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The 20 V screwdriver drill from Carrefour, currently being tested in our laboratory, has a hammer mode that allows it to pass through masonry satisfactorily. A great performance at this price.
Carrefour has entered the power tool market with its new range. In particular, we received the percussion drill driver from the retailer. Marketed at €54.90 in the group’s supermarkets and on the Carrefour website, this drill has few competitors. At this price, few machines offer percussion, or even just a battery. There is Lidl and its range of Parkside tools, but the hard discount brand’s one-time supply strategy is frustrating.
A low price does not usually come without concessions. We wanted to evaluate the capacity of this CCID20V2A (yes, it is indeed the sweet name of the Carrefour drill driver) to drill the hardest materials. Its percussion mode is a real asset for gaining versatility and dispensing with a perforator for fairly simple cases or small diameter holes. The percussion mode brings, in addition to the rotation, a movement from front to back which comes to break the material to be crossed little by little. In this mode, it is particularly important to choose a suitable drill or risk damaging it. Here, Carrefour advances a rate of 27,000 strikes per minute. Average capacity for entry-level and mid-range machines. Higher-end drills like the DeWalt DCD795D2, for example, are capable of hitting 34,000 strokes per minute, while a Parkside Performance PSBSAP 20-LI A1 climbs to 36,000 strokes per minute.
But the figures on the technical sheet are not everything and we have come across seemingly modest hammer drills capable of beautiful things in cinder block and brick. The Black+Decker BL188 pleasantly surprised us in this exercise. To drill the brick or the concrete, the couple is not to be neglected either since the drill undergoes a strong resistance. Its ability to continue to rotate while evacuating the generated debris as well as possible is essential. Friction involves a rise in temperature of the drills which can cause irreversible damage by eliminating the upper layers.
Honorable performances
Confronted with our test protocol for impact machines, Carrefour’s screwdriver drill was not ridiculed. It provides satisfactory work for drilling bricks and concrete blocks, as long as you do not attempt to drill more than 8 mm in diameter. Beyond that, the motor lacks the power and torque to drill fast enough not to damage the bit. The Carrefour drill will be able to troubleshoot punctually for holes of 10 mm in diameter in the masonry, as long as they are not deep. It will be better to turn to a real drill for these more demanding jobs, however.
An additional handle is provided. This is easily fixed, to the right or left of the machine, by inserting into a thread. Such a handle makes it possible to better maintain the machine in certain positions, useful in particular during rather long drillings. Spreading the weight of the drill over two hands is not a luxury either, it still displays 1.88 kg with its 20 V 2 Ah battery. An additional handle is generally a good way to ensure difficult tightenings by limiting torque feedback. With 45 Nm, our drill is however not very spirited on this point.
Without reaching the level of a high-end percussion drill, the Carrefour machine is still doing quite well in masonry. For a cordless tool sold for less than 60 €, the performance is even more remarkable. You will be able to find our complete test next week.