I used Milwaukee in construction for years. I had a sawsall, 1/2" drill for mixing drywall mud and a drywall screwgun which I used for 25 years without problems. I put brushes in the screwgun once. It turned 100s of thousands of screws without issue.

I can't say that what they produce now is of the same quality. The 18v Milwaukee cordless drill lasted 12 or 15 years but I abused it by using it to frame with 3" wood screws sometimes. It was great for everything until the gear broke.

I

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

I've had great luck with the Porter-Cable 20 volt drill/driver. I have 2 of them. The old one is getting a bit fussy as far as trigger operation (doesn't like to go slowly in forward) but it's minor. It has a jillion hours of use and has honed cylinders, drilled stuff it wasn't meant to (like concrete) and it just keeps on truckin'. My wife wanted to get me something for my birthday and bought the new one which is, if anything, a bit better as far as low-speed control, etc.

Dan

Been happy with Ridgid.

1. Originally bought Ridgid when my Ryobi stuff burned up. Had work to get done and no time to scour the internet for hours to figure out what the current best was. Only research at the time was asking the Home Depot repair people what brand of tool they saw the least of and which they recommended. Both repair guys said "Ridgid" without hesitation. This has since been born out by both experience and other research. (Edit: As an aside, the repair people also said the Ryobi that I burned up in a week was the saw they saw the most of returned, more than all other brands combined.)

2. Buddy who flips houses and keeps a crew of several people running continuously on his houses uses Ridgid, happily. HARD on his tools, no complaints.

3. Lifetime warranty, INCLUDING the batteries! Buddy from #2 was annoyed to learn of this, he'd never registered any of his tools and hence they weren't eligible. Do note that you have to register, and the batteries have to be part of a kit to be eligible. Individual replacement batteries are not.

They aren't faultless. In three years I wore out the front bearing on the circular saw and had it fixed under warranty. They are no worse than other brands I've used(Dewalt, Makita, Milwaukee, Bosch, Porter Cable, Hitachi) and way better than others(Ryobi). Then there's that lifetime warranty that covers the batteries. I'd put Milwaukee slightly above them, and if it wasn't for the lifetime warranty on Ridgid, Milwaukee is probably the direction I'd go.

If I had to start fresh, knowing what I know now, I'd make the same exact choice again.

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617 swapped Toyota Pickup, 22-24 MPG, 50k miles on swap

That lifetime warranty would probably persuade me. Never heard of that before.

Ridgid NEEDS the lifetime warranty...

I run an hvac construction company...

Milwaukee all the way.

The M12 stuff is extremely small and powerful. My supply house warranty repairs anything that fails from my guys abusing it, and the sheer variety of tools that use the batteries is amazing.
M12 comes in 1.6, 2.0,4.0 and 6.0 AH
The M18 tools are simply amazing, and the batteries come in 2.0 through 12AH!
Full size saws, chipping hammers, lights vacuums, automotive impact and ratchets...

Far and away the best tools to get.

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

I once heard a guy say he used Makita because you could buy parts just about anywhere. I said 'If you'd buy Milwaukee you won't have to buy parts cause they never break.'

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

Just go down to Harbor Freight and buy one. They have the cheap ones and ones that are supposed to be better. I have never had any issues with them but I do not use them heavily.

I have a Ridgid 18v brushless and if you register it they give you lifetime warranty on tool and battery. Got it from Home Depot and pretty happy with it's performance.

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06 MB E320 CDI 123k miles
14 Sienna (wife's DD) 36k miles
11 GL350 Bluetec 136k (Sold)
96 E300; 292k+ miles (Donated)
11 Sprinter 22K+ miles (Sold)

Even though I like my P-C - I'll add the Milwaukee stuff is excellent. I have a 30+ year old Hole Shooter corded drill that has had one set of brushes (easy to replace) in that time. My Sawsall is also top notch and I bought that in a pawn shop so it was probably "rode hard and put up wet."

Dan

And there is usually a spare set of brushes under the brush cover.

The real question you are asking is what battery packs are you going to commit (much like buying lenses for 35mm SLR cameras). I have mostly Makita LXT tools as well as Milwaukee M18 tools. Both are excellent.
Once you have several cordless tools, you don't want to deal with multiple battery styles or chargers.

Another thought... I know the OP was asking about cordless drills, everyone needs one. They also need a quality cordless mulitool, and impact driver they just don't know it.

I have a collection of the cheap Harbor Freight Drill Masters. They are NiCads and really very poor quality. I have a collection, because it costs about same to buy the drill on sale than a battery not on sale. They don't hold charge for long, and the chargers don't automatically shut off. You have to disconnect them after 3 hrs or so or they overheat. One out of three batteries still has some life.

HF now has Lithium drills. But I learned my lesson and had wife buy me a Dewalt for Christmas. Mind you, I think Dewalt must have economy drills as well or perhaps some have lower capacity batteries. The one I got was only C$79 on sale with 2 batteries, but list was about C$129.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

I have a friend with a bunch of Ryobi cordless tools. The batteries don't hold a charge for more than 10 minutes, and he is always reaching for my Makita stuff. Cheap tools aren't worth it.

I suspect this is true. Now that I've drunk the Milwaukee M18 Kool-aid, I'm open to additional recommendations.

I was looking at the Milwaukee impact drivers....trying to figure out how beefy a one I'd need. Talked to someone at Milwaukee and they recommended a torque rating of roughly twice the actual torque value I'd need to break free.

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14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

That was true when they used ni-cad's. The newer lithium batteries will last for ages, and they're backwards compatible with the old tools. I use a Ryobi electric drill for production work, and I charge the battery maybe once a month. It's really astonishing how far they've come.