Roger Bisby tests a twin pack drill and impact driver from Triton Tools.
You may have noticed the Triton brand cropping up over the last few years. The price point might lead you to think that it’s just another budget range but I’ve been surprised with some good innovative products.
This twin pack drill and impact driver comes in a soft case. It would suit someone who wants to carry all his/her tools in one go. The charger is not as fast as many higher priced tools but it achieves 80% over the first 30 minutes and then trickles in the remaining 20% over the next 30 minutes. Like so many power tools that try to stay under a certain price, the savings are made on the battery capacity. The 1.5 AmHr is meagre and, even with a half hour charge, you could not hope to keep pace with continuous use. You can buy a 3AmHr battery as an accessory but there is not an option to buy the drills with the larger capacity batteries only. Of course, not every tradesperson works at such a cracking pace that they need 3AmHrs on such a small drill.
The drill is compact and nicely balanced on a ‘T’ handle. The keyless chuck reveals a secret. Pull it off the front and you have a bit holder so you can swap between screwdriving and drilling in an instant, without having to release the drill bit. There is no percussion on the drill so don’t expect to drive through hard masonry.
The impact driver gives you 90Nm of torque and no load speed of 2,000 rpm. There are more powerful 12volt impact drivers out there but you can usually expect to pay substantially more for the extra oomph. The spindle, however, was far from true, which caused the bit to describe an oval rather than a perfect circle. This is not unusual on cheaper products because the spindles are cast rather than turned, so there is often a variation that doesn’t exist with turned components, but if you are not looking for precision with an impact driver, this will do a turn.
I have often mentioned gear boxes as being a weak point in many compact drills. The planetary gear box used by many manufacturers is a work of genius and saves space – allowing the length of the drill/driver to be reduced. Triton has not tried to emulate this but has stayed with a more old fashioned in-line design that allows them to use heavier duty sintered cogs and drives. The gear box is all metal and the motor is conventional carbon brush design. The brushes are not renewable but the motor is self-contained in a modular design that allows it to be replaced with a new one in minutes.
