Best SDS Drill 2026: 10 Ranked, and Why the Amps Don't Add Up

This 18v sds drill tops the list on the strength of its review spread rather than its spec sheet: 3,966 ratings, 85% of them five-star, 2% one-star. The published numbers are modest and mostly checkable — 1,100 RPM, a 20 mm chuck, 26 mm in wood and 60 Nm of torque. Even so, its own sheet pairs 18 volts with 1 amp and 450 watts, and 18 V at 1 A is 18 W. Treat the 450 W as a peak figure, not a current draw.

What you get is the bare tool. The listing name says batteries and charger not included, so the £89.94 buys the hammer, a side handle and a depth stop. In practice that suits anyone already on Makita's 18V LXT platform. The one-touch sliding chuck changes bits without a key, there is an electric brake, and the trigger is variable.

Do not buy this if you own no LXT packs, because a battery and charger will cost more than the tool itself. Likewise, if you are drilling 26 mm holes all afternoon, a corded sds drill with more impact energy will finish the job sooner. The 20 mm chuck and 26 mm wood capacity place it at the light end of this list.

This corded sds drill is the most expensive tool in the list at £160.99, and the one whose numbers disagree loudest. It lists 18 amps at 240 volts. That is 4,320 watts. Two lines later it declares 450 watts of maximum power — the same 450 W claimed by the cordless Makita above. However you read it, both figures cannot be right.

The rest of the sheet is more useful. Three modes switch between rotation only, hammering only and both together, without rotating the chuck. There is a one-touch sliding chuck, variable speed by trigger, forward and reverse, 32 mm of wood capacity and 13 mm in metal. The carry case, side handle and depth stop are included, and drilling vibration in metal is quoted at 2.5 m/s².

Which means it is not the tool for chiselling out a floor. A 26 mm, 450 W hammer is a drilling and fixing machine, not a breaker. If you want raw removal work, both the 1,500 W DOVAMAN and the 1,300 W Scheppach cost less.

Third place goes to the only true breaker in the top three. It claims 50 J of impact from a 1,600 W motor at 2,000 blows per minute. By contrast, the same sheet also lists 16 amps at 230 volts, which is 3,680 watts. As with the Makita, the amps and the watts cannot both be describing the same thing.

The chuck is 30 mm SDS-Max, so chisels change without tools, and the handles are anti-vibration, with a front loop and a rear D-grip. It rotates nothing: the 2,000 RPM in the speed field is an impact rate in all but name, and the 10 mm wood and metal capacities listed alongside it make little sense on a tool with no rotation. Pointed and flat chisels plus a metal case are included.

Do not buy this for drilling. At 16 kg it is a two-hand tool for breaking out concrete and tiles, and the 946 ratings average 4.4, with 4% at one star and 19% at four. That is a more mixed picture than the two Makitas above. If you need holes rather than demolition, a rotary hammer drill will serve you better.

If you want a cheap sds drill whose sheet survives a calculator, this is it. Einhell lists 800 watts, 3.33 amps and 230 volts. That multiplies out to 766 W, within about 4% of the claim. That is the sort of rounding you expect, not the sort of gap you find further up this page. It comes with 2.5 joules of impact energy and a 26 mm concrete capacity.

That said, four functions cover drilling, impact drilling and chiselling with and without a lock, and the speed electronics let you match the tool to the material. The depth stop is solid metal, the SDS-Plus chuck is semi-automatic for quick bit changes, and there is an overload safety stop plus large soft-grip surfaces. A transport and storage case is included.

It is not the tool for breaking out a driveway. At 2.5 joules it sits below the 6 J, 7 J and 50 J claims further down this page, and its metal capacity is quoted at 26 mm, identical to its concrete figure. Buy it for plugs, fixings and the occasional 26 mm hole.

Worth noting straight away: this sheet lists 12.5 milliamps at 230 volts. That is under 3 watts. A genuine 1,500 W mains tool draws around 6.5 A, which is exactly what the Enventor below declares. So one of those two lines is wrong, and it is not the wattage.

The sds hammer drill offers four modes — drilling, hammer drilling, chisel position adjustment and chiselling — with six speeds, up to 4,350 BPM and 7 joules of impact. Capacities are quoted at 40 mm in wood, 32 mm in concrete and 13 mm in steel. A 1.5–13 mm keyed chuck adaptor turns it into a conventional drill, and vibration damping plus a safety clutch handle the rough work.

Do not buy it for one-handed overhead work. The boxed weight is listed at 8,440 grams, the heaviest tool here. Check the accessories against what you will actually use, too: three SDS-Plus bits, two chisels, a dust collector, a depth gauge and spare carbon brushes are more than most buyers will wear out.

At the same time as it claims 20 J from 1,300 W, this sheet lists 13 amps at 230 volts, which is 2,990 watts. The pattern from the rest of this page holds. Its speed fields are no tidier: one line reads 1,300 RPM, the same number as its wattage, while the rotational speed line reads 4,100 — and a demolition hammer rotates nothing at all.

The 4,100 blows per minute and SDS-Max chuck match the working end, and the anti-vibration handle is the main reason to pick this over the 16 kg model when working at height or in tight spaces. Pointed and flat chisels and a storage case are included, and the body weighs 6 kg.

The catch is the impact claim. This model says 20 J at 1,300 W; the AB1600 says 50 J at 1,600 W. Those are the same brand's breakers, and a 23% power increase cannot produce a 150% jump in impact energy. Buy the AB1500X for portability, not for the joules.

Listed as a 26 mm sds plus drill, but the chuck field reads 18 mm. Its two torque figures disagree with each other as well, at 2.6 Nm and 3.6 Nm on the same sheet. The electrical numbers follow the family pattern: 7 amps at 240 volts is 1,680 watts, against a stated 800 W.

Mechanically it is a straightforward, well-liked 1,500 RPM three-mode hammer: rotation only, rotation with hammering, and hammering only, with electronic variable speed on the trigger. It arrives in a TSTAK box with a vibration-damping side handle and a drill depth stop. Of its 409 ratings, 86% are five-star.

As a result, the 4.7 average sits on a smaller sample than it looks: 409 ratings against 3,966 for the Makita at number one. If the 26 mm in the title is what sold you, confirm the chuck size before buying, because the sheet states the smaller figure.

Either way you read the rounding, this one is close: 650 watts, 3 amps, 230 volts. That is 690 W by the arithmetic, about 6% above the claim. It is the smallest discrepancy among the corded tools here, which makes the rest of the sheet easier to take at face value.

It runs at 0–1,100 RPM with 1.6 joules of impact and four functions: drill, chisel, rotation and hammer. Five attachments come in the box — 6, 8 and 10 mm SDS bits, a 250 mm flat chisel and a 250 mm point chisel — plus a depth stop. The two-year warranty is valid only if the tool is purchased in the UK.

Do not buy it for concrete at scale. At 1.6 J it is the lowest impact energy stated anywhere on this page, and a cheaper Einhell claims 2.5 J for £12 less. Its 7% one-star share is also the highest here, so read the low-score reviews before you commit.

In theory this is the easiest sheet to check, because it publishes no amperage at all — 710 watts, 240 volts, 1,550 RPM and a 2.0 J impact strength. There is nothing to reconcile, and nothing to catch it out either. Its impact rate of 5,680 blows per minute is the highest figure stated on this page.

Three modes cover drilling, hammer drilling and chiselling, with variable speed and a 22 mm chuck. Capacities are 30 mm in wood and 13 mm in metal. The kit is a multi-position side handle, a depth stop and a heavy-duty carrying case.

Do not buy it if you want the reassurance of a large sample. At 228 ratings it has the smallest following here, and a 4.6 average from that many is less settled than 4.7 from 3,966. At 2.0 joules it also sits close to the 1.6 J Evolution ranked just above, which costs £38 less.