I like this for corded: Milwaukee 1/2" drill
I have these for cordless:
Makita LXT
Dead nuts reliable and long run times. I disagree with worrying about the hammer function on a normal drill. Get the cheapo SDS from HF for those times. A normal drill's hammer function won't come close to touching an SDS. BTDT- Right tool for the job.
My only advise is to get a 2-speed 1/2 inch hammer drill and you will be able to drill anything you want. I use my cordless 90% of the time but when I need it the big drill comes in handy.
Popular mechanics just published a test this week: http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/reviews/power-tools/tool-test-13-corded-power-drills?click=pp
I have this one. It is terrifying and I hate it. Way too much power to try to hold in two hands. I almost never use it. But if you need to get a 6 inch hole saw through a piece of 1/2" aluminum plate, there isn't a better drill out there. It will try to rip your arms off every time you use it.
I also have one of these. It is an absolute piece of crap. It growls and rattles. Any day now the gear box will probably explode in to tiny fragments, but it is the one I use most of the time if I'm not using a cordless. I can stall it with two hands so it probably wont break my wrists. I used it to drill all the 11/16 holes in the frame of my truck for the 5th wheel hitch. It didn't smoke or explode so I'll keep using it.
For cordless, I use Makita. We were using Hitachi, but their triggers fail under hard use. We switched to Makita and now the batteries don't handle the abuse. Ryobi stuff would probably work fine around the house. They last about 3 months on the job site.
That Hitachi is what I just bought. My wrist still hurts from Saturday using that berkeleying thing. It makes my lights flicker. My 30 gallon compressor doesn't.
I have these:
This is the Makita rotary hammer I spoke of earlier that I bought from our retired fleet. Way more torque than I need, and thank goodness for that long secondary handle or I would be breaking my wrist. I went to HF and bought a set of SDS bits that go from 1/4 to 1". I drilled a 3/4" hole in an 8" solid pour like I was drilling pine with a Cobalt bit. Flip the switch to hammer-only and I stripped tile out of an old shower in no time. Flip it to drill-only for some 1/2" steel and you better hold on tight. This Makita is like a Lexus; all of the luxury features and Toyota reliability.
I have this Milwaukee as a general purpose corded drill. So far it has been bulletproof. A little hint - the "Tradesman" line of Milwaukee stuff is their old-tech. Its marketed as their cheaper, older design, but in truth its the good stuff... and its cheap. $69 bought me this one and it uses an aluminum gear housing, steel gears, replaceable brushes.... good stuff. This drill is like a 1982 Chevy Pickup; no frills, no extras, just something you can beat forever and fix for $4
Any of the M18 cordless stuff is fantastic. I had spoken before about how we abuse it. We have this kit below which is $199. Absolutely can't be beat.
In reply to curtis73: sorry for a necro-post. If the warranty ran out on the corded Milwaukee you mentioned and it started to fail, how much does Home Depot or anyone else charge to get it fixed? "Find a used one from the pre-90s. Metal and built like tanks. At best they might need bearings and new brushes."
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