Can I realistically replace my drill with a rotary hammer?

Question

I find myself needing to do more and more stucco and concrete chipping work that is suitable for purchasing a rotary hammer. Can anyone here tell me if such tools can entirely replace a normal drill? On paper, it seems like they can; they can do pure drilling, hammer drilling, or non-rotating chipping. I'm an efficiency-minded kind of guy, so if it's possible to replace my drill with a high-quality do-it-all machine, I'd really like to. Off the top of my head, I can imagine two drawbacks to using a rotary hammer for everything:

1. They are heavier than regular drills.

2. You need to use an adapter to use regular non-SDS drill bits, further increasing the weight, and there's more slop since the adapter will slide up and down a bit.

Are there more downsides? Is it indeed feasible to use a rotary hammer for everything?

Answer 1

Not really. I did this and regretted it.

The problem is that the rotary hammers that are worth it are very heavy and overbuilt (the larger Bosch SDS series etc.). They make fantastic rotary hammers but are too heavy for use as a drill for extended use unless you have really beefy forearms. In this scenario, you should get a 18v cordless drill for when you want to drill.

Then there are very lightweight rotary hammers (such as from Harbor Freight) where the rotary hammer action is extremely weak. These do a good job as drills but not as rotary hammers.

Answer 2

You have answered your own question. Yes you could buy a hammer-drill and use it in "drill" mode. The drawbacks are size and weight. Additionally, some hammer-drills are equipped with a chuck that will not accommodate small drill bits, by small I mean less than 1/8".

A better option would be to get a hammer-drill and use it for heavy work, including drilling. Also get a smaller lightweight cordless drill.