Customer Reviews

Hitachi D13VG 9 Amp 1/2-Inch Drill

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you want a drill with tons of torque, this drill is for you. I'm a big guy (fat) & I can really lean on this drill without stopping, or slowing it down much which is uncommon these days. Look at all the others & I don't think you can find one with more torque without spending alot more.

I purchased this Hitachi to replace a supposedly-heavy-duty 1/2" Craftsman drill that ground down to a halt in the middle of its infancy. (I was drilling sheetmetal for a seat bracket, nothing special, and it flat died. This was roughly the tenth time I had used the drill.) After asking some friends in the know and researching amp/torque levels online, I began looking for the Hitachi. By getting an Amazon C/C I ended up paying a hair over $100. I couldn't be happier. In the last month I have drilled fence brackets, sheetmetal and seat bracketing, and a few rubber bushings from their shells. Not a whimper came from this drill. I have one caution to offer: Use the side handle. Hitachi offers not just a screw-in handle but a steel extension to give the user more leverage against the drill. If this drill catches the material it is drilling, the force of the drill will cause one of three things will happen: The bit will break, the work will break, or you will have the opportunity to fight the torque of the drill (650 in-lb or so). Trust me, it will try to twist you around the work if you aren't prepared. This is no criticism. The drill is just that strong.

Two bonuses are its size and comfort. The notch on the back of the grip is perfect for using the free hand to steady the drill in lighter jobs, and the body of the drill is more compact than some lesser drills. For a drill with a 1/2" chuck it handles like some lightweight 3/8" models I tried. No need to switch to a smaller drill for lighter jobs due to comfort or size concerns. Sure, it's heavier than smaller drills, but that weight is an asset in steadying the work and fighting through any small catches of the bit in the work, the kind that are over before you realize anything snagged.

A word to the wise when shopping: There is a Hitachi with a similar part number (D13VF) that has a 9.0 amp rating but far less torque, somewhere around 460 in-lb. The price is similar. You give up torque for more bit speed. I needed the torque, hence my choice.

I have one of this for many years, same model but a little different in the outside (it was probably the father of this one). As I am in the construction of a big house, the workers had all kind of drill: deWalt, B&D, Metabo,Bosch,etc...and mine a Hitachi. The point is that all of these drills had trouble and very short life. One day we had to make some 90 holes in concrete (the hard one). Somebody told me you have to get a Hilty. I said ok this is the one I got: my hitachi. They began drilling some 40 holes and one guy said I know hoy to drill better than you: he took the drill (I wasn't present) and began doing the job like Hulk, when I came back I found the bit (the most expensive: Hilty) completely broken on the table. I asked who did that? Nobody said a word. The day after I saw a worker with a bandage on his right wrist. I smiled and thought this is the guy. We finished the 90 holes and then as my drill was the unique survivor of all the drills, everybody used to ask for my drill all day long. I can say without making a mistake that my drill was used by about 30 different people. People who don't know how to hold a simple drill, less a hammer-drill. And up today my drill is still alive. Bravo Hitachi.

Without going to a large right angle drill or hole-hawg you're not going to get more powerful than this. I've given mine a serious workout with large hole-saws, self feed auger bits, large metal drill bits, and driving lag bolts. Nothing is a problem. Need more power? Press the trigger down a little further. Just watch out, if the bit binds up its you that's going for the ride...

I know, there are lots of positive reviews on this thing. So, rather than belabor the point, let me tell you two ways I used this thing, on the same day, this past week. First, it has enough torque to mix 4 gallons of the absolute stickiest thinset mortar you've ever tried to mix. This was the expensive, full of additives, so gluey that you can literally stick a four pound stone directly to a vertical wall and it won't move mortar. This drill took care of this mixing chore, day in, day out, several times a day, without missing a beat. No overheating. No stalling. No laboring. Mix, mix away. Later that same day, I opened a can of texture paint to find that 1) it was full to the absolute brim, and 2) the liquid had separated, rising to the top quarter of the can. If you've ever worked with texture paint, you know this was not something I was gonna fix by hand with a standard paint stick, and even with something stronger, I was going to have to dig the paint out of the can and put it and its liquid counterpart in a larger container ... nothing short of that was going to work, at least not without a huge mess and loss of too much liquid. Then, I noticed this drill was just laying there, waiting to be put up after a day of mixing thinset. So, I cleaned the mixing auger and carefully inserted it into the can of paint. It was so large in diameter that it barely fit in the can, yet so small in mass that it barely pushed liquid over the top. What would have happened with most other drills is paint everywhere, yet on this Hitachi, the trigger is so manageable and the torque so smooth that I re-mixed that paint in nothing flat, no muss, no fuss. Amazing versatility. Highly recommended. Like in some of the other reviews, please note there are two of these 9 amp Hitachi's, make sure you know which you are ordering.

Very solid performance. Haven't had any trouble with mine. Really powerful.