Home Depot has once again starting carrying what looks to be an exclusive-to-them Milwaukee M18 cordless lithium ion drill/driver kit. The kit (2601-21) is priced at $99 and comes with the drill, a single 1.5Ah compact battery pack, a multi-voltage charger, and carrying case.
This is a special buy, so there’s no telling how long these kits will be available for. My guess is that they were released for Labor Day, and will be made available again in late-November just in time for the holiday shopping season. (This kit first appeared last year around Black Friday, and was included in our $99 drill kit roundup.)
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Buy Now(via Home Depot)
If red isn’t your favorite color, Makita’s single-battery 18V drill/driver kit is also available. And if you’re more of a black-and-yellow kind of guy or gal, Dewalt’s 18V 1/2″ NiCd drill kit is $99 once again at Amazon, Home Depot, and Lowes. If you ask me, the Li-ion single-battery kits are better buys.
These kits are available online and ship for free, and you can also order them for free in-store pickup. My local store had 22-24 of these in-stock.
As a reminder, these are single battery kits. It’s a great way to buy into Milwaukee’s phenomenal M18 cordless power tool platform for under $100.
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Chris
Awful lot of Milwaukee stuff on sale lately at many online retailers…
Javier
Maybe now’s a good time to buy into red…
Hang Fire
After years of analysis paralysis on what to do about my aging 14.4V Milwaukee system, I almost sprang for a big bucks V18 LiIon set… right at that moment Milwaukee introduced the M18. That, and a 14.4 battery recall that replenished my 14.4 collection for a while, put me off the LiIon conversion for another long time. Finally I bought into Bosch 18V “Litheon”, after watching them update their battery lineup repeatedly without obsoleting anything. That loss of trust in Big Red’s support of their own products has put me off from them ever since.
Javier
That sucks about your experience with Milwaukee 14v tools. If I were in your shoes I’d probably would have done the same thing. But in the grand scheme of things we also have to realize that eventually all existing cordless lines (any manufacturer) will eventually be discontinued and replaced. Also not to mention your experience would have been the same had you been with another brand such as dewalt or ryobi for example as their 14v lines got phased out. As for Milwaukee’s current m18, I feel there is nothing to worry about in terms of the m18 line being phased out any time soon as they are doing quite strong pumping out new products left and right for the m18 system.
matt
All the battery updates really have had no effect since going to the Mseries batteries.. If the battery still fits and gets more run time thats not a bad update in my book..
Besides no one has stayed with the same platform except maybe Ryobi which is not much to write home about in the first place..
fred
Probably a good time to shop around.
My email was full of “deals and offers”
Some from CPO outlets, Toolup, Acme Tools, and Toolbarn looked like they might save you a few dollars. I’m not in the market for personal power tools – and as I’m semi-retired and no longer buying in bulk – I’ve decided to pass on most of the specials – but did bite on Lee Valley’s intro price for a shooting board plane (sort of like the old Stanley #52 – but updated)
Jason
Lowes has 20 dollars off Dewalt bare tools and Premium kits. Makita has their 99 dollar drill kit on sale at HD also.
Hang Fire
Lowe’s has deWalt compact 18V 1/2″ drill/driver, two batteries and a charger for $99. All but one was sold out today in my local store. I wonder how many of those batteries will show up on eBay?
Chris
I just ordered a 4.0 ah XR battery tonight from ebay, from a combo kit haha
Stuart
That Dewalt NiCd kit appears at least twice a year at the same $99 price. Those batteries are not the same heavy duty high capacity XRP ones that are bundled in the regular tool kits.
Even if they end up on eBay, the market is flooded and demand is likely low.
Hang Fire
Searching eBay for Completed Listings, deWalt, 18V, NiCad, there are 2,243 completed listings for batteries and chargers in their active history, of which 1,740 are sold listings, including XRP’s, standard NiCad, chargers for the same, and charger/battery “combo’s”. I’d say the market is still highly active for deWalt 18V NiCads. 🙂
Going to a local hispanic flea market, there are two vendors with great piles of brand new battery-free deWalt tools for sale out of box. The message here is clear- this is still the ‘standard’ contractor tool and buying combo’s for the batteries is very, very common.
Jason
I never see these Dewalt 18v kits sell at either my Home Depot or Lowes stores. They sit on the display for months. The Ryobi kit’s seem to move faster.
Hang Fire
The 4 or 5 tool sets do sit. The $99 drill driver kit specials WITH 2 BATTERIES (that’s important) and charger fly out of the door.
Stuart
Maybe the message here is not that Dewalt is the “standard contractor tool,” but that a lot of people are looking to offload their Dewalt 18V gear in favor of something else.
Javier
I would think twice about buying dewalt 18v kits. Its an aging lineup that will be phased out in the near future. If starting out with dewalt cordless, the smarter choice would be to spend a bit extra and buy a 20v max kit. I understand a ton of contractors still use dewalt 18v tools but I’m not talking about the old timers, I’m talking about people starting fresh. Too many advancements in the 20v lineup compared to 18v dewalt. That and guaranteed support for several years to come.
Adam
Just thought I’d put this out there as well – Home Depot is putting some Milwaukee kits up for grabs, some as low as $129 for the 3/8 drill plus the impact driver. Here’s one:
link
Pretty good deal – I’ve been using M12 tools for at least three years now – some of the most handy tools in my arsenal…
– Adam
Admin edit: mobile link replaced with full “desktop-view” link
Adam
Small update – this is probably the deal I will go for – it’s the 3/8 driver with the 3/8 right angle drill.
link
Two tools, two batteries, a case (probably for the drill only) and a charger for $135 with tax? Count me in!
Stuart
There are actually quite a few “free tool with Milwaukee M12 kit purchase” combinations and options available. More details can found in this past deal post.
Nico
Right now on amazon you can get the Bosch PS31-2A + 2 batteries/charger for $99, or that plus 2 L-BOXX Cases for $117
Phil
I was in need of another Milwaukee charger and extra battery, while at HD I picked this up, It was cheaper than buying the charger and the battery by themselves in the store. Granted, online prices are far cheaper, but for someone walking into the store, a battery at 80 dollars and a charger for 60 versus both plus a drill and case, no brainer. Throw out the case and drill and you’re still ahead.
I didn’t need another drill (by far), but this may come in handy one day. It’s a decent drill, two-speed, four-pole frameless motor, LED illumination, nice molded case. The charger is the new combo 12 and 18 volt dual charger, the battery is a slim Redlithium, not the latest 2AH version, but still good.