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Rating:  - What a great product, but with one pitfall
I've owned a 12v Dewalt drill for 10 years and although it still works great running on it's second set of battery's, I was looking for something with a bit more power,12v tools seem to run out of juice on larger heavier jobs so I was looking for an 18v drill.
Did some research and came up with the the Makita BDF452HW and ordered it from Amazon. First impressions great ! What a beautiful well balanced tool, fits in the hand very well, extremely light, ratcheting chuck, LED light, lots of torque for those heavy jobs, and the cherry on top is the quick charge Lithium ion batteries. I was very impressed with the whole package so I took it for a spin. By chance the first task that came to hand required some finesse, a 1/16" hole in a small computer connector, not the typical work for this heavy duty beast but you have to use your new toy.
When I drilled the hole, the drill bit shook and the drill itself seemed to have some vibration so I did so careful testing. After testing various bits and setups I determined that the chuck was off center and was causing any drill bits to wobble, not greatly, but enough you could feel it and enough to physically bend a small bit. I had noticed a previous review mentioned chuck wobble but after assessing the large number of positive reviews I dismissed it a just bad luck, it happens.
***** Five stars to Amazon's customer support, I returned the drill for an exact replacement, no charge and three days later I had another Makita in my hands ready to test. Sadly the second drill also suffered from the same fate, off center chuck causing the bits to wobble. I must be too critical so I compare drill holes with the Makita and my 10 year old Dewalt. I noticed two striking differences, the Dewalt was completely without any vibration, no doubt here, it was perfect. The second thing I noticed was the trigger speed control, the Dewalt was very smooth and seemed to be infinetly adjustable allowing me to very accurately control the speed, were the Makita had distinctive speed steps, not quit the control but definitely adequate. Oh yeh and the Dewalt weighted a ton compared to the Makita.
In conclusion, and honestly with great regret I sent the second Makita back for a refund ( ***** Stars to Amazon again !) and ordered the Dewalt DC720KA. It works great and has all of the features of the Makita with two exceptions, weight (its a heavy weight @ 4.8lbs but still very compact) and battery technology, still using NiCad battery's, rather than Lithium Ion.
The Makita is a great product if you can get lucky enough to get one that is put together well, sadly I had two in a row bad. Since the chuck is a little off center, this indicates poor manufacturing tolerances. This may have been a bad batch from a failed CNC machine, or it may be indicative of a more general problem, poor manufacturing practices that ultimately translate into poor quality and usually along with that a poor repair history, and a short product life. Only time will tell if this is a freak batch or indicative of a bigger issue.
Rating:  - better have a strong wrist
This is a great drill. I first bought the 3ah version, BDF451, then bought this one because I hang a lot of drywall and wanted something lighter. I sometimes almost forget it's in my hand. It powers spade bits through joists no prob--in fact, the bit snagged once and the drill just about ripped my hand off my arm. It's smaller, it's lighter, and true, the battery lasts half as long, but there's no lack of power. Plus mine came with a rebate for a free third battery, so with two batteries cooking at any given time, there's always power laying around with the bigger batteries fitting the white tool (plus, and I don't know if this affects my warranty but, the smaller batteries fit in the blue tools if you chisel off that little square tab inside the rails where the battery slides on--not that I would recommend such a practice for, say, a circ saw, but there's no need for that big honkin battery on the flashlight). Only thing I think could be better is the VS--the trigger's a little too binary for my taste.
Rating:  - GREAT drill
I am a serious DIYer and have done professional contracting in my past. I own two other cordless drills and this is by far my favorite. I chose it due to its light weight and smaller size over large hammer drill types that are heavy and wont fit into as tight a space. This is the one I reacy for 95% of the time.
I would love to give this 5 stars but, like other reviewers, I have had both batteries fail in a matter of months (and now wonder if its because they were left on the charger). Makita replaced one, but the second I had to purchase a 3.0aH (larger) version. It works ok and runs longer, but is heavier.
I love this drill, and recommend it to all but full time site contractors.
Rating: - DHL
Very nice product, preformed great on a huge deck project. The charger worked as advertized, charged fast and strong. I love this little,tough,and powerfull drill!
The light is a nice addition, too
Rating: - Wonderful tool
I had looked very closely at a number of cordless drills, especially the Panasonic and DeWalt. What made me get the Makita was the feature of the ratcheting chuck that gave positive feedback on bit security. Well, the price of the refurb was pretty good, too. The drill exceeded my expectations. The 15 minute charger works as advertised. It is my first Lithium-ion powered tool and the endurance of the battery is impressive. Ver compact, it has already gotten me in places my previous drill could not.
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