Nextec drill driver

Featuring a new color scheme that is a fresh departure from the old black and red colors, this line of tools has some unique offerings like the Hammer Head nailer. It is always interesting to see how our test tools arrive.

Of course they all have colorful outer boxes, but this is one area that many companies must invest mucho dough because they are always unique. The packaging on the NEXTEC in particular is cool because it allows you to check out the tool through a plastic window when the box lid is lifted. Once we got beyond the packaging, we found that the drill comes inside a zippered nylon storage case. The storage case has elastic and Velcro holders that keep all the parts and pieces in place and organized.

In the lid, there is a zippered mesh cloth pocket to keep your manuals or other small items that you might want to keep with the drill. We know how all of you like to hang on to all that information that is in 18 different languages just in case! All joking aside, the manuals are good to keep around because, like many of the tools nowadays, the warranty and service center information is found in these manuals.

The one gripe about the carry case is that the lid is removable and if you remove it, it is a little tricky to get the zipper started again so you can zip it closed. The main body is made of a grey colored plastic with soft grip black rubber over molds. The direction button, trigger and speed switch keep the traditional Craftsman Red color going.

The silver metal torque ring has 18 different settings and on the top side of the drill there is a speed selector switch that will allow you to choose between LOW, which spins up to RPM revolutions per minute and HIGH with RPM.

The drill is a variable speed type which is easily controlled by the trigger. To help illuminate dark places, there is an LED light built into the body of the drill that directs the light towards the working area.

The batteries are what have allowed manufacturers to make smaller and smaller tools without sacrificing power. The included charger will charge up the batteries in 30 minutes and it has LED indicator lights on the front of the charger to let you know the status of the charge cycle.

One nifty feature of the charger is that instead of leaving it sitting on your bench and in the way, you can mount it on a wall vertically so that you keep your prime bench space open and ready for a project.

To start off we made sure we had both batteries fully charged. Thinking it was maybe a weak battery; we swapped and still were only able to achieve similar numbers. For our electronic torque meter test the maximum reading was In-lbs.

One area where this drill excelled was noise output. One interesting thing we observed during our torque testing is that the drill has an electronic overload feature.

What this is supposed to do is protect the battery from over heating and drawing to much current which could damage the battery permanently.

Of course this is a safety feature that is supposed to help with long term durability but in some rare instances some users will find that when the drilling gets tough, the drill just stops. It passed just fine. When the drill would bind up, it would cut off to protect the motor and battery. The many torque settings are very handy for driving different size screws into various materials. For smaller sized holes in wood and metal with regular drill bits, everything functioned properly.

We did not notice any problems with the batteries and they seem to keep their charge for a reasonable amount of drilling time. Thanks to the quick 30 minute charger, a fresh battery was always ready to go. However, in most instances it will serve the purposes of a Do-It-Yourself person just fine. Since it is so quiet and compact, my wife took notice of it and was asking when she might be expecting hers! One of the original founders of Pro Tool Reviews, Tom has nearly twenty years of experience in residential and commercial construction.

He's been a project manager at an engineering firm, started his own architectural design company, and finally owned and operated a residential construction company as a licensed contractor in South Carolina. I first heard about the new line at the National Hardware Show. Being a 12V, its light and only weighs 2. For two pounds, it does pack a powerful punch at in-lbs of torque and will allow the homeowner to do a wide variety of jobs around the house.

The drill has two speeds with the range of and , This is powered by a 12V 1. The user can choose from 18 different clutch setting to match the power to the application. The Quickboost is awesome and has to do with the charger and battery. The charger is sold separately. How many times has this happened to you? Your just about to finish up a job and your battery dies. You go to grab the other battery and yes that one is dead also.

You can wait the 30 minutes it takes to charge the batteries or you can put it in Quickboost mode. How cool is that? No more waiting around. If you forget about thew Quickboost and walk away, the charge will automatically go into normal charging mode after three minutes.

The drill does have a nice feel to it. Very well balanced and great power.