This is the second Hitachi drill we have bought and overall it is a good value. It provides plenty of power and recharge times are better than average - not as fast as Makita but faster than with DeWalt and Milwaukee lithium-ion battery packs.
In operation it delivers plenty of power but the chuck is still not up to holding 1/8" or smaller drill bits which was a problem with our other Hitachi drill as well. For large drill bits or hole saw arbors the Hitachi chuck holds quite well.
The hammer action is average, no better or worse than the DeWalt and Milwaukee we have, but not in the same class as the Bosch or Hilti models. For someone needing a hammer drill for occasional use the Hitachi works fine. What is missing, as with most other hammer drills, is a depth rod to control the drilling depth. This should be a standard item on every hammer drill. For serious hammer drilling a cordless DeWalt 7/8" SDS drill or a corded Bosch hammer drill are better choices.
Unlike our other Hitachi, and our Milwaukee, Makita, and DeWalt cordless drill someone in Japan decided to use a separate power source for the LED light which is one of the dumber design decisions I can recall. LEDs usually work best off of 4.5 volts or more and here you have a 18 volt power pack available but instead the LED, which is consuming power in the milliwatt range, is provided with its own batteries to replace and if they leak and cause corrosion will take out the LED lights.
The tool is well balanced and the grip is very well designed to minimize vibration and fatigue. It does not look like your average cordless drill handle but the design works very well. Hitachi stands alone in not providing a picture of its drill with a belt clip and bit holder (combination unit that does both), but Hitachi actually includes this with the drill it sells. It does not need to be special ordered later as with Milwaukee and Makita for an extra $20.
Hitachi has a strange design for its battery chargers. Before a battery is inserted the charger flshes on and off at half second intervals. When the battery is charging there is a solid red display but when it is finished, instead of having the green LED light as one would expect, the red LED starts flashing at 1/2 second intervals again. When the green LED lights up it means that the batteries are too hot to be recharged. This may make perfect sense to the people at Hitachi, but why have a different charger interface than every other cordless tool manufacturer? I really don't want to have to read the manual to understand the charger display or have it different for every cordless tool I use. Thanks but no thanks!
The carry case from Hitachi is neither good nor bad. It has a different slide catch that works well whether the case is right side up or upside down - whoops! Can't begin to tell you how many times I opened the case the wrong side up before finally spray painting the top of the case. There is a small amount of space available for retracting screw bit holders though they are free to bounce around inside the case. This is where I wish all the drill companies would copy Bosch which provides compartments with lids in its cases for small parts.
Get more detail about Hitachi DV18DL 18-volt Lithium-Ion 1/2-inch Cordless Hammer Drill.
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