by pvanv1 » Sun Mar 23, 2014 8:17 am
I bought 2 makita cordless drills (straight and right angle) back in the '80's, when they were pretty much the only decent brand. They served well for decades, with occasional battery replacements. The old 9.6v stick batteries went to NiMH, which was nice compared to the "memory" of the NiCd units, and had more AH as well.
When I finally wore out a motor and gear in the right angle unit, so started researching replacements. Ended up getting Makita again. Now have 3: a driver/drill, a hammer/drill, and a 1/2" impact. All good tools. The new chucks go up to 1/2", grip well, and release easily. the LED lights help in poor lighting conditions, and they have plenty of oomph. Not like a corded 1/2" gear reduction drill, mind you, but plenty for the usual. In fact the cordless impact has more torque than a cheap HF air impact we have at work.
I did indeed have a battery fail. Out of warranty. Probably charge cycled only 4 times (with 3 tools, I got 6 batteries, and they charge so fast, I never really get to exercise all of them). Makita said "too bad"... But, I did get the address of the actual repair shop, and sent then the bad battery along with a note explaining that it failed for no reason... after less than 2 years... and the sent a replacement for free. they even picked up the freight to me. But one has to deal directly with the repair center for that level of customer service.