Buying a Lithium Drill

Lithium drills are really making an impact on thehigher voltage tools with lighter weight.
cordless tool market, and with good reason.Remember, voltage equals power, mah equals the
Lithium drills offer the power we all want, with thegas tank of the battery. So, if you are using a 12
weight savings and run time that we need tovolt now, a 18 volt or even a 36 volt lithium drill
make a cordless drill work for us.will offer you much more power and still have the
All of the major tool maker have a lithium drillsame run time of you 12 volt with close to the
available now, so you have many to chose from.same weight.
I never tell my contractors what color tool theyWhat is the down side of a lithium drill? The first
like, I just give them the pros and cons of thething that always comes to mind is cost. The
brands I sell and let them chose their favorite.good news is as more and more lithium drills hit
This article will give you some info on lithium drillsthe market, the cost is dropping. One other thing
that will hopefully help you make a good decisioninherent to lithium drills is problems that can occur
and understand some of the traits of lithium drills.in cold weather. Lithium batteries don't like a large
Lithium batteries are very different from thedemand (load) in very cold weather. If you live a
NiCad and NIMH batteries you have used in thecolder climate, you will need to warm up the
past. They can pack a lot more energy in abatteries. It may be as simple as putting the
smaller package and understanding what they canbattery in your pocket or just slowly running the
and can't do in a lithium drill may save you somedrill with no load until the "juice" gets flowing.
frustration.Knowing this going in will save you a lot of
One of the cool features of a lithium drill is thatfrustration with your new lithium drill.
the drill maintains it's power until the battery isMany people think that new battery technology is
drained then it just quits. With this in mind, if youjust planned obsolescence to get you to buy a
get to the site and your battery is dead, if younew tool. Think that if you will, but the new lithium
charge it for 5-10 minutes, you will have fulldrills really are in a class in themselves compared
power (I said full power, not full run time. Youto the NiCad and NIMH tools. Older DeWalt tools
need the full charge for both!). This is a great traitcan actually use the new lithium batteries in them.
of the lithium drill and many trades and serviceIf you are in the market for a new cordless drill,
techs will benefit from this feature.consider a lithium drill. The pricing is going down,
A lithium drill is much lighter than a comparable drillthe performance is going up.
of the same voltage. This allows you to use