In our epic best cordless drill reviews article, we compare over 50 models. Needless to say, we've found a lot of great cordless drills. Want to guess how many perfect ones there are? zero. Zilch. Nada. None of them are the lightest, most compact, fastest, most powerful, most feature-rich, and most cost-effective all-in-ones. Every product team has to make conscious decisions to prioritize certain aspects. Some have special torque. Others drill very fast at top speed. With that in mind, let's get to the truth about cordless drill torque and speed.
Drilling torque and speed are inversely proportional
The first fact about cordless drill torque and speed has to do with how these two metrics interact. Torque and speed in a drill have an inverse relationship. When you increase speed, you actually decrease torque. Therefore, when drilling at high speeds, less torque is available. When you drill at low speeds, you get the most torque the drill has to offer.
This differs from an impact driver, which provides more power as speed increases. This is just one of the main differences between a drill and an impact driver.
intentionally slow
When you change speed, you are mechanically shifting gears. The gearing determines the speed and intensity of each mode. If you have a brushless drill some electronics also come into play.
This is where every product manager must make a call. Cordless drill torque and speed are the two main numbers most of us think about when you're discussing different models, and big numbers look great on the packaging.
A smaller number might actually be better, though. Take the Milwaukee Gen 3 M18 Fuel bit as an example. There's plenty of power to push higher RPMs (the Metabo BS 18 LTX-3 BL Q Hammer Drill can go up to 3800 RPM!). The team at Milwaukee set the RPM cap, knowing full well that other drills could be faster on light load applications.
They convert the extra energy into extra torque at high speeds. By doing this, you can drive larger bits at high speed. This ultimately allows you to get more work done at high speeds. In fact, you can drive a 2-9/16" self-feed drill through untreated 2x at high speed with a Milwaukee. You may not care if you're framing, but the plumber working in the rough doesn't have to slow down or grab a cordless Super Hawg to drill those holes.
How should I choose?
There is no magic formula for choosing between torque and speed on a cordless drill, but we can draw some general conclusions.
Torque Rating is a standardized test that measures the torque a drill bit can produce for a very short period of time when it is locked. We considered these factors in our best cordless drill article. However, our top recommendations don't always mimic the listed torque values.
While this might seem to complicate things, it's still a good starting point. Suppose you are considering three drills with the following specifications:
Drill #1
- Torque: 1100 in-lbs
- High speed: 2000 RPM
- Low speed: 550 RPM
Drill #2
- Torque: 1150 in-lbs
- High speed: 2100 RPM
- Low Speed: 450 RPM
Drill #3
- Torque: 1050 in-lbs
- High speed: 1900 RPM
- Low speed: 600 RPM
All three bits are in the same range of torque – we're not looking at compact versus heavy bits. When you look at the high speed rating, drill bit #2 (2100 RPM) drills the fastest, right?
Under light load, yes. But Drill #3 (1900 RPM) will allow you to use larger drill bits without dropping to low speed. Drill #1 (2000 RPM) finds a balance between the two.
It's a similar low-speed story. Although bit 2 (450 RPM) is the slowest, it will likely give you longer lasting torque and drive larger bits more efficiently. Drill #3 (600 RPM) looks attractive, but it will struggle with bit #2 which is still steadily clogging.
It's all a deliberate leverage decision.
Great theory, any real data?
Editor's Note: This quickly becomes annoying. Feel free to pick and choose these figures or jump straight to the conclusions.
Here's our head-to-head comparison of the three drills, and how they actually perform compared to the specs. I chose them because their measured soft torque values are about the same as each other.
DeWalt DCD997
- Listed Torque: 841 in-lbs
- Measured Soft Torque: 618.8 in-lbs
- No-load high speed: 2014 RPM
- High Speed Drilling Results: 1906 RPM
- Empty percentage: 95%
- Low Speed No Load: 457 RPM
- Low Speed Drilling Results: 433 RPM
- Empty percentage: 95%
Makita XPH07
- Listed Torque: 1090 in-lbs
- Measured Soft Torque: 585.6 in-lbs
- High Speed No Load: 2147 RPM
- High Speed Drilling Results: 1646 RPM
- Empty percentage: 77%
- No-load low speed: 550 RPM
- Low Speed Drilling Results: 474 RPM
- Empty percentage: 86%
Ritchie R8611506
- Listed Torque: 1300 in-lbs
- Measured Soft Torque: 615.6 in-lbs
- No-load high speed: 2000 RPM
- High Speed Drilling Results: 1621 RPM
- Empty percentage: 81%
- Low Speed No Load: 547 RPM
- Low Speed Drilling Results: 437 RPM
- Empty percentage: 80%
The results are not as good as the theoretical part above, but there is a clear conclusion. The DeWalt has the slowest no-load speed and highest measured torque in both high and low ranges (it's actually rated for significantly less torque than the other two).
Notice how efficient (% of no-load speed) the DeWalt is. Under these loads, the other two drills started to slow down, but DeWalt still had more to do. It's able to handle those bigger bits more easily by giving up a bit of top-end speed in both modes.
Ridgid helps illustrate this point. Even though it was 100 RPM faster at low rpm, it was only 4 RPM faster with the 2-9/16" bit.
Call up
Looking at the data on a broader level, not all the results are that great, and there are many we cannot explain (such as why a drill with 841 in-lbs of torque produces more softness than a drill with 1090 in-lbs of torque). Torque). It's hard to get different motors, batteries, and electronics from different manufacturers and then say with absolute authority which one you should buy.
The way to choose between cordless drill torque and speed is to take an honest look at the work you're doing. If you're a plumber or electrician, you're drilling bigger holes more often. It makes sense to give up some top speed drills so you can work at high speeds for more drill sizes.
Having a higher tip speed makes sense if you primarily use twist drills and smaller spade bits/hole saws.
But here's the thing – all three of our example exercises do the same job. They both have enough torque muscle to keep driving the same bit. It's just a matter of how hard the drill works on each cog.
At the end of the day, choose a battery platform that has all the tools you need at a price that fits your budget and quality that meets your expectations. If you start there, they have a cordless drill that fits your needs.