I have had numerous cordless drills including the Milwaukee 18v NiCad powered ones and I was eager to give this lithium-ion powered model a go. I had been using a Makita that was light and powerful for its size but with masonry it just did not have enough power. the M18 is supposed to be the most powerful of its type and uses a new battery technology that unfortunately prevents using one's old V18 battery packs or old NiCad batteries with this drill. This was not a problem with the V18 drills but is with these.
The power is excellent in some circumstances, for example driving deck screws one after another where it excels. When it is used in high torque situations though its internal electronics kill the power causing the drill to start and stop frequently. No doubt an overload protection for the lithium ion battery pack but it is poorly implemented. I was using a Blue Boar TCT stucco bit to cut a 4" hole in a stucco wall and the 5/8" OSB sheathing behind it and the Milwaukee would stall repeatedly. I ended up finishing the hole with a much lighter duty Makita 18v lithium ion drill that was slower going but it did not keep stalling or shutting off like the Milwaukee M18 drill.
BLUE BOAR 4" (102mm) Stucco-Brick & Wood Tungsten Carbide Tipped TCT Hole Saw with 4" shank (M16 Thread), 10mm carbide pilot bit, ejection spring
I was even having trouble with one of the incredible Blue Boar TCT hole cutters in cutting a 2" hole in 1-1/8" OSB. The drill cut the hole in about 5 seconds but it stopped and restarted 3 times during that 5 seconds. The LED light which is a really nice feature also cuts out when the power to the motor is stopped.
BLUE BOAR 2" (51mm) Self-Feed TCT 2-1/4" deep multipurpose Tungsten Carbide hole cutter outlasts and outperforms self-feed bits and bi-metal hole saws. Cut wood, MDF, OSB, laminates, Hardie & chipboard, plaster, drywall, plastics, brick, Formica
I tried one of the Lenox One Tooth 2-1/8" hole saws with the Milwaukee M18 and it was not something I ever plan to repeat. Between the Lenox hole saw's jerky cutting action and the drill cutting out I never felt like I was in complete control which is not fun when using a power tool
I tried using the drill with a regular bi-metal hole saw on particle board and as one would expect the wood started to burn while the hole saw was cutting through. It took about 40 seconds to cut the hole, or about 12 times as long as with a modern TCT hole cutter - which was no surprise. What was surprising is that after this single hole it took 25 minutes to re-charge the battery on the drill. Part of this is the inefficiency of the hole saw and part of it is due to the charger design.
The Makita 18v lithium-ion drill I have has batteries that recharge in 15 minutes using the Makita charger. With the Milwaukee M18 batteries it takes 30-60 minutes to get them fully charged. The only difference that is obvious is that the Makita charger has a fan to cool the internal transformer so maybe it allows it to operate at a higher charge level without overheating. What is great with the quick re-charging time of the Makita battery packs is that I can use lighter weight ones knowing that I can swap it out for a second that only needs to carry me 15 minutes while the other recharges. So I can use two small Makita battery packs more effectively than the Milwaukee M18 battery packs and have a lighter drill to use.
The side handle is a new design and it really is not an improvement over the old one. The new one does not wrap around the drill but instead clamps across two recessed areas in the drill. This enable the overall drill to be an inch shorter which is good, but it also means that it can only be used at a 90 degree angle from the drill. For a angle grinder having a 90 degree handle angle is standard and not a problem. With a drill where I want to be able to use the second handle not to support the weight of the tool with my other hand, but to control the twisting of the drill, it is much more effective to have the second handle at about a 60 degree offset from the drill. This is important then dealing with materials or large hole cutters where the bit can catch and the drill wants to spin around in the opposite direction with me still holding it. I much prefer the old Milwaukee design which is still used by DeWalt for its cordless drills.
The Milwaukee case is as strong as any made and much nicer than the ones DeWalt provides with its drills. Like the DeWalt cases and those from most other manufacturers there is no space left for anything other than the drill, the charger, and the spare battery. I would like a case to have room for a small twist drill kit and a retracting screw holder and a few extra insert bits.
Milwaukee also repeats the Makita insanity by showing a picture of a belt clip and a bit holder on the side of the drill but not including it with the kit. Instead, as with Makita, one has to special order these two items (along with attachment screws and a special washer for 4 special order items in total) and with shipping and handling pay more than $20 which is simply outrageous for parts that would add less than $0.50 to the cost to produce the kit and I would rather pay $5.00 extra at the store than $20 later to special order these parts.
The charger uses an intuitive light scheme. When charging a battery pack there is a red light and when it is finished a green light goes on. This is good except that it appears that you cannot top the batteries as when they are only slightly discharged from a small job the light still appears green. In actuality it is a good idea (per the manual) to leave it for up to 6 hours where it will balance the charge state of the individual cells in the pack (helps to read the instructions).
One nice touch by the Milwaukee engineer (that survived the bean counters) was the plug which has a slot for a second cord to be plugged in so you can use one outlet for two devices - just like the old IBM computer power cords. Often at job sites workers are competing for the available outlets or using a single extension cord to drive a corded drill or sawzall or circular saw and being able to always plug in the charger without using a needed outlet is very handy and something other manufacturers should copy. It is like the Rigid angle grinders that have a LED light on the power cord so you can easily verify that everything is plugged in and working. A five-cent solution that works and yet these are the kinds of things that one wishes other manufacturers' engineers and product designers would see and think we should do this as well - but they seldom do.
This is true with regard to the LED lights that go on with the M18 when the trigger is depressed. Very handy for finding a screw head in less than ideal light, as in an attic or crawl space or even in the corner where the work area is in your shadow. I have even used it in a pinch to light bubble level which in the past would have meant having to use a small flashlight. Once you have used a drill with this feature it will become a "must have" item. The Milwaukee M18 has twin LED lights which may seem like no big deal but they do throw more light and it is another refinement over the standard single LED light provided with the DeWalt drills for example.
Overall a great tool with a serious defect, the protection circuitry for the power pack. This is a powerful drill that is often crippled by its own overly conservative engineering in this area. I have Makita and Hitachi cordless drills that use lithium-ion battery packs and do not have this shortcoming so it is not inherent to the use of lithium-ion, just short sighted engineers who took an overly simplistic approach with the M18. The older V18 drills may not have this defect but Milwaukee is transition to the M18 batteries so availability of replacement V18 batteries may be a problem in the future. For light to medium duty use the Makita's provide a better combination of features and performance.
For heavy duty use the new DeWalt XRP 18v lithium-ion cordless driver drill does not have the power cut-out problems of the Milwaukee M18, has the traditional wrap around second handle for infinite positioning, a LED light, and a much improved carry case (over those it provides for its other tools when it even provides a carry case at all). The DeWalt XRP does not have as nice a balance in the hand as the Milwaukee M18 and according to its specs it is not nearly as powerful, but in actual use it works better and delivers more of its torque to the drill or hole cutter being used.
Get more detail about Milwaukee 2602-22CT M18 18-Volt Cordless 1/2-Inch Hammer Drill/Driver Kit.
