DEWALT 20V MAX Hammer Drill & Impact Driver (DCK299P2)

I only use the combo for personal use around the house but so far they have been great. The battery last a really long time and are lighter then I thought they would be. The lights on them really help to see what your doing in darker places. They have lots of power for any job your using them for. This combo is made in the USA with global parts. I’m not sure how that affects the quality of the product but hopefully will last way longer then the cheap china stuff. I purchased the 5 ah set with the hard case which is nice for the extra protection. I’m pretty thrifty when it comes to money and I waited a long time for these to come on a good sale. I purchased these on the Black Friday sale for around $330 (2021), which was the best price I’ve ever see them on. I checked Home Depot and their price was around $650 at the time of purchase . If your looking for a new set and can get them for a good deal I would highly recommend them!

$550 is not little money for a drill and impact gun. Drill is heavy and too strong if you don’t pay attention it damage your wrist in a second. So I’m strongly recommending don’t buy this product if you have casual jobs and you’re not going to use it “every day”. From other hand there is no substitute foř Dewalt XP 20 Volt. I didn’t think twice to buy this set. Battery life is amazing, drill with right set of bit can easily drill through any thing. Impact gun is absolutely great. It’s “the” best set for heavy duty jobs.

I’ve been running these drills for about 9 months now. Shipping time was supposed to be 4-6 weeks. I ordered them tuesday night, wed they shipped, ETA monday. Got home friday, they were already there. I bought them on sale to replace a heavily used set of 18v drills. I work commercial construction, and my impact gets used far more than my hammer most days.
Impact: I didn’t really want the 3 speed, figured it was just one more thing to break. However, it is incredibly useful. Low allows you to safely drive small, fragile screws without stripping them, med is normal, and high is only really usable for long or large screws, it sinks them too fast to control. Great for shooting lags, or 4″ deck screws. Brushless motor allows me to often go a couple days on a single 4ah battery.
Drill: 3 speed transmission will out-torque most drills in low, and out-spin them in high. Electronic clutch stops the motor when using it, instead of just slipping and grinding like old style ones. Otherwise, it performs pretty similar to my old 18v did, but lighter, longer battery life, and has a light. The light on the drill was a nice surprise. It has a switch on the handle similar to the impact, that allows you to change the brightness of the light. The 2 lower settings work like a normal drill light, but the brightest one has the light stay on for 20 min after pulling the trigger, while being brighter than many flashlights, with a fairly wide beam. This allows it to serve as a makeshift worklight, and works great.
Batteries/charger: Not much to say, lighter and more compact than the old 18v XRPs, charge faster and last a lot longer. They seem to handle the cold ok, I used them a few times in -20c or lower, though not often. Mine came with the 4.0AH batteries, though another review said they got 5’s.
Side note- Drills come with a belt clip, but neither one has a bit holder. You may want to order a couple at the same time, they attach to the opposite side to the clip

I upgraded from an old DeWalt 18V combo set, and it was worth every penny.

When compared to a brushed motor, brushless has more power. Less energy is wasted as friction (heat) since the rotor and stator have an air gap between them. A brushed design has brushes that make contact as the rotor spins. That generates friction, heat, and they eventually wear out and need to be replaced. Brushless motors are more complex and expensive but do away with that, generating more power output at the rotor for the same power input.

In addition, brushless motors tend to be smaller. This means the drill and impact driver are both smaller than my old ones, and this is critical for the drill.

I am a big fan of Irwin Speedbor drill bits – specifically the three-bladed bits with flutes and the screw nose. That pulls the bit through wood, making it quick and easy to drill holes at least until you get to the back edge. Anyway, drilling holes through joists or studs to pull wire where the framing is already fully installed can be difficult or impossible without a right-angle drill: the drill and bit can be wider than the stud/joist cavity (14.5″). However, a 4″ Speedbor bit in this drill (shorter because brushless) easily fits in a standard stud cavity with plenty of room to spare. I no longer need to beg borrow or steal a right-angle drill.

The impact driver is an impact driver. Nothing special to report on that, just that it does its job as one would expect. Same with the charger.

I like that this kit comes with a 4AH battery. Many of DeWalt’s kits come with wimpy 2AH batteries. Those will not last as long – half as long, to be precise. Better to have the extra longevity to get the job done without swapping batteries in the middle.

This may be more expensive than the non-MAX variety, but it is worth every penny and I regret nothing. Go big or go home!

Update: After a year and a half of use and abuse, these tools are still going strong. They may be nicked up and dinged up, but they just work and work well. Since buying into this battery system I have bought a few other tools and I am even more grateful for the 4AH battery. I use it for the orbital sander and the extra runtime over a smaller battery is nice. I also bought a 6AH battery. Swapping between them when sanding bigger projects works well and I never run out of juice, thanks to the rapid charger in this kit.

As far as I am concerned there are two power tool systems worth buying: DeWalt 20V Max, and Milwaukee Fuel. You spend a little extra money up front, but you also don’t need to replace a broken tool a few months later which is actually more expensive in the long run.