The other day I posted about a new Makita 18V compact drill kit that’s priced at just $99. It seems like a decent kit, but because it’s bundled with a compact Li-ion battery pack, and since Makita’s heavier duty tools only work with their higher capacity batteries, this kit doesn’t allow for easy entry into Makita’s full line of 18V cordless tools.
This new 18V hammer drill kit, model XPH012, is a different story. It comes with a hammer drill and 3.0Ah battery pack that works with all of Makita’s 18V tools.
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Except for the color difference, and the increased length due to the impact mechanism, the hammer drill looks identical to the previously mentioned compact drill, as if both housings came out of the same injection mold. The internals look to be similar as well, as both models deliver up to 480 in-lbs of torque and have 0-400/0-1500 RPM gearboxes.
By itself, this looks to be a good hammer drill, at least on paper. It’s also the most inexpensive entry into Makita’s 18V LXT power tool lineup.
With the kit, you get the drill, one 3.0Ah Li-ion battery, Makita’s DC18RC 30-minute charger, and a nice hardshell carrying case.
Price: $122 $99
Buy Now(via Amazon)
It is clear that this is Makita’s answer to competitors’ $100 drill kits, such as the Dewalt’s DCD771 promo drill kit.
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Hang Fire
My Bosch 18V’s work with batteries from 1.2Ah to 5.0. (I have only 1.5’s and 3.0’s) The whole Makita battery limitation thing smacks of short-sighted design.
Pete
It is indeed a poor system design that should have been thought out before actually making the LXT line. Granted the LXT line is getting long in the tooth it doesn’t excuse the inability to use all LXT tools with all LXT batteries.
One of the reasons I’m moving to the Milwaukee line.
Garrick
I mentioned this the other day, but just in case:
There a couple of tabs on the heavy duty tools that prevent the 1.5 amp batteries from sliding in. These are easy to grind or file off. The 1.5s work fine on my right angle drill… not sure about the really heavy amp draw tools.
Ted
It’s not lack of design, it’s common sense. The 1.5ah batteries on a cordless rotary hammer or cordless circular saw will give a run time of what, 5 minutes. It seems like they wanted to prevent people from using a battery that won’t work “very well” meaning short run time, in tools that are designed for more power and need a bigger battery. As Garrick said, the 1.5ah batteries have a tab that prevents them from being used. You can remove that tab and the 1.5ah batteries work fine on any tool.
Edged
It appears deal is over 🙁
Stuart
Maybe it will return. My thoughts are that Amazon listed a holiday deal item that wasn’t supposed to have been available for sale yet.
Edged
I hope so. I am looking for a drill and this one seems like a heck of a deal.
Analyst
The link is dead and I cannot seem to find this drill anywhere on the Amazon site… Anyone know what happened? Seems like a great deal for a second drill and battery!