Black & Decker LDX120c Review - 20 Volt Lithium-ion Cordless Drill/driver

Black & Decker LDX120C 20-Volt MAX Lithium-Ion Cordless Drill/Driver Review

Today we’re reviewing the Black and Decker LDX120C 20Volt Cordless Drill. This is probably the most popular cordless drill on the market and is built to use around the house.
The first thing that struck me was how compact this drill is. Its barrel measures about 7.5” and its about 8” tall. That’s pretty compact for a drill with a 20V battery. It weighs about 2.5lbs and what I absolutely love, is how well balanced it feels. They designed the drill such that most of its mass is centered around where you grip the drill and this gives you a very balanced grip. And this is important because having an unbalanced tool will put a lot of undue stress on your hand and you’ll tire out pretty fast. The grip on this one though, is almost perfect. The base kit comes with the drill itself, one battery and an ac charger. The 20V lithium ion battery slides and locks into place. Pushing the orange button on the front pops the battery out, so you can plug into the charger. The charger flashes a green led when the battery is charging and a solid green when its fully charged. It’ll flash a rapid red, if the battery has a serious issue and a slower red if the battery is overheating.
The drill has a ⅜” chuck. So if you want to drill holes larger than ⅜”, you’ll need to either use a reduced shank drill bit, step drill or a hole saw. I’ll leave links to a few that’ll work with this drill in the description below. The speed can be controlled reasonably precisely using the squeeze trigger, and the drill’s direction can be reversed using the reversing switch. The switch isn’t as heavy duty as something you’d find on a dewalt, but it should work just fine for household use. The ldx120 also has 11 settings on its torque clutch. It has 10 torque settings for driving torque and one for drilling. For household use, I’d recommend just leaving it in the drill setting, even if you’re just driving screws. It has an extremely handy led light which turns on when you gently squeeze the trigger and this is very helpful for when you’re working in poorly lit places. It comes with one driver bit which stores in the base of the drill. And in case you need other driver sizes, it’ll work with any standard set of driver bits.
To test the drill, I charged the drill up to a 100% and started off by drilling holes in a pine 2x4 using a ⅜” drill bit. With this bit though, it struggled a bit to break through towards the end. So I changed the bit out to a 5/16” dewalt drill bit and this time, it was able to drill through, without any issue at all. So with thicker materials like a 2x4, I wouldn’t recommend drilling through with a drill bit larger than 5/16”. Next, I wanted to see how well it would drive 2” drywall screws and as you can see, it did this without any serious hesitation. It also unscrewed those drywall screws very easily, using the provided driver bit. And lastly, I tested it with a step drill, to see how large a hole it would cut. It went pretty smoothly till about ¾” but hit a bit of resistance after that. So I wouldn’t recommend drilling holes using hole saws or spade bits, in thicker materials, that are any larger than ¾”. Now you can obviously cut larger holes in thinner materials like plexiglass or mild steel.
The battery life is pretty decent and if you’re using it around the house occasionally, you might not even need a spare battery. However, if you plan to use it for longer periods of time, black and decker sells the extended battery which will almost double your run time. I’ll leave a link to that below.

[macelius]

Great little drill, has served me well for almost ten years and still going strong, built a shed, decks, walls, drilled countless holes and installed countless fasteners. Just picked up the BDCI20C from Sears for automotive work and the spare battery.

[glennellis]

We where at a job site in Cincy and my favorite DeWalt drill died on me, there was a Walmart, about a mile away and I bought one of these to get by. To my surprise I am still using it, its not a commercial drill by any means, but around the house it would be fine!

[littogether]

I have two of them. use them daily to fix boards and such on our horse rescue. Currently using them them as the main tool to build a 10 stall barn. I also have several other black and decker yard tools that use the same batteries. Definitely not designed for professional/trade use, but they are holding up well after several years of service. Amazed at their durability. Much better than Harbor Freight stuff. Have two so that I can have one in the barn and one in the house. Batteries are decent, but you will need several to get anything other than usual household tasks done, but they are cheap enough, and there are generic types with more power that are sold on amazon. Haven't needed to order any of them. When I run down 2 or 3 batteries, its a sign for me to take a break anyway. Doesn't take that long for them to recharge. They are cheap enough that it won't ruin my day if they die. So far, they are going strong. Comfortable in the hand. Definitely a winner. Great value.

[waynerhea]

This drill is perfect for what we use it for we put together patio furniture a dinning room set 2 benches a chair hung pictures hung 6 curtains and build a coustom closet which has 4 side shelves one cabinet and a shoe rack all this and we had no problems with it also we didn't run into over heating problems and never lacked the power to drill 1/4 pilot holes in some wall studs.

[vivesanta]

Really professional and gets to the point! I love it, please make more videos.

[SaadRahimu]

It would have been nice to show how to use different attachments with the drill because the instructions manual doesn’t cover that.

[geraldpatrick]

I have a Black + Decker 20V matrix drill driver with four attachment heads. I also have B + D Weed Wacker and a B + D Pole saw. All use the same batteries. I have four 1.5 Ah batteries and two 6 Ah batteries. I find that for most jobs, the Matrix does fine with the 1.5 Ah battery, while the other two, due to the extended use time I need the 6 Ah batteries. I'm planning to build a 8 x 12 foot shed with a gable roof. I'll need to pick up either another B + D drill driver or impact driver so that I can drill pilot holes and then drive fasteners with out changing head on the Matrix. I suspect that I'll also use the 6 Ah batteries in them. I may need to pick up a couple more so that if I work a long day, I'll have plenty of battery power.

Over all, I'm quite pleased with my B + D tools.

[GearHead]

Had mine for about a week and used it about 10 hours total building shelves. Only complaint is how long the battery takes to charge and the chuck has to be tightened with two hands but other than that been great so far.

[moggridge]

Always like the varied types of equipment you review.

[iboxirun]

Thank you kindly for the video. Just bought mine and this was helpful.

[jimtomassetti]

Thank You for the vidio. It was a help. Never had a power drill.

[MARYA-iemt]

Hi, I purchased the Black & Decker 20V Max BCD702 similar to what you have demonstrated. I am new to power tools, how do I attach the screw tips?

[williampotratz]

Just bought one for splitting wood. So far no complaints

[caimancai]

works for little holes in a concrete?¿

[davidcornell]

So this is the drill that Avid Power tried to rip off and failed.

[dwaynerobertson]

Excellent review. Of course I want Linda Carter, from Wonder Woman...but I get Karen, from from Ben's Pizza. It's just the reality of life. I'll get Dewalt someday...

[shwetagupta]

Sir pls do review of powertex machines

[samsen]

I have two of these and both seem to be stuck, I can't move that so-called Eazy bit lock mechanism. Anything I am missing? or doing wrong or this is a common problem with this cheap item that makes it totally useless? I am really annoyed.

[KhALe.]

Can I ask if how to remove screw?

Thank you in advance.. 😊

[sarahwhite]

I use a lot of my 20 volt tools in a cemetery I volunteer at where there is no electricity. So I have 8 batteries for 3 tools, meaning 8 chargers that I need for all batteries to be charged at once for the next weedeating, blowing, chain saw etc. . . . The charger has no preset holes to mount it on anything. The cords are REALLY long, which is good I am sure. But I need a way for all of these to be in one compact location, with the excess cords out of the way. I am looking at it tight now, trying to find a way to mount it to a board that can be attached to the wall so I can slam the barriers in there and go. But I am at a loss of how to do this. Can someone DIY this and help us out? You can find me at the Crown HIll Cemetery in Pasadena Texas, and contact me via their FaceBook page for that cemetery Im reaching out to ReviewLamp as well as his xoxo