Hi, Wickes are presently doing an offer for their 15.6V Drill / Driver. It has a 10mm keyless chuck, variable speed, 1.2Ah battery and charger for £19.99.

Can anyone tell me if this would be up to general DIY about the house and garden. Also, can someone explain to me what the 15.6 V and 1.2Ah battery means. I see apparantly less powerful machines for treble the price at Screwfix.

Thanks

Rory

"Rodders" wrote in message ...
Hi, Wickes are presently doing an offer for their 15.6V Drill / Driver. It has a 10mm keyless chuck, variable speed, 1.2Ah battery and charger for £19.99.

Can anyone tell me if this would be up to general DIY about the house and garden. Also, can someone explain to me what the 15.6 V and 1.2Ah battery means. I see apparantly less powerful machines for treble the price at Screwfix.

Thanks

Rory



Should also have said it comes with a 2 year parts and labour guarantee.

Rory

Rodders wrote:

Hi, Wickes are presently doing an offer for their 15.6V Drill /
Driver. £19.99.
Can anyone tell me if this would be up to general DIY about the house
and garden.

Tricky one to answer since it depends a bit on what you expect from it
and what your idea of DIY is. It is fair to say at that price point it
is likely to be a toward the lower end of the general breed.

Also, can someone explain to me what the 15.6 V and 1.2Ah battery
means.

Battery tools are powered by battery packs. These are built typically
from individual cells that produce 1.2V. Hence most tools will operate
from a multiple of this voltage. 9V, 12, 14.4, 18V etc are all commonly
available. In theory the more voltage available the more power you can
get from the tool. The reality is far more complex than this however.

The Ah rating is a measure of the "capacity" of the battery - i.e. it
gives you an indication of the amount of energy the battery can supply
in total. In this case it is saying it could supply 1.2 amps for an hour
(0.6A for 2 hours, or 12A for 6 mins etc).

We have been working on a power tools section to add to the groups FAQ
document that may be of help to you here. Why not have a read, and
report back whether you find it helps?

The FAQ is usually found he

http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/

However the power tools bit may not have made it there yet. In which
case you can find the draft he

http://www.internode.co.uk/diyfaq

I see apparantly less powerful machines for treble the price at
Screwfix.

Read the "catagories of tools" section, and the "cordless tools" section
to understand why there is such a large variation in price.


--
Cheers,

John.

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| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Hi Rory

=A319:99 and a 2 years warranty for general DIY use? That's 20p a week
to own a drill driver. I've always found Wickes stuff reasonable.

Go snatch their arm off before they run out!

Dave


Dave

"Rodders" wrote in message
...

Hi, Wickes are presently doing an offer for their 15.6V Drill /
Driver. It has a 10mm keyless chuck, variable speed, 1.2Ah battery and
charger for =A319.99.

try he
http://www.silverlinetools.com/shop/...rTools/d9/sd24


Can anyone tell me if this would be up to general DIY about the
house and garden.

probably, upto a point. I would want a mains power tool first though,
if youve not got one then forget the codless things. One of those and
nothing else wont get you that far.


Also, can someone explain to me what the 15.6 V and 1.2Ah battery
means.

Battery pack capacity is 15.6v x 1.2Ah =3D 18.7 watt hours. Not a lot!
Realise of course that when used in a power tool you wont get anywhere
near the optimistic ideal conditions 18wh rating.


I see apparantly less powerful machines for treble the price at
Screwfix.

Volts is not power. They dont ever tell you the power output of these
things, cos if you knew you wouldnt buy them. Get mains unless you need
the codless feature.


NT

wrote:
"Rodders" wrote in message
...

Hi, Wickes are presently doing an offer for their 15.6V Drill /
Driver. It has a 10mm keyless chuck, variable speed, 1.2Ah battery
and
charger for =A319.99.

try he
http://www.silverlinetools.com/shop/...rTools/d9/sd24


Can anyone tell me if this would be up to general DIY about the
house and garden.

probably, upto a point. I would want a mains power tool first though,
if youve not got one then forget the codless things. One of those and
nothing else wont get you that far.


Also, can someone explain to me what the 15.6 V and 1.2Ah battery
means.

Battery pack capacity is 15.6v x 1.2Ah =3D 18.7 watt hours. Not a lot!
Realise of course that when used in a power tool you wont get
anywhere
near the optimistic ideal conditions 18wh rating.


I see apparantly less powerful machines for treble the price at
Screwfix.

Volts is not power. They dont ever tell you the power output of these
things, cos if you knew you wouldnt buy them. Get mains unless you
need
the codless feature.


NT


Lets explain just what this means, especially for our resident diyfaq
expert.

18wh under ideal conditions means with slow discharge, ignoring memory
effect, and batteries as good as new. So IRL lets say we get more like
10wh from our pack.

Now how long can we use such a tool for on one charge? I dont know, but
lets guesstimate 15 minutes of continuous run time. Thats 1/4 of an
hour, so during that time our 10wh is giving us an average of 40w.
Thats right, 40 watts. And thats for a 15v tool.

Something like this could be handy in the power tool faq.


NT

wrote:

18wh under ideal conditions means with slow discharge, ignoring memory
effect, and batteries as good as new. So IRL lets say we get more like
10wh from our pack.

Now how long can we use such a tool for on one charge? I dont know, but
lets guesstimate 15 minutes of continuous run time. Thats 1/4 of an

In my experience of such tools, that would be pretty unlikely. 5 Mins if
you are lucky (even that would equate to a draw rate of only 8A).

In practial terms that may equate to driving 50 screws on a full charge.

hour, so during that time our 10wh is giving us an average of 40w.
Thats right, 40 watts. And thats for a 15v tool.

or 120W if delivered in 5 mins etc. With appropriate gearing that can
still deliver useful work.

Something like this could be handy in the power tool faq.

Yep, it did occur to me that there is not much in the way of discussion
on the Ah ratings of batteries.

The performance (i.e. the power that can be delivered) is mostly a
function of the quality of the motor and the internal resistance of the
cells. Better quality cells being able to deliver more current on demand
while dissipating less heat.

(Some of the "expense no object" fast electric radio control bods will
draw power from top end sub C cells at 2kW (i.e. 45A drain on 36 cell
packs))

The run time is governed by the capacity of the cells, but is also a
function of the matching of the cells, since better matching will allow
more of the stored energy to be extracted in a useful form.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

"Rodders" wrote in message
...
Hi, Wickes are presently doing an offer for their 15.6V Drill / Driver. It
has a
10mm keyless chuck, variable speed, 1.2Ah battery and charger for £19.99.


1 power tool for 20 quid, or 2 for 25 quid. They have the above drill,
angle grinder, orbital sander and jigsaw at the Taunton branch.

I have an Wickes 14.4V cordless drill, Grey/Blue thing. Came with two
batteries and a quick-ish charger so it's never run out on me. I use it
mainly as a wood drill and driver and I've never had a problem with it.
So long as you have a decent mains drill first for serious jobs
something like this is ideal for screws, quick jobs and when power is
hard to come by.

On Thu, 07 Apr 2005 20:30:31 GMT, "Rodders"
wrote:

Hi, Wickes are presently doing an offer for their 15.6V Drill / Driver. It has a 10mm keyless chuck, variable speed, 1.2Ah battery and charger for £19.99.

Can anyone tell me if this would be up to general DIY about the house and garden. Also, can someone explain to me what the 15.6 V and 1.2Ah battery means. I see apparantly less powerful machines for treble the price at Screwfix.

Thanks

Rory

Hi,

Try getting one with 2 batteries, as it's much easier to use/charge
them in rotation and there is always at least a full battery in hand.

Froogle is a good way to check up on current deals:

http://froogle.google.co.uk/froogle?price1=9.98&price2=&btnP=Go&q=cordless+dri ll&scoring=p&price=between

Robert Dyas do an 18v with 2 batts for £20, Argos do a 14.4v with 2
batts and fast charger for £25,

cheers,
Pete.

On Thu, 07 Apr 2005 20:30:31 GMT, "Rodders"
wrote:

Hi, Wickes are presently doing an offer for their 15.6V Drill / Driver.
It has a 10mm keyless chuck, variable speed, 1.2Ah battery and
charger for £19.99.

The giveaway is the 1.2Ah battery. That's not good.

You really want a minimum 1.7Ah battery combined with perhaps 18v or
higher.

The configuration listed will have you recharging frequently IMHO. And
you need a 2nd battery so that you can have one charging up whilst the
other is in use.

Take note of the recharge time as well. If you are looking at 3-5
hours that isn't good because you could be halfway thru a job when the
battery goes down on you, then you lose half a day to get back on the
job.

Andrew

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