As a high school ag teacher I've had the following in my shop (14.4v Dewalt, 18v Dewalt, and 19.2v Craftsman). We've got two of each. The Dewalts lasted for about 6-8? years before we started smelling them burn and one of the 18's has a bad trigger. We've gone through a few batteries though. The originals lasted about 4-5 yrs. The new style Dewalt batteries seem to last quite a bit longer than the old style. The 19.2 Craftsmans are starting their 2nd or 3rd year without any trouble from the drill or battery. I'm fairly pleased with the battery life of the Craftsman. Maybe not as long a life as the new Dewalt batteries.
The 14.4v didn't have enough power for my money, but the 18 and 19.2's are strong. Overall I might prefer the 18v Dewalt, but the price on Craftsman is hard to beat. We'll see if they last as long as the Dewalts. So far so good.
*We are a small high school, but our tools get used by the agri. dept. and the construction tech. dept, so they see a good bit of use/abuse.*
