Customer Reviews

DEWALT DC759KA 18-Volt NiCad 1/2-Inch Cordless Drill/Driver Kit

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I've never reviewed a product here before but I felt I really had to this time.

Long story made short- I am a cabinet maker and when I received my 18v DeWalt from Amazon (after waiting patiently for almost three weeks) it arrived with a wobble in the chuck. I don't mean I took a dial indicator to it to make sure it was perfect, I mean it was easily visible to the naked eye. If I had to drill a 1/16th hole in something this would not do an accurate job. So, I emailed Amazon and they kindly sent me a replacement drill which also arrived with a very wobbly chuck. Two in a row, I couldn't believe it. I called the DeWalt 800 number and they said to take the drill to my local service center. When I did they took one look at it and said "oh yeah, that's not right, we'll put a new spindle in for you,". Two more weeks (with no drill) later I sent my intern to pick up the drill. It came back with a new chuck and a slightly different wobble. I now regret buying something online that I would want to hold in my hand and examine first. Sure, this drill would work fine for shooting drywall screws in but I need something better. For $200 I want a drill that's nearly perfect. 200 bucks is alot of money.

So, what happened to DeWalt? Have they cut costs to meet higher demand? I bought a 14.4v cordless DeWalt right out of college and it worked great for years until it was stolen. In a pinch I bought a 14.4v Ryobi which worked well for a year but eventually the batteries stopped holding a good charge. When that happened I thought well, it's time to buy another DeWalt, but now I wish I hadn't.

I recently purchased this drill despite the warnings I have read here related to chuck run out. After charging the battery and firing the drill up for the first time, I was disappointed to find that the chuck was dooing the hula! There are 2 key characteristics for a power drill, the first is that it is powered, the second is that it rotates concentrically around its central axis. Unfortunately this drill did not meet these basic requirements. I sent it back in exchange for the XRP model. The XRP had worse run out than the first!! I used an XRP model for years in the maintenance shop and it was a tough and bullet proof accurate drill. The new drills are not anything close to the ones manufactured 5 years ago. I am not sure why Dewalt has sided in favor of poor quality. If they still cared about quality, drills like these would not have made it out of the factory. The run out that I experienced would have been caught on a very basic visual test.

Don't waste your time with a Dewalt drill unless you don't care about run out.

I wrote Dewalt's customer service department complaining about the problem. Apparently Dewalt has sent its customer service off shore as well as its manufacturing. The response letter for letter is below.

Hello, and thanks for using DEWALT's on-line support.

Sorry to hear of your problems with chuck run-out. Our specs call for no more then 15,000 one inch from end of chuck. If third unit has same problem contact me via this email. Have you tried to drill holes of drive screws with these units? If so what happen?

Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to serve you. If your question remains unresolved or if you require additional information please update this incident.

Sincerely,
John Smith

What a Joke!! Again, don't waste your time or money on a Dewlat Drill.

I have had this drill for about six months and am very happy with it. I am a homeowner so I can't speak as to how this drill would function during all day use. For projects around my house it has plenty of power although, like every other cordless tool I have used, it needs a little more time drilling/driving through hard wood. If I want to drill through something thick and tough, I used a beefier corded drill. So far, I have not noticed any of the battery life problems discussed by other reviewers.

I picked up a set of the Dewalt hex shank bits and have not noticed any slippage. The only time I have had a complaint with the drill was while using a hole saw to install locksets in two doors. Of the four holes, the bit slipped out of the chuck two times. Once I reinserted the hole saw it went right on through the door. I don't know if I didn't get the chuck tight enough or if the chuck just prefers the hex shank bits.

All in all a great drill. I can't imagine ever installing curtain rods, assembling bookcases, etc. with a corded drill and/or screwdriver again!

i have owned three of these drills over the last seven years,i was very impressed the first time i used the 18 volt drill about five years ago and immeadiatly bought one. since that time i have noticed a serious decline in craftsmanship and customer service on DeWalt's part. the chucks spin on expensive drill bits damaging the bit,the battery packs seem to have unreliable longievity issues. the final straw was a blown charger after approx. 40 hrs. plug in time,right in the middle of a elaborate garage remodel. i am going to start phaseing out my DeWalt cordless tools in my personal tool chest as well as the ones owned by the Parks and Recreation Dept. I am in charge of.

I purchased this drill as part of a drill/saw combo at Home Depot for $199 so go there for a better deal. I bought this drill to compliment the 18V Dewalt pistol handle drill I already have.

I know what your thinking, why do I need two drills? Have you every tried to drill/drive in between stud cavities with a pistol grip?? Pain in the bottom to do, so when I have that type of work to do I just grab this one, now onto my review.

Plenty of power for anything you may want to do, drives screws like a champ, drills through 4x4 PT with 1 1/2" spade bit with no problems. A great drill at a great price. Since I own their more expensive model I will point out the differences. No hammer action, only 2 speed(don't need the third speed), 2 piece chuck versus the 1 piece, and the handle doesn't have those nice rubber inserts.

Doesn't handle small bits that well due to the chuck design, and the trigger sticks a little when trying to slowly advance it.
One piece of advice, before you even use the drill for the first time grab some athletic tape(Walmart sells black athletic tape so it doesn't look retarded) and wrap it a couple of time around the handle. That improves the grip 100%, trust me.

Even though I did bash some things this is still a awesome drill.

I'm a construction professional and since I already have a shop full of DeWalt 18V cordless tools, I bought this one in spite of the negative reviews, mostly about bad chucks. I did check the "made-in" label to make sure they had not switched to China. They had not. This tool, like all the rest of mine, was made in Mexico, which at first was a surprise to me, but then over the years of using/abusing these bullet-proof tools, I forgot about that concern.

Anyway, this drill works perfectly and the chuck concentricity is dead-on. I'd guess that those who got wobbly chucks were the unfortunate recipients of a bad batch, and it surprises me that DeWalt is getting a reputation for shoddy support. NO excuse for that, but it seems to be more and more common what with everybody outsourcing to India or some other place where the "support" people have a lot of trouble with the English language.

Also, if you get a bad tool right out of the box from a walk-in store, I know of no store that won't take it back if you bring it right back to them. I guess that's one issue with Internet purchases. BTW, I got mine from Ace Hardware for $149, in the case, with two batteries and a charger. Whoopee, now I have a dozen batteries and half a dozen chargers.

(And I do buy a lot of stuff from Amazon . . . I live in Hawaii and we kind of have to buy a lot of stuff online. I specifically bought this tool from a walk-in store because of the negative reviews.)

I bought this drill from ebay by mistake. I was skeptical about the 759 being Dewalt's "compact" drill.

After using this drill for about 2 months,I would say that this drill can do just about everything that the XRP can (I have one)
I really like the keyless single sleeve chuck,it holds bits tight. The drill is a bit lighter than my XRP (988). Dewalt claims the 759 weight is 5.2lb, but it is heavier with the XRP
battery.

The 759 is a bit quieter than the 988 and its 2 speed transmission does not jam like the 3 speed XRP.

Powerwise I doubt if you will notice much difference between the 759 and the XRP series.

The only thing lacking with the 759 is a sidehandle (The XRP drills have one of the best sidehandles)

Overall:Thumbs up!

This drill is, in short, a dud. I bought it somewhat hesitantly on the recommendation of a friend. I had been looking at this and the Milwaukee and Bosch equivalents but went ahead and took the plunge. What a mistake. It seems to have sufficient torque but the chuck started to wobble almost immediately after only a few weeks of light use. It makes a grinding noise in the low speed setting that I can't seem to find and one of the batteries ... died after only 2-3 months use. Since then the charger .... has also given up making it cheaper to buy a whole new kit (probably what dewalt has in mind anyway). I have since bought the Milwaukee 0624-20 (kit 0624-24)and have been abusing that workhorse for over a year now with phenomenal results while this piece of crap collects dust on the shelf. Not only are the batteries ..... and charger .... cheaper to replace by some $40 but they also last a _lot_ longer. I wish now I had gone with my gut instinct in the first place. Save yourself a lot of grief and money and go for the Milwaukee. You will not be sorry.

I have purchased numerous tools over the years. From Harbor Freight $5 specials to $2000 cabinet table saws, but I have never had a tool under perform like this DeWalt drill. Shortly after purchasing the drill I used it for a minute or two drilling some holes in some wood. I put it up and pulled it off the shelf today to drill some holes with a forstner bit into maple. I drilled two holes and the drill broke. The clutch broke inside the drill and it is totally incapcitated.

Now I would expect this from my $40 Hitachi special, or maybe a K-Mart special $9.99 drill, but from a $200 DeWalt 18 volt?

I'm a remodeling contractor and use this drill EVERY day. I drive screws, drill 3/4" holes, stir 5 gallon buckets of joint compound & thin set. This drill just never stops. My subcontractors scoff when I hand this drill to them to mix heavy joint compound and then are amazed when they're done and I take it and keep working. I've had this drill for 5 years. The batteries are still good (but starting to show their age) and I usually only need to switch batteries once during the day if I'm doing heavy work like 3/4" holes with a spade bit. It's been dropped off of scaffolding, kicked and rattles around in the back of my pickup. I'll buy another one the instant this one decides it's had enough. For now, it's still going strong.