Aldi & Lidl tools.

[Norman_E]

Just a heads up. On 23rd January Aldi have their sets of four wood chisels. I bought a set of those about two years ago, and they are good. Not as good as an old Marples chisel, but still appear to be made of decent steel as mine hold their edge with only an occasional visit to the fine oilstone. https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/thursday-23rd-january/product-detail/ps/p/4-piece-chisel-set/

On the same day Lidl have a 10.8 volt lithium ion drill for £29.99. Does anyone know if these are good as I want a light drill to take out to my boat? Did anyone get this drill from a previous offer, or is it a new item?
http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/SID-A...our-offers-2491.htm?action=showDetail&id=9305

 

[chrisbitz]

Lithium Ion is a joy to use, as it doesn't discharge with time, and doesn't have memory effect, so great battery tech, however, 10v isn't much power for a drill, but it might be nice to have in the toolbox as a powerful screwdriver or something?

I have a 14v Li-Ion drill that I got from a Previous Lidl offer for about £50ish... and it's great.

 

[Norman_E]

Yes, I would like a higher voltage one, and Aldi had a powerful one (14.4 or 18 volt, not sure which) for £39.99 a while back, but they had all sold out before I got there.

 

[MrB]

To be blunt, don't waste your money on cheap cordless tools, they are just not worth it. Look out for Screwfix special offers, you can get a Makita or Dewalt LI for around £100 and they will serve you well for a very long time. I would bet good money i could kill an Aldi cordless in less than an hour of use. (if the battery lasted that long and the plastic gearbox held up) Personally i would spend a little more for dependable quality like Makita, (my personal choice of tools) or Dewalt, Bosch (blue), Metabo, Hitachi etc.
On a side note, the small 10v tools are usually used for kitchen fitting, flat pack assembly kind of applications. Just buy one quality cordless that will last, an 18v Li combi drill (drill-screw-hammer-).....you will not need anything more for DIY for a long time.

 

[chrisbitz]

To be blunt, don't waste your money on cheap cordless tools, they are just not worth it. Look out for Screwfix special offers, you can get a Makita or Dewalt LI for around £100 and they will serve you well for a very long time. I would bet good money i could kill an Aldi cordless in less than an hour of use. (if the battery lasted that long and the plastic gearbox held up)

With respect, codswallop.

Today, with my cheap 1 year old lidl drill, I've used a sanding wheel, cleaning off old glue from the roof of my boat for at least an hour. It was showing half charged after. (It was previously fully charged about 2 months ago)

I then gave it a 1 hour top up charge, and screwed 60 self tapping screws into the roof of my boat.

the drill is a year old, and has lived in the damp and cold environment of the boat for all that time.

£49.99??? fantastic value for money, or maybe I just got lucky and got the only fantastic one amongst 10,000 **** ones that only last a day.

 

[MrB]

With respect, codswallop.

Today, with my cheap 1 year old lidl drill, I've used a sanding wheel, cleaning off old glue from the roof of my boat for at least an hour. It was showing half charged after. (It was previously fully charged about 2 months ago)

Granted, it maybe good as a sander for a while but start to use it as it was made for, see how long it lasts driving 3"-4" no 8-10 screws in. Not long i would think. If they were that good every tradesman would use them and every tool hire would use them. They don't for a reason.

 

[skyflyer]

Granted, it maybe good as a sander for a while but start to use it as it was made for, see how long it lasts driving 3"-4" no 8-10 screws in. Not long i would think. If they were that good every tradesman would use them and every tool hire would use them. They don't for a reason.

Part of that reason is good marketing and another part is clever 'packaging', i.e. a cordless tool with two or three battery packs allowing one to be charged whilst the other is in use. Since deWalt sold out to Black& decker/Flymo the quality has markedly decreased.

My kids once gave me a £10 'Champion' cordless drill/driver which I think is the Argos own-brand. The battery(NiCd) lasted about 6 months. I rebuilt the pack with a higher Ah NiMh cells and it lasted me for years - one of the best drills I ever had.

 

[ytd]

I have 2 aldi lithium ion drills. A 14v one about 3 years old and a 18v one one year old. Both are going well although the gearbox on the 18v is getting a bit noisy. I have 2 so that I can have a drill in one and a driver in the other for doing decks where you need to drill hardwood decking before driving in the stainless screw. The 14v one will drive about 300 screws on a charge. The 18v one more. Previous drills have been makita and ryobi. the aldis might be slightly poorer quality but they were a third the price.

 

[halcyon]

I have 2 aldi lithium ion drills. A 14v one about 3 years old and a 18v one one year old. Both are going well although the gearbox on the 18v is getting a bit noisy. I have 2 so that I can have a drill in one and a driver in the other for doing decks where you need to drill hardwood decking before driving in the stainless screw. The 14v one will drive about 300 screws on a charge. The 18v one more. Previous drills have been makita and ryobi. the aldis might be slightly poorer quality but they were a third the price.

They also claim to be made in Germany, if the German's can make them for the money, why do we buy from China instead of making them and employing people ?

Brian

 

[vyv_cox]

I have one of the larger Aldi drills and find it superb. I never expected a battery drill to drive 20 mm masonry drills through the ancient handmade bricks that my house is built from, but it does with ease. Battery life is good, even when driving dozens of 3 inch screws into roof timbers.

 

[Vara]

For an occasional user Aldi/Lidl tools seem to be more than adequate, All my power tools and some of my hand tools are now sourced from there.

Its a nonsense for me to buy a top end tool, and then use it two or three times a year.

My only criticism of the tools is that the consumables such as bits and blades are poor, but they can be sourced economically else where.

 

[Nicholas123]

They also claim to be made in Germany, if the German's can make them for the money, why do we buy from China instead of making them and employing people ?

Brian

Good point.I have thought that with the LIDL 12v vacuum cleaner & the Parkside cordless multi grinder,cracking products.
I guess all the big wigs in this Country just want to invest in banking.
+ the battery charger just remembered that.......& the little led light I bought.It's a disgrace that the people in charge can't get arses into gear,there is something terribly wrong.

+ the multi grinder accessories......oh & the rust paint from Aldi,the list just goes on.

 

[boguing]

I bought a new fibre/carbon pad and a bearing for my twenty+ year old Makita 4" belt sander recently.

Does that sum it up for those of us who like our tools?

 

[Graham_Wright]

To be blunt, don't waste your money on cheap cordless tools, they are just not worth it. Look out for Screwfix special offers, you can get a Makita or Dewalt LI for around £100 and they will serve you well for a very long time. I would bet good money i could kill an Aldi cordless in less than an hour of use. (if the battery lasted that long and the plastic gearbox held up) Personally i would spend a little more for dependable quality like Makita, (my personal choice of tools) or Dewalt, Bosch (blue), Metabo, Hitachi etc.
On a side note, the small 10v tools are usually used for kitchen fitting, flat pack assembly kind of applications. Just buy one quality cordless that will last, an 18v Li combi drill (drill-screw-hammer-).....you will not need anything more for DIY for a long time.

My Makita angle grinder gearbox disintegrated. The replacement parts were suspiciously cheap.
Then the spindle lock fell apart.
It's in the bin now.
(Conversely my B&D angle grinder is 23 years old and still functional).

 

[vyv_cox]

My Makita angle grinder gearbox disintegrated. The replacement parts were suspiciously cheap.
Then the spindle lock fell apart.
It's in the bin now.
(Conversely my B&D angle grinder is 23 years old and still functional).

The gearbox on my Makita angle grinder became increasingly noisy such that I expected it to fail imminently. I replaced it with an Aldi one which is far superior.

 

[Norman_E]

I bought the Lidl 10.8 volt drill. It seems well made and is more powerful than a 14.4 volt NiCd battery drill that I have. (Tested by stalling the chuck by hand) It seems just right for me to take to the boat to replace the dead battery drill that I have there. The battery pack is the right size and shape to contain three 18650 3.6 volt li-ion batteries so it looks possible to fix if the batteries fail.

The drill charger and plastic case weigh in at 2.1KG, making the drill without batteries actually heavier than the 14.4 volt drill.