(COMPACT SERIES PART 3) MILWAUKEE COMPACT 2601-20 vs DEWALT COMPACT DC720

[kanxrus]

THIS IS PART III OF A SERIES OF TESTS BETWEEN THE DEWALT DC720 vs OTHER COMPACT DRILL IN IT'S CLASS.

THIS IS A TEST BETWEEN THE NEW MILWAUKEE COMPACT 2601-20 vs THE DEWALT COMPACT DC720KA! CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING- PART I PART II IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THEM YET.

THIS TEST WILL COMPARE INTERNAL SPECS, DEMO TESTING, WEIGHT, FEATURES AND BENEFITS!

WEIGHT:

INTERNAL SPECS:

FEATURES AND BENEFITS:

ONTO THE TEST:

In this test, we used a piece of 2x12 fir. We also used a 1" spade bit. The test was conducted to see how many holes could be drilled on a single charge, in 2nd gear. We wanted to push these little compacts to see how efficient they use energy under heavy draws.

The Milwaukee compact was packed with features, but did not perform well during our test. We got about 5 holes per charge. It might be understandable if one battery in the kit was bad, but we got consistent performance from both batteries. The Dewalt DC720ka beat our previous two tests and drilled 37 1/2 holes. The Milwaukee 2601-20 did 5 holes per charge.

DEWALT DC720 Drilled 37 1/2 Holes, or 22 holes per ah.

Milwakee 2601-20 Drilled 5 Holes, or 3 holes per ah.

For more detailed photo's on both drills... HAVE A LOOK INSIDE!  MILWAUKEE 2601-20 DEWALT DC720KA

[Tools-Plus Tom]

Great comparisons. I was a little surprised to see the NiCad beat out the Li-ion in all of these tests, since you always hear about how much more power you get from Li-ion. I would love to see how the DeWalt Li-ion stands up to the DeWalt NiCad in the same drill.

[kanxrus]

My take on battery technology is this... A cordless tool does not know what chemistry is locked to its lower half. NiCd, NiMH, or Li-Ion. Juice is juice! Ah and tool efficiency really play a big part when it comes to runtime. Chemistry plays a larger role in battery life. I find all this battery marketing to be very mis-leading to the general public. Some tool companies boast huge runtime gains with their Li-Ion batteries, which leads people to believe that lithium has more power, and runs longer. Those big numbers come from a comparison between old NiCd and NiMH batteries which not always but typically had less Ah. For example, if I took Makita's 1822 NiCd 2.0Ah battery, and compared it to their new BL1830 3.0 Ah Li-Ion battery. I could say their new Bl1830 Li-Ion has a 30% longer runtime. This may be true based on Ah alone. However they never mention that. They just let you assume that Li-Ion all on its own  = longer runtime.

In theory a NiCd battery with the same Ah and voltage as a Li-Ion battery, should equally produce the same amount of power and runtime. As far as more power goes, the power to weight ratio has changed. Some tool companies have said that Li-Ion delivers more power, sure... maybe power to weight over previous NiCd models?

As far as testing the Dewalt against the Dewalt? The new Dewalt DC9180 XRP Lithium Ion battery will outperform the Dewalt DC9099 compact NiCd battery used in this test. This is because the DC9180 has 2.2Ah, while the DC9099 only has 1.7Ah. For maximum runtime, the DC9096 XRP NiCd battery is still your top choice as far as runtime is concerned.  This is because the DC9096 has 2.4Ah.

To answer your question on the Milwaukee. I'm sure electronics played a huge part in the battery shutting down. Large draws like that are not good for any battery. However that was the whole point of this test. Every one of these compact drills are fully capable of drilling 3/8 holes, and driving screws all day long. That's hardly interesting. We decided to push these compacts harder to see whose drill can perform under heavy draws. This kind of test shows the drill's durability, and efficiency. Whichever drill can deliver the most holes under heavy draws is clearly going to do more work per charge in all other tasks.

[matchit]

Is there any plastic in the Milwuakee? If so, would it effect its performance?

[kanxrus]

I think Milwaukee has done a pretty good job designing the drill. The down fall is the battery they chose to use.

[syinzhang]

incredible??

[mxman]

awesome website, awesome advice, great reviews..thanks guys

i bought these two drills in combo sets .. i wanted a lion drill and the retailer told me  the dc759 was lion..noooope.

although, i bought the milwaukee just to see how it held up..i  found this review and decided to test it myself..

i had only a 1.5" task screw spade bit floating around at the time.. (idiot neighbour borrowed my other set, guess i'll never see those again! :/ )

anywho, the milwaukee gassed out in high range (2)  after a couple of holes, so i let it cool until the fuel gauge stopped complaining.. drilled another hole..same thing, let the drill sit... 

i tried the same with the dewalt, about 3 holes in it was experiencing the same thing, but had little or no protection and like a trooper it would have continued...  i decided i'd complete the remainder of the test in low range .. i realized my bit is A LOT more aggressive and also larger... so for the sake of the test i continued...

so yea, the dewalt immediately after basically gassing out in high range..drilled a total 21 holes or so including the first few the milwaukee (used immediately after i was finished with the dewalt )  fired off a total  of 24 holes  ...lets just call it  21 and 21 to be fair.. note the milwaukee  DID NOT activate protection again...  i think the gearing must be a higher ration aka more torque... 

but yea, the milwaukee doesn't have the cool dewalt features ... like the nice hard casing, the rare earth magnets in the motor, the higher quality chuck...but it did pretty darn good

i don't know what was up with the drill the guy had in the video, it must have been a crapper or perhaps the battery issue was fixed? 

I would probably buy the dewalt, around here i dont think we have a dewalt shop but we do have a milwaukee... so yea, i'd probably buy the dewalt.. but i ended up going red  due to the situation

hope this helps folks out a bit