DeWALT DCH213L2 20V MAX* Lithium Ion 3 Mode SDS Rotary Hammer Kit – Review

Come in children. all gather round let’s talk about SDS hammer drills.  SDS are those weird looking oversized drills you always see in the tool stores. Think of it as a cross between a jack hammer and a drill.  Instead of tightening the chuck like a normal drill you just insert the SDS bit into the chuck which locks, but yet still allows the bit to be moved back and forth for hammering.  Does this make sense?  Jay over at CopTool.com wrote a pretty good article about it here and also check out Wikipedia here.  SDS hammer drills excel at working in concrete and masonry.  You can demo concrete and tile like a jackhammer with chiseDCH213L2l bits.

Now that you know a little about what an SDS does or maybe you’re even more confused, either way lets talk about the DeWALT 20V DCH212L2.  It resembles its 18V sibling the DC212B but it has extra features that make it stand out.  It comes in a hard case with 2 3.0Ah batteries and a 1 hour charger that charges both 20V and 12V DeWALT packs.  It is covered by DeWALT’s standard 3 year warranty.

First impressions of this tool, I like it.  It has a good quality feel to it and the battery pack fits on nicely.  For a 10.5″ long, 6.4lb tool the balance was good.  It pumps out 1.7ft-lbs of torque.  The variable speed trigger produces up to 1,100 rpm at up to 4100 bps.  What does all that mean?  Fast drilling and chipping.  One thing about SDS hammers is they vibrate, after all they are a baby jack hammer.  This is a 3 mode hammer drill, drill only mode, drill and hammer mode and a hammer only mode for chisels etc…  The selector has a lock button so you don’t accidentally knock it out of position.  The tool was very comfortable and vibration was minimal thanks to its SHOCKS™- Active Vibration Control.

At the top of the tool is a reverse switch for getting out of those tight holes and if the drill bit jams a factory set clutch saves your wrist from being snapped.  On the bottom of the tool is an LED light which works rather well.  The handle swivels around 360 degrees and you simply twist to tighten. The handle also loosens and tightens the depth stop.  The tool worked out well for us , we drilled a lot of 1/2 holes and chiseled down a few bricks.  Battery life was good  and when you’re in a bind you can also use the slim 1.5ah DeWALT 20V batteries.  Bit swaps are easy, simply depress the chuck and pull the bit out, to insert a bit just insert it, no chuck action required.  Overall this is another reason that the DeWALT 20V Max line is proving to be a winner.