DeWalt drill "upgrade" warning

nst68

nst68

nst68

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DeWalt have "upgraded" some of their drills and now they randomly switch from forward to reverse all by themselves.


Worth taking into account if you're thinking of which brand to buy into, or even before expanding your range of tools.

I knew I should have gone with Makita, but no I liked the yellow and black colours!
 
You're going to get bad reviews for any tool range. My experience with Makita has only been good yet you have someone here telling us they are ****. So there you go, everything is **** it just depends who you ask.
 
Have you installed the phone app, then gone through the MCD & firmware update on the drills, because the gearbox direction is controlled via phone app? wifi only so you need to be in range of a wifi router then scan QR code register and sign into a dewalt app and sync to your drill then have to watch a 10 minute unskippable video on using the drill before you can change gearbox , torque or speed settings:D
 
TBH that's quite an amusing fault. I've got quite a lot fo dewalt gear myself & they've worked great, but sounds like they've tried to cut a corner somewhere & it's come back to bite them.
 
I had that with a drill early in the summer. Returned it and got a Milwaukee. I generally like Dewalt but their combi drills have pretty poor chucks in my experience so I abandoned ship. Other tools are fine, sanders, impacts, circular saws etc..
 
R.C.Anderson said:
TBH that's quite an amusing fault. I've got quite a lot fo dewalt gear myself & they've worked great, but sounds like they've tried to cut a corner somewhere & it's come back to bite them.
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That's what I'm thinking, they're starting to use cheaper parts or bad designs going forward.

The chuck on my DeWalt combi drill can be a real pain to undo about 50% of the time, I have to use some water pump pliers to get it open.
I'm too far into the DeWalt ecosystem now (4 cordless tools and 6 batteries) to change, just hope they fix this before my drill packs up.
 
I use makita. I’m a tradesman so they get well used. But my Makita cordless annoyingly had a malfunction today. They are not as good as they were in the past. I’ve got a circular saw must be over 30 years old,still good as gold.
 
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SpeedFreak said:
I had that with a drill early in the summer. Returned it and got a Milwaukee. I generally like Dewalt but their combi drills have pretty poor chucks in my experience so I abandoned ship. Other tools are fine, sanders, impacts, circular saws etc..
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Sister in law got a new dewalt twin pack, the usual screwfix stuff. It feels like junk compared to my makita and bosch drills.
 
nst68 said:
That's what I'm thinking, they're starting to use cheaper parts or bad designs going forward.

The chuck on my DeWalt combi drill can be a real pain to undo about 50% of the time, I have to use some water pump pliers to get it open.
I'm too far into the DeWalt ecosystem now (4 cordless tools and 6 batteries) to change, just hope they fix this before my drill packs up.
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I am diversifying, and view it as a transition. Ultimately the batteries do not last indefinitely anyhow and I will still have some legacy tools, but pretty sure bit by bit I will move to Milwaukee. The only thing about them I don't really like is the battery release mechanism, it fees clunky
 
Deep said:
Really? Who do people recommend now then?
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Everything is made in china.

I like hikoki/Hitachi, good quality gear there brushless stuff is great but for some reason aren't popular in the UK now Screwfix and Toolstation stopped stocking them, Hitachi didn't want to water the brand down and lose quality, the "special offer" DeWalt and Milwaukee drills they do are special specs designed to be built and sold cheap to get people into the brand, it is these that are sold by Toolstation and Screwfix

That said Milwaukee seems to be the go to for most trades these days, they have a huge range of tools. They got bought out by a Chinese company years ago and the Chinese company have been really pushing them i to market place, that said the tools are actually very good, strong and reliable. The Chinese also owns and produced Ryobi tools.

Not all china stuff is rubbish.
 
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Deep said:
Really? Who do people recommend now then?
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If using more than twice a year, then imo it is worth keeping an eye on deals for some of the better trade makes and paying that little extra over a Black & Decker rebranded tool.

I only use Bosch Pro now, which are often discounted to what I would consider a grab it now price.

Always worth looking at what the non sponsored guys are using on Youtube on their DIY and trade video's
 
200sols said:
Sister in law got a new dewalt twin pack, the usual screwfix stuff. It feels like junk compared to my makita and bosch drills.
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The Milwaukee and DeWalt drills they have on their super specials are not the proper Milwaukee and DeWalt drills that are comparable to Makita and Bosch.

They are made and sold almost exclusively to Toolstation and Screwfix they use the same batteries so it's a cheap way into the brands eco system but the tools themselves when you look at the specs are very poor and more often then not you can't find the particular model on the website if the manufacturer.

Evans cycles do the same with mongoose bikes, they sell cheap poor quality bikes with mongoose branding (villain 1 & 3 might even be a villain 2 available) but it's not official mongoose and cannot be found in their website.
 
sx_turbo said:
Everything is made in china.

I like hikoki/Hitachi, good quality gear there brushless stuff is great but for some reason aren't popular in the UK now Screwfix and Toolstation stopped stocking them, Hitachi didn't want to water the brand down and lose quality, the "special offer" DeWalt and Milwaukee drills they do are special specs designed to be built and sold cheap to get people into the brand, it is these that are sold by Toolstation and Screwfix

That said Milwaukee seems to be the go to for most trades these days, they have a huge range of tools. They got bought out by a Chinese company years ago and the Chinese company have been really pushing them i to market place, that said the tools are actually very good, strong and reliable. The Chinese also owns and produced Ryobi tools.

Not all china stuff is rubbish.
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Exactly, where it's made is usually irrelevant. It's the design or the spec of it that matters. In this thread's case they've used a sh*tty switch, in other models I've seen Dean (guy in YT video) repair it's been poor cable sizes, or cheap control boards, non-metal gearboxes etc. Stuff you can't ever see (although I've seen the gearbox material mentioned before) from the marketing material/specs.

Not the usual recommendation but I've bought Erbauer and been pleased with the price/value since I don't use it everyday. Have seen them being used in a few trades YT channels too. One of the things I hate which some manufacturers have gone down is having custom battery communication, meaning you can't use a battery adapter like you used to be able to, so you're more likely to be stuck on one platform.
 
moogle said:
Exactly, where it's made is usually irrelevant. It's the design or the spec of it that matters. In this thread's case they've used a sh*tty switch, in other models I've seen Dean (guy in YT video) repair it's been poor cable sizes, or cheap control boards, non-metal gearboxes etc. Stuff you can't ever see (although I've seen the gearbox material mentioned before) from the marketing material/specs.

Not the usual recommendation but I've bought Erbauer and been pleased with the price/value since I don't use it everyday. Have seen them being used in a few trades YT channels too. One of the things I hate which some manufacturers have gone down is having custom battery communication, meaning you can't use a battery adapter like you used to be able to, so you're more likely to be stuck on one platform.
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My dad has erbauer gear, he likes it, it's ok but you can tell where they cheap out.

The drill and impact drivers for example don't have much control compared to my hikoki the throttle for want of a better word is much more controllable, the speed is greater and units are more powerful, that said my hikoki was probably around £50/60 pound a drill dearer.

I also bought a erbauer mitre saw, the features were fantastic, and externally the build quality was amazing, then I used it, first cut it .smashed the gearbox. Looked at other reviews on Screwfix and there were lots of reviews saying the same thing. Was severely disappointed, ended up with a evolution mitre saw, not as feature rich, and externally didn't look as well built, but I've thrown a lot at it and it's been great and accuracy seems pretty good for a budget saw, probably why they sell so many.
 
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