The cordless drill is indispensable for maintenance and repair jobs around the house and on your car or for working on gear from bikes to skis to your barbecue grill. It drills holes in wood and metal and drives screws into either material with equal enthusiasm. When equipped with a hammer option, it can even make holes in concrete, brick, and mortar. The tool’s importance and versatility are why we’re constantly testing for the best cordless drills.
Take on home improvement projects with confidence. Check our tested picks for the best hammers, cordless nail guns, and orbital power sanders.
The Best Cordless Drills
- Best Overall: DeWalt Flexvolt Advantage 20V Cordless Drill
- Best Value: Hart HPHD25 Cordless Drill
- Most Resistant to Overheating: DeWalt 20V Max DCD805 Cordless Drill
- Best American-Made: Craftsman CMCD721 Cordless Drill
- Best Turbo Mode: Flex FX1171T Cordless Drill
What to Consider
How We Tested
To evaluate each tool, we made 25 holes through Douglas fir 2 x 8 (Grade: “No. 2 and Better”) using a sharp 1-inch-wide Speedbor spade bit—the classic design without a lead screw. Next, we drove 25 lag screws. Each screw was ¼ inch in diameter and 2 inches long. Then we backed each screw out. After that, we went back to drilling holes with the spade bit until the tool’s thermal overload circuit prevented drilling. After letting the battery and the drill cool off for 15 minutes, we continued drilling until the battery died or the drill could only make its holes with difficulty. During this test, we drilled 2,070 holes and drove 525 lag screws.
This is a tough test. It takes lots of torque to send a 1-inch-wide spade bit through Douglas fir framing lumber, particularly breaking out the wood at the bottom of the hole where there is maximum friction. As rigorous as this test is, we were pleasantly surprised by some homeowner-grade models that turned in spunky performances. That is to say, you may long to buy professional-duty equipment, but there’s no sense in buying more drill than you need.
DeWalt Flexvolt Advantage 20V Cordless Drill
DeWalt Flexvolt Advantage 20V Cordless Drill
Pros
- Incredible hole-drilling power
- Three speeds for fine adjustment
- Awesome battery life
- LED spotlight with auto-off
Cons
Key Specs
| Total Test Holes Drilled | 306 |
|---|---|
| Volts | 20 |
| Battery | 6 Ah |
| Weight | 3.54 lbs. |
Our marathon champion by a wide margin is this DeWalt. Combine a highly powerful motor with a hefty 6-Ah battery and you get outsized performance. And very efficient performance, too; the big yellow drill managed more than 50 holes per Ah. The Flexvolt features king-size torque, speed, and a lack of vibration even under severe load. Its excellent trigger response allows you to fine-tune drilling speed and breakout at the bottom of the hole or reverse the bit and back out. The three-setting speed selector also enables this. If there’s wood, metal, or masonry and you need to put a hole in it (or lots of holes in it), this is an excellent choice.
Hart HPHD25 Cordless Drill
Hart HPHD25 Cordless Drill
Pros
- Inexpensive
- Spunky
- Sturdy side handle
- Hammer setting
Cons
- Tool bag is not great
Key Specs
| Total Test Holes Drilled | 40 |
|---|---|
| Volts | 20 |
| Battery | 1.5 Ah |
| Weight | 3.25 lbs. |
We were very pleasantly surprised by the Hart’s punch-above-its-price hole-making performance. While it didn’t drill as many holes as other tools, it made each one quickly and cleanly, indicating decent torque and a solid drivetrain. You get a sense of this right at the bottom of the hole, when the bit encounters maximum wood-on-metal resistance. It still needs enough torque to break through while maintaining rpm to throw the chips out of the top of the hole. The Hart did this for each of its 40 holes. Other features that provide good value are its a hammer setting for masonry hole drilling and a sturdy side handle that bolts right through the tool body. We found the handle didn’t loosen no matter how hard we pushed the drill.
DeWalt 20V Max DCD805 Cordless Drill
DeWalt 20V Max DCD805 Cordless Drill
Pros
- Battery, motor don’t heat up
- Very powerful
Cons
- Sold bare
- Heavy
Key Specs
| Total Test Holes Drilled | 160 |
|---|---|
| Volts | 20 |
| Battery | 5 Ah |
| Weight | 11.1 lbs. |
The DCD805 was the only drill in this test that ran so cool that we pushed it right to the end without any sign of thermal stress. It just went merrily about its business of blasting one hole after another, and when it was done, it was done. It didn’t even feel warm. We put it aside thinking that even if it didn’t feel cool, we’d give it a rest. Nope, it was dead.
It may not be the monstrous hole-drilling terror that the Flexvolt is (probably the most powerful cordless drill we’ve ever used), but it’s lighter and somewhat smaller than that drill. Even with the hefty 5-Ah battery we installed on it (the drill is sold bare), it weighs a relatively modest 4.2 pounds, about average or slightly less than a full-size drill. Mind you, this drill has a hammer function at that weight. Many less capable drills weigh that without the hammer function. That ability enlarges the drill’s spectrum to making holes in masonry.
Craftsman CMCD721 Cordless Drill
Pros
- High torque
- Lightweight
Cons
- Battery latch is a bit stiff
Key Specs
| Total Test Holes Drilled | 48 |
|---|---|
| Volts | 20 |
| Battery | 2 Ah |
| Weight | 2.71 lbs. |
We live in an era where “made in America” tends to be more the exception than the rule. So it was a distinct pleasure to open the Craftsman box and slide out a neatly sewn tool bag bearing an American-made drill driver with two batteries and a charger. It was even more pleasant to use the tool. It churned through 48 holes. That’s 24 holes per amp hour of battery capacity, a respectable efficiency. Its lightweight, high torque, comfortable control surfaces such as its handle, switches and chuck, and its hole-drilling performance all combine to make this not only a good buy in the power tool market, but a power tool worthy to identify itself as made here.
Flex FX1171T Cordless Drill
Pros
- Professional-duty
- Anti-kickback feature
Cons
- Heavy
Key Specs
| Total Test Holes Drilled | 229 |
|---|---|
| Volts | 24 |
| Battery | 5-Ah |
| Weight | 8.92 lbs. |
Flex, short for Flex Elektrowerkzeuge, is a German power tool company muscling its way into the American market. And when we say “muscling in,” we’re not kidding. We’ve tried a batch of these tools (drills, saws, rotary hammers and grinders) and find them to be formidable competitors in the professional segment. The FX1171T blasted out its hole allotment, helped by its turbo mode setting that bumps up the top speed from 2,000 to 2,500 rpm.
Also helping was the tool’s circuitry, which has an anti-kickback feature. We can’t fully vouch for that particular feature, but we can say that we pushed this Flex very hard and noticed no kick back; the drill will pause momentarily if you really lean into it (call it a reset). You should know that this is clearly a heavy-duty tool intended for people who need maximum power and run time.
The FX1171T, with a 5-Ah battery, was the heaviest of the drills (5.8 pounds). The other large-battery tools were the DeWalt (5.4 pounds) and the Makita (5.2 pounds), and these were also pro-duty, intended for either serious do-it-yourselfers or contractors. But as to the tool’s weight, we don’t count that as a mark against it. If you need this much power tool muscle you just need to have some muscle of your own.
Pros
- Outstanding speed and power
- Precise torque control
- Easily legible labeling
Cons
- Heavy
- Bulky
Key Specs
| Total Test Holes Drilled | 218 |
|---|---|
| Volts | 40 |
| Battery | 2.5 Ah |
| Weight | 5.2 lbs. |
The fastest in this test was the Makita. Using this drill, you feel like somebody just tossed you the keys to their Ferrari. Pull its trigger (floor it, if you will), and you just burn through one hole after another until the battery is done. So long as you keep that trigger pulled, it will just churn through hole after hole. Knots don’t stop it and barely slow it down. It’s almost ridiculously fast. Okay, it didn’t bore the most holes in this test, but it did get to its number faster than anything else.
The GPH01D is the first tool we’ve tried in Makita’s new 40-volt XGT series, power tools with 40-volt motors but batteries that are the same size as a large 18-volt. Fortunately, the tool has great control because all that power would be useless without being able to handle it properly. Its trigger response is superb. Balancing that with its electronic speed control that maintains motor speed under load put us in the driver seat (okay, we’ll stop here with the sports car analogies). That’s helpful drilling wood, but even more important drilling steel, where it’s far more difficult to balance the variables of motor speed, bit diameter, and steel hardness and thickness.
This Makita’s engineering is masterful in other ways. Instead of a clutch ring, like a normal drill, it has electronic drive torque control. Turn a knob just above its battery to set the torque limit of the clutch to disengage the drivetrain and motor. The absence of a manual clutch ring at the front of the drill simplifies set up for drilling, driving, or hammer drilling. Three large icons (a hammer, a screw, and a drill bit) are easy to see, and this helps to quickly adjust the drill to the appropriate setting.
It should be obvious that this drill is not petite. Although the drill is the same size as a large 18-volt drill, it is heavier than most of its competitors. With the 2.5-Ah battery, it weighs 5.2 pounds.
Ridgid R86115K Cordless Drill
Ridgid R86115K Cordless Drill
Pros
- Very powerful
- Lightweight
- Rigid feel
Cons
Key Specs
| Total Test Holes Drilled | 110 |
|---|---|
| Volts | 18 |
| Battery | 4 Ah |
| Weight | 7.8 lbs. |
We marked off knots in our test lumber by drawing across the board with a square and a carpenter’s pencil and then scribbled out the areas to be sure we didn’t drill into them. When we saw how readily the Ridgid could make a hole, we didn’t really feel the need to steer clear of knots. The Ridgid made a hole, knot or no. We were particularly impressed by how easily it cleared the bottom of the hole.
Generally speaking, that’s where most drills run into trouble. The combination of friction and the build up of wood chips can bog down the best of drills. No problem for the Ridgid. It sailed through the bottom of the hole, the center, and the top. Its lag driving is equally good, and when we set the speed selector switch to 1 (low speed, high torque), it backed out the most stubbornly driven lag screws without a hint of difficulty.
Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V Cordless Drill
Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V Cordless Drill
Pros
- Versatile
- Dampens vibrations
- Awesome grip
Cons
- Needs more torque for big holes made with a spade bit
Key Specs
| Total Test Holes Drilled | 102 |
|---|---|
| Volts | 18 |
| Battery | 4 Ah |
| Weight | 2.8 lbs. |
To be clear, we call this a stubborn drill lovingly. The ONE+ HP 18V is a competent maker of holes and driver of screws. It’s fairly easy for a drill to make a one-inch-diameter hole through ¾-inch thick white pine. But at the bottom of a 1.5-inch-deep hole in Douglas fir, just before the bit punches through, that’s where the trouble starts. That’s why we use that test, frankly. Many drills will stall there. The Ryobi did, too.
The good news is that it also has a strong headedness that allows it to persevere, hole after hole. It kept going and didn’t shut off due to thermal overload. In the end, that feature and a 4-Ah battery helped the tool rack up a lot of holes. We consider anything over 100 holes in this test to deserve a rating of somewhere in the pro to prosumer range of power tools. If it makes that number easily, it’s a pro tool. If it labors, it’s prosumer. There are many other features to like on the Ryobi, such as a sturdy side handle, a comfortable grip, good balance, and a lack of vibration as it goes about its work.
Worx WX102L Cordless Drill
Worx WX102L Cordless Drill
Pros
- Best suited to small jobs
- Lightweight
Cons
- Not made for drilling with large spade bits
Key Specs
| Total Test Holes Drilled | 35 |
|---|---|
| Volts | 20 |
| Battery | 2 Ah |
| Weight | 5.63 lbs. |
This drill is part of Worx’s Nitro power tools, a line of equipment to which we’ve given high marks. Like the smaller Ryobi above, this drill also had a problem with the one-inch spade bit test in Douglas fir. That’s not surprising. But this is a likable power tool because it’s light and reasonably powerful for its size. We think it’s likely a good fit for furniture assembly, small repairs, and installation jobs like hanging closet rods and blinds. We actually like the fact that it lacks a hammer mechanism, which keeps its weight down. It’s unlikely you would need a hammer function in this class of product, and many homeowners don’t need it anyway. If you want a heavier drill with hammer action, Worx makes a Nitro version of that, too.
Roy Berendsohn has worked for more than 25 years at Popular Mechanics, where he has written on carpentry, masonry, painting, plumbing, electrical, woodworking, blacksmithing, welding, lawn care, chainsaw use, and outdoor power equipment. When he’s not working on his own house, he volunteers with Sovereign Grace Church doing home repair for families in rural, suburban and urban locations throughout central and southern New Jersey.
