Dremel’s new 8200 cordless rotary tool is powered by a brand new 12V-max Li-ion battery, making it the fastest and most powerful cordless tool of its kind. The 8200 is not exactly compact, but its battery allows it to be used for many jobs where a corded tool would be inconvenient or impossible to use.
We are avid fans of Dremel’s rotary tools, so when we found out they were releasing this new 12V model, we had to try it out! For this hands-on review, we used the 8200 for all types of cutting, grinding, and sanding jobs we would typically use a corded Dremel for.
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Features
- Variable speed 5,000 – 30,000 RPM
- Separate on/off switch and speed control
- Comfort grip
- Battery fuel gauge
- 1 hour 12V-max charger
- Electronic brake
Design & First Impressions
My first impression of the Dremel 8200 was “wow, it’s big.” Although its product description lists the 8200 as “slim” and “compact”, I wonder what Dremel was comparing it to. Yes it is slimmer than previous models, but it’s nowhere near as slim as a flex shaft. That said, the tool has a very solid feel to it. It is easy to grip, and the rubbery grip has a secure non-slip feel to it. I had some concern about the rubber grip being a dust magnet, but it’s not – it cleans easily.
I did notice one thing about the tool’s design that I was less than happy about – there is no way for a user to replace the motor brushes. I’m not sure what this will mean in the long run, but it’s something to keep in mind. Dremel’s corded models usually feature access panel that make it easy to install user-replaceable brushes.
Switches & Controls
Dremel’s engineers have definitely put some thought into redesiging the switches and knobs. I don’t remember there ever being a collet lock that was quite this easy to hold. The power switch is a slide toggle, and is very easy to operate, even with a gloved hand. Gone is the dial speed control that you may be used to. Instead, this model features a new sliding switch that moves with ease but not by itself. The speed control slider is set in a recess, which reduces the chance of accidentally moving it from its setting.
Performance
The first time we used the 8200, we discovered that it has an electronic brake. This feature isn’t mentioned in the tool’s product description, but it is definitely a welcome touch.
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Dremel was not kidding when they said they designed the 8200 to be ergonomic. No matter how I changed my grip, the tool felt comfortable and secure to hold and use. The 8200 is a bit bulky though, so if you’re looking for a lightweight cordless rotary tool for delicate or detail work, check out the 7.2V Dremel Stylus instead.
We used the 8200 to sand, grind, cut, polish, and shape wood, plastic, aluminum and steel sheet metal. Our finding: the 8200 really hauls. I don’t know where Dremel is getting the extra power from, but the 8200 performs nearly as well as a corded rotary tool.
Battery, Charger & Case
Based on the design similarities between Dremel and Bosch’s 12V batteries, the two sister companies swapped a few cordless secrets between themselves. It looks like this cooperation is already bearing additional new products.
Hopefully Dremel will eventually follow Bosch’s examples and bundle their cordless tools with soft cases instead of awkwardly designed blow molded cases. I would much rather have more open space for a second battery and additional accessories than the special special dedicated for the charger.
Dremel includes a modest starter selection of accessories with the 8200 kits, but not as many as a beginner might need. Beginners should factor in an additional $20 into the price for one or two general purpose or specialty accessory kits.
Conclusion & Recommendations
It looks like the Dremel 8200 cordless rotary tool can really hold its own against corded models, and it blows older cordless versions straight out of the water. This is reason enough to give the 8200 a glowing recommendation. Not only does it provide heaps of power, Dremel’s new 12V-max Li-ion battery holds up for a very decent amount of time (we’re still testing it to come up with a repeatable number).
The sample we tested (8200-1/28) included a single 12V-max battery, but there is also a kit that includes two (8200-2/28). One battery packs enough of a charge to last for quite a few small operations. If you plan on using the tool for a long time, consider the two battery kit or a corded rotary tool.
We are quite pleased with the Dremel 8200. For the first time, Dremel has actually produced a cordless rotary tool that can be used interchangeably with corded models. All of the accessories and attachments should fit, and the 8200 has more than enough muscle to keep up. The 8200 is one heck of a comfortable and powerful solidly built rotary tool that we have absolutely no issues with. In other words, we definitely recommend it!
The two 8200 combo kits are available now and are priced at about $100 and $150 for the one and two battery kits. The 2-battery kit also includes a right angle attachment that is ordinarily priced at $20 separately.
Dremel 8200-1/28 Cordless Rotary Tool Kit via Amazon
Dremel 8200-2/28 Cordless Rotary Tool Kit via Amazon
Dremel unconditionally provided the product sample featured in this review. Review samples are typically given away, donated to a local charity, or in certain cases retained for future review/benchmarking/comparison purposes.
We’ve added a photo gallery on the next page if you’d like to check it out:
tk mckenzie
i would be able 2 use the dremil on the spot any and every where. add detailed textures and patterns for sculpting. if i had the right ends ild be able to shape rock/stone to the shape i wanted, do bone carvings etc in ma work shed az iv got no power points or electricity in the shed. it would save a whole lot of mess being made in the back room ov the house.ps my work shed is atleast 50 meters away from the closest power point
Grant
Hi there.
Could you do me a big favour and blog the exact specs of that battery and charger?
I’m a Dremel reseller in New Zealand and we have the 8200 but in 10.8V version. My Rep says that our 10.8V and the 12V max are one and the same and it’s just the Dremel Marketing Machine that came up with the 12V Max for the US market. The problem is all my customers want the 12V Max, because that’s what the Interweb is awash with.
The specs on our machine are as follows, please tell me if they are the same as yours?
Markings on Charger
3.6V – 10.8V 1.5A Li
Markings on Battery
2607336867
Li-ion 10.8V 14Wh 1.3Ah
Dremel Europe
Battery Pack 875
Any help appreciated!
Stuart
The battery pack on the Dremel 8200 model 875 battery is marked 10.8V/12V Max, 1.3ah.
Your rep is correct – 10.8V and 12V Max are the same thing. When these tools all started coming out a few years ago, brands marketed their tools as “10.8V”. Then a few brands started marketing their tools as “12V” to gain a marketing advantage. After that, everyone started advertising their tools as “12V”. Now, it looks like they all settled in an agreement with each other and are marketing their tools as “12V Max”.
Essentially 12V Max means 10.8V nominal, so you can assure your customers that they’re getting the same thing whether the box says 12V Max or 10.8V.
Matt
That is correct. 10.8 vs 12v max they are the same thing. I worked for one of the major power tool companies for nine years. Hell I worked for Bosch who owns Dremel.
Grant
That’s a huge help and thanks for getting back to me so quick.
After I posted the question I charged one up and checked the battery voltage which was about 12.2V so at that point I thought it may have been something to do with taking a different measurement of the same thing. Running the 8200 at full speed (no load) showed a voltage of 11.4V.
What I still don’t understand is why for the US market all the branding is ’12V Max’ yet for New Zealand (and so far as I can tell, Australasia and Eurpoe) the branding is purely ‘10.8V’. And that’s in our printed catalogues, on the box of the tool, the tool itself, and the Dremel websites. It doesn’t make sense, but is no doubt only a question the people in leather chairs at Dremel (actually Bosch who owns Dremel) can answer!
Stuart
It’s not just Bosch and Dremel, it’s all of the major manufacturers. At this point, there’s nothing that can be done about it.
“More is better” is a common consumer belief. That’s why some brands (Craftsman) market 19.2V and 20V cordless power tools that aren’t any more powerful than quality 18V models – because 19.2V > 18V, so it must be better.
Makita was one of the last 10.8V holdouts, but they too changed over to “12V Max” branding.
I recently contacted a level manufacturer asking about the difference between two of their product lines. They basically said that one design is larger and heavier and sells much better in the USA and that the slimmer design sells better in Europe.
As I understand it, the major power tool companies maintain separate international marketing efforts. The move in the USA to “12V” was more of a reaction to one brands’ advertising by the others, and then the move to 12V Max was done almost universally from there to avoid confusion and lawsuits for misrepresentation.
I cannot be certain, but I believe it was Milwaukee’s “M12” product line that forces the other brands to shift from their 10.8V product labeling.
Matt
Well when Bosch came out with the 10.8 volt they where first to market they wanted to be honest with the voltage and set a standard when it came to li ion batteries. Then a competitor came out with a similar tool and called it 12 volt. Bosch came back and changed theirs to 12 volt max. It is 12 v max but under normal conditions it is 10.8. You can get it to read 12 v on a meter I’ve seen it done. I’m a former employee of a power tool corp.
Grant
Yeah it’s a shame that they have to employ Smoke And Mirrors to make sales, but I totally nderstand that as soon as one does something like that the rest have to follow or they’ll get left behind.
The more is better tactic works for dumb.user but for the rest of us who are more technically adept would be good if they qualified their specs better with the info you gave above, i.e. This is a 12volt machine, 12 volts being the battery voltage after it has been charged.. I know, that kind of honesty will never come from a marketing department.
Ironically when looking at battery drills I tend to compare the maximum torque (Nm) it can put out that’s a better measurement of how powerful it is, a 100mm x 10 gauge Pozidrive certainly doesn’t care about voltage but definitely does torque. Not sure if there would be a comparable measurement however for high speed rotary tools since they are more effective with their speed than power. Hmm.
“I recently contacted a level manufacturer asking about the difference between two of their product lines. They basically said that one design is larger and heavier and sells much better in the USA and that the slimmer design sells better in Europe.”
Ha nice! I can see how that works, just look at all the big cars/SUV’s in the US and the piddly little cars in Europe. It’s the different mentalities and perceptions depending on where you live and makes sense that it carries over to all manner of things for consumers.
It will be interesting to see where the ‘voltage race’ goes in the future because obviously there is a limit to how far it can go. I suspect it will go like the digital camera megapixel race where it reached a ceiling and consumers became wiser and realised that pixels weren’t everything and so the manufacturers began to differentiate themsleves in other ways with features that consumers wanted more (than just megapixels).
I may have started to see that already in the Bosch range of cordless drills. They have so many models and I have noticed lately they are grouped by characteristics like ‘compact’, ‘basic duty’, ‘standard duty’, ‘heavy duty’, impact’ and so on. Before they did that it was so hard to see how each drill was different from the other.
Stuart
I think that people will always tend to look at numbers, even if they’re arbitrary. This is true across the board – megapixels as you mentioned, but also gigahertz, voltage, torque ratings, contrast ratio, magnification power and so forth. It’s unfortunate, but it’s not a trend that’s bound to change anytime soon.
Maikeru
“I recently contacted a level manufacturer asking about the difference between two of their product lines. They basically said that one design is larger and heavier and sells much better in the USA and that the slimmer design sells better in Europe.”
We can find that sort of philosophy in regards to firearms, tools, and knives. When the M-16 was being used in Vietnam a lot of troops complained about the composite parts making the weapon feel “cheap” and toylike. A lot of people still apply this philosophy to knife handles—despite most modern composites and polymers being light (good for activities where keeping weight low matters), resistant to abrasion, less subject to chemical corrosion, more grippable when covered in a slippery substance, and less likely to transmit extreme heat or cold to the user’s hand. A lot of folks still believe that powertools must have full-metal construction or be chunkier looking to be durable. However, full-metal power tools can be fatiguing if not impossible to loft for long periods at particular angles or cannot fit into certain places due to bulkiness of the casing—power tool with a polymer resin body can be made lighter and slimmer, thus making it possible to use in places where you’d normally not be able to get a power tool.
There’s something of a resistance to the usage of plastics as a lot of times (especially in the past) the variety used was being applied to the wrong sort of situation, with structural engineering that wasn’t properly designed to match the material’s strengths, and possibly corners were cut at key points during the manufacturing process. Plastics don’t necessarily make something poorly made; poor design and poor manufacturing does. I think that due to having bad experiences with poor design and poor manufacturing, a lot of people are driven towards overbuilt things. Thankfully this is not everyone or else no one would go diving for fun—those old brass helmets, oilcloth dive suits, and lead-filled boots are quite overbuilt, but that quality quickly puts a damper on recreational usage. Also, few people would E.D.C. knives as tools since the typical “pocket” knife would be a fixed-blade, tacti-cool knife with metal handles—they’d weigh 10-15 lbs and cost $500.
“I think that people will always tend to look at numbers, even if they’re arbitrary. This is true across the board – megapixels as you mentioned, but also gigahertz, voltage, torque ratings, contrast ratio, magnification power and so forth.”
Also, vehicle horsepower is the traditional “bigger numbers” to sell better situation. Those in the know will tell you that really that spec is mostly useless without what RPM that was measured at.
That reminds me; a friend of mine used to joke around about how he’d listen a particular radio station because it had a higher frequency in Mhz and was thus “higher performance”. Numbers mean nothing if there’s no context.
olat
please, one resistor got burnt on my dremel charger, the resistor is behind the mosfet around the input power section. pls i need your assistance.
Dutch
I would like to submit my name for the drawing of a new cordless dremel tool 8200.
Usage: Drilling , cutting parts to relocate them, smoothing parts down on plastic model cars and aircraft.
Don
Are there any torque ratings for the Dremel 8220 and some of the older (lesser) models. This would be a help in deciding which to purchase. Thanks. …Don
Cindy
I would love to try the cordless 8220 in my nail salon in Homer, AK!! It looks incredible!