Dewalt recently launched new next-generation 20V Max XR cordless power tools, including a 7-1/4″ circular saw, reciprocating saw, hammer drill, and impact driver.
I have been testing the entire line – plus the new XR batteries – and thought a brief roundup might be of interest.
As discussed in earlier posts, XR tools and batteries are Dewalt’s best-performing within its 20V Max cordless power tool platform. In this post we’ll be looking at:
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- Cordless Hammer Drill (DCD1007)
- Impact Driver (DCF860)
- Reciprocating Saw (DCS384)
- Circular Saw (DCS590)
Dewalt – a ToolGuyd sponsor – supplied us with test samples of each.
Dewalt 20V Max XR Cordless Hammer Drill (DCD1007)
- Dewalt’s most powerful 20V Max hammer drill*
- 1/2″ keyless chuck
- 1530 MWO max power output
- 3 speed settings (no-load)
- 0-450 RPM | 0-8,500 BPM
- 0-1,200 RPM | 0-22,100 BPM
- 0-2,000 | 0-38,250 BPM
- 11 clutch positions
- 7.6″ length
- Weighs 4.1 lbs without battery
- Pivoting LED light with worklight mode
- Anti-Rotation sensor and shut-off
- Tool Connect Chip Ready (tag sold separately)
* based on rated MWO for Dewalt 20V MAX hammer drills currently on the market.
As with Dewalt’s preceding flagship cordless hammer drills, the newest XR has 3 speed ranges, which I have found comes in handy when using a myriad of larger drilling accessories.
I tend to use the lowest setting when I need max torque, the highest setting when I want faster drilling speeds such as with smaller twist bits, and the medium setting when I want faster drilling with larger spade bits, self-feeding bits, and similar.
The Anti-Rotation feature seems to be controlled by motion detection, rather than current draw. If the tool is rapidly rotated, such as in case of a jam or kickback event, the motor is instantly deactivated. In my testing, I did not experience any false or unintentional activations.
I found that the drill worked best when powered with the XR PowerStack 5Ah battery, or PowerPack 8Ah. I couldn’t detect much of a performance difference between the two, but I prefer the size of the PowerStack 5Ah a little better.
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Dewalt 20V Max XR Impact Driver (DCF860)
- Dewalt’s highest torque impact driver*
- 2500 in-lbs max torque
- 4500 IPM
- 3-speed mode select
- Speeds 1 & 2 match self-drilling and tapping screws
- Speed 3 for max performance
- 0-1800 / 0-2500 / 0-3800 RPM
- 4.8″ length
- Weighs 2.4 lbs without battery
- 9-LED light with 20-minute worklight mode
- Tool Connect Chip Ready (sold separately)
* based on rated max torque
I found that the DCF860 impact driver performs well with all of the XR batteries. Surprisingly, I found it to be well balanced with all of them as well, even the PowerPack 8Ah battery, which is what this impact is kitted with.
I preferred to pair the impact with a compact PowerStack battery, which drove 5/16″ x 4″ construction screw so speedily that I never felt the need to grab any of the more powerful or higher capacity batteries at my disposal.
To put it simply, the DCF860 impact has been delightful to use.
Dewalt 20V Max XR Reciprocating Saw (DCS384)
- Dewalt’s fastest cutting 20V Max reciprocating saw*
- 1-1/8″ stroke length
- 0-3000 SPM
- 17.6″ length
- Weighs 7.7 lbs without battery
- Tool Connect Chip Ready (sold separately)
* cutting 2×12 pine vs. Dewalt 20V Max full-size reciprocating saws using DW4802 blade and DCB2108 battery (sold separately)
I found the DCS384 to have familiar ergonomics. It delivered its best performance when paired with the PowerStack 5Ah and PowerPack 8Ah batteries, with a slight edge given to the PowerPack.
Dewalt 20V Max XR Circular Saw (DCS590)
- Dewalt’s most powerful 20V Max circular saw*
- 7-1/4″ blade size
- 5,500 RPM (no-load)
- 1700 MWO
- 2-9/16″ max cutting depth at 90°
- 2″ max cutting depth at 45°
- 57° max bevel angle
- Bevel stops at 45° and 22.5°
- Rafter hook
- Electronic brake
- Tool Connect Chip Ready (tag sold separately)
* with respect to rated MWO
While the DCS590 was able to complete cuts when powered with non-XR batteries, as well as the compact PowerStack battery, it delivered the best performance when paired with PowerStack 5Ah or PowerPack 8Ah batteries.
With either of these two powerful XR batteries, the new full-size circular saw plowed through cuts without any hiccups or slowdowns.
Conclusions
Both of the brushless saws have been high-performing in my testing, and felt like they truly delivered the best of what modern 18V-class cordless power tools can achieve.
The new 3-speed hammer drill feels more like an evolutionary upgrade, with what I perceived to be a huge step-up in power compared to Dewalt’s preceding models. Its Anti-Rotation feature worked well in my testing so far, and I have yet to experience any downsides.
Similarly, the new impact driver was surprisingly speedy, even when driving larger construction fasteners. It was delightful to use.
While pleased with the performance of all of Dewalt’s new XR series cordless power tools, I was more impressed with how they performed when paired with the latest XR batteries. I think you will absolutely want to have a PowerPack 8Ah battery in your kit, or at least a PowerStack 5Ah.
Thank you to Dewalt for sponsoring this exploration, and for providing the tool and battery test samples.
Jared
You’ve been busy Stuart! I’m surprised, but pleased, to see all the regular ToolGuyd content you’ve been putting out alongside all the seasonal deal coverage.
Snap any 1/4″ hex bits with that 2500in/lb impact driver during testing?
Stuart
Thanks! I try my best to mix things up this time of year. It’ll be another couple of days and the deals coverage will start to taper.
The DCF860 has 3 speed/torque settings, which tends to help me avoid broken bits or stripped screws.
With soft joints, there’s a greater risk of a screw being over-driven into wood. With hard joints, such as fastening steel plate or a bracket to wood, that’s when bits are more likely to break, when a screw won’t turn any further and the tool wants to keep turning the bit or accessory.
Multi speed settings, modern impact-rated screwdriver bits and accessories, and attention to what I’m doing helps me avoid broken bits. When time is money, and one isn’t paying as much attention to the speed of an impact, that’s when more bits will snap.
Michael Pate
I don’t know, i have been a cabinet installer contracting for multiple Home Depot locations for over 10 years. I always change the speeds on my drills according to what I’m drilling, i adjust the clutch when there is one, and speed settings whenever available and i take advantage of how pressure on the trigger adjusts speed. I always pre-drill and counter sink screws. With impacts i will drive the screw almost all the way then tap the trigger a few times to set the screw. Yet i will occasionally snap screw heads and snap driver tips. With a drill driver i will pretty much do the same thing on at the end of driving a screw i will only apply slight pressure to the trigger to sink it the rest of the way as well as using the clutch and speed settings. But again, i still occasionally snap screw heads and will still snap the occasional driver tip. As for the screws i use a lot of coarse thread drywall screws. And they are fairly brittle. You can snap one by hitting it with a hammer if it’s not at least driven flush. They snap frequently mounting countertops when you have to reach into the back of a cabinet and have to stretch instead of laying in the cabinet so you can see what your doing very well and having to apply pressure just to keep the tip in the head. But no matter what you do your going to snap driver tips occasionally. It could be from over stressing them when I’m use, manufacturing flaws, flaws in the material used etc. Or just not catching it right before the screw makes contact. Mostly i have noticed a broken screw head is the result of the screw making contact and still trying to turn d when your having to apply heavy pressure to drive the screw. And tips break when the screw makes that sudden stop and your still trying to apply torque to turn the screw. A lot of the time the bit will jump out of the slot the fall back into it and the screw will be as tight as it’s getting. At that point when the tip makes contact and the screw if frozen in place the tip will snap. The adjustments can help, but they don’t prevent it completely. The DeWalt impact ready and impact rated driver tips go a long way to helping prevent broken tips as well. And the ToughGrip do a pretty good job of preventing Cam out, as much as it can be anyway. They are getting to where the clearly understand what it is that causes the problems and are taking the steps to stop it. I have ended up with 20+ driver tip sets over the last 5 years or so. And about every tip holder they make, and multiple of several. I have one of the extra large bit cases that’s full of only driver tip holders.
Nathan
I bought that hammer driller earlier for a pergola build. Drilled 4, 5/8 x 6in deep holes in 20+yr aggregate concrete. Because I’m dumb and didn’t think I needed an rotary hammer.
Ate 2 Diablo bits. Drilled the holes pretty clean and took to the beating not one hiccup. I like the auto kickback thing but it runs well
Ran a 1/2 spade bit (Diablo again) into 2x8s on a 6 x 6 without a slow down
Supposedly runs 200 rpm faster in hammer mode.
Mr B
Is the MWO (Measured Watts Output) something new for Dewalt? Why use it instead of inch pounds as other tool manufactures do? Even Dewalt uses inch pounds for the impact driver in this posting. A bit confusing to me as watts is a measurement of power while inch pounds is a measurement of torque. I am more interest in a torque specification for a drill. It would be nice if tool manufactures would standardize on these specifications.9
Big Richard
They’ve been using Watts for years now, it’s technically a better measure of performance as it is a measure of power, work over time . Where as torque is just a measure of rotational force. A drill’s advertised peak torque may occur at 1 RPM, which means nothing in most working applications. Power gives you a better idea of how something performs in working applications (speed and torque). Same reason cars highlight horsepower.
The problem is other brands don’t use it, so it makes hard to compare. They still use torque (measured in Newton-meters) internationally. The DCD1007 drill is rated at 1495 in-lbs, for reference.
Mr B
So how do the measure MWO? Maybe with a torquemeter over a certain time period?
MM
I don’t know how Dewalt does it internally, but I’d assume they use an electric dynamometer. Basically: hook up an electric generator to the tool, the generator is connected to a known electrical load, and you can measure the voltage and current being produced by the generator. Watts = volts x amps so the power out is a simple calculation from that. Torque Test Channel on Youttube has many videos showing the basic procedure. Here’s a pretty good example
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7C1l3QEs7k
It’s the same principle as measuring the power of a car engine, just a lot simpler because it’s only dealing with about 1-2 horsepower, not hundreds.
Stuart
That’s one way to do it, but I’d think tool brands would use a dynamometer with magnetic brake, torque sensor, and speed sensor.
I think measuring voltage and current of power generation is fine for qualitative comparison, such as listing a bunch of tools in order from highest to lowest max power, but wouldn’t fly for quantitative measurements to be used in advertised power claims.
I don’t see how one can get accurate measurements without a controllable resistance, inline torque sensor, and tachometer.
I could be wrong, I’ve only looked at industrial motor and tool dyno setups, and they all involve power measurements derived from torque and speed in response to a highly controllable resistive load (such as a mag brake).
TTS is careful and consistent, and I trust their qualitative results, but not the actual numbers. It’s like measuring the power of a punch by measuring the movement of a punching bag. That can show you which punch is more powerful, but to accurately measure the actual power you can’t go by indirect methods, you’d need actual force sensors and measurements.
Stuart
Dewalt has been using UWO and MWO for a very long time.
Torque gets complicated for cordless drills because it’s usually a measure of stall torque rather than power, and sometimes a drill can only approach such values at unusably slow speeds.
Let’s say one drill has 1000 in-lbs max torque, but you can only achieve this at the low end of a 0-400 RPM speed range. Another delivers 850 in-lbs, but has a 0-600 RPM speed range. If you have a medium duty application, say something that requires 500 in-lbs max torque, which cordless drill will perform the task faster – the one with 1000 in-lbs and 0-400 RPM low end speed range, or 850 in-lbs max torque and 0-600 RPM low end speed?
With MWO, one can more easily compare across different Dewalt cordless drill/drivers. Cross-brand comparison is made more difficult, but max torque values for soft and hard joints are usually available in overseas product listings.
Objectively speaking, MWO is how ALL cordless drills should be rated, as it evens the playing field and provides a more meaningful measure of power and potential performance.
Bjorn Madsen
My old hammer drill recently crapped out on me so I waited for a fall, got a free 8ah battery with kit so two 8ah batteries for the price of one. That’s a good thing too because the 1007 seems to really suck the amps down fast. I’m a safe tech and I do a lot of drilling in steel so my drills take a beating. My old DeWalt could drill forever with a 5ah battery, I could drill a b or c rate safe with hard plate no problem. Using those same batteries this thing will run out of juice quickly. Moral of the story, make sure you get it with the 8ah battery!
Mr B
So your older tool was better? At least in that regard.
will
More pkwer draw the shorter the runtime. Everyone needs 1500 in lbs even though MOST don’t need it,but there are lesser options if you want longer runtime. Hell I’ll trade my dewalt dcd996 for your 1007 straight up if you’re unhappy with the improved power=shorter runtime.
Bern
I’m just going to assume the flexvolt sawzall and circ saw that I have will outperform these new saws.
The question is whether these new saws outperform the flexvolt advantage or power detect variants using the same battery, say, 5ah power stack or 6ah XR.
My guess is that they performed very very similarly if not identical.
So the only real excitement is the new drill and impact driver – particularly the hydraulic one!
Stuart
As I understand it, these saws are the next iteration of 20V Max FlexVolt Advantage and Power Detect models.