Why are corded Drills so different from cordless drills

cord-and-plugdrill

Typically the difference between the wired and wireless tool should be the wire or lack there off. However the the corded and cordless drills are both quite different from each other in typical design and extra features.

Typical Cordless drill

Common traits

  1. Keyless chuck
  2. Clutch for screw driving
  3. Light
  4. Spirit level
  5. 2 speeds
  6. Spirit level
  7. Screw/Bit holder

Typical Corded Drill

Common traits –

  1. Keyed chuck is more common (Newest models are often keyless though)
  2. The hook on top for hanging on belt
  3. Usually 1 speed Gear box
  4. Usually has a dial on the trigger to adjust speed
  5. Button next to trigger to lock trigger
  6. Sidehandle and depth stop

Why do these 2 tools look so different?
My guess would be that when they were designed corded was for industrial use, and cordless started as hobbyist.. and the design has not evolved as fast as the userbase has..

Best Answer

All of the "cordless" features debuted or were available on corded drills. The biggest factor now is that cordless drills have fallen so far in price that the market for corded is comprised entirely of people who have opted out of cordless. The superior holding power of keyed chucks, depth stops, secondary handles to counter torque, along with the more powerful tool make the corded drill excel at drilling multiple or difficult holes.

Other features which have remained on the corded drill are because of its superiority in continuous usage. The trigger lock can be handy if you're using the drill as a grinder, buffer, whatever. If you need to use the drill inverted for whatever reason it's easier than holding the trigger with a pinky. Setting the speed via a dial rather than trigger pressure is also preferable there, because you can lock in the slower speed.

The keyless chuck and clutch common on cordless drills are more user friendly when it comes to rapid bit changes and driving fasteners. The addition of the clutch necessitates reverse, because "only drives screws" is an awful selling point. Driving screws with a corded drill is easy, but breaking out the key every time you need to drill a pilot hole and getting out a screw driver if you need to back out a screw gets old really quickly.

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