KDRILL Battery Question

I just got a new KDRILL paired with the Milwaukee M-18 hammer drill with lithon ion batteries (rerecorded from KDRILL).

For some reason I’m only getting about 15-20 holes per battery, cutting through 16-18 inches of ice. I thought you could get close to 100-150 wholes with one battery. Anyone else experience this or am I doing something wrong…….

That actually sounds pretty good for a drill powered auger. A year ago or so, James did a test with a Strikemaster Lithium Lazer drill. He was able to drill 123 holes in 8-9″ of ice. So you’d cut that in 1/2 for 16-18″. He’d be down to 60 holes in 16-18″, and that is for a 50 volt system.

If you are getting 20 holes out of an 18 volt drill, I think that is all you can expect. Keep your batteries warm if you can.

i get 450″ of ice out of a 6″ kdrill on a 5.0ah milwaukee battery.

you are getting at best 360″ of ice.

what is your amp hour?

I think 100, if 4″ of ice but not 15″+- . I get about 22-25 holes in 14″. I have the same setup as you. Mine is a 6″ by the way. Have a few buddies with it also and same ball park. So I want to say thats average for the K-drill.

Make sure your M18 is the Fuel version. Also note that they make a number of different size batteries. My Fuel came with 2 of the 4.0 batteries where some of my friends came with the 5.0 and they also make a 6.0 and finally their beast the 9.0. I can get 20-25 holes through 18″ with my Nils 6″ bit. And earlier in the season I got 60 holes through 5-6″ with that bit. I’ve never heard of anyone cutting that many holes (100-150) through that much ice with a Milwaukee Kdrill setup or any other drill battery setup.

I’ve been using the 6″ K-drill for three seasons now. With the 5 amp hour batteries on the Milwaukee Fuel I get 450″ per battery. I’ve let lots of people try my drill out on the ice and the number one error I see them make is to push too hard while drilling. I think that may be your issue with the poor performance. I’m right handed, so I put a light push on the drill with my right hand and don’t push at all with my left. I put enough pressure on the handle to help keep the torque of the drill from spinning with my left hand.

Another tip is to keep the blades out of the snow between drilling holes. The snow will stick to the wet blades and ice up, which will force you to chip out the ice before being able to cut.

I’m getting approx 34 holes per battery based on 18″ ice depth
I have the M18 fuel with 5 amp batteries with an 8″ KDrill

That’s impressive for an 8″bit Bull.

glenn-d wrote:

That’s impressive for an 8″bit Bull.

Yea I am super happy with this set up!

I have been using a M18 fuel with an Ion standard 8″ bit and I’ve been getting and I’ve been getting 15 holes with 20″ of ice. I noticed that keeping the batteries warm almost doubled the battery life. I have just been putting them in my sweatshirt pocket inside my coveralls.

Kdrills eat batteries, drill slow and alot of torque! Had one and returned it. I can drill 25 holes with my 6″ nils and use 1/4th of battery (1 bar)through 16″-18″ of ice and about two to three times faster! This is with a Milwaukee 18v fuel 5.0ah brushless drill.

But can you reopen an old hole? Can you drill through dirty ice? Can you drill overlapping holes? If it dulls is your day done? There are tradeoffs for sure.

Brother in law got 11 holes in 21″ of ice with 20v lithium Dewalt drill. 19.25′ of ice. Sounds about the same as his. The trade off is that it’s very light weight and not bad if you don’t drill alot of holes.

I’ve been running a Milwaukee Fuel M18 with my 6″ Nils my drill came with the 4.0 batteries. I can get 20-25 holes through 18″ of ice and it’s done. I ordered and just got a 6″ KDrill I weighed both bits and the Kdrill is 1# lighter than the Nils and 2# lighter without the bucket to protect the blades. My Nils is fast but it’s a little tall for me and the 2# will definitely be nice when walking & punching a lot of holes.I got to try a Kdrill in South Dakota and was very impressed I thought it was as fast if not faster than my Nils.

To me the Kdrill is best suited for people with ice houses that re-drill holes alot and for fisherman that usually don’t drill that many holes per day or fish alot of dirty ice.. They are a nice option for that style of fishing.

I do alot of hole hopping, run and gun fishing and drill alot of holes in a day. To me the Kdrill is just not the auger for my style of fishing. We have tried them side by side.

I’ll stick with the 6″ Nills.

I tried out my new 6″ Nils (in pink for breast cancer awareness) last weekend pre-fishing. Paired with my Milwaukee Brushless hammer and 5.0 battery. It is amazingly fast! Out drills the competition 2:1.

I’m waiting for a report on the new 9amp Milwaukee battery on an 8″ drill. They are $200 and if it weren’t for the fact I have 3 5 amp and a couple 4 amp batteries, yes I’m a Milwaukee Tool addict, I would have one already myself…But I’m also running an Ion powered 8″ K-Drill with great success. So, I’m just going to sit back with a bag of popcorn and watch how the show turns out.

Best purchase I have made in years! 8 inch 5 amp, no more thrown out back, geez i love this thing. You can hole hop like crazy!

250$ for a plastic bit??

Yup, lightweight, durable no freeze-up. All the flighting does is auger up the ice shavings. The cast aluminum head and tool steel blades do all the work and the inner areospace grade NASA speced aluminum wonder shaft is what transferes the rotational force. I haven’t heard after a failure yet.

castle-rock-clown wrote:

I’m waiting for a report on the new 9amp Milwaukee battery on an 8″ drill. They are $200 and if it weren’t for the fact I have 3 5 amp and a couple 4 amp batteries, yes I’m a Milwaukee Tool addict, I would have one already myself…But I’m also running an Ion powered 8″ K-Drill with great success. So, I’m just going to sit back with a bag of popcorn and watch how the show turns out.

About 127.00 on fleabay.Or a pair for 246.99.Home depot has them for 169.99,I am sure they will come down in price.

I was set to get the Nils,but read about the dirty ice issue.Have ran into it a few times.Shaver type blades are faster,but less forgiving.My Kdrill cuts with very little down pressure and makes nice oval holes for transducer use.