I purchased the DeWalt drill because of the DeWalt name and was not disappointed at all. As stated by another customer review, it is made by Black and Decker but is far superior than the Black and Decker model. For example, the DeWalt comes with two, count them, two batteries. The Black and Decker Firestorm only has one. That itself is worth about 35 bucks for the second battery. Also the DeWalt 926k-2 turns out about 200in/lbs of torque. Most other 9.6V models I looked at barely reach 150 in/lbs of torque. I could not find anywhere, not even on the Black and Decker web page, how much torque the 9.6V Firestorm produces. (I guess it must not be that Great) Also the Dewalt 9.6V has a two speed gear box, 0-300/0-1100. With the Firestorm Model you have to get the 14.4V drill to get the two speed gear box. In all my research looking for a good multi-purpose drill that also can perform well, has a good amount of torque, and that is not going to need replacing next week, the Dewalt came out ahead in my opionon.

I have owned this drill for many years and it still works like new. In the age of 18v and greater cordless power, people are forgetting what a great drill this is - at about half the weight of its big brothers. Although I am not a contractor using my drill all day every day, it has seen hard use. I have used it exclusively to renovate two houses (including drywall hanging), build a 24x45 pole barn, and countless woodworking and home repair projects. If this drill ever dies I will buy the exact same product to replace it. I can't think of a better testimonial than that.

When it became necessary to replace my eleven year old Makita I naturally assumed that I would buy another one until I went shopping and came across this DeWalt.pI feel that this is the perfect drill for the homeowner or DIYer. It has more than adequate power for most projects, it is light weight, and is well balanced. I actually enjoy using it and have taken to looking for things to do so than I have an excuse to fire it up and get to work. (This amazes my wife as normally I am not very enthusiastic about maintenance.) The extra battery pack and one hour charger are a definite plus, I doubt if one could get to the point where he/she would be moving fast enough so that the next battery would not be charged and ready to go.pIf you need a 9.6 volt drill, you can't go wrong with this one.

When the battery in my 10 year old Skil finally died, I knew what I wanted in a replacement. I wanted something of similar weight, but with more torque. 14.4v drills seem almost like the mainstream these days, but if you hold a 9.6v in one hand and a 14.4v in the other, you have to ask yourself if the extra weight is worth it.pMy old Skil put out about 110 in-lbs of torque, and the DeWalt puts out 200! Since I'd managed for 10 years with only 110 in-lbs, I figured 200 would more than meet my needs. To get that much torque in a lesser brand like BD or Skil you need to get the 14.4v - no thanks. After lots of looking both online and in the aisle at HD and Lowes I decided on the DeWalt and haven't regretted it for an instant.pI do woodworking as a hobby and small house chores as well. If I ever need a deck built, I'd hire somebody. So now you know where I'm coming from. I've found the DeWalt to have more than enough torque for my needs. The only time I've noticed the motor slowing down (but not stopping) is drilling 3/8" holes more than 2" deep in hard maple. I've also drilled 1/2" holes through 2.5" hard maple with a twist bit, and there was so much torque I had to hold on to the drill tightly with both hands to keep it from twisting out of my hands. If I was drilling holes like that all day long, then I'd probably go with the 14.4 or 18v version, but thankfully I don't do many of those types of holes. (Bear in mind that hard maple is at least 2-3 times harder than your typical softwood used in home construction.)pI can highly recommend this drill for anyone who's not doing extremely heavy-duty work all day long. It's got plenty of torque, two batteries to keep you going, two speeds for when you need to switch between high-torque and high-speed, and it stops instantly when you release the trigger rather than coasting down. If I have one complaint, it's that I sometimes have difficulty getting the chuck tight enough - when using big bits that will really be grabbing the wood and trying to spin loose out of the chuck you really need to crank down on the chuck. Unfortunately the parts of the chuck that you grip are plastic rather than rubber, complicating the operation a bit. That's a minor nit, though, in an otherwise outstanding drill.

This is the 2nd DEWALT 9.6v I've owned, as the previous one died after 12 years of use (and abuse). Able to take a beating, the 1st one survived being dropped from 3 stories up, and still worked fine.

The homeowner or the pro can appreciate this fella. Compact with lots of power.On the down side it tends to be a little tipsy while resting on the battery and the chuck is hard to grasp and twist tightly.But all in all you wont find a better drill for the money

We just bought the DeWalt 9.6Volt drill. I love it. It is just the right size for me to drill and drive screws in the furniture we make. My husband has had a 14.4 Volt for a couple of years that he really likes. The 14.4 was too heavy and awkward for me. The 9.6 is perfect for me. I even find my husband using it when he is working in awkward positions. The 9.6 has plenty of power and with two batteries it is always going. If someone wants a strong and easy to handle drill, this is it.

I started out looking at the 18v then 14.4v,then 12v and I finally settled on the DeWalt DW926K-2.The reason I went for the 9.6v DeWalt is that it was about 2-3 pounds lighter than any other drill around.It is well balanced and feels very comfortable especially while drilling overhead.This is the best drill for those weekend projects that you were holding off on doing.

I've regularly been using a venerable, brute-strong and die-hard 14.4 DeWalt drill (DW954) that has great battery life and excellent torque but also carries a lot of weight. And, after a while, you know you're hoisting an anchor, especially when driving screws overhead as with drywall. As a handyman, I'm often installing lightweight shelves, artwork, fixtures, racks, and other objects in wood, drywall and regular red brick so after a while, weight and size DO become important. So, I decided to try the 9.6v lightweight entry from DeWalt. I purchased it from a famous home center at a great price. It has great run time per charge, maintains a relatively steady speed even in harder substances, is beautifully compact and lightweight BUT has an absolutely awful chuck! Unless you're using the newer hex-shank bits, regular round shank drills will invariably spin right out of the chuck -- no matter how hard you try to tighten the chuck -- and stay stuck in the material you're drilling until you grab and twist the bit out with pliers. It happens so frequently that it quickly becomes an almost unbearable nuisance, especially when you're "on the clock" and trying to do the work quickly. I returned mine for a full refund and have already ordered a Bosch 32609 9.6v compact drill from Amazon.com. Unfortunately, I'll have yet one more battery charger to contend with but it's reviews were so good that I have to give it a serious try. If DeWalt could re-introduce their little 9.6v powerhouse with a better chuck -- say a single sleeve ratcheting type -- I dare say that it would be very hard if not impossible to beat for performance and value.

I can't recommend this drill enough. I just spend the Labor Day vacation (?) assembling a wooden playset for my daughters. Discovered my old Skil 18v wasn't what she used to be. Went to the local H Depot and waffled between the BD and the DeWalt - let DeWalt's reputation tip the scales and I couldn't be happier. The 1 hour battery charger is perfect. The drill had no problem w/ 3" and 4" wood screws through pressure treated wood - or driving a 5/16" hole through a 4X6. It's light, perfectly balanced and w/ the 2 batteries and 1 hour charger I worked all day with no slow downs. You can tell this was built to be used. Despite the fact that BD owns DeWalt - there are differences - DeWalt is all metal internal gears and more torque than the 14.4v Firestorm I was considering.

I bought this drill because I needed a compact, lightweight drill with a reasonable amount of torque to take up to the top of the mast on my sailboat. I also use it for 99 percent of the work I do around the house. For more demanding jobs, I get out the corded drill. The DeWalt has plenty of torque for most of my projects, the battery life is reasonable, and the tool is well built. It has not given me any problems for the two years I have owned it. Plus, the price is significantly less than the higher voltage drills. If you are only going to own one drill, then perhaps you should buy a higher voltage or corded model.

I am an electrician who uses drills daily. This model Dewalt is light and capable when used within it's limits. We use these to drive wood screws and even fixture screws. The clutch is just right to prevent damage from too much torque. Batteries that come with the kit are OK but I prefer the XR packs. Black and Decker Firestorm drills are not the same thing, I tried one and it lasted two weeks. Dewalt is part of Black and Decker but neither recommends interchanging batteries. When you buy the one hour Firestorm charger, and extra battery to go with your Black and Decker, you could have a Dewalt for the same amount. The charger that comes with the Firestorm takes 16 hours to charge.

We got a DeWalt 9.6 V (that looks just like this one) when we bought our house about seven years ago. We used it almost exclusively as a driver (using a corded high-speed drill for drilling), and it performed well for most tasks. And for most tasks, the relatively light weight seemed to be an advantage (until we found a bigger drill that was not much heavier). This drill did have its limitations. It did not have the power to drive 3" screws into pressure-treated pine on our deck efficiently, resulting in hands and arms that tired from maintaining pressure on the screw during the last few turns. For the deck, we ended up buying a 14.4 V Milwaukee, which was less than a pound heavier than this DeWalt. For the DeWalt, battery charging was adequately quick, but the battery use time was not particularly long. The batteries failed to hold a charge after about five years of use; we bought new batteries. We had to replace the charger once, too -- one of the metal contacts broke. Finally, after about six years of home repair use, this drill died. It started sputtering and wheezing when drilling upside-down, and then sputtered all the time -- no power. I could not take the drill apart to look for bad connections. Six years may seem like plenty of use, but it was used only on weekends at the most. Even when new, it did not seem nearly as solid and smooth-running as the Milwaukee we have now.

I have put this drill through hell and after 7 years I'm finally getting a new one. Not because anything is mechanically wrong with it. Over the last few months I've noticed the batteries aren't as young and spry as they used to be. To replace them would cost me more than a completely new drill.
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br /The best things about this tool are its lightweight and durability. For doing a lot of repetitive tasks, it would be torture to lift an 18v battery over and over again. This tool offers good torque and speed for its weight. The durability is top notch. I've used this poor tool to drill through mortar and bricks (drill bits never twisted out) drive drywall screws for an entire house, dropped it countless times, and to perform normal tasks occasionally.
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br /A cordless drill should be the first tool any home handyman or budding craftsman should purchase. This one will perform 99% of of the drilling work that comes your way.
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My dad had one of these drills which he must have used since at least 1990 as a general contractor. He used it on nearly every project, without fail. I inherited it from him in 2000, and have used it for every big home improvement project I've worked on. It's always been up to every task, with plenty of power on reserve. Only after so many years is the battery starting to lose its charge, too!

When I first purchased this drill, I was quite pleased by the combination of light weight with reasonable power. Then, just out of curiousity, I bought a Bosch 9.6v "Compact Tough" unit, to see which one was better suited to bookcase and cabinet construction. What a difference! The Bosch, for the same price, has a racheting chuck, one-handed chuck operation, a much more comfortable rubber-coated handle, as well as no runout in the chuck (unlike the DeWalt unit). When you drill many pilot holes with a 1/8th inch bit, sooner or later the DeWalt will fail to grip the bit, leaving it stuck in the wood. I use mostly DeWalt tools and it's not pleasant to criticize this unit, but unless you only use hex-shank bits where runout and chuck-gripping are not so important, this drill falls short of the Bosch, in my opinion.

I have only one fault with this drill. It works wonders for what it's suppose to do. But it is only a 9.6V Compact model. That's fine for most people, but given hour after hour of use, the battery just won't last as long as it takes to charge.pIf you only need to use it for up to 30 minutes of solid, non-stop use, it's great. If your going to be working on the same project all day long, driving screws and drilling holes, you will find the battery is a major limitation.

I made the mistake of 1st buying a cheaper, less powerfull model. You really pay the price in time and limitations. It didn't do well on harder materials so I just use it for drywall and light wood work. The dewalt is much better and has saved me tons of time. It is powerful enough to drill through hardwood and even some brick. Unless you think you can get buy with a lightweight model, the dw926k is a good compromise between the cheapest brands and spending several hundred for a really powerful model.

I love the size and power or this drill. It is lightweight yet has tackled all jobs in home repair and do it yourself projects. The battery is long lasting also and it comes with two so you have a backup.

This was my first real tool and I couldn't be happier with it. I have had little experience but I have found this tool very easy to use successfully.

Excellent drill for the weight/price. I've remolded a house, built a deck, built furniture and blown its recommended spec's out of the water (only 1" capacity in wood? I've done 1-1/2" regularly when rewiring a house). The battery doesn't last that long on demanding jobs, i.e. screwing in treated lumber decking, but on everything else I have had no problem. The deck was the only time I had to wait for batteries to charge to work, and I was running the drill almost constantly on the higher torque (lower speed) setting. I've had it for 4 years, and although it's more black than yellow from dirt, the batteries and motor still work great. I recommend this drill for most work, and a corded 1/2 clutch backup for backup and more demanding jobs (concrete, masonry, lots of screws in treated wood, etc.). I've used a 9.6 volt Makita and 12 volt Craftsman, and this drill seems more powerful and is much more comfortable to use. It has a better trigger than Makita, and much lighter and more balanced than either other drill. GREAT DRILL!!!

Great for the DIY'er. Anything more than 9.6v becomes heavy and cantakerous for small tasks. This drill will struggle with driving screws into 4"x4" treated wood unless the holes are pre-drilled. For big jobs, keep a corded drill. How often do you really need a drill with that much balls?

An excellent drill for those looking to spend about $70-90.
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br /I have had several cordless drills including this one, a DeWalt DC727 12V, Makita D6011 12V (the old school Makita cordless stick battery drill) and a Sears 12V ~$80 model (2 speed gearbox, not a super cheap 1 speed).
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br /I like the little DeWalt quite a bit. I like the small size and weight. It makes for a drill that's easy to handle and work with. However, unlike some other small drills, this one still has power. Its 200 in-lb of torque is similar to my Makita's 234 or the Sears's 225. Note that both the other drills are a good bit larger and somewhat heavier. I would also note that my DeWalt DC727 offers up 350 in-lb so it really says the other two drills just aren't up there with more expensive/newer 12V drills.
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br /So what's the point? Well many people assume that battery voltage equates to how much power a drill has. That's just not true. It's more complex that that. Needless to say you can advertise big voltage and still have no power to speak of. Look at some of the cheap Black and Deckers (the maker of DeWalt) for examples of lots of volts but no torque. That is not the case with this drill.
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br /All the parts of this DeWalt have a high quality feel making this a nice tool to use.
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br /So what's the down side?
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br /Well costs to some degree. If you can get this drill or it's newer sibling the DC750 for say $70-80 it's good buy because the competing "home use" drills just aren't any more powerful. Like my Sears drill, they are often higher voltage and larger but no more power. However, once you get to around $100+ the 12V+ models intended for contractors from DeWalt and other brands offer yet more power and in the case of Dewalts own DC727 little increase in size or weight.
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br /Battery life (the start that shines twice as bright...): Remember when I said this 9.6V was just as powerful as many home use type 12V drills like my Sears drill? Well there is a price you pay in battery life. The drill clearly trades battery life for power. My 12V Sears isn't really any more powerful but it lasts a lot longer on one battery. The drill does come with two batteries but you may still use them faster than you charge them. So while this drill will work just as hard as a 12V or even some cheaper 14.4V drills it will run out of juice faster.
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br /The chuck: Others have mentioned the chuck is hard to get tight. I would agree. The two part keyless chucks aren't any fun to work with. My Makita has the same basic chuck design and it's also hard to get really tight. My other two drills have the newer one hand chucks that work really well. Happily, this drill's replacement, the DeWalt DC750, has the improved chuck.
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br /In the end I really like this drill but I would recommend the DC750 simply for the new one handed chuck design. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this drill for medium duty jobs so long as the limited battery life isn't an issue.
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I am so impressed with this drill. It's plenty powerful and not so heavy that you feel like you're working out at the gym. I'm using it to drive 3 inch screws with no problem. The battery keeps surging along, too. And when it weakens, there's another waiting to be plopped in. Worth every penny in my opinion.

I got this drill from the company I work for, as my 10yr gift. I have had it for 4yrs going on 5. The drill and one of it's batteries was left out in the rain 2 times. Each time my husband was able to revive the poor abused thing. Finally this year after 4 1/2 years with a lot of extended weekend use(sometimes 3 day and 4day week ends)one of the battery's no longer holds a charge.br We made 2 8' by 12' ground level decks with no problem. I usually predrill most items not because of lack of power, but because not predrilling causes most wood, press board, and fiber board to split and crack. We also built cabinets, book cases, work tables for our shop, work tables for my studio and uncountable other uses. I am buying another one. I just bought my husband the 12v version. I still love my drill and prefer it over the other one. I will still use my old one. One for predrilling and one for driving. I don't care too much for the quick change chucks we bought(one set from craftsman and one set from Ryobi, and a small set from Dewalt) They all have a wobble that I don't get from the drill chuck. I hope others will enjoy their drill as much as we have.pDiana

Owned this drill for about 2 years now. I have a new 18 volt DeWalt hammerdrill that handles all the big things and this drill gets used a ton for things that don't need the extra power and weight of the 18 volt. For someone looking for a great second drill pick this one. You will find you'll reach for this one first. It's one of my favorite tools.

I've owned this drill for 9 years and used it for countless projects. The drill itself is still going strong, but the batteries are losing steam and the charger stopped working a year or so ago. The drill works well for many jobs around the house, and it's lightweight and very well balanced. However, it has always struck me as being ever so slightly underpowered. For example, I've used it for several wiring projects, and it lacks the power to drive a 1/2" spade bit through a double 2x4 top plate. Aside from that, I've been very happy with the drill, and would recommend it to any homeowner looking for a well made, light-duty cordless drill. I will probably eventually replace mine with the 12 volt model, which supposedly puts out 50 extra inch-pounds of torque and only weighs 1/2 pound more. Stay tuned!

I had the origingal DW926 and I'm going to replace it with the -2 model. I can't see any difference in the pictures, so I'm going to assume this weakness is still present.
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br /The gear selector switch on top (1 for driving, 2 for drilling) is plastic a bit thin where it grips the metal clip that actually moves one of the ring gears in the transmission. I had mine for 4 years for occasional household use and it finally broke either from jamming it while the motor was turning or dropping it.
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br /Also, know that while the sun and planet gears are all metal, some of the ring gears are plastic.
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br /This thing really does have tons of torque, but if you're building a deck with philips-head screws, you can't use it all. Even square-drive screws take some weight on them for the bit to stay in the head. I use GRK Torx-head stainless steel screws for outdoor projects now I can drive 3 inchers with my DW962 by just letting the weight of the drill keep the bit in the head.

This is a very good drill. My old one was stolen, so this was a replacement. It works very good, as I work with gutters. It does the job.

Great quality drill with lots of power. Just right for around the house.

ONE OF THE BEST ADJUSTABLE DRILLS I HAVE USE IN A LONG TIME.

I went through alot of trouble to find this drill and when I finally got it I was please with the features and all but will be trading it in because I notice that my chuck has a wobble to it and so now I have to wait a week then trade it in. I hope the next one is ok.

This drill ad contains the description "jacobs chuck". I would erxpect a "jacobs chuck" to be a KEYED chuck which is what I am looking for. Yet the photo appears to be a keyless chuck. Can you help me? Harry Wilson