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Nice tools, but this kit is not quite 5 stars

I’d like to give this combo 5 stars, but it has a few minuses that knock it down a star.

First the positives:
- The drill is very nice. It has good power and good balance. The belt hook works fine, can be set to hang on the left or the right, and if you don’t like it you can take it off.
- The saw is good. It has a LH blade which is great for us right-handers. Its 61/2″ blade lets you cut 2X lumber at 45 degrees.
- The light is really nice. The little LED turns on when the battery get too low to keep the florescent bulb lit, and the LED give you enough light to change the battery. Its handle can be set to several angles and it will hang over large pipes. This light is also great for camping.
- The recip saw works fine. Plenty of power to do the kind of rough, hack it up kinda cuts you make with a recip saw. The blade chuck holds the blades securely yet you can change blades quickly.
- The bag is even good. It’s very heavy duty with plenty of room to store this kit with room left over.

Now, the negatives:
- Unlike most other Hitachi 61/2″ saws, this one does not have a built-in light. The light is a really nice feature of other Hitachi saws that you don’t think you need until you have it.
- The drill’s belt clip lacks a light; other Hitachi drills have a light in their belt clip.
- The charger included with this kit is not as good as some of the other Hitachi chargers. It charges the batteries fast enough (40 minutes), but for some reason the batteries are only rated for 300 cycles when charged by the UC18YG charger included in this kit, vs 1000 cycles when charged with the UC24YFA or UC24YJ chargers.

I’ve been reading a lot of Hitachi reviews that have said the batteries won’t hold a charge. I have 10 Hitachi batteries: 3 are the 3AHr NiMH batteries and 7 are the 2AHr NiCads. They all seem to hold a charge just fine. The flashlight in this kit is great for discharging the batteries all the way before recharging. A battery will still light the flashlight quite a while after the battery seems to be “dead” in one of the tools.

In conclusion, it’s a good kit, and a good value. Hitachi dropped a few features with the tools in this kit to save some bucks.

Update (2/7/2012): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen. I also found some auctions for this item here.

The featured review for this product, Hitachi KC18DVF 18-Volt Ni-Cad Cordless 4-Tool Combo kit Tools & Hardware, was written by P. B. SALAMON.

The average rating for this item is 4.3 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.