is right in the front.

And finally, this is the top portion of the drill.

I hope I got everything. There’s nothing more annoying than trying to check something out and not being able to find any good photos. When I’m at the store, I get frustrated that I can’t read the commentary on something and when I shop online, I get frustrated at not being able to touch it. Maybe this will help someone.