The phrase “9-piece” generally brings visions of fried chicken to our minds — not cordless tools. But DeWalt seems determined to give you the ‘whole hog” with their two new incredibly-complete 9-piece 18V XRP cordless combo kits.
The first kit — the DC9PAKRA — contains:
- the DC925 hammerdrill
- the DC390 circular saw
- the DC385 reciprocating saw
- the DW960 right angle drill
- the DC410 cut-off tool
- the DCW919 flexible floodlight
- the DC330 variable speed jig saw
- the DW059 impact wrench
- and the DC550 cut-out tool
The second kit — the DC9PAKIA — includes:
- the DC925 hammerdrill
- the DC390 circular saw
- the DC385 reciprocating saw
- the DW056 impact driver
- the DC410 cut-off tool
- the DW919 flexible floodlight
- the DC330 variable speed jig saw
- the DW059 impact wrench
- and the DC550 cut-out tool
So, in the -RA kit, you get a right-angle drill and in the -IA kit you get an impact driver — definitely an interesting difference. Either way, you get two big “contractor bags” to carry the tools in along with two 18V XRP batteries, a 1-hour charger, and lots of blades and small accessories.
The DC9PAKRA starts around $975 on the street, while the DC9PAKIA is a tad more expensive starting at close to $1000. (Careful shopping puts them in the same range, essentially.) This is just about as close as it gets to one-stop-shop for 18V cordless tools.
One concern, though. The lithium-ion revolution that started earlier this year at the top end (28-36V) and bottom end (10.8V) of the voltage range is quickly pushing toward the middle. We expect to see more and more li-ion tools until eventually they’re the market standard, so buying into older technology this heavily might not pay off — unless you’re using them so heavily that you’ll be buying more next year.
The DC9PAKRA [DeWalt]
The DC9PAKIA [DeWalt]
Street Pricing (DC9PAKRA) [Froogle]
Street Pricing (DC9PAKIA) [Froogle]
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
5 Responses to DeWalt’s New 9-Tool Cordless Combo Kits
Leave a Reply
Toolmonger on Flickr
I wonder about the lifetime of the new Lion batterys. Remember the iPod? It has Lion, but after ~100 charges, the batteries go flat. I think that they have a shorter lifetime then NiCad or NiMh
Does Dewalt make retrofit Lion battery packs for this line? Seems like a good compromise…
DeWalt makes great tools and the 18v XRP are among the best. This kit is a bit larger and pricier then I would pay personally but it does have a majority of the tools I would need for most jobs. Interesting comments on the LIon batteries. Is DeWalt trying to dump their old XRP products in favor Iion?
So it appears that the difference between the DW056 impact driver and the DW059 impact wrench is the chuck and the torque. I can see using the wrench with some 1/2″ impact sockets, but the driver with its 1/4″ hex collet just doesn’t strike me as a big deal. I’d gladly trade the driver for the right-angle drill, but trading the wrench seems like a bad idea. Poor kit design.
That being said, I have no concerns about the 18v XRP batteries. They’re NiCd, which performs extremely well in the high-drain powertool applications, and usually exhibits longer cycle life than lithium-ion batteries. They’re also more tolerant of temperature extremes, something to consider if you ever leave your tools in the truck during winter.
It looks like they make quite a variety of tools in the XRP line, including a fluorescent worklight that beats the crap out of the incandescent floodlight above, and a wet/dry vacuum looks like it’d eat your Dustbuster for breakfast. Unfortunately, no weedwacker, hedge trimmer, or leaf blower. I’d really like to settle into a single heavy-duty battery standard for everything portable. (With maybe a Skil ixo2 as a derringer…)
Just got the first set with the impact driver. Quality is a bit hit or miss. Fit and finish left some things to be desired. Very powerful drill though. Reciprocating saw is nice.