The New Hilti Tool That Opens Up A World Of Home Installation Opportunities

A standard drill driver is great for making holes for hanging shelves on drywall. If the wall is masonry, you'll need a hammer drill. There are top-rated drills that will tackle almost any home project, but even the most powerful have a limit to the diameter of the hole they can make.

If you want really large holes in brick, concrete, or other hard materials, you need something a bit more specialized. For example, if you're going to hook up a washer and dryer to complete your laundry room and you want to vent them through an outside wall, you'll need something that can punch a hole at least 1-½ inches wide through a wall that could be 6 inches thick or more. For that you need a core drill. The new Hilti DD 150-U-22 is just such a tool, and it opens up a world of home installation opportunities for serious DIY enthusiasts.

Core drills generally use drill bits tipped with industrial diamonds. This gives them the capability of cutting through things like asphalt, masonry, concrete, and wood. Homeowners with one of these powerful tools can run pipework for plumbing, heating, air conditioning, stoves, and even sewage through tough barriers when otherwise they would need to hire a contractor. Being cordless, the Hilti is easy to take wherever you need it, and at around 18 pounds with a battery fitted, it's not particularly difficult to manage either.

The Hilti DD 150-U-22 core drill can make holes in concrete up to 6-⅜ inches in diameter and in masonry up to 10 inches. Electronic gears allow optimum rpm and torque to be set when cutting different materials, with a digital display for clear and simple control. Active Torque Control (ATC) is an important safety feature that prevents the core drill from spinning round on you if the bit jams. It even has an oscillating function that shakes the core free of the bit when you finish drilling.

It's not cheap, but then it's not the kind of thing you'll find on a list of must-buy power tools for first-time homeowners. It's a specialized piece of equipment, and it costs around two thousand bucks. That's not including drill bits that, depending on the size, will add $70 or more each. Okay, it's a lot of money, but what about the alternatives?

Contractors can be expensive. If you wanted to hire an equivalent tool, you'd pay around $150 a day, or $600 a week. That soon adds up. Additionally, if you did choose to invest in the Hilti core drill but didn't want to keep it, there appears to be a healthy resale market. Tools in good condition often exceed $900 on eBay. So it's not difficult to see how the Hilti core drill could open up a world of home installation opportunities and be a smart investment.