Which Drill Is Best For Diy Projects At Home?

I love the Ryobi ‘Quiet Strike’ pulse driver. It’s been my go-to for over 5 years. Yes, I know. Ryobi is not thought of as ‘construction grade’ equipment. I do handyman and general contracting as a side job and have a plethora of Ryobi products. Admittedly, some are not up to task, but all their more ‘capable’ products have served me very well and have lasted quite long. This Quiet Strike acts like a drill/driver with impact function as torque demands.

Thank you Nils! I just found this article and it’s the first time I’ve come across your website. I don’t have a heap of tradie (Aussie for laborer) knowledge, but just enough to identify most tools/machinery and know roughly what they’re used for. As a chick, I like to challenge myself to figure out how to fix things for the knowledge and independence it gives. Too often I get recommended approaches (online and in person) with information that doesn’t give the detail of how it works, the pros and cons, etc. Your communication style allowed me to understand the terminology, what features do, and when to decide to use them. I love this because it’ll help me plan my approach to a task that prevents the f’up factor! I’m about to start my most challenging project yet, so this will be invaluable!

Makita td172 impact driver for example, has 4 speed seetings plus 4 special modes, 2 for self tapping screws, 1 nut removal mode, 1 auto assist mode. Same for td171 which is released as xdt16 in US. Similarly other brands like milwaukee and dewalt provide at least 3 modes in their normal, non low end impacts. Yes they don’t have a clutch mechanism but still td172 td171 are very precise in speed mode 2. Biggest advantage is I think they’re super compact. Otherwise like for installing ikea I measured that even 5 newton meters is sufficient (I used an impact wrench to measure this for sure) and impacts have 180nm torque and drills usually have around 50nm hard torque so it is not much about power but compactness as for reason why impacts are so good, also they don’t transfer the force to your arm so that’s also very comfortable. Of course for very precise work clutch is useful but for general use I grab my impacts most of the time. Td712 is awesome grab one

The biggest plus for an impact driver for me is the fact that they are so much easier on your hand & wrist. When drilling with a drill bit, your hand & wrist take the majority of the torque to keep the drill bit engaging. The larger the bit, the more force it takes to keep drilling. With a driver, the torque used to drive the drill bit comes from the driver. There is very little torque going to your hand & wrist. A good example is to take a powerful 3/4″ drill and try drilling a 3/4″ hole through a 10″ pole. Then take a good impact driver powerful enough to drill a 3/4″ bit through that same 10″ pole and feel the difference.

I want to put door handles on wooden door (not too hard wood), want to work steel sheets and 2mm cross section lipped websites, what should i use between an impact and a drill, but i also feel jobs around the house will start getting demanding. My budget is $125, and i should acquire either of them, the best compromise.

First time I’ve ever seen your website. It popped up in my feed. I just want to add, on a drill majority of times you don’t need to be in full drill mode. The chuck can protect you and your bit. I see so many people just go all out high speed on bits. But most drill bits, hole saws etc, are not rated for the max RPM’s a drill can put out. Lastly, yes you can over drive screws and such with an impact driver, but you should really learn the feel of an impact driver and it is a significantly more healthy option to use with reducing the chance of getting carpal tunnel. Using a standard drill, especially without the chuck engaged puts a tremendous amount of strain on your wrist.

What I use most around the house is the Bosch 1/4 inch bit pocket driver. It has a clutch for driving screws and 2 speeds. It’s small and compact. You can use the 1/4″ drill bits. To me, it’s the best of both worlds but you just don’t have the impact feature which I don’t find useful unless I’m driving screws through thick boards and don’t care about stripping the heads. This is rare for general work around the house. So instead of carrying out a drill and driver, I just tote this small driver around. That’s what I would recommend for DIYers.

It’s funny, I’m an impact driver guy because my Dad being old school hates impacts because they’re new and so he gave me the impact when Dewalt had their 18v set up and I almost never use the drill except for drilling holes. I have the Atomic Dewalt drill because I’d rather it be smaller because of how seldom I use it vs my impact in which I bought the XR Dewalt impact.

I enjoy the drill with clutch for driving fasteners into softwoods to prevent stripping. My M12 on speed 1 does the same task however but I’m always worried about stripping. I always use my M18 on speed 2 with the Diablo spade bits. Treat it like a chainsaw, wide open and push it slow, never had issues

Impact driver is not more efficient, it can have more torque because of the impacts. Did drywalling to help a buddy out, my drill with a 2Ah battery lasted half the day while his impact needed a fresh battery every hour or two. Impact driver gets noticeably warm (wasted energy). As far as max toque usually gear 2 has plenty of torque to drive large lag bolts if you can hold on 😅 If you learn to use the clutch on a drill you will be working faster and can have better work, BUT it’s heavier and makes your hands and wrists work harder for it Long->Short; impacts drivers are slightly more “controllable” and have much less strain on the wrist while being lighter I tell people to use impacts if they didn’t grow up using power tools, far safer

After seeing the mechanism in action, Another great demonstration for rotational impact involves using a flathead screwdriver and hammering it like a chisel on an angle, in order to back out stubborn machine screws. I learned this trick from an old aircraft mechanic and its saved me plenty of times. Just make sure your angle isn’t too aggressive, you want to make small taps sideways not down.

Industrial Electrical Maintenance Technician and Maintenance Supervisor here. My impact is practically my right hand at work. I own three sets of Milwaukee. Two at work and one set at home. I almost exclusively use my drills for drilling ONLY and my impacts for running machine screws, bolts, anchor nuts, etc. If you practice, you can use your impact to run screws in no matter what size they are. I do not use those drill bits made to go into your impact. I can’t believe people actually use those. 😕 Edit* If you run taps, you CAN use your drill. Just make sure you buy a drill with a metal chuck. Yes, I know about the lock trick, but I use my Knipex and lock the chuck so it doesn’t slip on the tap.

People get confused by this unnecessarily but impacts in a turning motion are no different than impacts in linear motion. For example, think about trying to put a nail in a piece of wood by simply pushing on it. Nobody does that. They use a hammer, which is a linear impact tool. Putting energy into instantaneous impacts overcomes the resistance of the material for extremely brief periods of time, which is what’s needed to get the job done. Impact drivers do exactly the same thing for rotating things.

Thanks for the article. I wanted to show my nephew the differences and you did a great job of explaining and showing. But Damn…. Lol, I clicked on the link to the quick guide for when to use drill or impact and the guys selling it. Why not just give a little something to your viewers and subscribers. Wasn’t expecting that

I worked for a large trim supplier serving tens of thousands of new homes per year. They set up all apprentice carpenters with IMPACT drivers for installing hardware. I had never used one before in my life – just drills, and now I know for certain it was the wrong call on their part. These poor kids barely knew how to read a tape measurer yet were turned loose with miter saws in a rarely supervised environment. They never stood a chance.

So, question, & I hope I can even ask this in a sense-making way but no promises lol…one of or maybe THE first point you made as to the differences between them was “the chuck on the drill only spins in 1 direction…” Now maybe my novice…isity? ness? Noviceness? Lol anyway, prevents me from understanding something in the semantics but like don’t most drills spin forward & backward? I see/understand the difference in speaking of the chuck vs the motor but still then I’m confusion…are you meaning when putting in different BITS, it only spins one…no that doesn’t make sense either, cos it *also* spins both to tighten & to loosen. WHAT AM I MISSING HERE? (I’m sure if/when someone answers this I’ll probably be like omg DUH obviously!!…but plz *try* & correct me gently lol, I’m a very enthusiastic student but also DEFINITELY a total n00b. Thx in advance 😊) Edit to add: that Milwaukee driver (my former hometown also too 😁) is THE single cutest lil dude I have ever seen in my entire life 😂🥰 Y’know, the *most* important aspect one should consider when purchasing power tools 😂

I own at least one impact driver and a couple of drills. But the discussion was valuable. As far as, “which one is BETTER”, well just search YT for driver vs drill and you’ll see that for heavy driving, like lag bolts into lumber, the matching drill in a supplier’s line will often get it done /faster/ than a driver. Here’s one, youtube.com/shorts/DQmN74JQpt8?feature=share but there are several others. Driver is lighter, yeah, other factors like size, yeah. But my most recent purchase was Flex hammer drill for “it does it all” because I got an extra battery for my Flex impact wrench, and that hammer drill GETS IT ON. Plus, the Flex line has a shock absorber that takes it easy on my wrists. (hence, “Flex”.) Torque Test website used to include a factor for how harsh an impact wrench is on the arm in their tests, and that is important to me.

An impact driver will prevent stripping the heads out of screws, or help remove screws that are already a little stripped. It does a much better job at driving long screws. A standard driver might bog down or bend or snap a long deck screw, but an impact driver puts it in easily. And with much less fatigue because you don’t have to push so hard to drive it. It will even remove lug nuts.

9:24 2nd gears for drilling holes, first gear is for driving faster. Why would you put the drill into second gear to try to run a long fastener into wood? That is entirely the wrong use of the drill. I will argue this till the day I die. Drills are for drilling holes, and running fasteners, and impacts are for applying torque to loosen something that is stuck, or tighten something that is already snug, where torque spec isn’t necessary. The problem with using an impact driver to run long fasteners, is that you are constantly having to fight physics. Every time that driver makes an impact, it has to break static friction, and the further it gets that fastener into the material, the more static friction it has to overcome. Every impact work hardens the fastener, the head, or the specific bit engagement areas, which makes it more susceptible to damage or breaking, and it stands a far greater chance at stripping threads, snapping heads, or rounding the bit completely out. If you use a drill, you don’t have to overcome static friction every time the fastener stops moving from the impact force, you’re not going to risk snapping anything or stripping anything from over torquing it, unless the drill is way too powerful, the fastener gets stuck, or you hit something, and unless you’re using the wrong type of bit for the fastener you’re driving, you don’t have to worry nearly as much about stripping out the fastener due to poor materials or over torquing it. I don’t care what tradesmen say, and I don’t care what “professionals” say, physics would dictate that a drill is for any application where you need continuous rotation, and impacts are for when you need sharp sudden applications of torque.

Interesting stuf. To me as a Dutch guy it seems the impactdriver is amazing for the american way of building home out of wood. Big bolts driven deep in timber. Here as a diy and brick homes it seems I never had the need for the impactdriver, but do always use the drill. From hammerdrilling concrete and stone to mount plugs and screws for a pictureframe or a tv. Drilling holes in metal and wood, and using the screw function to screw everything from electrical work to platserboards on the ceiling without overdriving the acrews to deep as the impact would do. Great tools, for their own field. Thanks for thebgreat article.

Thanks for the article. I have the same/similar makita combo. It’s quite new and only a few moths old. I notice if i use my driver for other applications, eg. extended light drilling, etc, the top of the outer case (the silver part) heats up quite a lot more than if I use my drill. It gets quite hot and makes me not want to use the driver for anything other than in an absolute emergency. Sometimes it is more convenient to use the driver for something light duty, but the way it heats up makes me avoid using it. Are the makita drivers prone to over-heating and/or burning out if used in very light applications other than driving bolts/screws?

All I keep hearing is “the impact driver can’t do that” yet I’ve people seem to recommend both. But I’m not sure why I’d need an impact driver. The drill seems to do everything the impact driver can do AND MORE! I’ve had my 12v drill for years and used it for everything. I think I may just want a more powerful drill.

Discovered your website today and I’m a couple article’s in, very helpful information! I personally have a large amount of the Bauer lineup from Harbor Freight and it’s served me well for home DIY projects while I cant justify the cost of contractor grade brands. I did not like the warrior series though and Herc is priced where I might as well consider a Kobalt, DeWalt or Milwaukee… Making Bauer a nice find that gets my jobs done pretty well.

mhe, for what I do, and have to admit, for what I see most of my mates do, the impact driver is an unnecessary tool, a powerful drill can do 98% of what an impact driver does, whilst still being quiter and way more versital, if I had to choose one or the other, there0s no way I’m going to pick the impact driver, I own one only because I’m too bothered always switching between bits. But, my argument up here also has to account for cost, if one chose to buy a run of the mill underpowered drill the difference between the two tools will show more, but man I own the bosch 18c-150 and there’s no going back now

great article. I was wondering if it is possible for a drill to be able to use on automotive bolts low torque, just as well as an impact driver? If you use the Clutch on the drill or what about the hammer mode? Will these mode work just like an impact? Doesn’t an impact wrench take off bolts with a hammering action? How about the drill in hammer mode, would that work? Or probably not, because the drill is too weak? Anyways thanks for any help and great vid.

I had to return this kit because it just plain didn’t work. The bolt I was trying to remove actually stripped the Milwaukee extractor that I was using. I ended up using a size smaller from my Craftsman sockets and hammered it right into the bolt head and my Milwaukee impact pulled it right out. The hard part is getting the bolt out of the socket you hammered onto the bolt. I wish this extractor kit would’ve worked but it just didn’t. No hard feelings but it is what it is.

You allude to it early in the article, but in the final section you fail to mention that for driving some screws, the drill with clutch settings really is better than the impact driver. This is especially true when doing pocket hole joinery, where it is easy to drive the screw a bit too far when using an impact driver. And as with your early reference, any of the little screws for hinges and such will be better off with a drill using the clutch settings, than with an impact driver. Otherwise, a great article!

TBH all the features on the battery drills no one uses properly most stick it in drill and leave it there. I see a driver as an old-school drill which has none of these features mentioned of the battery-operated drill. TBH i think most articles/peaple really struggle to point out the differences because really there aren’t any. All it would require on the driver is lock out the future on the internal anvil and this would be a plain old Drill from 25 years ago. The industry is starting to see that more and more people are using these tools over a drill. And the bits are starting to come out, bosch has hole saws that are suitable for drill and driver, chisel bits and I’m sure the rest will follow in time. the only problem is the bits are shorter and that’s the major difference! Even the salesperson who sold me the driver couldn’t really tell me the major differences between them for example! This drill has a speed setting, the driver has a pressure-sensitive trigger to control speed. it’s the same dam thing. I struggle to see the difference for a run and gun pro that needs to make a quick hole and then screw something on the wall. I’d take the driver for a lighter kit I dont know the industry has made the existence of the humble drill very difficult when one tool can do most things really well in small package.

I have the combo kit like most people n I use the impact 90% of the time. It pretty versatile in my opinion and experience, I got some drill bits with the hex ends and a few adapter for sockets and crazy angle accessories for tight or weird positions. it has pretty much replaced my drill needs mostly,I do use the drill from time to time for big circular punch out drilling n pilot holes on thin material that might crack. In the end u need both but u can get away with alot with just the impact . I started out with a Milwaukee 18v fuel kit from home cheapo then upgraded to the Hercules 20v from God’s gift to man kind n all us peasant construction workers Harbor Freight .

The title drew me in and I wanted to see if maybe there was some new information to be had or a tip/trick I wasn’t aware of… Then I had to wait almost 11 minutes for the intro to be over for me to watch the content I came for in this 13 minute article. Jokes were terrible and awkward…. I know the youtube algorithm operates on interactions, so with that in mind this is probably the last time I’m going to interact with this website.

I have Makita as my main tool company and am still very happy with the brand. I started working as a mechanic in a shop and the shop uses Milwaukee tools and I constantly have tools either braking or batteries that are less then 6 months old don’t take charge. But there warranty department is great it’s pretty easy to send the tool for repair which is free they even pay for shipping both ways and they either rebuild most of the tool or just replace it.

Dear Pro Tool Reviews, you seem to have the resources to do a great article, but you’re missing so much information. How about addressing the ergonomics of the tools? The noise/db level? The run time with included batteries? Rating controls and ease of use? Built in light performance? It’s nice to know how quickly you can drill one hole, but how many can you drill before shutdown? Lastly, I think you should try a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finish or give category wins. Otherwise, if you’re going to choose a single tool you need to give very detailed reasons why. Besides, an extra couple of minutes isn’t going to make or break these articles. I have watched a number of your articles and I feel like you assemble great tools, but never fully deliver on the complete picture. Improve and I’ll subscribe. Do great and I’ll be a promoter.

I liked this article. 2 things though. 1- on your charts (the first one) you have the Ridgid as 800 in pounds. It’s 1250! You did state 1250 in your overview. 2- I believe the Ridgid should have had a 6 amp hour battery like the rest of them. It helps a ton compared to the 4 amp. I have the drill and have several 6 and 4 amp batteries. There is a difference.

Years ago I bought a Makita cordless drill so that I can be in line with everybody else going cordless after about 6 years the batteries were no longer charge The batteries were no longer available only aftermarket batteries aftermarket batteries were crap they wouldn’t hold charge either so there was stuck with a cordless drill and no way to power it I got rid of it at a garage sale for about 15 bucks from then on all my power tools are corded It’s just too expensive to have to replace a cordless drill or any cordless product every few years because the battery is no longer hold a charge and batteries become unavailable It’s a scam.

I use Hilti, its not just about who is the strongest, drills faster etc, they are reliable and if you break it they come pick it up etc… Also the same when you buy their tools, you buy it from them directly, they deliver it to you directly. Its very smooth. They also dont release new machines, batteries etc that often, and they still sell the old batteries etc. It just works like flawlessly… And the thing its been like this for a long time most (all?) other machines you had to go through a 3d party dealership or whats it called.

I wonder why they picked Milwaukee as the best when it didnt win 1st in a single statistic? Makita and Bosch litterally were top 5 or better on everything. Metabo really shredded on concrete drilling. Milwaukee was pretty much middle of the way next to ridgid kinda sitting towards the bottom of everything. Rigid is cheaper so youre better off buying them tbh.

any woodworkers out there could tell me besides these drill torque power/features/battery strength etc which one is best with gear ratios precision. Like for instant I know dewalt has too much power on the lowest setting when i want to just screw a small screw and just goes over leaving almost a quarter of a inch hole behind when i just want to have a flush finish. I know I can go easy on the trigger or pre boar it but I want to repeatedly doing it without being too careful and consistently get same result and no needing to do extra work and attention just to achieve it. Especially on small projects that I want to finish fast and efficiently without leaving marks that are ugly as if I did with an axe as a hammer for a screw part.

It’s great that y’all included Hercules, and for the price it looks like it did pretty well considering! I have the Hercules BL impact and like it a lot, almost bought this hammer drill only because of the lack of an “anti-kickback” feature. I’m gonna go with the Milwaukee instead! Great review y’all!!