Yesterday I talked about a new Dewalt compact cordless brushless drill kit, DCD777C2, which looks like it could be this year’s new heavily promoted holiday cordless drill model. That’s not a bad thing. The new model is more compact than the current non-brushless model (DCD771), and should deliver longer runtime too.
In the comments to that post, Cr8ondt mentioned seeing a new Porter Cable 20V Max brushless drill, PCC608, in addition to their PCCK607LB high performance model that recently hit the market for $149. You’ll see Ben posting about the PCCK607 sometime soon.
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So what’s special about the new Porter Cable PCC608? It’s available in a kit for just $99.
I don’t think I have ever seen a brushless drill/driver kit approach this price point, which makes this drill somewhat remarkable.
- 270 MWO (max watts out, a SBD way of measuring and comparing torque and power)
- 1600 Max RPM
- 7.4″ length
A different product page, for the PCCK618L2 combo kit, which also comes with a brushless impact driver, says that the PCC608 (it doesn’t explicitly mention this model, but shows and describes it), says that the speeds are 0-400 and 0-1600 RPM, and max torque is 300 MWO.
I’ll try to clear up the specs, but 270 MWO or 300 MWO – why can’t Porter Cable just use UWO like Dewalt? – are close enough to draw the same conclusions.
This is a light duty brushless drill designed with a $99 price point in mind, and I imagine retail stores will sell pallets of them.
Compared to the PCC601, their previous budget model, this brushless drill offers:
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- More compact size (7.4″, 10% shorter)
- Lighter (3 lbs, 14% lighter
It’s bundled with a PCC699L charger and 2x PCC681L Porter Cable 20V Max 1.3Ah compact battery packs. The PCC699L charger is the same one included in Porter Cable’s pricier kit. I can’t find any info online, but I hope it’s a fast charger, not one of those “leave your battery charging overnight” chargers.
I’m pretty excited about this, but wonder what compromises there might be. I think that, as with the new Dewalt DCD777 budget-friendly brushless drill, power and speed are the bigger tradeoffs. But, even a smaller brushless motor should mean runtime benefits.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the Porter Cable PCC608 once the holiday season rolls around. I’m thinking it’ll be an online special, as it is right now at Amazon, and maybe it’ll be an in-store doorbuster at Lowes.
Porter Cable has also added a new budget-minded brushless impact driver to their 20V Max lineup, in addition to their also-new premium model. Both the budget drill and impact will be available in a combo kit, PCCK618L2.
Price: $99
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See Also(Combo Kit)
Compare(Budget Brushed Version)
Right now you could also buy the budget brushed drill in a 2-battery kit for under $90, and the 1-battery premium brushed drill deal is still ongoing.
It seems like there are a few too many Porter Cable drill deal SKUs out there right now. I would expect for some to be discontinued once supplies dry up, or perhaps they’ll be kept live in order to offer a range of options at the $70 to $130 price point.
Cody
The porter cable Pcc699l charger is a slow charger. That doesn’t have a base it simply attaches to the top of the battery while charging.
Cody
The charger is almost identical to Black and decker’s 20 volt charger model LCS1620.
cbe
The PCC699L is actually a 1A charger which is the same charge rate as the larger “benchtop” charger in existing tools. Takes 90 mins to charge the batteries on either charger.
The B+D is a 400ma charger, and has a thinner cord.
Cr8ondt
Between yesterday and today Porter Cable’s drill product page has changed and they have removed the PCC608(among others). Yesterday it was listed as having 360 MWO. I had to double check to see if I was losing my mind seeing the 270 rating. Could very well be an error on the product page
Mike
It’s still listed as 360 Max UWO on PC’s page for the combo kit, which is still up.
Cr8ondt
Oh good it’s confirmed that my mind is NOT lost… Thank-you!!!
Stuart
Cold have been a copy/paste error, if they were using a previous product or combo as the template.
Aaron
I’ll guarantee it’ll come with the slow charger, like the “premium” PC brushless tools. I’m not exactly sure what this brand’s target demographic is. With the exception of their original brushless tools/higher quality first-run drill and impact, everything else is Ryobi-grade at best with a higher price point and more expensive batteries. It’s a shame as this was once a great brand. Guess they have to make sure DeWalt gets top billing.
Mike
I can’t see why Black and Decker Stanley didn’t make Porter Cable a top tier professional brand, who runs the show over there Dewalt or Black and Decker Stanley.Who do you think is buying most of the pro grade tools? Homeowners most of your contractors are still using Nicad technology, a lot of these contractors hold on to their tools they don’t get rid of them every other year they have them for over 10 years or more and believe me contractors buy a lot of Ryobi and other less expensive brands but there are a lot more homeowners then contractors who are buying the pro brand’s.