Black & Decker 18V Cordless Hammer Drill Review

Black & Decker is a great brand that has a longstanding reputation for excellent products at modest price points. In this review I’ll be looking at their 18V cordless hammer drill.

Feature Set

As is the case these days with cordless tools, the battery that comes with the drill can be used in other Black & Decker items, which is a nice bonus and you don’t need to have multiple different batteries all over the place.

I put the drill through some pretty heavy use and I got just over an hour out of the battery. Considering that you wouldn’t be constantly using it, this should see you through quite a lot of work before you need to recharge it. The charging time for the battery is three hours, which isn’t too bad. Of course, there is a charger included in the storage box for it.

One of the features that really drew me to this model is the fact that there are 10 different torque settings. This means that you can use it as a screwdriver for simple tasks, as well as drilling into steel, wood and also masonry. This is achieved by the drill using a hefty metal motor in it which has a maximum RPM of 1400 which is pretty substantial!

The drill also doesn’t feel overly heavy or cumbersome. Some cordless drills can feel pretty unwielding and cause hand fatigue. I never had either of these problems with this drill.

Results

During my testing, I used it as a screwdriver, as well as drilling through wood and also steel which I was able to do several times. With respect to masonry, I was only able to drill two holes with it, but it did a great job at it.

With respect to the wood and steel, I drilled ten holes in short succession and each time, the finish was flawless. I particularly liked the keyless chuck on the drill which meant it was really quick to swap out the drill bits, and it also meant that I can’t possibly lose the key for the chuck, either. Some people have said that they’ve had issues with the drill bit getting stuck in the chuck but I didn’t experience this in any of my testing.

When I was using it as a screwdriver, it was really easy to control the speed of the bit to the point that I wasn’t worried that I would wreck the head of the screw. I’ve used drills before which have been touted as a screwdriver as well, and it butchered the screw head so it’s great to see that the Black & Decker can fulfil this purpose.

Due to the results I got from it, I would be more than happy to use this time and again for light to medium work. It should be noted that if you’re going to be doing a lot of masonry work, I’d probably opt for a different model, but if it’s only light work then you’d be fine with this model. Having said that, at no point did I feel that this was underpowered.

Value For Money

For the price of this on its own without a drill bit kit (often found for under £50 online), you can’t argue with the price at all. Not only did it  handle the tasks I put it through, it excelled in them. This is something the more expensive hammer drills could take note of.

In terms of drill bits, I would recommend using the ones that Black & Decker make to ensure complete compatibility. It would have been nice if even a few bits were included in the kit, but at this price point, it’s picking hairs.

Sale

BLACK+DECKER 18 V Cordless 2-Gear Combi Hammer Drill Power Tool with Kitbox, 1.5 Ah Lithium-Ion, BCD700S1K-GB

• A compact two gear combi drill for all screw driving, drilling and hammer drilling into wood, metal and masonry

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Last update on 2023-06-10 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API