Grunff wrote:
Some of you may remember the sad loss of my Erbauer 18V drill.
There were several suggestions as to what I should replace it
with. One suggestion was the B&Q PPPro 18V.

Having looked at these in the shop, and looked at their
motor/battery spec, I'd dismissed them as being too poor to
contemplate. But this wasn't based on actually having owned one.

I was in B&Q last week, and knowing that I'd be near B&Q again
next week thought what the hell, I'll try one. So I handed over
my £90 and took one home.

You get the drill, 2x 1.5Ah batteries, and a 1 hour charger. You
also get quite a nice case (which I didn't have with the
Erbauer, which cost £160 just over a year ago, now priced at £140).

The overall dimensions are quite a bit bigger than those of the
Erbauer, which makes the drill more difficult to use. In
particular, the 1.5Ah battery packs are significantly bigger
than the 1.9Ah ones that come with the Erbauer.

The chuck is of similar quality and design to the Erbauer, but
has the annoying habit of switching over to hammer action as
soon as the clutch comes into play.

It does, however, have two major problems.

First, battery life is awful. Lucky to get half the use on a
full charge that I would with the Erbauer.

Second, and more serious, is the speed controller. It doesn't
control the speed in a manner proportional to trigger movement.
There is a step jump to near full speed about half way along the
travel. This is a real pain, and makes it very difficult to use.

If this drill was £40, I think I'd keep it and live with the
deficiencies. But at that price, and especially when they brand
it as a semi-pro machine, no way.

Tune in next week, when I'll be reviewing Axminster's White 18V
drill...

I got the Axminster white 14.4v with 2 nimh batteries. Its very good. Knocks
spots off a cheapo 18v I used to use.