Looking into buying a hammer drill and curious about pros/cons of each and personal preferences? I've used a Bosch primarily in the past but am curious about the Hilti and the differences.

thanks...

Hilti costs more.

for what its worth: Hilti makes bad ass tools, and costs much more. Bosch makes great stuff also but as far as performance goes the Hilti 24 volt sinks holes faster than most corded hammer drills. Now I've only used them on the job for 5/8 holes in concrete and never on the rock so I can't comment on that. If you've got the money to spend I would go with Hilti they are truly impressive tools. my .2

Hilti.
No question.

I will go against the grain here. I own a Hilti and think thay are awesome tools. I also know they are overpriced and have not started to embrace Lithium Ion battery technology. I am guessing you can find a great deal on a older NiMH Bosch Annihilator that has been re-conditioned. Especially when the new Bosch Hammerdrills are all Lithium Ion.

I have owned both, and found them pretty compairable although I really like my Hilti TE-2A for bolting on lead as it is much lighter than the Annihilator. If you are planning on rap bolting I would focus on price and local service. We have a Bosch dealer here in Denver that does reasonable priced repairs and also sells reconditioned drills.

Make sure you get the 3.0 amp hour battery if you go with the Annihilator and get at least two.

screw buying new batteries or going lithium, go sealed lead acid, i did and it only cost me 10 bucks per battry, you need 2 12`s if its a 24 volt. converting was way easy....
all in all it cost me maybee 50 bucks for the wire and everything.,,,
mark

"I have an older Hilti TE-6A, but, the batteries are starting to crap out on me (only have one functional one left now).

Was looking to upgrade to the new lithium battery Hilti, but, gulp, its 11 or 1200 bucks."

Not to hijack the thread, but here is some useful info...

Brian in SLC, there is no need to replace the whole drill just because the battery is going bad. If the drill still works well just get yourself a new battery from one of the many online battery stores. Important: Make sure it is of the same voltage and amperage. For a 36 volt, you may have to combine a 24 volt and a 12 volt to get a 36. It's really not that hard to retrofit your old drill to use one of these batteries in a remote application (as in hanging on the harness). It makes bolting on lead a heck of a lot easier in most cases. A few of us here in NC have retro equipped ours with the NIMH batteries. They are powerful, and don't build up a "memory", thus don't require you to discharge them after each use.

If you know what your doing you can open up the drill and re-wire the it with a plug (plenty of instructions elsewhere online). I actually just used my old junk battery housing by first gutting the battery (leaving the terminal connections intact). Just connect your remote power cord to this (make a good solid connection), and place a connector on the battery end of this cord and your ready for action. For the kind of battery in the link below, use a "tamiya" connector. This design keeps you from having to alter your drill. Plus, if you know someone with the same type of drill, you can use this set up with theirs. Also, you can still use the old type battery if for some reason you your prefer to do so.

Here is a link to the 24 volt battery that I use. I've counted up to about 20 holes per charge in granite.

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&Pr>>>>>

I heart my Hilti

I'm with Scott, I use Hilti tools regularly and they are hands down the superior tool to a Bosch.

Bosch, is my vote, I am on my second Annihilator. Hilti drills are nice but cost about 50% more, if your thinking of buying a second battery yeaks your talking about some serious cash.
Save your money for good hardware!

Bosch. Light drills fast! Hard to beat!!

This link has lots of information about bolts and some information about drills so might be of some help or interest. It also has some strength tests and comparisons.

bolts

I love my Bosch. I've drilled about 500 holes with it in the last few years and it's done great. My batteries have started to lose their ability to hold a charge recently and I've had some projects where I need to drill a lot of holes. So, I went out and bought a couple of lead acid batteries to make an external battery pack. I'm excited to get a bunch of holes out of one charge, although it's a lot heavier.

36 volt lithium ion Bosch. I got a factory refurbished unit for $500.00, with two batteries.
I get over 20 holes per battery, and can bury a new 3/8 bit in 14 seconds in granite.
The 36 volt Bosch is lighter and puts the Annilator to shame. I know I owned one of those too.
I've drilled thousands of holes with my lithium Bosch and the batts are still as strong as ever.
Lithium batts only lose 10% of their charge after sitting on the shelf for a month. Try that with NiCad.
Whatever you buy go 36 volt Lithium. Fast charge time, and no memory issues.

I have the Hilti TE-7A with Lithium Ion batteries and love it, for work or play. Expensive? Yes, but I put it on my company's fleet program. It means I pay 45 bucks a month for the rest of my life, but has one cool feature: drop it 500 ft. get a new one no cost. Have used Bosch drills and Hilti drills a lot for work. Personal preference is definitely Hilti.

I have a 36 volt lithium ion Bosch and have no complaints. I have had no problems with it, and depending on rock type I get 18-26 1/2" holes per battery.

Any new opinions on drills and battery life?

All i know is my bosch took quite a tumble (60ft) and still works awesome, a little chrome on there and she's good to go. I've got a 24v that i can get about 15 holes per battery. Picked it up for $300 and when the batteries go south they are only $100 bucks to replace.

Still recommend the Hilti, you will pay more up front, but you will not have to buy a second one when it "wears out". Hilti has one of the best customer service warranties that I have seen, not to mention that their tools ARE top of the line. If you want to buy a drill that will not only last forever, but also maintain performance, they are the way to go hands down. That is if price is not an issue.

fun!

old thread, but i cant help myself. to the OP or anyone who cares, it depends on how much you want to spend and how you are going to use it, and how often. a couple of anchor bolts? rap bolting a route? bolting a whole crag? lead bolting?

if you want to drill a lot of holes per day, go for the max amount of amp hours you can buy. however, more amp-hrs means more weight. if you are drilling on the lead, then you will most likely want to lightweight the drill by chopping all the uneccesary crap from it, supercharge it, and put youre batteries on an extension cord.

my latest setup is a 24V dewalt (toss the stock batteries immediately, they suck), chopped down to fit in a drill belt-holster (drill now weighs only a few lbs), 2x12V 10Ah lead acid sealed batteries wired in series to yield 24V, on 30 ft of extension cord, battery (16 lbs?!) fits in a metolius wastcase mini haulbag (recently learned how to fifi/haul it). dont ask how much money i have thrown at the thing (but less than a new hilti or bosch), but it kicks ass and can drill more holes per charge than i or the climbing community will ever need...