Makita Cordless Hammer Driver Drill XPH07
Makita XPH07 Cordless Hammer Driver Drill Review
Makita is well known for their quality cordless tools so when we were given a chance to try their newest premium drill we definitely wanted to give it a shot. Their initial offering for a brushless drill was a compact, and while a good drill in many respects it was not up to heavy duty tasks. Makita’s new XPH07 is a heavy duty brushless hammer drill with some impressive stats:
| Capacity (masonry) | 5/8″ | |
| Capacity (steel) | 1/2″ | |
| Capacity (wood) | 3″ | |
| No Load Speed (var. 2 spd) | 0 – 550 / 0 – 2,100 RPM | |
| Blows Per Minute (2 speed) | 0 – 8,250 / 0 – 31,500 BPM | |
| Maximum Torque (in.lbs./N•m) | 1,090 in.lbs./125N•m |
In addition the new 5.0 Ah battery charges in an incredible 45 minutes on Makita’s quick charger.
First Impression
This drill is not light. But if you’re looking for the kind of power it delivers you aren’t looking for a lightweight drill. The handle is plenty comfortable with a hand friendly ergonomic shape and a lot of rubber over-mold. The first thing I noticed when using this drill is that it is smooth. There is no user detectable run-out, even with longer bits (run-out is when the chuck of the drill is not in alignment with the rotation, enough run-out can cause a lot of vibration and makes it harder to start holes accurately). In short this drill just exudes quality and tight manufacturing tolerances.
Makita Cordless Hammer Driver Drill XPH07 – In use
I did things that you should not do with a cordless drill. I started by chucking a 4” hole saw into it and drilling into cedar. It flew through the cedar (no shock there) so I wanted to go for more of a challenge. As it turns out I had a cut-off from a PT beam kicking around, outside, soaked through, and frozen. The published max hole diameter for the drill is 3” so this is a somewhat abusive test. The Makita XPH07 drilled this hole without complaint. The extra long side-handle gave me the leverage to control the drill even when the hole saw got a little bound up. It took a while, but even after extended drilling the vents were still blowing cool air. Really impressive.
We lent this drill to an electrician briefly to save him a trip out to his truck to get a right angle drill. It drove an old beat up ⅝” auger through 3 layers of LVL beam without a hiccup. He was “very impressed”.
The concrete drilling capacity in hammer mode is ⅝”, which is the same as many lighter duty cordless rotary hammers on the market. To test the concrete drilling I tried a ⅝” bit and a 3/16” bit (the most common size I use for ¼” Tapcons). While it didn’t drill as fast as a rotary hammer the speed was definitely respectable. So if your concrete drilling needs are small scale or infrequent this tool will do the job just fine.
For light duty drilling tasks the clutch works very well. I’m always a little iffy on clutches for certain tasks (driving trim screws) but they work great for deck screws and when installing hardware and this one has a wide range that allowed me to drive even finicky 1-½” trim screws and less finicky 2-½” deck screws to a pretty accurate depth with no problems.
This drill is heavy, but it’s very compact for the power it delivers measuring only 8-⅛” long. I think that some compact batteries to cut the weight down a bit would be a worthy investment for this drill for medium duty use like decking.
The New Battery System
The 5.0 Ah batteries mean that generally I can use this drill for a couple days of intermittent use without needing to change the battery. And the fuel gauge means knowing how much juice is left to avoid losing power at an inopportune time.
Makita claims to have the fastest charge time on the market. I’m inclined to agree as from some of our other testing Makita’s quick chargers blow the competition away on charge time. So you’ve got one of the first major market 5.0 Ah batteries with a quick charger that means you can get our work done with fewer batteries because even with high draw tools you’ll be able to charge a battery long before you need a new one.
Overall Impression
This is a fantastic drill. With High build quality great ergonomics and a ton of torque. The new 5.0 Ah battery and quick charger work flawlessly as well delivering exceptional run time and some of the fastest charge times in the industry. In short if you’re looking for a really heavy duty 18 volt cordless drill the Makita XPH07 is a fantastic option.
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