Types of Cordless Drill Driver Tools

It can get confusing on choosing a cordless drill tool. Nowadays there are cordless drill, hammer drill, impact drill, impact driver, impact wrench, compact drill, and cordless screwdriver. Many of them appear similar physically. What are they? How are they different? Which is the best one?

Roughly speaking, the cordless drill driver is a general-purpose tool and the others are specialized tools. They are similar yet different. Each one has its strength and advantage.

The Right Tool For The Job

Among the most commonly found tools in stores is the cordless drill driver. It's straightforward to use and is applicable to a wide range of tasks. Home owners shopping for a do-it-all tool that handles regular household repair/construction jobs will be pleased with this one.

The cordless impact drivers specializes in driving long screws and large bolts. Because of this tool's high-torque capability, pre-drilling pilot holes is not necessary for screwing. It has so small a body, yet packs so much driving power inside! When it comes to relatively large projects, such as gate, fencing, deck, cabinet, you-name-it; they cannot challenge this little giant. It's actually too powerful for small projects.

The cordless impact wrench is very similar to the impact driver. The main visible difference is that the impact driver has a hex socket head, while the impact wrench has a square stem head. This stem head can connect to sockets of various sizes that are mainly used for vehicle tire work - removing or installing lug nuts. That's the impact wrench's specialty job.

A hammer drill uses an unique clutch to drive the drill bit back and forth while it spins. It specializes in drilling holes in masonry or stone. The hammering action on most of these drills can be turned off for standard drilling. So a hammer drill is basically a cordless drill driver with an added hammering feature.

Bosch introduced SDS hammer drills to the market in 1975. SDS means Special Direct System. They are professionals cordless hammer drill, so to speak. They require special SDS drill bits made specifically for these drills. These bits are more robust than the regular bits, and have a slip-reducing feature for better safety.

The right angle drill is a cordless drill with an unique body geometry. Its head is at 90 degrees to the body, reducing virtually the the length of the tool. The shortened length in this dimension allows it to work in some cramped spaces that otherwise can't be done. For instance, inside a cabinet there may be an area with 10 inches of clearance. The right-angle drill can get in there and drill/drive. Other tools can't because of the space restriction.

Compact drill and cordless screwdriver are tiny versions of the cordless drill driver. Small, feather-weight, and powerfull enough to handle most common jobs, they are a pleasure to use. If you do small projects like changing the overhead smoke alarm's battery, fix a door lock, upgrade a computer hardware component, then this is the tool of choice. The regular cordless drill is a little bulky for such jobs.

Which Tool Is The Best Choice?

Having trouble deciding which tool is the best choice? Or which brand is the best quality? It's actually not much of problem in terms of quality because most of the name-brand drill tools are rated good to excellent.

Here is a suggestion. If I were a new buyer and have no clue what to choose, I would get a compact or pocket drill driver. If I were a hobbist, dabbling in occasional DIY projects, I also would get a compact or pocket drill driver.

If I were a serious home-improvement DIY warrior, I would get a cordless drill driver. Possibly a hammer drill if budget allows. Impact driver if I have no budget limitation.

The combination set of cordless drill / impact driver is a great choice for professionals or semi-pros. If the cordless drill driver can be a cordless hammer drill that would be even better. Lithium battery would be icing on the cake.