I bought this item at a retail price of $118. It was originally announced it would be sold at $129, so this lower price is quite nice. Now, I only got this drill today, so I can only tell what I've found out with limited usage of it today. Further long-term testing will tell better.
This drill comes with 2 batteries, the charger, the drill, and it comes in a neat little canvas case. This is about the only Ridgid canvas case that I actually thought was a good idea for their tools. I personally hate the canvas bags that come with other kits and drills. But this case is a sweet little zip open unit, and it has stretchy elastic bands and velcro straps inside of it to secure all of the parts. Very cool.
The little pocket drill/driver weighs in at only 2.4 pounds with a battery loaded into it. Even at that though, it feels a little top heavy - it's not that the weight overall is too much, but just that it's all in the top of it. Feels a little bit weird - not the greatest design from an ergonomic standpoint as you can feel your hand is a little bit more tense to hold the drill as intended - the top sort of wants to do it's own thing.
The charger is similar to other Ridgid chargers in basic design, but is still a fair bit different in general appearance due to the different battery design with this unit. The LED patterns are easy to understand, and the LED display is on the front of the charger, rather than on the left side. The charger charges a fully discharged battery in about 30 minutes even (I had 31 for one battery, and 34 for the other, one was fully and completely discharged, the other had just a slight amount from factory).
The chuck sucks. It's a nice fairly compact little chuck, but it is horribly prone to movement and wobble with the outer sleeve. You can sort of shift it by hand, and correct the outer sleeve, and make it dead center, but it finds an out of center position again after using it for a bit. It doesn't look like the jaws of the chuck itself are off center, but I'm a bit worried, as my other Ridgid drills have developed a bit of an off-center condition in the chucks. Have to wait and see. The chuck also does not have the ratcheting little noise when tightening it. I sort of like that, as it lets me know when I'm good to go.
The clutch settings are quite nice - works nice. Overall drill speed, when used in conjunction with a light clutch setting for the work you are doing, makes this drill a very functional little unit. It would be phenomenal for installing cabinetry and similar uses. I used it tonight for readjusting our cabinet doors in the kitchen at home - they badly needed it. Much nicer to use this tool rather than a handheld screwdriver, or my 18 volt "compact" lithium ion drill.
The LED light is okay - a neat little feature that's coming out on new tools. I like it.
I don't yet know overall run times. I will update more as I get more chance to use it further.
Overall, this little drill will blend in nicely with my other Ridgid tools, as the styling works well with the MaxSelect and the various lithium-ion tools that are out. I like the very compact nature of it, and know I'll find some indisposable uses for it eventually. Right now, I'm giving this tool about a 3.5 out of 5. I'll keep it, unless it turns out to be a dud.
I also have the R86006, and think it's a fairly nice piece of hardware. I'm quite happy with it to date. I picked up this 12V Micros to have something smaller to use when I'm doing under cabinet work, or something where smaller is just simply better/easier to use.
So you would recommend it over the Milwaukee even though they are different in the aspects of their chuck design? 3/8" vs 1/4 quick change hex.
EDIT: Don't bother answering that question, for my application, I need the speed of the 1/4" hex chuck, so I guess as of requirement the Milwaukee is the right one for me.
"The chuck sucks. It's a nice fairly compact little chuck, but it is horribly prone to movement and wobble with the outer sleeve. You can sort of shift it by hand, and correct the outer sleeve, and make it dead center, but it finds an out of center position again after using it for a bit. It doesn't look like the jaws of the chuck itself are off center, but I'm a bit worried, as my other Ridgid drills have developed a bit of an off-center condition in the chucks. Have to wait and see. The chuck also does not have the ratcheting little noise when tightening it. I sort of like that, as it lets me know when I'm good to go."
Thanks for the review, The chuck part of your review worries me as a design problem with this tool, I have yet to lay my hands on the tool you are talking about, I intend to take a look at it this weekend. I like the idea of a chuck on a compact drill as I want to drill pilot holes for small projects. Maybe you have a faulty piece?
EDIT: Don't bother answering that question, for my application, I need the speed of the 1/4" hex chuck, so I guess as of requirement the Milwaukee is the right one for me.
I would recommend it, but if you're needing the 1/4" quick change hex, then the Milwaukee or the Bosch is the way to go.
I like the fact that the Ridgid one has a small 3/8" chuck. Neat feature, IMO. I would honestly like to see Ridgid come out with one that has the 1/4" quick change hex, though. It would be good to see them expand the "Micros" 12 volt lithium ion line-up.
A chuck is a critical part of any drill.
I bought 2 Skill drivers for $25 each [$55 at Lowes]on clearance, each, LiIon 7.2v, 0-500rpm , brake, fuel gauge built in, clutch,metal gears,autolock,and they work great, plenty of torque for its size. Has the QD chuck though.
I have Bosch ps40 and 10 which far out class this Ridgid tool.
I will stay with my older 12V ridgid drill driver.
Got mine as a birthday gift from the wife. Been looking at them since they first hit Home Depot. She only bought it because it was "cute"
Some of the guys were giving me a hard time about the new 'purse' I was carrying around but they all shut up when they needed to get into a tight corner and their driver was too big.
The only drawback I can find is that the LED light is located just above the trigger. Using a drill bit, the focus on the workpiece is fine but the chuck casts a shadow on the workpiece when you are using a short driver. My work looks better in the dark so I keep the lights turned down low :D
I like the very small drill for shop work because they tend to fit in small places and I can afford to have 3 or 4 of them set up with different bits. Plus I don't have to kill myself lugging them all over the place for a project.
I am a bit discouraged however at the trend recently to make tools obsolete so quickly. I don't want to buy a bunch of these drills only to find they no longer make them come spring. I also don't want to have 30 different batteries and chargers everywhere.
Anyone know if they plan on exanding the 12v lithium ion line in the future? If they came out with a flashlight and a dremel type tool it would be a complete no brainer for me to go out and buy it all up.
Jaco, I went through 7 different packages of these, at 2 different stores. I bought the best one I could, chuck wise. Also, I had to find a kit where the serial number on the drill matched up number wise with the serial numbers on the charger and the 2 batteries. I know it might not really matter in the long run, as when you register them, you do so based on the numbers you got, and they might not match. But (and I do believe others have had this problem on the forum), if I need to get them serviced, I don't need some guy at a service center giving me a rough time if the number on the battery or charger doesn't match the number on the drill. May seem like a stupid thing, but it was worth the extra 10 minutes at time of purchase to open them up and verify this, especially if it saves a hassle down the road.
Chuck wise, I picked up the best one I could. All of them had a sloppy feeling chuck. None of them were overly tight or loose, they seemed to all operate fine. But the outer sleeve is definitely not precision assembled onto the chuck, and there is about 1.5 to 4 millimeters of play in the sleeve, back and forth (varied depending on which one you pick up). This may not seem like a lot, but on this small of a chuck, and with this small of a tool, it makes for a noticable shudder that it gives the tool when using it, due to the off-center weighting this creates.
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