When you go to buy a drill, you can see a few types of drills with different power supply methods and inside mechanisms. Among them, you have to spend additional money on brushless drills. So is a brushless drill worth it for the additional money? Here is the complete guide for that.
A brushless drill is really worth it for its extra money because it is more efficient, low maintenance, least noise, high torque to weight ratio, various speed ranges, and has a long life considering the same condition brushed drill and its performance.
There is a clear difference in both brushed brushless drills. You have to spend a bit for the brushless drill. But it is reasonable. You can understand you it is reasonable after to refer to this guide.
Difference Between Brushed and Brushless Motors
Before you peep into the brushless drills, you should know the behaviors and mechanisms of the brushed and brushless motors. These motors are DC motors. 20V-18V batteries power them. Normally its ampere between 1-4 Ampere.
Brushless and Brushed motors are used in many types of drills. Let me explain the brush and brushless motor mechanism in a simple way.
Here I will not include more technical detail about the brush and brushless motors. If you need more info about it, check here.
Brushed motors are the old technique motors, and brushless motors are new techniques that including sensors inside them.
Brushed Motors – Brushed motors are with magnet, commutator, brushes, and armature. The armature rotates with powering the current through brushes. Brushes touch the commutator and provide electricity to the motor. Armature produces the magnetic field according to the “Flemings low.” This magnetic field is subjected to push and attract the energized field by magnets. When this process continuously happens, the motor will rotate continuously.
Brushless Motors – The brushless motors are DC and powered from batteries. Power is delivered to the electronic unit, then it optimizes power output to the stator, and its reason is an electromagnetic field. This field drives a permanent magnet built around the rotor.
When you check this carefully, you can see there is a completely different mechanism. So let’s see how this is affected to drilling machines. Drilling machines are powered with DC batteries and brush motors in the past but mostly use brushless motors.
| Brushed Motor | Brushless Motor | |
| Efficiency | less | High |
| Maintenance | High | Less |
| Noise | Noisy | Quiet |
| High Torque to Weight Ratio | Low | High |
| Speed Range | Low | High |
| Life Time | 1 | 10X |
Brushless Drills are More Efficiency
Efficiency is the main factor in measuring the useful task we can get from the machine after providing the power. Considering the brush and brushless drill, let’s discuss how this is affected the drilling process.
When you use a brushed drill, you may see a spark from the backside and with the noise. When you use it continuously, it can heat much. So these are the ways that the energy can be wasted without using it for the motor rotation. Because of these kinds of energy waste, its expected efficiency will be reduced.
But considering the brushless motor drill, you can observe there is no spark and no noise as well as less heat. The energy is damaged minimum, and the motor can rotate with its maximum efficiency. Because of these reasons its power is increased by 25%. Because of these actions, brushless drills are more efficient when considering the same power brushed drill.
Read more about – Brushless Drill Vs Brushed Drill – What You Should Buy?
Brushless Drills Have Low Maintenance
When we consider brush and brushless drills, there are both advantages and disadvantages. We have to focus on the motors mainly. We can imagine the other factors are the same, except the motors.
In the brush motor drills, there is a brush(made with a copper pad) that supplies current to the armature through the commutator. In this process, brushes (made with a copper pad) touch the commutator in the whole rotation process. These brushes can be abrasion due to friction. So you need to change the brushes as well as the commutator after the abrasion.
But in the brushless motor does not include that kind of mechanism. The rotor is inside, and it will not touch for friction. Hence no abrasion and no maintenance than the brush drills.
Due to this, motor run time is increased by 50%, which is awesome and durable.
Brushless Drills are Low Noise Operation
Motor noise can be produced in two ways. Those are mechanical noise and magnetic noise. Here we have to focus on the mechanical noise mainly. Mechanical noise is produced due to the rotational friction and sparks. If you carefully observe the brush motors, you can see there is both spark noise as well as friction noise between brush and the commutator. Drill noise must be at a safe level.
If you use a brushless drill, there is a minimum noise. Brushless motors do not consist of brushes as well as commutators hence the friction noise and spark noise can be heard. But you can hear bearing noise in both drills.
Brushless Drills are High Torque to Weight Ratio
When we consider the torque of the motor, it can be measured and considered in many ways. In this case, we can consider the torque with the weight of the motor. This means using less weight to gain more torque. Brush motors are with the commutator and brushes. Those are touched with each other, and when it rotates, there will be heat and spark. And also, there is an inner frictional force. because of this, brush motors can not get out the exact torque that it produces. The motor needs to spend torque for its self movements.
But considering the brushless motors drills, this does not happen. It is with minium frictional force, and the rotor can spin at its maximum. The result is more torque in the drill. So considering the brushless motor and brushed motor,s more torque to weight is gained from the brushless motor.
Brushless Drills are in High-Speed Range
Brushless motor drills are free with a commutator and brushes. Hence its friction is less. There is no moving contact with the rotor. Hence it can spin with its maximum power. Normally brushed motors’ rotational speed can be limited by the brushes and commutator as well as the mass of the rotor. At very high speeds, the brush-to-commutator contact can become erratic, and brush arcing increases.
Most brush motors also use a core of laminated iron in the rotor, which gives them large rotational inertia. This limits the acceleration and deceleration rates of the motor. It is possible to build a brushless motor with very powerful rare earth magnets on the rotor, which minimizes rotational inertia. Of course, that increases the cost.
Brushless Drills Are More Durable
After considering everything is focused on the lifetime. Brush motors are with the contacting commutator and brushes. These can produce friction, and parts can be damaged when they use much time.
The soft copper of the commutator is also slowly worn away by the brushes and eventually reaches a point where the motor will no longer operate. Since brushless motors have no moving contacts, they do not suffer from this wear. Brushless motor is 10X motor life with considering the brush motor.
When the lifetime of the motor is the main factor for the drill, if there is a long life span brushless motor, the drill will be long-lasting.
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