Let me begin by saying that this kit for 99 dollars after shipping is an absolute steal in the tool market. I have used many different tools and while the red and yellow pro tools are good sea foam green are typically great.
Let me start off by explaining what you don’t get which will be a lot easier than what you do. The kit doesn’t come with Makita’s fast charger; it’s a slow charger in line with the same offer you will get from Milwaukee or dewalt. It takes an hour to charge the included 3 ah battery which is still decent if you’re performing light duty and since it’s brushless you will be more than ok.
You do not get a high capacity battery, you get a standard 3ah which Makita has been selling for years but this one does at least come with a battery gauge.
You don’t get a metal chuck but more on that later
This drill is based on an older modal Makita drill so you don’t get their slim handle like you do on the newer tools (I have the brushless kit that sells for 280 and those tools are incredible)
Now that that’s out of the way let me go into what you DO get with this kit.
You get an extremely high quality drill with 530in pounds of torque ( this is excellent for a kit of this price that’s also brushless)
You get a brushless tool, the difference between this and another brushless offering from a competing brand is that Makita make all their own tools, all their own brushless motors, and all their own peripherals that go with the tools. In this regard Makita excels in every category as they always seem to have a slightly better/more powerful brushless motor and a slightly better chuck since YES they do make their chucks in house and YES they are great chucks regardless of metal or plastic exterior.
You get an energy star protested battery with an energy star protected tool, this means that the tools and battery have built in safety to prevent over voltage and over discharge (this practically means the tool is close to immortal)
You get a bag… moving on
You get an excellent chuck… omg I cannot stress this part enough, the chuck on a drill is like a set of tires on a car, you can have the best car in the world but with awful tires the car will be awful no matter what and the same goes for tools, a chuck is easily one of the most important parts of a tool and people don’t seem to realize that. This chuck, while plastic, has an excellent feel when ratcheting down on a bit, its strong and feels firm so no possibility of slipping. I had the SAME CHUCK on an old, I mean old, white Makita drill and that thing is still going strong after nearly 9 years of abuse and dozens of large scale projects. So I have confidence in this drill and chuck for longevity
The most important thing you get in this kit, easily is the expandability. You are buying into the largest 18v power tool line that exists on earth and while not all their tools are this cheap, they do typically have an answer for everyone when it comes to cordless. So this battery and charger will work with any existing Makita tool and that’s valuable part of this kit.
One last thing I wanted to add to this review is the deflection on this drills chuck, unfortunately I don’t have the tools to give you exact numbers on the deflection (the amount of space in thousands of an inch that the center of the drill chuck is off, this can range anywhere from 0.006(decent) to 0.014(bad)) but I can say that eyeballing it a long drill bit is nearly perfectly centered so im thinking the deflection is within reason. I say this because the deflection can cause you to be off when drilling or driving and while you might not be able to see it yourself it can greatly impact the use of the tool making you feel like the tool is just not working well or make you question your angling of the drill to drill or drive. This is important to contractors but might not be as important to residential who just want a drill to drive stuff.
This concludes my review
Would I buy again?
1000%
Is the kit worth the money?
Absolutely
Are there compromises that Makita made to make this kit cheap?
Yes, the bag (not a blow molded hard case), the chuck isn’t metal but that’s honestly more of a preference, the slow charger 60 minutes vs Makita standard 25 (60 minutes charges as fast as the competitors standard chargers)
These are compromises that don’t affect the tools quality, lookin at your ryobi
Comment if you have questions and ill update my review accordingly
| Brand | Makita |
|---|---|
| Power Source | Battery Powered |
| Maximum Rotational Speed | 1550 RPM |
| Voltage | 18 Volts |
| Amperage | 3 Amps |
| Maximum Chuck Size | 13 Millimeters |
| Color | Blue, Black |
| Included Components | Tool Bag, 18V LXT® Lithium-Ion 3.0Ah Battery (BL1830B), 18V LXT® Lithium-Ion Charger (DC18SD) |
| Special Feature | Variable Speed |
| Maximum Torque | 530 Inch Pounds |
| Speed | 1550 RPM |
| Item Weight | 1.6 Kilograms |
| Maximum Power | 350 Watts |
| Item Torque | 530 Inch Pounds |
| Manufacturer | Makita |
| Part Number | XFD061 |
| Item Weight | 3.52 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 6.4 x 14.9 x 10.8 inches |
| Item model number | XFD061 |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. (included) |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Style | Brushless kit |
| Wattage | 54 watts |
| Item Package Quantity | 1 |
| Measurement System | Metric |
| Special Features | Variable Speed |
| Batteries Included? | Yes |
| Batteries Required? | Yes |
| Battery Cell Type | Lithium Ion |
