Prices from Amazon AU, updated daily. Swipe or use the arrows for more.
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to amazon.com.au. If you buy through one of these links iFix may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It doesn't change which products we recommend. We focus on what actually lasts based on 16 years of repair-shop experience.
Quick summary10 picks
- CheapestBosch 18V Cordless Drill Driver Without… about$99
- Bosch 18V Cordless Drill Driver with 2.0Ah… about$110
- Bosch 18V Cordless Impact Hammer Drill… about$125
- STANLEY FATMAX V20 18V Cordless Drill and… about$129
- Bosch 18V Cordless Brushless Impact Hammer… about$139
- Bosch 18V Cordless Drill Driver 2 Speed about$150
- Bosch Home & Garden 18V Cordless Brushless… about$155
- Bosch 18V Cordless Brushless Impact Hammer… about$169
- STANLEY FATMAX V20 | 18V Cordless Hammer… about$173
- Most PremiumSTANLEY FATMAX V20 | 18V 2 Piece Combo Kit… about$199
A cordless drill is a battery with a chuck on the front
Nearly everything that lands on our bench is the same three things in a plastic case: a lithium pack, a charger and a small motor. A cordless drill is those three things with a chuck bolted on the end. That isn't me being clever, it's the reason these tools fail the way they do. In this price band I've almost never seen the motor wear out before the pack that feeds it gives up, and the charger sitting in the cupboard is usually the second thing to go. So when you're choosing between a $99 bare tool and a $199 two tool kit, you're mostly choosing a battery platform and hoping the drill attached to it is a decent one.
That changes the sums a bit. The number on the box isn't the real cost of owning the thing. A kit at $125 that needs a fresh pack in three years costs you the kit plus the pack, and on an 18V platform a single replacement pack is usually a solid chunk of what you paid for the whole kit in the first place. I'd much rather people worked that out before they buy, because once you own two or three tools that share one battery mount, you're not switching brands over forty bucks. The platform is the purchase. The drill is just the first tool you hang off it.
Everything on this list sits between $99 and $199 on Amazon AU, which is where most home and small workshop buyers actually shop. There are two platforms in play: Bosch's Home & Garden 18V system, which the listings call POWER FOR ALL, and Stanley's FATMAX V20. They don't share packs or chargers, so pick a side early and stay there. Within each platform the differences that matter are whether a battery is in the box at all, how big it is, and whether the motor is brushed or brushless.
What's actually inside an 18V pack
An 18V lithium pack is five cells wired in series. Five cells at a nominal 3.6V each gets you to 18V, and that's the whole trick behind the number on the label. Inside there's also a small circuit board, the battery management system, watching cell voltages, temperature and current draw. Its job is to stop the pack doing something it shouldn't, and the way it does that job is blunt: when any single cell steps outside its limits, the board cuts the whole pack. Not that cell, the pack. It's a safety design and it's the right design, but it has a side effect most owners never get told about.
Cells don't age at the same rate. One sits closer to the motor and runs a few degrees warmer, one had a slightly worse day at the factory, and after a couple of years it holds noticeably less than its four neighbours. When that one cell hits the low voltage cutoff, the board shuts everything down even though the other four still have charge left in them. The worst cell sets the working capacity of the pack, not the average. That's why a two year old battery goes from fine to useless over about a month, and why the packs people bring to the Erina bench get described as having died suddenly. Generally they didn't. One cell drifted low and the protection did exactly what it was built to do.
The amp hour number is runtime, not grunt. A 2.0Ah pack, which is what comes in most of the kits here, will get you through a flat pack wardrobe and a few shelf brackets without a recharge. The 4.0Ah pack in the Stanley hammer drill kit at $172.80 runs roughly twice as long between charges and puts more weight on the end of your wrist. Bigger packs also tend to age a bit better under the same workload, because the same hole pulls a lower current out of each cell and the pack runs cooler doing it, and heat is the thing that ages cells fastest.
Brushless or brushed, and what the difference buys you
Brushless gets marketed like a premium trim level on a car. It isn't really. A brushed motor uses carbon blocks pressed against a spinning commutator to switch the current as the armature turns, and those blocks are a wear part, rubbing metal every second the tool runs. A brushless motor does the same switching electronically, so there's nothing in there grinding itself away and less of your battery's energy turns into heat and carbon dust instead of turning the chuck. It's a wear question and an efficiency question, not a status question.
What you get for the extra money is more runtime out of the same amp hours and a longer life before the motor itself becomes the problem. On this list the brushless tools are the Bosch UniversalDrill and UniversalImpact 18V-60 models, and their listings quote 60Nm of hard torque against the 40Nm of the brushed EasyDrill and EasyImpact. The extra torque helps, but the cooler running helps more over the life of the tool, because a motor that wastes less energy as heat is also a motor that asks less of the pack for the same job. That loops straight back to cell life.
So the honest split is this. If you're drilling a dozen holes a year and putting up the odd curtain rail, a brushed EasyDrill kit at $110 will outlast your interest in the hobby, and paying for brushless buys you almost nothing you'll notice. If the drill lives in a van, gets used most weekends, or spends time driving long screws into hardwood, I'd pay the difference, mostly for the heat rather than the torque figure.
The charger is the part that worries me, not the drill
Tools themselves almost never start fires. Chargers do. A battery charger is a mains switchmode power supply, and the parts that fail first in those are the electrolytic capacitors, which dry out with heat and time until the supply can't hold a stable output any more. We see the identical failure in phone bricks and laptop supplies every week, and I've set out how a failing charger actually goes wrong if you want the longer version. The chargers that come in brand kits are generally fine. The $25 replacement charger and pack off a marketplace listing is where it gets ugly.
Anything sold for mains use here should carry the RCM mark, the little triangle with a tick in it. It's the supplier's declaration that the product meets Australian electrical standards, and it's the single easiest thing to look for on a listing photo. A no name replacement pack is worse again than a no name charger, because it usually pairs a minimal protection board with cells that were never matched to each other. Remember what I said about the worst cell setting the capacity: an unmatched pack starts its life with that problem already built in, and it's those packs that come back to us swollen.
There's a simple test you can run yourself. If the charger gets hot enough that you don't want to keep holding it, or it buzzes under load, or the pack is warm every single time you lift it off, stop using that charger. Warm during a fast charge is normal, hot every time is not. It's the same advice I give people about laptop supplies on the computer side of the shop, and it's saved a few benches and a few carpets over the years.
Bare tool, kit or combo kit
Two of the listings here are bare tools, meaning no battery and no charger in the box. The Bosch EasyDrill 18V-40 at $99 and the brushless UniversalImpact 18V-60 at $139 both say so in their listings, though you have to read past the headline to catch it. A bare tool is only a good buy if you already own packs on that platform. Otherwise you're walking out with a drill that can't turn until you spend again, and a single pack plus charger will usually take you past the price of the complete kit. People get caught because the bare tool sits right next to the kit in the search results at a lower number.
A kit means the tool, one pack, a charger and normally a case, and that's the sensible starting point for most people. A combo kit gives you two tools that share the one battery system. The Stanley FATMAX V20 two piece at $199 pairs a hammer drill with an impact driver and throws in two 2.0Ah packs, and that second tool matters more than most buyers expect. An impact driver drives screws with short rotational hammer blows rather than pure twist, so the fastener goes in without your wrist absorbing the reaction, and without the drill's chuck taking a beating it was never designed for.
The Stanley drill and flashlight combo at $129 is a different kind of pairing. Same 50Nm hammer drill, one 2.0Ah pack, a charger and a 140 lumen torch that runs off the same battery. I wouldn't buy a kit for the torch, but a light that shares your packs is genuinely handy when the power's out, and it means the battery earns its keep between drilling jobs. The Bosch set at $149.95 does the same trick with a 43 piece accessory set instead, which is bits and drills rather than a second tool.
How to store a pack so it's still good in three years
Lithium cells dislike two things: sitting at either end of their charge range, and sitting hot. A pack left flat in a drawer over winter keeps slowly self discharging, and if a cell drops far enough below its floor the charger will refuse to touch it again, which is the protection board declining to push current into what it reads as a damaged cell. A pack left permanently full and warm ages faster too, just less dramatically and with no single moment where it dies. Cells are happiest sitting around half charge at normal room temperature, which is about as unexciting a piece of advice as I can give you.
The worst thing most people do is leave the kit in the car. A ute or a boot parked in the sun on the Central Coast in February gets well past anything a lithium pack wants to see, and every hour spent up there is capacity you never get back. It's the same physics as the phone batteries we replace and the power banks I've written up before, just in a bigger case with a chunkier protection board. Heat plus a full charge is the combination that does the real damage, so a full pack cooking on a dashboard is about the worst case you can arrange.
The routine I'd suggest is dull and it works. Charge before a job rather than after, so packs aren't sitting full for months at a time. Bring the case inside instead of leaving it in the vehicle. If a pack is going to sit unused for a season, run it down to roughly half first and give it a short top up a couple of times a year so it never drifts down into the range the charger won't recover. None of that is fussy or time consuming, and in my experience it's the difference between replacing a pack in year three and replacing one in year six.
What I'd check before you hand over any money
Most of the regret I hear about cordless tools traces back to something that was visible on the listing before purchase. Before you order, run through this lot:
- Does the box include a battery and a charger, or is it a bare tool? Both bare tools here say so, but not in the first line of the title.
- What does a spare pack cost on that platform right now? Add it to the price, because you'll buy one sooner or later.
- Brushed or brushless? Brushless if the tool gets used often or works hard, brushed if it's a few jobs a year.
- Does the charger carry the RCM mark? If a third party seller can't show you one, walk away.
- Is the second tool in a combo something you'd genuinely use, or is it padding to make the number look better?
- Where will the kit actually live? If the honest answer is the boot of the car, plan on buying a spare pack early.
None of that takes more than a couple of minutes on the listing page, and it's most of the difference between a drill you're still using in 2031 and a paperweight with a dead battery clipped to it by 2029. The same thinking applies to anything else in the shed that runs on a pack, which is why I use it in the car tool kit guide as well. Buy the platform you can still get parts for, treat the battery like the consumable it is, and the tool on the front of it will usually look after itself.
The 10 picks, $99 to $199
Prices are Amazon AU at time of writing (21 September 2026) and move week to week. Ranks are Amazon AU category sales ranks, checked the same day.
Bosch EasyDrill 18V-40 Cordless Drill Driver, bare tool
ASIN B09PLKKTKZ • $99.00 • Ships from Amazon AU
This is the lowest number on the list and also the listing most likely to disappoint someone who skims. Read past the title and it's clear enough: EasyDrill 18V-40 bare tool, one screwdriver bit, no battery and no charger in the box. For $99 you get a 13mm chuck, 40Nm of torque, a two speed gearbox with 20 torque settings, an LED work light, made in Europe and designed in Germany, running on the Bosch POWER FOR ALL 18V cordless system. As a drill it's the same tool that sits inside the $110 kit further down this list. The only question is whether you already have something to plug into it.
That question has a clean answer. If you own any Bosch Home & Garden 18V tool already, a trimmer, a blower, another drill, then this is the sensible way to add a drill to the collection, because your existing packs and charger do the work and you're only paying for the motor and gearbox. If you don't own any of that, this is not the line to buy. A pack and charger bought separately will generally land you above the price of the complete EasyDrill kit, and you'll have spent more for the same result with an extra order to chase. Check what a bare pack and charger cost on the day, then compare that against the kit price before you decide either way.
Sitting at #5 in Power Drills on Amazon AU tells you a lot of people are buying it, and I'd bet a decent share of them meant to buy the kit. It's a fine tool: 40Nm is plenty for flat pack furniture, shelf brackets, decking screws with a pilot hole and general household work. It's brushed rather than brushless, so the motor has a finite number of hours in it, but for light use that limit is years away. Just be certain about what arrives in the box before you click.
Honest caveats: No battery and no charger are included, and that's easy to miss in the search results. There's no hammer function on this model, so masonry is out unless you already own an impact drill. The motor is brushed, which means the carbon brushes are a wear part. The listing doesn't state a weight or a battery run time, so don't assume either.
Best for: Someone who already owns Bosch Home & Garden 18V packs and just wants to add a drill driver.
Price at time of writing: $99 • Battery: Not included, bare tool • Chuck: 13mm • Max torque: 40Nm • Gearbox: 2 speed, 20 torque settings • Motor: Brushed • Platform: Bosch POWER FOR ALL 18V • In the box: Drill and screwdriver bit • Rank: #5 in Power Drills (Amazon AU)
View on Amazon AU
Bosch EasyDrill 18-40 Cordless Drill Driver Kit, 2.0Ah
ASIN B0BLN41TCV • $110.00 • Ships from Amazon AU
This is the same EasyDrill as the bare tool above with the things that make it useful actually in the box: one 2.0Ah battery, a charger and a case, for $110. That's an extra $11 over the bare tool, which tells you everything about how the two listings are priced against each other and why I'd send almost everyone here instead. You get a 13mm chuck, 40Nm of torque, two speeds, 20 torque settings and an LED light, made in Europe. For a first cordless drill in a house that doesn't own any power tools yet, this is the least complicated way in. It's the version I point people at when they ring up asking which one they should get.
The 2.0Ah pack is the small one, and it's honest about what it is. On light work, driving screws and drilling pilot holes, it'll run through an afternoon comfortably. Put it on a long stretch of decking or a heap of 75mm screws into hardwood and you'll be waiting on the charger more than you'd like. The pack works across the whole Bosch Home & Garden 18V range, so if you later add a hedge trimmer or a blower on the same platform, the battery you bought here goes straight onto it and the charger keeps doing its job. Charge time isn't stated on the listing, so don't plan a job around a quick turnaround between sessions.
It sits at #5 in Power Drills on Amazon AU, sharing that spot with the other EasyDrill listings. There's no hammer function, so this is wood, metal and plastic only. It's brushed, which for the amount of work most households give a drill is a non issue. If you're not sure what you need and you just want a drill that works out of the box and can grow into a battery system later, start here and spend the difference on bits. One pack, one charger, one tool, and nothing in the box that you'll never take out of it.
Honest caveats: Only one 2.0Ah battery is supplied, so there's no second pack to swap in while the first charges. No hammer function means masonry is off the table. Brushed motor, so the brushes are a wear part on heavy use. The listing doesn't state charge time or weight, so check the current listing if either matters to you.
Best for: A first cordless drill for a household that owns no 18V packs yet.
Price at time of writing: $110 • Battery: 1 x 2.0Ah, included • Chuck: 13mm • Max torque: 40Nm • Gearbox: 2 speed, 20 torque settings • Motor: Brushed • Platform: Bosch POWER FOR ALL 18V • In the box: Drill, 2.0Ah battery, charger, case • Rank: #5 in Power Drills (Amazon AU)
View on Amazon AU
Bosch EasyImpact 18V-40 Cordless Impact Hammer Drill Driver Kit
ASIN B0BLN6CZK4 • $125.00 • Ships from Amazon AU
For $15 more than the plain EasyDrill kit you get the same tool with a hammer setting added, and in an Australian house that's usually money well spent. Brick, besser block and the concrete slab under the render are all things people end up drilling sooner or later, and a drill with no hammer action will spin, get hot and go nowhere in masonry. The EasyImpact 18V-40 carries the same 13mm chuck, the same 40Nm, the same two speed gearbox and 20 torque presets, with one 2.0Ah battery, a charger and a case in the box for $125. Hammer mode adds a small mechanism behind the chuck that lets the bit move forward and back as it spins, and that's what chips masonry instead of polishing it.
It's the best selling drill of this group at #3 in Power Drills on Amazon AU, and I can see why. It's the version of this tool that covers the most household jobs without asking you to think hard about which model you need. Hammer mode on a tool this size isn't a rotary hammer, so it's for masonry anchors and small holes rather than anything structural, but that covers a TV bracket, a hose reel on the brick wall and a curtain track into a lintel. Switch it back to drill mode and it's the same competent 40Nm driver as the model below it. For anything bigger than an anchor hole you'd want a proper rotary hammer on SDS bits instead.
The pack is still the small 2.0Ah unit and the motor is still brushed, so the same limits apply: it's a light duty tool with a wear item in the motor and a battery that sets the pace on long jobs. Hammer drilling pulls more current than plain drilling, so the pack works harder and runs warmer in masonry than it does in pine. Don't leave it on the charger straight after a masonry session, let it cool to room temperature first and it'll thank you for it. A warm pack put straight on the charger is a pack you'll be replacing early.
Honest caveats: Hammer action on a 40Nm drill driver suits small masonry holes, not heavy concrete work. One 2.0Ah pack only, so expect waits on long jobs. Brushed motor. Masonry work heats the pack noticeably, and charging a hot pack shortens its life. The listing doesn't state blows per minute or weight, so don't assume a figure.
Best for: The one drill to own if your walls are brick and your jobs are small.
Price at time of writing: $125 • Battery: 1 x 2.0Ah, included • Chuck: 13mm • Max torque: 40Nm • Modes: Drill, screwdrive, impact drilling in masonry • Gearbox: 2 speed, 20 torque settings • Motor: Brushed • In the box: Drill, 2.0Ah battery, charger, case • Rank: #3 in Power Drills (Amazon AU)
View on Amazon AU
Stanley FATMAX V20 18V Hammer Drill and Flashlight Combo Kit
ASIN B0G1SJJMLN • $129.00 • Ships from Amazon AU
This is the first Stanley on the list and the first two piece combo, at $129. You get the FATMAX V20 hammer drill rated at 1,500 RPM and 50Nm of torque with up to 25,500 blows per minute in hammer mode, plus a 140 lumen LED torch that runs off the same battery, one 2.0Ah V20 lithium pack and a charger. On paper the drill has more torque than the $125 Bosch EasyImpact, and the V20 packs carry a charge indicator on the pack itself, which is more useful than it sounds when you're trying to work out whether a battery is flat or faulty. Stanley's listing doesn't quote a clutch setting count for this drill, which the other V20 kit here does.
The torch is not the reason to buy this, but I like what it represents. A light that shares your drill's packs means the battery gets used and cycled rather than sitting full in a case for eight months at a time, which is genuinely better for the cells. It's also the sort of thing that earns its place during an outage. Just be clear that you're buying into the Stanley FATMAX V20 platform here, and V20 packs don't fit Bosch tools and never will, so this is a fork in the road rather than a side purchase. Packs that get used regularly and sit near half charge between jobs generally last longer than ones left full in a case.
At #66 in Power Drills on Amazon AU it's a long way behind the Bosch listings on sales, which usually reflects brand habit more than build. The drill is brushed, the pack is the small 2.0Ah unit, and Stanley's listing leans on the no memory effect and low self discharge of lithium, which is true of every lithium pack on this page and isn't a point of difference. Treat it as a capable 50Nm hammer drill with a free useful accessory attached. At $129 with a second tool already in the box, it's a fair way onto that platform.
Honest caveats: The listing doesn't state whether the flashlight has its own switch modes or run time, so don't count on figures. One 2.0Ah pack only. Brushed motor. The listing quotes no clutch setting count for this drill, unlike the other Stanley kit here. V20 packs are not compatible with the Bosch tools on this list, so you're committing to a platform.
Best for: Someone starting on the Stanley V20 platform who wants a work light that shares the battery.
Price at time of writing: $129 • Battery: 1 x 2.0Ah V20, included • Drill speed: Up to 1,500 RPM • Max torque: 50Nm • Hammer action: Up to 25,500 BPM • Flashlight: 140 LED lumens • Platform: Stanley FATMAX V20 18V • In the box: Hammer drill, flashlight, 2.0Ah battery, charger • Rank: #66 in Power Drills (Amazon AU)
View on Amazon AU
Bosch UniversalImpact 18V-60 Brushless Hammer Drill Driver, bare tool
ASIN B09MTP3433 • $139.00 • Ships from Amazon AU
Same warning as the $99 listing, and this time it costs you more if you miss it. The UniversalImpact 18V-60 at $139 is a bare tool: drill and one screwdriver bit, battery and charger sold separately. What you're paying for is the step up to a brushless motor, a 13mm metal chuck rather than plastic, and 60Nm of torque against the 40Nm of the Easy range. The listing also calls out a slim ergonomic design and 20 torque levels with separate drill and impact drill settings, and it's made in Europe like the rest of the Bosch tools here. The included items line spells it out plainly: UniversalImpact 18V-60 baretool and one screwdriver bit, nothing else in the box.
The metal chuck matters more than the spec sheet makes it look. A chuck is a set of steel jaws in a sleeve, and the thing that wears them out is shock loading, usually from someone using a drill to drive long fasteners as if it were an impact driver. A metal bodied chuck takes that abuse far better than a plastic one and stays concentric longer, which shows up as bits that don't wobble in three years. Combine that with a brushless motor, which has no carbon brushes to grind away and runs cooler for the same work, and you've got a tool built for repeat use rather than occasional use.
It shares #26 in Power Drills on Amazon AU with its kitted sibling. My honest position on this one: buy it if you already own Bosch Home & Garden 18V packs and want the better motor, otherwise pay the extra $30 and get the same tool at $169 with a 2.5Ah battery, charger and case included. Paying $139 and then buying a pack separately puts you above that kit price for no gain at all. It's a good tool sold in the form that suits the smallest number of buyers, so check your own situation before you order. Brushless plus a metal chuck is the right combination for someone who works a drill hard, but only if there's already a charged pack sitting in the shed.
Honest caveats: No battery and no charger in the box, and at $139 that's an expensive assumption to get wrong. The listing quotes 60Nm as maximum hard torque, which is a peak figure and not what you'll see continuously. No weight, charge time or blows per minute are stated. The bit supplied is a single screwdriver bit, not a set.
Best for: An existing Bosch 18V owner who wants the brushless motor and the metal chuck without paying for another battery.
Price at time of writing: $139 • Battery: Not included, bare tool • Chuck: 13mm metal • Max torque: 60Nm hard torque • Motor: Brushless • Modes: Drill, screwdrive, impact drilling in masonry • Gearbox: 2 speed, 20 torque settings • In the box: Drill and screwdriver bit • Rank: #26 in Power Drills (Amazon AU)
View on Amazon AU
Bosch 18V Cordless Drill Driver Kit with 43 Piece Accessory Set
ASIN B0C5XG2JT3 • $149.95 • Ships from Amazon AU
This is the EasyDrill kit again at $149.95, this time with a 43 piece accessory set bundled in: drill bits described as precision ground high speed steel, plus screwdriver bits. The tool is unchanged, a 13mm single sleeve chuck, 40Nm, two speed gearbox, 20 torque levels and an LED light, with one 2.0Ah battery and a charger on the Bosch Home & Garden platform. Whether the extra $40 over the plain kit makes sense depends entirely on whether you own any decent bits already, because a drill with nothing to put in it is about as useful as the bare tool at $99. Bits are consumables, and a set thrown in with a drill is rarely the last set you'll ever buy.
For a household starting from nothing, I think this stacks up reasonably. High speed steel bits will handle wood, plastic and mild steel, and having a spread of sizes in one case saves the trip to the hardware shop mid job, which is the moment most home projects stall. What the listing doesn't say is whether masonry bits are included, and since this drill has no hammer function anyway, don't buy it expecting to put holes in brick. If your walls are masonry, the EasyImpact kit at $125 plus a set of masonry bits is the better pair of purchases. Having the right size on hand is usually what decides whether a Saturday job gets finished or not.
It carries the same #5 rank in Power Drills on Amazon AU as the other EasyDrill listings. Same brushed motor, same small 2.0Ah pack, same sensible limits. Bits are consumables in the same way batteries are: high speed steel dulls, especially if you lean on it in steel without a bit of cutting fluid and a slower speed. Run the drill in low gear for big holes and in metal, keep the pressure steady rather than heavy, and a set like this lasts years instead of months. Keep them in the case rather than loose in a drawer and they'll stay sharp longer.
Honest caveats: No hammer function, so masonry is out regardless of what bits are in the case. The listing doesn't break down exactly what the 43 pieces are or state whether masonry bits are included, so check the current listing photos. One 2.0Ah pack, brushed motor. If you already own a bit set, the $110 kit gets you the same drill.
Best for: A household buying its first drill and its first set of bits in one go.
Price at time of writing: $149.95 • Battery: 1 x 2.0Ah, included • Chuck: 13mm single sleeve • Max torque: 40Nm • Gearbox: 2 speed, 20 torque levels • Motor: Brushed • Accessories: 43 piece set, high speed steel drill bits • In the box: Drill, 2.0Ah battery, charger, case, accessory set • Rank: #5 in Power Drills (Amazon AU)
View on Amazon AU
Bosch UniversalDrill 18V-60 Brushless Drill Driver Kit, 2.5Ah
ASIN B0C2GV6F5B • $155.00 • Ships from Amazon AU
At $155 this is the brushless drill driver with everything in the box: the UniversalDrill 18V-60, a 2.5Ah battery, a charger and a case. It's a Bosch Home & Garden 18V tool with a 13mm metal chuck, 60Nm of maximum hard torque, a two speed gearbox and 20 torque presets, made in Europe. The two things that separate it from the EasyDrill kits below it are the brushless motor and the slightly larger pack, and both of those are about how long things last rather than what the tool can do on day one. Nothing about it is dramatic on a spec sheet, and that's rather the point of this model. The metal chuck is worth noticing as well, because steel jaws stay concentric longer than plastic ones under repeated use.
The 2.5Ah pack is a quarter more capacity than the 2.0Ah units in the entry kits, which is a modest gain on paper and a slightly bigger one in practice, because a brushless motor turns more of that charge into rotation instead of heat. Between the two changes you'll notice fewer trips to the charger on a decent session. There's no hammer function on this model though, and that's the thing to weigh, because for $14 more the UniversalImpact version adds masonry drilling to the same brushless platform and the same 2.5Ah pack. The pack also drops onto any other Bosch Home & Garden 18V tool you buy later, which is the part that matters over ten years rather than ten minutes.
It sits at #120 in Power Drills on Amazon AU, well behind the Easy range, which I read as people buying on the first number they see rather than on what lasts. If every hole you drill is in timber or steel and you'd never use a hammer setting, this is the cleaner tool, because there's no hammer mechanism to rattle and no extra mode to knock out of position. If there's any brick in your future, spend the extra. Just be honest with yourself about whether you'll ever want to put a hole in brick.
Honest caveats: No hammer function at all, so masonry needs a different tool. The 60Nm figure is maximum hard torque, a peak reading rather than continuous output. Only one battery is supplied. The listing doesn't state weight, charge time or run time. At $155 it sits awkwardly close to the hammer capable version at $169.
Best for: Timber and metal work where a hammer mode would never get used and the motor needs to last.
Price at time of writing: $155 • Battery: 1 x 2.5Ah, included • Chuck: 13mm metal • Max torque: 60Nm hard torque • Motor: Brushless • Gearbox: 2 speed, 20 torque settings • Platform: Bosch Home & Garden 18V • In the box: Drill, 2.5Ah battery, charger, case • Rank: #120 in Power Drills (Amazon AU)
View on Amazon AU
Bosch UniversalImpact 18V-60 Brushless Impact Hammer Drill Kit, 2.5Ah
ASIN B0C2H6VCH6 • $169.00 • Ships from Amazon AU
If I had to pick one Bosch off this list and hand it to someone who'll still be using it in 2033, it's this one at $169. Brushless motor, 13mm metal chuck, 60Nm of maximum hard torque, two speed gearbox, 20 torque presets and masonry drilling, with a 2.5Ah battery, charger and case included. It covers wood, metal, plastic and brick, it has the motor that doesn't wear brushes and the chuck that survives being used slightly wrong, and it's made in Europe like the rest of the Bosch tools here. There's an LED work light and the same two speed gearbox as the rest of the range, and the case means the pack and charger stay with the tool instead of getting lost in a drawer.
The combination that matters is brushless plus a metal chuck plus hammer mode. Masonry drilling is the hardest thing you'll ask of a tool this size, it draws the most current and generates the most heat in both the motor and the pack, and that's exactly where a brushless motor earns its money by wasting less energy as heat in the first place. The 2.5Ah pack gives you a bit more room before a recharge than the 2.0Ah kits, and it drops straight onto any other Bosch Home & Garden 18V tool you end up owning. Hammer drilling also throws a lot of dust around, and dust packed into the motor vents is its own slow problem further down the track.
It shares #26 in Power Drills on Amazon AU with the bare tool version, which is a reasonable spot for a mid priced tool in a market that mostly shops on the first number. Compared with the $139 bare tool, you're paying $30 for a 2.5Ah pack, a charger and a case, which is a straightforward win unless you already own Bosch packs. Compared with the $155 UniversalDrill, you're paying $14 for the hammer setting, which I'd take nine times out of ten in an Australian house. It's the one I'd own myself.
Honest caveats: The listing is inconsistent: the title says UniversalImpact 18V-60 while the included items line reads UniversalDrill 18V-60, so check the current listing photos before ordering if hammer mode is the reason you're buying. Only one pack is supplied. The 60Nm figure is a peak hard torque reading. No weight or charge time is stated.
Best for: The one drill to buy if you want it to still be working in a decade and your walls include brick.
Price at time of writing: $169 • Battery: 1 x 2.5Ah, included • Chuck: 13mm metal • Max torque: 60Nm hard torque • Motor: Brushless • Modes: Drill, screwdrive, impact drilling in masonry • Gearbox: 2 speed, 20 torque settings • In the box: Drill, 2.5Ah battery, charger, case • Rank: #26 in Power Drills (Amazon AU)
View on Amazon AU
Stanley FATMAX V20 18V Hammer Drill Driver Kit with 2.0Ah and 4.0Ah Batteries
ASIN B0D1J4YV63 • $172.80 • Ships from Amazon AU
This is the only kit here that ships two batteries of different sizes, and at $172.80 that's what you're paying for. The drill is Stanley's FATMAX V20 hammer drill driver: 13mm chuck, 50Nm of torque, up to 1,500 RPM, hammer action to 25,000 BPM, 24 clutch settings and a two speed gearbox running 0 to 350 and 0 to 1,500 RPM. In the box are a 2.0Ah pack, a 4.0Ah pack, a charger and a battery charge indicator on the packs themselves so you can tell flat from faulty without guessing. There's a forward and reverse switch and the usual work light, and the low gear range means you can drop back for big holes without stalling the motor.
Two packs changes how you work more than any other spec on this page. One charges while the other works, so a long session doesn't stop, and having a small light pack for overhead screwdriving and a big heavy one for continuous drilling is genuinely the right pair. The 4.0Ah pack also runs cooler per unit of work, because each cell supplies half the current it would in a 2.0Ah pack doing the same job, and cooler cells age slower. Over five years that difference matters more than the extra runtime you notice on day one. It also means you're never stuck waiting on the only pack you own to come back to life mid job.
At #116 in Power Drills on Amazon AU it's not a big seller, and the 24 clutch settings are the only obvious advantage over the Bosch tools on paper, giving you finer control over how deep a screw sits before the clutch slips. The motor is brushed, which is the one place this kit gives ground to the $169 Bosch. If your priority is not running out of battery and you're happy with a brushed motor, this is the best runtime for the money on the page. Two packs at this price is a genuine advantage.
Honest caveats: The motor is brushed, so it has a wear part the brushless Bosch tools don't. The listing doesn't state whether the supplied charger is the compact 1.25A unit, and a 4.0Ah pack on a small charger takes a long time to fill. No case is mentioned in the listing. The 50Nm and 1,500 RPM figures are maximums, not continuous ratings.
Best for: Longer jobs where swapping to a charged pack matters more than having a brushless motor.
Price at time of writing: $172.80 • Batteries: 1 x 2.0Ah and 1 x 4.0Ah, included • Chuck: 13mm • Max torque: 50Nm • Gearbox: 2 speed, 0 to 350 and 0 to 1,500 RPM • Clutch: 24 settings • Hammer action: Up to 25,000 BPM • Platform: Stanley FATMAX V20 18V • Rank: #116 in Power Drills (Amazon AU)
View on Amazon AU
Stanley FATMAX V20 18V Hammer Drill and Impact Driver Combo Kit
ASIN B091BJ65HT • $199.00 • Ships from Amazon AU
At $199 this is the top of the list and the only kit with a proper second tool rather than a torch. You get the FATMAX V20 hammer drill at 1,500 RPM, 50Nm and up to 25,000 BPM, plus an impact driver rated at 2,800 RPM, 3,100 BPM and 165Nm of torque, two 2.0Ah V20 lithium batteries, a compact 1.25A charger and a soft bag. That 165Nm figure on the impact driver is more than three times the drill's rating, and it's the number that explains why tradies carry both tools instead of one. Both tools run off the same V20 packs, so there's one charger and one battery type to keep track of in the shed.
An impact driver doesn't twist harder, it hits. A small internal hammer strikes a rotating anvil thousands of times a minute, so torque arrives as a series of sharp blows instead of a steady load. Your wrist doesn't absorb the reaction, the screw head doesn't cam out, and critically the drill's chuck never gets asked to take shock loading it wasn't designed for. Worn out chucks are one of the more common things we see on tools that came in for something else, and nine times out of ten it's a drill that spent its life doing an impact driver's job. That one difference is worth more on a long job than any torque figure printed on the drill.
It sits at #48 in Power Drills on Amazon AU. The compromises are worth naming: both motors are brushed, and both packs are the small 2.0Ah units, so you get two batteries but not much total capacity, and the 1.25A charger is described as compact, which usually means slow. It also comes in a soft bag rather than a hard case, so it won't protect the tools in a ute tray. As a starting point for a shed that's going to build things, though, two tools on one platform is the right shape.
Honest caveats: Both tools are brushed, and both packs are 2.0Ah, so total capacity is modest for a $199 kit. The charger is listed as a compact 1.25A unit, which means slower charging than a fast charger. A soft bag offers far less protection than a hard case. The 165Nm impact figure is a peak rating, not continuous output.
Best for: Anyone about to build a deck, a fence or flat pack in volume, where driving screws is most of the work.
Price at time of writing: $199 • Batteries: 2 x 2.0Ah V20, included • Hammer drill: 1,500 RPM, 50Nm, up to 25,000 BPM • Impact driver: 2,800 RPM, 3,100 BPM, 165Nm • Charger: Compact 1.25A • Motors: Brushed • Carry: Soft bag • Platform: Stanley FATMAX V20 18V • Rank: #48 in Power Drills (Amazon AU)
View on Amazon AUSide-by-side comparison
What we see fail at the bench: cordless tool packs and chargers
Cordless tools come in for three things, and only one of them is the drill. Packs that won't take a charge or have started to swell, chargers that hum and run hot, and chucks that have been shaken loose by years of driving screws with the wrong tool. The motor and gearbox usually outlive all of it. Here's what those three failures actually look like when you open them up.
Swollen packs
A lithium cell that swells is venting gas from decomposing electrolyte, and once it starts it doesn't reverse. You'll normally spot it before you smell it, because the pack stops clicking cleanly onto the tool or sits proud on the foot. The causes are dull and repeatable: heat, deep discharge, and unmatched cells in no name replacement packs. A swollen pack is done, and it's not something to keep in the house or in the car while you decide. Take it to a battery drop off point, don't put it in the kerbside bin, and don't try to charge it once to see.
Chargers that have gone soft
The electrolytic capacitors in a charger's output stage dry out with heat and time, losing the ability to smooth the supply. The charger doesn't die cleanly, it gets vague: charging takes longer, the pack comes off warm every time, and eventually the light sequence stops making sense. A charger that hums audibly under load is usually a capacitor that's on its way out. Running a good pack on a tired charger is a slow way to ruin the pack, because the pack sees a dirty supply and spends longer at full charge than it should. If the charger behaves oddly, replace the charger before you blame the battery.
Worn chucks and clogged vents
A keyless chuck holds a bit with three steel jaws in a tapered sleeve, and shock loading wears the jaws and the threads behind them. Once that wear passes a point, bits sit off centre and every hole comes out ragged. The usual cause is someone driving long fasteners with a drill instead of an impact driver. Vents are the other thing: a drill that's been used to cut plasterboard or MDF packs its motor vents with dust, the motor runs hotter, and the extra heat gets straight into the pack sitting underneath it. Blow the vents out with low pressure air a few times a year.
Decision tree: which one should you actually buy?
- I just want one drill for the odd job and nothing else? → The Bosch EasyDrill 18-40 kit at $110. Battery, charger and case in the box, 40Nm is plenty for timber and flat pack, and nothing about it needs thinking about.
- My walls are brick and I'm hanging real weight on them? → The Bosch EasyImpact 18V-40 kit at $125 if it's occasional, the brushless UniversalImpact 18V-60 kit at $169 if it's regular. Both add hammer mode, and the $169 one adds the motor and metal chuck that survive it.
- I already own Bosch Home & Garden 18V packs? → Take a bare tool. The EasyDrill 18V-40 at $99 if you want a second drill, or the brushless UniversalImpact 18V-60 at $139 if you want a better one. Skip both if you don't own packs already.
- I'm about to build a deck and drive a few hundred screws? → The Stanley FATMAX V20 two piece combo at $199. The impact driver is what saves your wrist and your drill's chuck, and two packs means you don't stop.
- I hate waiting on chargers more than anything else? → The Stanley FATMAX V20 hammer drill kit at $172.80, because it's the only listing here with a 4.0Ah pack alongside a 2.0Ah one, so there's always a charged battery ready.
- My charger runs hot, or a pack has started to swell? → Stop using both and bring them to our Erina workshop. We'll tell you whether it's the charger or the cells before you spend money on a replacement pack that might fail the same way.
Frequently asked questions
How long should an 18V battery pack actually last?
Most home users get somewhere between three and six years out of a pack, and the spread depends almost entirely on how it's stored rather than how much it's used. Cells age from heat and from sitting at either extreme of charge, so a pack that lives inside at around half charge will comfortably outlast one that spends summers in a car at full charge. Cycle count matters too, but for someone drilling a few dozen holes a year it's rarely the limiting factor. When a pack does go, it usually goes fast, because one weak cell trips the protection board and takes the whole pack offline.
Is a brushless drill worth the extra money?
It depends on how often you'll use it. A brushed motor switches current using carbon blocks that physically rub a spinning commutator, and those blocks wear down, generate heat and waste some of your battery on friction. A brushless motor does the switching electronically, so nothing wears and more of the charge turns into rotation. For a few jobs a year, a brushed drill like the EasyDrill at $110 will last longer than your interest in it. For weekly use, or for masonry work that pulls high current, the brushless UniversalImpact at $169 is the better buy, mostly because it runs cooler.
Should I ever buy a drill without a battery?
Only if you already own packs on that exact platform. Two listings here are bare tools: the Bosch EasyDrill 18V-40 at $99 and the brushless UniversalImpact 18V-60 at $139. If you own Bosch Home and Garden 18V packs, both are a sensible way to add a tool without paying for another battery and charger. If you don't, buying a pack and charger separately will generally cost you more than the complete kit version of the same drill, and you'll wait for a second delivery. Read the included items line on any listing before you order.
Are no name replacement battery packs safe?
Some are fine and plenty aren't, and you can't tell from the listing photo. The risks are a minimal protection board and cells that were never matched to each other, which means the pack starts life with one cell weaker than the rest and heads for an early shutdown or worse. Look for the RCM mark, the triangle with a tick, on any charger or pack sold for use here, because that's the supplier declaring the product meets Australian electrical standards. If a seller can't show you one, buy the brand pack instead. The packs that come to us swollen are almost always the unbranded ones.
Do I really need an impact driver as well as a drill?
Not for hanging pictures, but yes if you drive a lot of screws. An impact driver applies torque in rapid hammer blows against a rotating anvil rather than as steady twist, so the fastener goes in without the reaction torque twisting your wrist, and the bit is far less likely to cam out and chew the screw head. It also spares your drill's chuck, which was designed to hold a bit steady and not to absorb shock. Worn out chucks on drills that were used as impact drivers are a regular sight, and the Stanley combo at $199 solves it for less than most standalone impact drivers cost.
How should I store batteries if the drill won't be used for months?
Run the pack down to roughly half charge and leave it somewhere at normal room temperature, not in a shed that hits forty degrees in February and not in the car. A pack stored flat can self discharge below the point where the protection board will allow a recharge, and at that stage the charger simply refuses it and there's nothing you can do at home. A pack stored full and warm ages faster too, just more quietly. Give a stored pack a short top up a couple of times a year and check it hasn't started to swell while you're there.
Related buying guides
Battery pack gone flat for good, or a charger running hot?
Cordless tools come to us with dead packs, chargers that hum and run hot, and vents packed solid with plasterboard dust. Bring the tool, the pack and the charger into Erina and we'll test all three before you spend anything, because a new pack on a tired charger is money thrown away. If the pack has started to swell, don't charge it again and don't leave it in the car. Bring it in as it is.
Call (02) 4311 6146 Book Online