I enjoy home improvement work. Not complicated things like building an addition or tearing off a roof, but typical do-it-yourself type projects like remodeling kitchens, fixing up bathrooms, a general maintenance around the house. Over the years, I’ve collected lots of tools: both hand tools and power tools. Some of my favorite tools are my cordless tools. They give me the freedom to move around the house and fix things quickly and easily. And probably the most useful tool of all would be my cordless drill.

My first cordless drill was a Makita 9.6 V model. At the time it was state-of-the-art. With it I could work for sometimes up to an hour without having to change batteries. Back then, we learn to have plenty of spare battery packs since they didn’t last very long. And if I had a big project finish that took several hours I was constantly changing and charging batteries.

My next upgrade was to a Porter cable 12 V drill. Even though it was only 2.4 volts more powerful, it lasted much longer than was much more powerful. This was due to the fact that battery technology has improved greatly in the several years that I owned a Makita. But, like all cordless tools, batteries only last so long. So I was again faced with having several batteries and a couple of chargers to keep this tool running all day long.

My latest drill is an 18 V model. Even though this has 50% more power than my old 12 V model, it doesn’t seem much more powerful and certainly doesn’t seem to last any longer. In fact, I find that I use my 12 V drill more frequently than this newer 18 V one. My old Porter cable is a little bit lighter and seems to be balanced better than the new one. Using them for hours on end, I think that balance and weight are more important that battery life.

So if you are shopping for a new cordless drill, don’t just buy the one with the most volts thinking that it is the best tool for you. You really need to pick them up and see how they feel in your hand. While battery life is important, if the tool is a comfortable to use, you won’t be using it to its fullest potential. I have a toolbox full of old tools but I don’t use because I don’t like the way they feel or they are too tiring to use.

One other feature to look for in a new drill is a small light. I saw this on a newer craftsman drill and it does work quite well. When you’re drilling a hole in the low-light situation, it helps to have some extra light. These tools have a small blue white LED mounted near the front of the tool that shines a light where you are drilling. This doesn’t draw much battery power and really helps with productivity and accuracy.