In Brief

We have abbreviated the term ‘variable speed reversing’ to VSR.

The VSR drills in this review could accurately be described as general purpose machines, with a bias towards construction & building maintenance. They all have higher speeds of up to 3000 rpm, variable speed control, forward & reversing triggers plus a hammer/impact action. Having all of these abilities they are capable of doing a wide variety of drilling jobs in many materials.

These machines were difficult to choose between. All of the VSR drills we reviewed perform their basic functions very well indeed. Therefore, & in order to form a balanced opinion, we needed to look beyond the conducted bench tests. We considered a number of other aspects: value for money, noise & heat generation, operator comfort, weight & ease of making general drilling adjustments. We also took into consideration our opinion of the overall manufacturing quality of each drill, plus what was included within its purchase price.

A Few Comments About The Reverse Action Of A VSR Drill.

We have included the methods of engaging reverse for each of these drills in our summary table at the beginning of each tool review. We have also included a description of the mechanism used when reverse is selected with each of these drills. This may be an important consideration if the drill is frequently used for reversing under load, such as in the case of removing roofing batten screws. There are two basic methods used by drill manufacturers to enable an operator to engage reverse. Both do the same thing in that the polarity is reversed causing the motor to spins backwards. Some machines change their electrical polarity by pushing a switch located at or near the actual armature brushes. Others instead use a reversing switch usually located on or near the variable speed trigger. The first method of changing polarity in order to engage reverse by activating a switch at the brushes does not generally affect the amount of motor torque the drill has whilst in reverse mode. Switching polarity by the second method (referred to as electronic reverse) can involve losses of up to 30% of torque when the machine is in reverse. If high torque in reverse is an important issue for you, we advise that you choose a machine that uses the first method. However, switching into reverse by this method is slightly more awkward & usually involves using both hands.

It is far easier to activate reverse at the actual trigger & is a one handed operation.

What We Do.

After performing our usual visual checks, we make note of any accessories that are included with the drill in the purchase price. We then record our comments about its overall finish & manufacturing quality.

We separated each machine into either Trade Duty or Industrial Duty, mainly going by price. Our pick of the more expensive machines is the Metabo SBE 750. This is mainly due to its obvious high quality, overall comfort & its excellent power to weight ratio.

The other machines were difficult to separate. Bosch, as always, is very hard to beat in terms of quality, features & price / performance.