The drill and impact driver are two of the most used tools when building a tiny house. If you are unsure of the difference between these two tools, I recommend watching the free video from our eWorkshop where I explain what they are and how they work. Since they are so heavily used during the build, and something every homeowner should have, I recommend investing in a nicer set.
We tested 4 different brands of drills and impact drivers. We evaluated them on price, battery size, features, comfort, and overall impression. The set that we found to be the best drill and impact driver is the DEWALT DCK299D1W1 MAX XR 20V Lithium Ion Brushless Compact Drill & Impact Driver Combo Kit. This kit is part of DeWalt XR line which means it includes their brushless motor technology. This feature allows the drill and driver to run longer on a single charge and also requires less maintenance so their expected lifetime is much longer. The batteries are a reasonable 2.0AH each which means you should get plenty of use between charges. I wouldn’t go any smaller though, so avoid any ‘special buy’ kits which will frequently include batteries that are only 1.3AH. The system is advertised as being 20V but that is just marketing, its nominal voltage is actually 18V. So don’t assume the higher number means more power when comparing these to other 18V systems. With that said, these have plenty of power with some to spare. In a test the drill actually outperformed a corded unit we have here. Overall, this set is fantastic and will last through your build and many years afterwards.
As you may have noticed our testers have a tendency to favor DeWalt brand tools. This is not arbitrary, nor do we just favor the color yellow. DeWalt makes a very high quality, professional grade power tool. They are more expensive than a typical homeowner grade tool, but in most cases it is worth it. This is just something that we have discovered, unfortunately at great expense, over our combined 68 years of experience.
