Customer Reviews

Makita BHP454 18-Volt LXT 1/2-Inch Lithium-Ion Cordless Hammer Drill Kit

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Popular Mechanics' glowing review of this drill is well deserved in my opinion. It is light, fast, well-balanced, and easy to use. Bosch's competing model (17618-01) feels faster and stronger, but it also weighs a ton, is a bit lengthy, requires you to switch between driving and drilling modes by rotating the 25 position clutch selector all the way back to zero, and the side handle slipped around a lot on the floor model I played with.

With the 9-9/16" Makita you can instantly flip between driver, drill and hammer modes with a little switch, hoist it above your head for extended periods of time without strain, and the forward/reverse selector is also much easier to hit. Throw in the handy depth gauge thingy and the belt clip and it's tough to miss those extra few BPMs Bosch has to offer unless you plan on dropping your drill on concrete with any degree of frequency. I can't comment on Bosch's battery life claims as I did not use one long enough to wear it down, but if you really need a lot more power than this, get something with a cord.

This will absolutely not replace anybody's rotary hammer, but if all you need to do is plant some Tapcons or knock a hole through some brick to pull cable through, it's a wondrous jack of all trades drill indeed. I have no complaints so far.

Terrific drill but the expensive batteries suddenly and unexpectedly die. Had high hopes for longer lasting batteries when switching to the Makita 18 volt lithium-ion drill but these have lasted barely over one year, I don't think I am being unreasonable in expecting 3 to 4 years out of a battery. Their original Nicad batteries easily lasted ten years, the Ni-mh batteries that replaced them were a big step up in power but didn't hold up, tapering off rapidly in charge capacity over their short 12 to 18 month typical life, they were very expensive to constantly replace.
With the new lithium-ions I got just over a year of excellent performance before they died, both failed suddenly within a few weeks of each other, the charger just refusing to charge them. I did not detect anything unusual prior to the sudden failures, awesome one minute and useless the next. Tried another charger thinking that could be the problem but had the same will not charge result.
We disassembled the packs, the battery cells were perfectly fine, readily accepting a full charge from a workbench power supply. Unlike previous batteries the lithium-ion packs contain a complicated circuit board, this is likely the point of failure, it either refuses to communicate with the Makita charger or erroneously tells it the batteries are bad.
Awesome drill Makita, best performing cordless I have ever used but your batteries suck.
I have been a loyal Makita user for over 30 years, unfortunately that loyalty has ended.

This has to be the best hammer/drill/driver that i've ever used.

It's power/weight combo is perfect. I could use this drill all day without being fatigued and the battery would keep on going.

Drilling 1 1/4" holes with speedbore max bits does not pose a problem for this drill. It eats through lumber with ease.
This drill easily drills in 3/16" holes in concrete (just as fast as our corded hammer drill) to drive in anchors and it doesn't take much to drill up to an 1" holes in masonry (not quite as fast as the corded but very convenient to not have a cord)

The added handle is NEEDED in most cases, with all the power it could easily rip the drill out of your hand.

As others have noted, i've experienced the "chuck wobble" but I've also noticed this on all of the other drills that my co-workers have, from dewalt to milwaukee, they all seem to have a little bit of wobble, maybe it's somewhat normal in a hammer/drill/driver?

This drill has convinced me to purchase alot of other 18v lxt makita stuff and all of it has proven to be great stuff. From the recip. saw to the new btd144 impact drill, plus the LED lights on these tools comes in handy quite often!

Makita > all others.

I am a contractor and I have owned dozens of drills. Half a year ago or so, I had a subcontractor doing some HVAC in a basement for me. He whipped out his Makita to drill a hole in the near pitch black joist bay and voila, there was light! No cords, no set up time, no precariously balanced flashlights, just bright light coming straight from the drill. Now that is cool and a heck of a time saver.

I did my research and quickly realized the advantages of this drill over its competition. So I bought it and its sister drill set the 'Makita LXT218 18-Volt 2-Tool LXT Lithium-Ion Cordless Combo Kit'. This set includes a lighter weight drill and an indispensable compact extremely light weight impact driver. Nothing comes close to this combination of drills and they ALL have lights and all of the lights stay on for 10 or so seconds after you release the triggers. This feature is clutch. The smaller drills of the 'sister' combo kit come w/smaller li batteries to keep them more compact and lighter weight, but they accept the larger batteries from the BHP454. This gives them an exceptionally long run time. Both kits come w/a high-tech fan cooled fast smart charger which boasts longer battery life. For me as a contractor, battery life tends to coincide w/death of the tool it belongs to (The grave yard is a large cardboard box in my shop). Replacement is costly so longer is better.

So far, the only complaint I have about these tools is that the speed and for/rev switches are clumsy and could be better designed.

I compared this drill with Milwaukee 0824-20 and it is much faster and powerful than Milwaukee. Makita took 39 secs to drill a 1/2 inch hole in 4 inch concrete block (not hollow). Milwaukee did the job on 52 sec.
Both Batteries drilled 5 holes and then died. Milwaukee is super heavy makita very light, but because of this the Milwaukee felt better when drilling, more compact with less vibration. Also the Jacob chuck on the makita was somewhat wobbling.
(Please send comments on how to fix or improve this), the Milwaukee chuck was very stable.

For the weight, speed, power I will go with Makita. For feel Milwaukee.

I expect a lot from makita. The Chuck has quite a bit of run out to it. I was disappointed. Actually I would say it's unexceptable. I have yet to have a second to send it back becuase it was a quick purchase to replace my last cordless makita drill which lasted for a good 4 years. When I say a bit of run out to it, I mean to say that you could not expect to use a brad point drill bit cleanly. It has a good 1/8 inch wonk to it whith a three inch bit. And it only gets worse with a longer bit, obviously. This doesn't mean that yours will come out of the box the same way. I'm just trying to let you know that this "one voice out of many" wasn't and still isn't satisfied with this drill. But I wouldn't purchase a different brand until they've sent me another hunk of junk as a replacement for this one.

I have been using the Makita 18 volt impact driver and bhp 451 drill/driver for 4 years and added the bhp 454 a year ago. I dropped the bhp 451 off a ladder and the gears jammed so I bought the bhp 454 to replace it. Latter I took the bhp 451 apart and put it back together and it works again. The impact driver is the best way to drive screws and tighten /loosen bolts and nuts of any tools that I have used. It sinks deck screws like going into butter. I purchased 4 Lithium ion batteries 4 years ago. I use them every day. One of the 4 died after three years and I replaced it. I have been overall very happy with the batteries. After 4 years they have less capacity or run time per charge but still very usable. The chuck on the bhp 451 wore out after three years and loosens while I am drilling. The same chuck is on the bhp 454 and it wore out after 1 year, probably because of the extra power. My question is has any one found a better chuck to put on this drill? Very satisfied except for the chuck. Other drills might survive a fall better but will wear you out with the extra weight.

ordered from amazon, delivered within the time stated.
Purchased to replace old milwaukee 14.4 cordless. (motor still good but batteries are weak.)
Price with free battery promo was fair. Waiting on battery
Drill has excelent torque.
Battery life seems to be good.
Hammer drill function is adequate for smaller holes. 1/2" or less
Driver function is good, but i had to get used to keeping adequate alignment and down pressure on the screw to avoid the bit jumping or slipping on the screw in speed range 2. Have ruined many screws and worn out tips.
Light is a nice touch, but it is only on the bottom of the drill. one on top would be nice.
One thing that has occaisionally happened is the chuck comes loose when in high range if i am starting and stopping the drill freequently. Probably just need to be more carefull when tightening the chuck.
All in all it has been a good purchase

Right out of the box I was very impressed with this drill. We actually bought 2. No more Bosch or Dewalt cordless drills for us. Time will tell how long the batteries will hold up. It seems like every 3 or 4 months I was having to buy batteries for our Dewalts. I think the Lithium-ion batteries will hold up better.

I've been using the 18 volt Makita cordless drills for a few years now. I have hundreds of hours of use on them. Since I've switched to using all screws in home remodeling, instead of nails, these tools get a lot of use. Extremely reliable. The hammer drill setting has drilled in every hard material I've thrown at it (up to a 1/2 inch bit). I still use the corded hammer drill for large deep holes in concrete.

I have installed 1000's of screws with these drill/screwdrivers. Never a problem.

The only con I've noticed is that the speed switch can become very hard to slide between settings. You have to rev the drill between positions to get the switch to slide. Annoying but acceptable.