Do you feel the urge to fix problems around your home and make improvements? Success eventually comes down to tools, and the better the tools you’ve got, the more productive and successful you’ll be. It’s pretty simple, really. Even as a homeowner, productivity matters because few of us have time to waste completing repairs and improvements. We’ve got the rest of life to live and weekends are always too short. In addition to this, few of us have money to throw away on tools that don’t last. Though many homeowners short-change themselves when it comes to tool quality, the need for productivity and durability are the reasons I always recommend a “better-than-basic” approach when choosing power tools, even for most non-professionals. This is also one reason you need to recognize one particular cordless tool advance that’s quietly unfolding right now.

Cordless tools with brushless motors are destined to become the only game in town. Increased power, longer run time for a given battery size, and vastly longer motor life are the reasons why smart tool users are driving this technology away from older, brush-style tools. In fact, bench tests of brushless tool motors have shown the best brushless lasts at least 10X as long as brushed models, precisely because there are far fewer moving internal parts.

You don’t need to understand all the technical differences between brushed and brushless tool motors, just that these differences matter. This is especially true when it comes to choosing that workhorse of home improvement tools, the cordless drill. If you can afford only one power tool, a drill is the one to choose. That’s why I’m always testing drills to find the best performance for the money.