A few days ago we discussed the new Makita 18V XPH07 brushless hammer drill, which we believe will be the yardstick to which other heavy duty cordless drills will be compared. On paper, the drill is boasted as being able to deliver 1,090 inch-pounds of torque.
According to on-paper technical specifications, the Makita XPH07 is 50.3% more powerful than Milwaukee’s M18 Fuel hammer drill, and about 54% more powerful than Dewalt’s 20V Max premium brushless hammer drill.
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However, a recent review by two Aussies questions the validity of Makita’s torque claims. Their finding is that this drill is not the groundbreaker the advertiser [Makita] would have you think. Despite this, the reviewers did have good things to say about the new drill’s size and weight.
You can watch their review here:
Update: Phew, reviewers’ retests with a second drill and different battery pack show a striking difference. They concluded that the first tool and battery combo must have have defective in some way.
Here’s their follow up video:
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The reviewers compared the new Makita drill to Dewalt’s DCD985 3-speed premium drill – not the more recent Dewalt brushless model – and saw that the Dewalt was the faster and better performer when it comes to high torque fastening applications.
In the reviewers’ large fastener tests, the Dewalt drill fully installed the fasteners while the Makita installed them most of the way. The Makita drill took a lot longer to get the job done because the electric cutout tripped a lot sooner. This was probably due to an over-current or temperature sensor built into the tool to protect the battery, motor, or other drill components from damage.
(On the bright side, sensitive electronic protection should help prevent drills from burning up their motor windings when pushed beyond their limits.)
We did some digging and found a few more torque specs for the new XPH07 drill and its DHP481 international sibling:
- Max lock torque: 125 Nm (1,106 inch-pounds)
- Max hard fastening torque: 115 Nm (1,018 inch-pounds)
- Max soft fastening torque: 60 Nm (531 inch-pounds)
The Dewalt 20V Max DCD985 is rated at delivering a maximum power of 535 UWO (Dewalt’s proprietary “unit watts out” unit), and overseas the rating is given as 80 Nm (708 inch-pounds) for hard joints, and 38 Nm (336 inch-pounds) for soft joints. Keep in mind that the DCD985 is no longer Dewalt’s most powerful 18V/20V Max cordless hammer drill.
It doesn’t look as if Makita’s torque ratings are misrepresented or intentionally misleading in any way. Still, one would expect that a drill rated at being able to deliver more than 1,000 inch-pounds of torque would perform better than one rated at being able to deliver 708 inch-pounds of torque.
It’s unclear as to why the reviewers did not see a matchup between the new Makita drill’s on-paper torque specs and its real-life performance. It’s also a little disconcerting that the Aussie tool reviewers saw at best on-par performance between Makita’s new drill and Dewalt’s previous-generation non-brushless model.
I think it is very highly unlikely that Makita’s torque rating is bogus. The only thing I could think of is that maybe the reviewers’ tool was defective. While on-paper specs should never been the sole reason to purchase a tool, there’s often no better way to reasonably gauge a tool’s fastening and drilling power. Makita has always been honest and even conservative with their torque ratings before, and there’s no reason to believe that’s not still the case.
Makita’s new heavy duty hammer drill won’t be available in the USA for a few more months, and so we’ll reach out to Makita for comment in the meantime. We’ll let you know what they say.
We hope to get to the bottom of this. If anyone else can think of a valid explanation for this, we’re all ears.
Reminder: Watch that new second video, which addresses some of the disconnect between Makita’s claims and the reviewers’ initial test results.
Final Update:
The reviewers have determined that either the Makita drill or battery pack used for initial testing were defective.
A Makita USA representative has said:
We’re finding that the [XPH07] torque is superior to others in the category, especially in using large fasteners like 2-9/16” self-feed and 7/8” Forstner bits (and even in driving lag bolts, although for this application contractors typically pick up an impact tool).
cody
Great find.
Stuart
I didn’t really find the video, they posted a link to it here, in a comment to the original posting.
Greg
I would have liked to seen the tool in action. Driving the bolts, rather than a 15 minute dissertation on what they saw.
Larson
I agree. 100 in lbs here or there might not be a big deal but these are big claims, I can’t imagine they would shout out how much more power they have over dewalt and milwaukee unless they’re sure. Would have liked to see some big auger bits or hammerdrill bits in action
Dwain (OZ Tool Talk)
we completely agree. we are actually planning to take a bit of footage of it in action tonight – stay tuned!
Lectrizion
What is your youtube so I can look it up? I’m very interested in seeing if theirs was flawed or Makita completely F’ed up.
JohnnyFbomb
Never been a makita fan for this reason. My Fuel M18 can break your wrist. My 36V dewalt did break someone’s wrist.
Lectrizion
I’m wondering if it has something to do with them using purely a mathematical determination and miscalculated the numbers by forgetting power loss factor in higher gear ratio.
What I mean is, you have “X” torque at 1:1 gear ratio with “X” motor. You have a prime gear ratio where the motor is maxed out and full torque is achievable (Typically 20/27:1 I think??? If they tried to go beyond that (say 30:1) and didn’t take into account kinetic resistance loss for the higher ratio then I think this could be possible.
At some point you can go too far, where the ratios become detrimental to the generator. I used to do it as a kid playing with my K’nex sets making race cars, too low a gear ratio and the motor would bog down or just not run at all and higher gear ratios would make it move slower but move it would. the lighter I made the vehicle the lower the gear ratio and the heavier the vehicle the higher the ratio to a point it wouldn’t move at all because the motor simply couldn’t handle it. anymore. Maybe they simply miscalculated the UWO capable of the motor itself, could very well have been an engineering design failure.
I think it’s basically one of 3 things, either the gear ratio was made higher then its prime capabilities, the motor was poorly designed or they had a POS drill. Usually tools bad out the box are easily discernible because they simply don’t work whatsoever or they run so horribly they smoke or you think its going to have a nuclear meltdown LoL! Either way, I would love to see more head to heads with the brushless DeWalt’s, Milwaukee and possibly even the last Makita (LXPHO3Z) which boasted 25lb more then the Milwaukee fuel hammer drill and was proven wrong.
If the last Makita model is capable of beating their own drill I think this is going to look really bad considering the blunder with the XPH06Z models burning up.
They better get this fixed before coming to the American market or it will be destroyed. I think its safe to say us americans have unrealistic expectations as it is so this could be a game changer or very detrimental to their public image.
Stuart
I’m sure that the numbers came from testing a random sampling of production models, or at least that’s how it should be done.
Dwain (OZ Tool Talk)
OK guys, second review is up, including footage of the tool in action. Stuart was absolutely right! It looks like we had some sort of issue (probably battery) which messed up our results. This Makita drill is absolutely cracking! http://youtu.be/gUscFyTacS0
Greg
Now that is a video worth watching! Nice job!!
Dwain (OZ Tool Talk)
thanks Greg! your initial comment cut deep 😛
Ricco
Speed and torque are two different things, u say the Makita wasn’t that much quicker than the Bosch during the lag bolt, but the Makita did pull them all down and tight while the Bosch couldn’t even pull the last one down all the way, THAT is where the TORQUE comes in, proving the Makita was MUCH powerful in the Torque category!!!
Joe
Can we all agree that torque delivered is the rotational force delivered at the end of the Chuck ?
This is exactly what users experience.
I care not about their selection of gear ratios.