Source
r/Tools•
MJGSimple

Question: Better quality drills == hammer drills?

My father in law gave me a couple of his old DeWalt drills a couple years and I've used those pretty close to the end of their life. I am going to take on a few bigger projects this summer and I was planning on buying some new drills. However, my knowledge of drills was regular drill and then impact drill. Now, I'm looking at drills and there are drills, hammer drills, and impact drills. The super cheap brands seem to have regular drills, but as the quality starts to go up, it looks like everything is hammer drill and regular drills don't exist for better brands. Then there are impact drills separately.

I looked into the difference between hammer and impact drills and I understand the difference, but it doesn't really speak to getting a good quality regular drill. I certainly don't need a super legit hammer drill. I'm just working with wood.

Are the new hammer drills the same as regular drills?
Do you just turn off the hammer setting when you need a good 'ol regular drill?

Posted May 17, 2021, 8:09 PM UTC

310
Misanthropyandme•

Hammer mode is turned off and on. It's extra cost/weight if you don't need it.

7
ASworkshop•

Combi drills= usually cordless. They have a setting for drilling, a setting for driving screws with an adjustable clutch so you can vary the torque and usually a hammer setting for masonry.

These are what most people think of as the standard drill

Hammer drill= usually refers to a more powerful corded drill with a hammer setting you can turn off/on. Good for drilling but not driving screws.

SDS drill= a corded hammer drill on steroids

Impact driver= essentially a very powerful but compact screw driver.

I would get a cordless combi drill. That will do anything you need it to unless you plan on heavy masonry drilling.

3
MJGSimpleOP•

Gotcha, so "Drill/Driver" is distinct from "Hammer Drill". That's the distinction I wasn't getting. I also looked up a bunch of YouTube lists and they mix everything in, so it was a bit weird.

1
ASworkshop•

Yeah drill/ driver means a combi drill. And although they usually have a hammer setting I would call a corded drill a hammer drill.

Different manufacturers and stores use different names for everything though which makes it a bit confusing.

1
Sneezer•

I would agree, a good combi drill would be best for most people. Check the specs and price - sometimes the combi drills with hammer settings tend to have more robust internals, or have greater torque settings. Even if you never use the hammer setting, you might see more oomph in your normal drill/driver use. Manufacturers also tend to make the drill/driver units more compact, while the drill/driver/hammer ones are a little bigger, mostly in length. This could make a difference in comfort and balance.

It is helpful to have an impact driver in addition to a drill. the impact driver makes running screws and lag bolts so much easier.

2
AtLeastMyWifeIsHot•

Hammer drills are used to drill through concrete. If you aren’t doing that, don’t get one.

1
manopath•

And a good one just for drilling blocks and concrete if you are, combination drills are lacking in the hammer action (and proper torque and speed control). You’ll be paying for the lackluster performance in that department while having to deal with the extra weight.

1
shazzkid•

Fff1

0
MJGSimpleOP•

Most brands opt for building combi drills, which have a drill function (twist only, max torque), a hammer drill function (twist and hammer, max torque), and screwdriver function (twist only, variable torque). These are switched between very easily, just twist the collar to the mode you want to use.

Yeah, this is what I was wondering/not getting. "Back in my day" all were distinct, but it seems they're throwing everything into the higher end drills now (although as you point out not all at real functional levels). I was basing this off YouTube videos and lists on websites, not visiting the manufacturer sites. I now see that you can still get a regular drill from the manufacturers, but all the YouTube lists seem to go with the combo drills.

I don't know what you mean by impact drill, i can only assume that you meant impact wrench or driver, or that some people call a hammer drill an impact drill.

impact drill == impact driver. I guess, it's same concept as the impact wrench except with a hex socket instead of a square drive.

1
HodorsMajesticUnit•

The brushless drills are the better quality drills. Spending even more on a drill doesn't make your steak taste better or keep your beer colder. If you want to get a drill with hammer drill mode it's fine but you really should not feel like you're getting a second-rate drill because it lacks that feature. Those drills cost more because they are more complicated to make.

Having an impact driver as a second unit is very useful because you're often drilling holes and driving screws, so you don't need to switch bits back and forth, and the bits are easier to put in. With an impact driver, the hex-shaped bits mean you never have the problem that a small bit gets caught in the wood and the chuck just spins around the bit.

If you are doing a lot of concrete work, a $130 rotary hammer from Harbor Freight (which is NOT the same as a hammer drill) will probably enter your tool rotation at which point your combi drill is just a bigger, heavier more expensive drill.

1