Should I buy a corded or cordless drill?

This looks like a question about power and is mostly a question about batteries. Modern cordless drills handle nearly everything a domestic user will ask of them; the decision is really which battery family you want to own for the next decade.

Step by step

1. Start with what you will actually drill.Wood, plasterboard, flat-pack and the occasional wall plug in brick: cordless combi, comfortably. Repeated holes in concrete, engineering brick or stone: you want a corded SDS hammer drill, which is a different tool entirely.
2. Understand what 'combi' means.A combi drill adds a hammer action to a standard drill-driver. It is enough for wall plugs in ordinary brick and blockwork. It is not an SDS, and it will struggle and overheat on concrete.
3. Choose the battery platform first.Batteries and chargers cost more than the bare tools over time, and they only fit one manufacturer. Pick a range that also makes the other tools you might want — sander, driver, garden tools — and buy into it.
4. Read voltage and amp-hours correctly.Voltage relates to power; amp-hours to run time. An 18V platform is the domestic sweet spot. A 2Ah battery is light and fine for occasional work; 4Ah or 5Ah lasts longer and weighs noticeably more.
5. Prefer brushless if the budget stretches.Brushless motors are more efficient, run cooler, last longer and get more work from a charge. On a drill you will own for years the extra cost is easy to justify.
6. Check it comes with two batteries.One on charge and one in the drill is the difference between working and waiting. A kit with two batteries is almost always better value than a bare tool plus a battery bought later.
7. Hold it before buying if you can.Weight and balance matter more than specifications when you are drilling above your head or into a floor. A heavy drill with a big battery becomes tiring fast.
8. Keep a corded option in mind for heavy or long work.Corded drills never run out, cost less for the same power, and are the sensible choice for a single heavy job — mixing plaster, or a day of masonry. Many people hire rather than buy for those.

Tips

• Store batteries around half charged if they will sit unused for months. Storing them flat is what kills lithium cells.
• Cheap own-brand batteries for a major platform are usually a false economy — the protection circuitry is where the cost is.
• A separate impact driver is the best second tool. It drives long screws far better than a drill and saves constantly changing bits.

Common mistakes

• Buying a bare tool without checking the battery fits — Platforms are not interchangeable between manufacturers, and even within one brand the older and newer battery ranges sometimes are not.
• Expecting a combi drill to handle concrete — The hammer action in a combi is light. Concrete needs an SDS drill, where the hammer mechanism is fundamentally different and far more effective.

Questions people ask