Let's talk cordless impacts

[90civichb]

I am looking into a cordless impact wrench, but I am reading some conflicting reviews online about most every brand.

I am mostly a weekend DIY kinda guy. I would like the impact to be able to take off torqued 100 ft/lb lugnuts, but also have decent battery life. An LED front light is a must and the more compact the form factor the better. This is almost exclusively used for automotive work on smaller vehicles (10-24mm bolts/nuts) and not something that I am going to use for work/business.

I currently have my eye on the DeWalt 20v #DCF883M2 as it is priced well and the batteries can be used across a few platforms (jig saws, Circ saws, lights..ect).

I read good things about Milwaukee, Snap on (of course), Hitachi, and DeWalt. These are all for their 3/8" drive as most of my tooling is around 3/8" sockets. I am not opposed to 1/2" stuff, but I don't have the same socket selection in 1/2" as I do 3/8". My budget is ~$300 for gun, battery, and charging station.

I would love to hear your reviews of the products you have used over the years.

[steverife]

I've used a 1/2 to 3/8 adapter for years. I don't think you'll hit many places where you have room for impact and socket, but not the adapter.

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[steverife]

Anyway, I have a Goodyear/Pep Boys one that was popular years ago. I guess they changed them before I got mine because brand new it would barely last 2 tire changes at an autocross.

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[90civichb]

I agree that having a larger tool for a small job is better than a smaller tool for a large job. I still feel like moving around the small form 3/8" will be less cumbersome then then larger 1/2" drives when in tight places, like under the car, in the engine bay, under the dash, ect. It's also hard to find what I want, at the price I have set, in the higher end 1/2" drive brand names.

[steverife]

Gotcha. Maybe I need to look closer at 3/8 impacts.

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[oldmuscle69]

Go have a look at Great Northern and also at Grainger in the Baum drive area.

[lcoleman]

My opinion....get a smaller one for 1/4" and 3/8" stuff (I use this) and a bigger one for lug nuts--preferably 1/2" drive. I use air for the big stuff at work, but I think a big electric one would get the job done for you. Here are some options.

I would highly recommend lithium batteries for power tools like this. NiCad memory always bites.

[RxCritical]

I use a 1/2 inch drive Ryobi that uses a 18v lithium battery. It's rated for about 200 ft-lb. I have never had it not remove a lug nut, even the crazy torqued from the factory ones. It cost around $100 for the tool itself, but I already had batteries and a charger from a kit I had previously bought. With the lithium battery it is fairly small and handy.

[90civichb]

My opinion....get a smaller one for 1/4" and 3/8" stuff (I use this) and a bigger one for lug nuts--preferably 1/2" drive.

So could you remove suspension components with the 1/4" drive? That style always seemed like a "gonna build a deck over the weekend" type of tool to me. I feel like the 3/8" is right in a sweet spot for size and uses.

I would also love to have a 1/2" as well, but budget dictates only enough for one right now, unless I went with like a Harbor Freight 1/2" and decent brand name 3/8", which is a thought.

The Ryobi stuff seems alright. I have used a few of the wood working tools they offer and not really liked them very much. It left a bad taste like 8 years ago that I never shook.

What about the 18v stuff? This seems like a good compromise and my god that torque value, that has to be some sort of type or something.

[lcoleman]

No, I do pretty much all "under-car" stuff with air. I use my electric for engine/underhood parts, splash shields, interior, etc. It sounds like you really just want a 1/2" electric impact for heavy-duty stuff since you don't have air readily available to you. A smaller gun is good for, you guessed it, smaller bolts. I'm not sure you can really have something that does both well, but I wouldn't mind being proven wrong on that--I'd probably buy one eventually. I'm just skeptical.

18V is NiCD, and I would avoid it personally. Also, 17xx INCH-pounds isn't much at all. Mine is 20V and 1100 in-lbs or so. I'd say it'll do anything smaller than a wheel bolt (say 40-50 ft-lbs).

This is probably what you really want, but it's quite pricey. That said, I can see not needing an air impact at all if you had that. Those ratings are the same as my IR air impact.

James does have some kind of Craftsman NiCD 1/2" thing that seems OK and was pretty cheap, but I suspect battery lifespan won't be all that great. Lithium is the way to go for a casual DIYer that wants to use the tool periodically and not worry so much about storing batteries.

[RxCritical]

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-18-Vol ... /202340589

That is what I use and am talking about. 18v lithium and I have had no issues out of it for the past 2 years. YMMV.

[TedV]

remember you are buying into a battery system and want to be able to get replacement batteries. I would stick to better brands like the dewalt in 3/8". I tend to break lugs loose with breaker bar, zip off and back on with the 3/8" electric, then follow up with a torque wrench. I tend to be a little OCD

The 1740 inch pounds is 140 foot pounds. My Porter cable spec is 1600 inch/pounds (133ft pounds) and may or may not knock off lugs at 80 ft pounds. My air impact has over 800 ft pounds. There is no electric replacement for the power of air.

I have the Porter Cable 18V lithium (not sure how I ended up with it, may have been a gift) The batteries have the same voltage spec as the 20V lithium but are not interchangeable. Everyone switched to the 20V for marketing and some A hole at Porter cable decided to make the connections different so you have to buy a whole new system.

Be careful with the Li packs. They have 2 styles with porter cable and the same with Ryobi, a small and a large. The smaller packs can't put out the amps the fatter pack does and so they died. Coworker with Ryobi had the same problem. They gave him the larger pack under warranty when his small pack died. Mine lasted past the warranty period because I didn't run them WFO like he did. Having a $50-$100 battery pack die because of their poor electrical engineering sucks to say the least. The amperage draw under extended full load exceeds the little battery's constant draw spec. Lithium battery chemistry characteristics, blah, blah,blah.

Comparing lithium to NiCd: Lithium is lighter and has more run time in the same size but costs $$$. NiCd with same voltage but less run time, is easier to rebuild the batteries, cheaper to replace but has a memory (smart chargers may work around that issue) and weigh a whole lot more. For my Porter Cable, I can get 2-3 NiCd packs with charger for the price of one large Li pack. Did I mention NiCd weigh a ton?

[90civichb]

No, I do pretty much all "under-car" stuff with air. I use my electric for engine/underhood parts, splash shields, interior, etc. It sounds like you really just want a 1/2" electric impact for heavy-duty stuff since you don't have air readily available to you. A smaller gun is good for, you guessed it, smaller bolts. I'm not sure you can really have something that does both well, but I wouldn't mind being proven wrong on that--I'd probably buy one eventually. I'm just skeptical.

18V is NiCD, and I would avoid it personally. Also, 17xx INCH-pounds isn't much at all. Mine is 20V and 1100 in-lbs or so. I'd say it'll do anything smaller than a wheel bolt (say 40-50 ft-lbs).

This is probably what you really want, but it's quite pricey. That said, I can see not needing an air impact at all if you had that. Those ratings are the same as my IR air impact.

James does have some kind of Craftsman NiCD 1/2" thing that seems OK and was pretty cheap, but I suspect battery lifespan won't be all that great. Lithium is the way to go for a casual DIYer that wants to use the tool periodically and not worry so much about storing batteries.

Derp, read that impact rating thinking it was ft/lbs.

Yeah, I'll just stay away from the 18v stuff then. I want my one purchase to do everything and never had buyers remorse, stop telling me I can't have all that for the price of a dozen doughnuts! I feel like I will probably end up with a DeWalt 20v 3/8" and just break the big stuff with a bar first. I cleaned and replaced the hydraulic lifters in my head today and I was getting mad at the amount of bolts that valve cover and timing cover had. I bet an impact would have saved me an hour or two on the job, and I wouldn't be as pissed off!

[90civichb]

remember you are buying into a battery system and want to be able to get replacement batteries. I would stick to better brands like the dewalt in 3/8". I tend to break lugs loose with breaker bar, zip off and back on with the 3/8" electric, then follow up with a torque wrench. I tend to be a little OCD

The 1740 inch pounds is 140 foot pounds. My Porter cable spec is 1600 inch/pounds (133ft pounds) and may or may not knock off lugs at 80 ft pounds. My air impact has over 800 ft pounds. There is no electric replacement for the power of air...........?

Great information! I don't expect an electric to be a full pneumatic replacement, but without air open to me I don't have much option. I also like the portable aspect of it as well. I've been sitting on my back and knees working on my Miata almost every weekend for the past year and some change. I don't see that ending very soon, so I need to start making my life a bit easier so I can save my frail body.

[integra55]

pricy … but the Snap On 3/8" was amazing a couple of weekends ago at CMP …

story: I left my 1/2'' Klutch (Northern Tools) at home … folk beside me had their Snap On and let me borrow as needed … they changed tires several times that weekend, as did I … it never faltered … didn't need re-charging … they also had to do some caliper replacements and used it for that … not sure I could ever find the $$ to get one, but it pretty much did everything asked of it all weekend