EN 62841 asks makers to declare noise for the way a tool is normally used, and a drill has several. Festool prints a figure for each. Its T 18+3 is rated 64.00 dB(A) for drilling metal and 68.00 for driving screws, and the TPC 18/4 gets 76.00 in metal against 94.00 when impact drilling concrete.
Most makers print one figure per tool and do not say which mode it describes. For a drill with no hammer that is unambiguous. For a hammer drill it is not, so Hilti's SF 4H-22 at 92 dB(A) and Metabo's SB 18 LT BL at 94 sit apart from the drilling ranking. Impact drivers form a third group, declared while driving fasteners.
Inside each group, sound pressure meets only sound pressure and sound power only sound power. Metabo's US pages print both quantities side by side. They still never go head to head, for reasons set out in our drill-relevant guide to sound power and sound pressure.
What is the quietest cordless drill?
Festool's T 18+3, at 64.00 dB(A) drilling metal, with the Festool C 18 next at 68.00.
| Drill, no hammer or hammer off | Sound pressure at the ear | Mode named |
|---|
| Festool T 18+3 | 64.00 dB(A) | Drilling in metal |
| Festool C 18 | 68.00 dB(A) | Drilling in metal |
| Hilti SF 8M-22 | 73 dB(A) in its manual | None |
| Festool TPC 18/4, hammer off | 76.00 dB(A) | Drilling in metal |
| Metabo BS 18 LTX-3 BL Q I | 77 dB(A) | None |
| Hilti SF 4-22 | 78 dB(A) | None |
| Metabo BS 18 LT BL | 80 dB(A) | None |
Hilti and Metabo name no mode, which for a drill with no hammer can only be drilling or driving.
Every one of those figures carries a K of 5 dB.
That uncertainty decides how to read the table. A Festool at 64 and a Metabo at 77 are genuinely apart, while a Metabo at 77 and a Hilti at 78 sit well inside each other's declared margin, so the order between those two tells a buyer nothing. Treat them as a tie.
Hilti contradicts itself on the SF 8M-22 by exactly the size of its own uncertainty, with 73 in the manual and 78 on its UK page. The drill is listed, but no pick is built on it.
Are hydraulic impact drivers quieter?
Yes. Both of Milwaukee's SURGE drivers declare less at the ear than any conventional driver here, and those run from 95 to 100 dB(A).
A conventional impact driver hammers a steel anvil thousands of times a minute, and the declarations show it. At the ear, Hilti's SID 4-22 comes in at 95 dB(A) and Metabo's SSD 18 LTX 200 BL at 97, while Festool's TID 18, Metabo's SSD 18 LT 200 BL and Hilti's SID 6-22 all reach 100.
Hydraulic drivers move the blow through oil instead. Milwaukee's first generation SURGE, the 2760-20, declares 87.9 dB(A) at the ear on Milwaukee's European page, the lowest driver figure here. Its successor, the 2761-20, trades some of that for more than twice the torque and declares 94, still the lowest of any current driver we found. Neither is near a drill at 64 to 80. Use the drill.
DEWALT and Makita make hydraulic drivers too. DEWALT's US page for the DCF870 calls it "our quietest impact driver" and "up to 57% quieter", measured by RMS sound pressure against its own DCF787, but no decibel figure appears on the page or in its US manual.
Makita's international manual for the DTS141 oil pulse driver declares "Sound pressure level (LpA) : 80 dB (A)" in its soft impact grade under EN62841-2-2. Makita's US site failed to open on our end, which left that figure with no US model number to attach to, so it stays out of the ranking.
For lug nuts and seized bolts, the impact wrench is the bigger tool under the same standard part, EN 62841-2-2, and our impact wrench guide ranks those. When concrete is a regular job rather than an occasional one, our guide to rotary hammers covers SDS-plus, SDS-max and corded hammers.
Milwaukee's EU pages print "Sound pressure level (Lpa)" 95.78 dB(A) and "Sound power level (Lwa)" 106.78 for the M18 FDD3 drill driver, and the identical pair for the M18 FPD3 percussion drill.
A drill with no hammer and a percussion drill declaring the same value to two decimal places, with no mode named, points to one figure shared across two tools. There is no telling which mode it describes. Neither drill is ranked, and neither is its US counterpart.
Do DEWALT, Milwaukee and RYOBI list drill decibels in the US?
No. Percentages, or nothing.
DEWALT's US manuals for its DCF850 and DCF870 impact drivers carry no decibel figure, and the DCF870 page promises "up to 57% quieter operation" without one. Milwaukee's US 3601-20 and 3602-20 manual prints none, and its SURGE pages say "50% quieter". RYOBI's US page for its 18V ONE+ HP 4-Mode impact driver prints none either, so how loud those drivers run is a question their makers' US documents leave unanswered.
