Electric Tools

Cordless drill kits and the battery platform behind them:

that platform settles most of what a kit is worth. DeWalt, Makita, Milwaukee and Bosch each use their own battery mount, and budget lines such as Total or Black+Decker have theirs, so a pack from one brand will not seat on another. A listing marked bare tool comes without battery or charger: good value to someone already holding that brand’s packs, and an expensive start for anyone who is not. A few packs in, the next tool will be the same brand whether you planned it or not, so choose the platform before the drill.

Impact drivers, rotomartillos and grinders on a building job:

each does one thing a drill does badly. An impact driver sinks self-drilling screws through the metal purlins of a zinc roof without wrenching your wrist, but it makes a poor drill. A rotomartillo drives SDS bits with a piston and breaks through concrete where a hammer-action drill only rattles. An esmeriladora, which plenty of people here simply call a pulidora, cuts rebar, metal tube and tile. For all-day work in one spot, a corded circular saw or grinder still beats batteries. Crews framing or roofing sometimes swap to pneumatic nailers run from air compressors, and marking out, levelling and tightening stay with manual tools.

Budget drill kits against a professional brand:

a budget cordless drill with two batteries and a charger costs around ₡45,000 new, while a drill and impact driver kit from DeWalt, Makita or Milwaukee starts around ₡150,000 and passes ₡200,000 with larger packs. Only the professional tools hold that difference on resale: a bare pro-brand drill still finds a buyer among tradespeople who own the batteries, while a used budget kit with tired packs is up against a new one that costs barely more. On imported listings, check the voltage: tools bought in the United States work here as they are, a European one built for the higher voltage will not.

Worn motors, tired packs and counterfeit batteries:

all show themselves within minutes of running a tool under load. On a brushed motor, heavy sparking through the vents, a burnt smell or a grinding note means worn brushes or bearings. The chuck should spin true with no wobble, the trigger should change speed smoothly, and a rotomartillo should switch cleanly between drilling, hammering and chiselling. Chewed housing screws or a taped cord mean it has been opened or patched. Work each battery hard for a few minutes: one that fades fast has lost capacity. Fake DeWalt and Makita packs are the usual counterfeit, and they tend to feel lighter than the genuine article, with blurred printing, misspellings or certification marks that do not match.

Listing a drill kit, a rotomartillo or a corded saw:

put the brand, the model code from the nameplate and whether it is cordless in the title. For a kit, state how many packs come with it, their capacity and whether the charger is included. Photograph the nameplate, the chuck, the vents and the label on each pack, and mention replaced brushes, switches or cords. Say whether the tool was bought here or brought from abroad. Whoever comes to collect will want to drill a test hole, so have a scrap of block or timber, a free outlet and every pack charged.

FAQ:

• Is a brushless tool worth paying more for?

  Brushless motors run cooler, get more work from each charge and have no carbon brushes to wear out. On daily site work the extra cost pays for itself; for a few shelves a year, a brushed drill is enough and new brushes are a cheap repair.

• Should I buy an SDS-plus or an SDS-max rotary hammer?

  SDS-plus covers anchors, conduit chases and the holes most renovations need. SDS-max machines are heavier, hit harder and take bigger bits for coring and breaking up slab. The bit shanks differ, so bits for one will not fit the other.