This DEWALT DC720KA Heavy-Duty Cordless 18-Volt Compact Drill/Driver compact drill provides its users with first-rate performance and durability along with exceptional ergonomics. Increased speed and power keep the performance of the drill up while the frameless motor and all metal planetary gear support the durability. Also included is a built in LED light and onboard bit storage as well as two DC9099 18-volt battery Packs, a DW9116 1-hour charger, and a heavy-duty kit box.
Customer Reviews
Work Horse Drill,Excellent price, includes 2 batteries, so when one is charging you have the other ready to use.
Doing home renovations this summer has been the perfect tool for any job we needed it for.
Worth every penny and then some.
Awesome Service,I had to cancel my order on this product in the last minute, and the salesperson was exceptionally considerate. He was able to cancel the order right before it was shipped and refunded my payment. I am certain that the product would have been as excellent as the customer service.
Lots of torque and excellent chuck,There are few things more frustrating than to be drilling away and all of a sudden find yourself making no headway because the chuck has loosened up. Even worse is when you are up on a ladder and the bit falls out of the chuck and down to the ground. This is a common occurrence with the Makita and Milwaukee and in particular the Hitachi drills we use but never with the DeWalt drills.
We started out with the NiCad and they work well but you only get a 1-year warranty on the batteries so we have found it less expensive in the long run to buy the 20 volt lithium-ion battery powered version of this drill, the DeWalt DCD760 (not sold on Amazon but easily found elsewhere). For an extra $40 we can buy the DCD760 with two of the lithium-ion batteries which have a 2-year full warranty from DeWalt – longest provided by anyone.
The clutch is smooth and the adjustments are evenly spaced. Some drills make it hard to make a quick adjustment when you want 30% more or less torque with the clutch setting. The forward and reverse selector is placed where it is easy to find but difficult to press by accident. We have a couple of the Makita 452 compact drills and the selector is much too close and we hit it all the time while drilling and like having the chuck come loose it is a pain to find the drill has stopped drilling and have to stop and figure out what is wrong. The people at Makita on the engineering team in Japan must have small hands or just not realize the size of the average American hand.
This drill has lots of torque and none of the battery overload problems that I find with some lithium-ion drills (Makita and Hitachi in particular). It is a good idea to not make it work any harder than it needs to and avoid old fashioned bi-metal hole saws and selfeed drill bits. With a modern hole cutter the holes can be cut faster and the battery charge lasts a lot longer – win win as they say.
As many others have already realized cordless drills are a great substitute for a cord drill so long as you use modern high efficiency hole cutters as well. We started using the Hole Pro adjustable hole cutters to make 13″ holes for solar tubes using 18v cordless drills and now make 6″ holes in lumber using the Blue Boar tungsten carbide hole saws which surprises people on the job site the first time they see them in action. After that they want to know where we got them. I tell them Amazon.
HOLE PRO X-425 Kit 1-7/8″ to 17″ infinitely adjustable Twin Tungsten Carbide Blade Hole Saw Cutter 12″ 13″ 14″ 15″ 16″ and fractional holes in wood sheetrock plaster plastics MDF cement board. Use ¼ torque of hole saw cut twice as fast
The charger is of average size and about 2/3 the size of the Makita chargers which makes it easier to have more than one going at a time. The charger fits neatly into the DeWalt case which is about as crude as they come. DeWalt spends the least amount on designing and manufacturing its cases and it shows. On the other hand they do not cut corners with their drills and this shows as well in their power and durability.
We have lost quite a few Makita 18 volt drills with blown gearboxes and yet not a single Milwaukee or DeWalt drill. The DeWalt gearbox is built like a tank. Not refined but incredibly solid. New patented design and easily the best available. Prefer the 3-speed gearboxes but they are not used on the compact drills. If you do not really need a compact drill and want the most powerful 18 volt drill get the DeWalt DCD760.
We had a lot of problems with Milwaukee’s NiCad batteries and Milwaukee was very very slow to issue a recall and start replacing them. After that we tried to get only lithium-ion drills even if they don’t produce the same amount of prolonged torque as the Nicads thanks to the overload protection. Glad that DeWalt has at long last started producing some top quality drills with their high capacity XRP lithium-ion batteries.
Something to consider if trying to decide whether to get a drill with NiCad or lithium batteries in addition to the warranty period is the convenience factor if you only use your drill a couple times a month or less. A lithium-ion battery will hold its charge for a month or two so as long as you charge it before putting it away it is likely to have more than enough power for whatever job you have. With a NiCad you will need to remember to charge it the day before you need it.
This compact 18 volt drill is a good compromise between size and power. There are lighter drills you can buy but they are not as well built and they do not provide as much power. Unless all you need is a 12 volt drill this should be the least drill to consider. At the price it is a great buy though I would expect most people to be happier with the DCD760KL version with the lithium-ion batteries.
dewalt 18 volt drill,dewalt drill has plenty of power,batteries seem to last awhile between charges. I like it alot better than the makita I owned before.
Lots of torque for a compact drill,The DeWalt DC720KA is compact in size but still provides very good performance with its 18 volt NiCad battery cartridge. More power than the Makita BDF452 I have and a much better chuck (does not loosen up the way the Makita often does). It also has a much better placement of the forward and reverse switch than the compact Makita so I do not accidentally switch out of forward in the middle of drilling a hole or driving a screw. The problem with the forward-reverse switch I have only found on the Makita drills. No problems with any of my Milwaukee or DeWalt or Hitachi drills, only the Makita.
It is important to keep the batteries charged and to periodically top them off. They have half as long a warranty as the DeWalt Lithium-ion batteries so in the long run it may be less expensive to buy the DC760 version of this drill. Good idea to recharge the batteries after using the drill and not to wait until the next time you want to use it.
The DeWalt chucks are easily the best I have used in gripping a drill bit tightly and not loosening up no matter what I am drilling. The chuck has a smooth action and no visibly runout. Not as smooth as the Bosch, but equal to the Milwaukee and better than the Makita in this area.
The DeWalt charger works well and is quiet unlike the Makita “quick” charger that has a loud fan. Slower charging is better for battery life and so long as the first battery is charged before the second one runs out of power that is all I need. The NiCad battery will lose power sitting on a shelf at a much faster rate than the Lithium battery so it requires more forethought (to charge it before starting work) for a drill that is only going to be used occasionally. With the Makita you are supposed to leave the battery on the charger for an hour to let it cool off so the total charge time is actually longer (for maximum battery life) than with DeWalt.
I have found through my own experience with drills that are supposed to be 400 inch pound or 450 or 550 or 650 that a 550 will handle situations where a 450 drill will struggle and die. No idea why this is but I have experienced it with every medium duty drill we have from 4 different manufacturers. The DC720KA is an excellent medium duty drill that will work well in general drilling and driving. If you need the ultimate in performance and something that will take the place of a 1/2″ stud drill the DeWalt DCD940 or Milwaukee 2611 drills are better choices. Between the two drills the Milwaukee is the more refined drill but the DeWalt is the more powerful thanks to its all metal 3-speed gearbox.
Cordless drills burn up or have gearbox problems more often than corded drills of the past and I believe that this is the result of people trying to use them the same way as they did their cord drills and with the same old hole saws and self feed drill bits. Battery power, NiCad or Lithium-ion, is different than wall current and batteries do not work well then the current draw is very high. Easiest way to avoid problems with cordless drills is to use them on the correct speed range setting and to use modern hole cutters. The DeWalt gearboxes will take abuse much better than the Makita drills but if you want the drill to last it is a good idea to use the speed selector and modern high performance hole cutters.
As expensive as the cordless drills are compared to corded drills at 1/4 the price it surprises me that so often people will use $15 bi-metal hole saws and beat the drill (and themselves) up. They would not buy a new truck and then use the cheapest motor oil they could find to protect the engine but it amounts to the same thing. It is not really a good savings anyway if you plan to cut more than a few holes. The TCT hole cutters cut ten times as quickly and put about a tenth as much stress on the drill’s gearbox and motor bearings.
This DeWalt DC720KA is not powerful enough for a 2″ hole saw in a 2×4 piece of lumber but if I use a modern hole cutter with large side slots like the Milwaukee Big Hawg or the Blue Boar TCT I can easily cut a 4″ diameter hole in the same board and do it in a fraction of the time and needing a fraction of the battery’s power.
BLUE BOAR TSF12 12 Piece High Performance Tungsten Carbide Hole Saw kit – 2-1/4″ Cut Depth. Cut 10x as fast and using 1/40th the battery power. Cordless Drills cut holes 3x as large versus bi-metal hole saws. Deep side gullets for fast plug removal
I have been able to cut 4″ holes for dryer vents using one of the Blue Boar stucco hole cutters and the drill had no problems going through the stucco, the metal mesh, or the plywood to make the hole. I had tried using a Makita BDF452 but the drill kept cutting power to the motor and stalling and the chuck kept loosening up and needing retightening so I gave up using it for anything more than light duty work. Probably time to sell the Makita on craigslist.
DeWalt calls this a heavy duty compact drill and it is the only one I have found where this description was truly accurate. You can easily find lighter drills but rest assured they are also much lighter duty as well. The half size battery cartridges in reality provide less than half as much power and as one would expect they do not last as long but what was initially surprising to see was that the amount of power they provided even when new and fully charged was less than half that of a full size battery and this has a big impact on drill performance.
The only drills that are in the same league are the DeWalt DC760 lithium version of this drill and the Milwaukee 2602 (so long as you use it with a full size Milwaukee lithium-ion battery). My recommendation is to spend the extra dollars up front for the DeWalt DC760 and take advantage of its more powerful 20 volt lithium-ion batteries and the DeWalt 2 year lithium-ion battery warranty (double that from other manufacturers).
DeWalt DCD760KL 18 Volt 1/2″ Cordless Compact Li-Ion Drill/Driver Kit
When I need to cut large holes in wood siding I use one of the Hole Pro adjustable hole cutters as I can cut four times as large a hole as I could hope to do with any other hole cutter. With the DeWalt DC720 I have cut 6.5 inch diameter tankless water heater thimble holes in wood siding (on the low speed range) and 7 to 12 inch holes in drywall for can lights and ceiling speakers. The drill was more than up to the job.
