I purchased a Bosch 18V drill and impact driver kit last year and have been exceptionally satisfied with it. I’m not terribly familiar with their newest 18V combo kit, model CLPK234-181, but it looks like all they did was upgrade the impact driver in their CLPK232-181 kit with the newest model.
The combo kit I bought is priced at $240 via Amazon, and this kit is currently on sale for $199 via Lowes.
Advertisement
Buy Now(via Lowes)
Deal Ends 11/5/12.
While tempting, there may be a better price in just a few weeks after Black Friday. Or maybe not. At least Lowes has a generous return policy. If $199 is too much for your budget, check out some of our other recent deal posts.
Fred
I have both that drill and that impactor but not from the same kit. The kit I got the impactor included the HDH181 hammer drill, which is a much better drill/driver with hammer mode off than the DDS181. Don’t get me wrong, the DDS181 is nice and all, it’s just that this is pretty well true for all of Bosch’s cordless drills, the drill/drivers are just not as good as the hammer drills. Comparing them is about the same as comparing a hammer drill to a big & bad SDS rotary hammer. For my money, the hammer drills are the better tool every day, take my word for it; I have 3 drill/drivers & 2 hammer drills. I would rather have the older hammer drill than the newest drill every time. Yes there are some places where the hammer drill won’t fit but the 26618 fits in tighter spaces than the DDS181 driver.
For this particular kit, honestly, I don’t understand why not just buy the 26618 instead. Even without the 18+1 gears you can drill holes & drive screws better in almost every situation with the 26618. And the IDS-181 is a lower end impact than either the 25618 in your kit or the 26618.
If you want both tools, get the CLPK221-181 kit which is more expensive, but it also comes with the bigger batteries and you get a better drill.