Any suggestions on what drill to buy?
It's got to be a 24 volt drill though, as I plan on only buying the drill and purchasing four 12V batteries as replacements.
Is one drill really better than another these days? I used a Makita on Friday and got 22 holes (75 x 10mm) from a single battery charge; variable speed; reverse, normal and locked settings, all round a powerful drill that is geared specifically (from what I experienced) towards rock-work.
Anyone know what the cheapest 24v on the market is right now?

For those interested, UPAT have a new 4 head drill bit that are apparantly an improvement over the 3 head bits with which there were quality issues. Apparantly they are around R90 and will give double the holes of the R45 bits - so I guess the only real advantage is that you won't need to replace the bits as often. Unfortunately they have no 10mm in stock yet but should become available.

Hi Stu

I don't understand your 4 x 12V battery statement. Please explain what you mean. I have a Hilti TE2A. This is a 24V drill. It is fantastic for 10mm holes, but battles a bit with 12mm (ARF glue ins) holes in very hard rock. In my view Hilti is the real deal and all other drills are wannabees. They are seriously expensive though. If I was to purchase again and money was not an issue I would buy a 36V TE7A. That said I have used the MCSA Makita and that too is not bad.

See also What drill ? & Drills ????

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Climb ZA - Administrator

I have had 24V Ramsets & currently have an 18V Matabo & a 36V Hilti. All work, all drill holes, none are crap. But Hilti is the best.

Ok here's the deal:
At the moment I've got a 36V Hilti TE10A using 3 linked 12V Panasonic alarm batteries. It actually works like a bomb and has never run out of juice if my memory serves me correct, with the most holes drilled in a day around 40 or so from one charge.
Problem is it that with the three batteries it's a little heavy - so I thought by buying a new and improved 24V model it could lighten the load somewhat, and when bolting something longer by just adding one more 12V battery to the pack I should be able to get more holes if need be with two batteries.
But after reading the comments in those other links it seems this would be a bad idea as it could potentially ruin your drill and void the warranty. Does this apply to all the newer 24V models?

@Russell - Yeah what I mean is - link 2 12V together for a 24V power source, so 4 12V = 2 24V.