Cordless impact wrenches?

[hudson44]

I'm in the market for a cordless 1/2" drive impact gun for work, to be used on a daily basis. 2 of the boys at work have the Snap On one which has plenty of torque but is quite heavy and doesn't have the Lithium Ion batteries. Another bloke has the Panasonic one which is compact and light but with a little less poke.

So for those of you that own and use one, what did you buy that works well and will last quite some time and why did you choose it?

[Devious]

I have a 'Trade Quip' 1/2 inch 24v gun. Came in a pack with 2 batteries and a carry case. It is reasonably sized, lighter than a Snap on gun and has more than enough poke for most jobs. I have never had the batteries run flat, but I manage 4 sets of tyres off and on no dramas then I just chuck the battery on charge.

Cost me $375 and am really happy with it.

I bought it from the tool guy that comes passed work every week, but have seen them in the trade catalogs we get dropped in at work.

[oozuk]

I've got the 1\2" snap on one (18v i think) has as much grunt as my
SP 1\2" air gun. I work in the truck mechanic so my tools get a hard life, and i'm using my snap on gun on a daily basis now for the last 6 months and no longer using the air one.
The battery life i feel is reasonable i feel, i managed to remove to western star diff centres and 4 axles on one fully charged battery

[Reddo]

Dewalt - big and heavy and real powerful!!

[badger]

i got a milwaukee and a panasonic, both great. the pano is smaller and lighter and the milwaukee (v28) is huge but will undo anything

the snapon ones r good but they r very dear

[ned]

the kingchrome one is great from what i remember. that was my weapon of choice when i did my traineeship. nice and light and plenty enough power.

[hudson44]

Cheers guys. Found a tool shop in south melbourne which stocks a wide variety. Will go down and have a chat me thinks. The Dewalt one looks and has simialar specs to the snap on one but a couple of hundred bucks cheaper. Used the snap on one today and boy they have some grunt. $800 tho.

[badger]

dewalt gear is cheaper for a reason. ive seen many a dewalt battery tool die within 6 months of purchase doing exactly the same work my panasonic tools have done day in day out for the last 5 years.

also milwaukee offer a 5 year warenty on all there battery tools.......... compare that to dewalts and others 1 year.

if your going to use it day in day out you need to be spending some coin or you may as well not buy it

[hudson44]

Yeah that's why i'm thinking the snap on one. And i can pay it off with the snap on bloke. For some reason i thought Dewalt made good tools? Or do they just have good marketing?

[amtravic1]

For some reason i thought Dewalt made good tools? Or do they just have good marketing?

I am a builder and use Dewalt tools all day every day. never had a problem except with cooking aftermarket batteries. To be honest after 10 years of use from a battery drill, 5 from a battery saw, which gets much more than the 240 volt one these days, I wish the things would wear out so I had an excuse to go buy some shiny new stuff. By the way I also have Hitachi, Metabo and Panasonic battery tools but much prefer the Dewalt although the Hitachi is close and the Metabo is a dissapointment.

[Chucky]

I have a hitachi cordless rattle gun.
I love it.
No long ago saw a panasonic cordless that was both a drill and a rattle gun, dont know anything else bout it. Unfortunalty it sounds really good, so will be crap.

[Mick.]

Yeah that's why i'm thinking the snap on one. And i can pay it off with the snap on bloke. For some reason i thought Dewalt made good tools? Or do they just have good marketing?

I've had the Snap On one since the newest version come out (about 6 months) and i'm very impressed with it. I'm about to buy the new 3/8 drive unit as well to make life easier when fixing my patrol at comps.

I was lucky enough to get mine when they where on special and ended up getting a carry case, awesome torch (runs off the same battery) and an extra battery for about $750.

As you said it makes life so much easier when you can pay it off.

Dewalt do have quality tools but i'm not sure how good they are since they where bought out.

Cheers Mick.

[roverbeau]

gday i have the snap on and its better than a mates hitachi but that is also good and small have a look on you tube at the test with snap on gun and another good brand in america the snap on one makes the other start smoking

[Shadow]

dewalt gear is cheaper for a reason.

ever owned any dewalt gear???? Or are you just regurgetating drivel your dads mate's brother said??

As with amtravic1 i have all dewalt gear and its very hard to kill them.

The dewalt rattle gun is big heavy and powerful. 18v Lithium batteries are now available and you can get them in 18 and 32volt lithium.

The benefit of getting a dewalt rattle gun, is that when you decide you need a cordless drill, you can get the bare drill on ebay much cheaper, as you already have the batteries and chargers.

theres about 30 cordless tools in the dewalt 18volt range. How many does snapon have?

[ausoops]

i have a panasonic drill and impact driver 2 in 1, it wouldn't suit a mechanic as i don't think it would last very long trying to undo stuff thats been done up with an airgun. and also the drill can't go fast enough for some drilling. but they are good nonetheless.

[badger]

no i have not owned dewalt gear. atleast half of the 20 staff at my work bought one of those dewalt 18v kits in the last 2 years. the oldest kit is still going fine but the batterys lasted about 1 year. the rest of the kits have had tools replaced at the owners expence or repaired by dewalt.

one other 2 blokes has a hitachi kit, another has a makita mxt and i have a panasonic 15v drill, 14.4 kit and a milwaukee v28 kit and the only failure so far with dayly use is the chuck and one battery in the 5 year old pano 15v

perhapse the point made that dewalt arent as good as they used to be could be true as they are all newish dewalt kits, even makita had a few years where they were no better than gmc tools they have come good now.

just my thoughts no need to get all angry to defend your purchase noone will look down on you

[jeep97tj]

Im a heavy diesel mechanic by trade and have had my hitachi for 4 years now. It has been drowned in saltwater, oil and is always breathing iron ore dust and is still going strong. They are very small and light and put out 220nm. There are 4 of us in the work shop with them now. We had snap on ones that the workshop suppied but they are just to big and heavy to use all day.

Go and pick up a hitachi befor u buy anything.

[jessie928]

I have a hitachi cordless rattle gun.
I love it.
No long ago saw a panasonic cordless that was both a drill and a rattle gun, dont know anything else bout it. Unfortunalty it sounds really good, so will be crap.

i have this pano. I love it.
although it is not suited for wheelnuts, it does eveything else.

Jes

[jessie928]

i have a panasonic drill and impact driver 2 in 1, it wouldn't suit a mechanic as i don't think it would last very long trying to undo stuff thats been done up with an airgun. and also the drill can't go fast enough for some drilling. but they are good nonetheless.

this dril is more suited to fastening stuff, not wheelnuts though.
I love it. I also bought the 15.6 drill, i love that to

i think i will get me one of those tradequip rattleguns though.

JEs

[pilot]

got dewalt, absolutely awesome

[j-top paj]

I have a 'Trade Quip' 1/2 inch 24v gun. Came in a pack with 2 batteries and a carry case. It is reasonably sized, lighter than a Snap on gun and has more than enough poke for most jobs. I have never had the batteries run flat, but I manage 4 sets of tyres off and on no dramas then I just chuck the battery on charge.

Cost me $375 and am really happy with it.

I bought it from the tool guy that comes passed work every week, but have seen them in the trade catalogs we get dropped in at work.

i just bought one too

[dad]

i got a HITACHI 18v lithium ion rattle gun. small, strong, well balanced, batterys last forever.
cant fault it
pickd it up for 600

[Canyonero 4x4]

As a plumbing apprentice, when I started, 2 of the tradies had DeWalt kits and I thought they were the bees knees. I've now changed my mind and wouldn't buy DeWalt battery gear only electric as they had 2 or 3 batteries each but only 1 worked. For the price you pay, the batteries just don't live long enough.

[11_evl]

hi
ive got the SNAP-ON older 18v version, great gun, heavy, and dont drop it as it breaks and costs a bit to get fixed up
i think the new alloy ones are the go. slide battery rather than clip up, should be stronger and lighter.
i think the biggest bonus is they are great and you can pay it off

[Shadow]

As a plumbing apprentice, when I started, 2 of the tradies had DeWalt kits and I thought they were the bees knees. I've now changed my mind and wouldn't buy DeWalt battery gear only electric as they had 2 or 3 batteries each but only 1 worked. For the price you pay, the batteries just don't live long enough.

i use dewalt all day every day, and the batteries do not die unless they are mis treated.

heat is the biggest killer of all batteries. Second is pulling the batteries off charge before they are full. This will kill them very quickly. I try to never do this.

I will go through anywhere between 3 and 7 batteries a day, i have 12 batteries and 4 chargers. (3 drills running all day)

I always let one cool down before putting it back on charge. So I have one in the drill, 1 in the charger, and 1 cooling down. Sometimes i will use batteries faster than i can charge them, especially on a hot summers day, thats when i charge in my esky on ice bricks!

Batteries last me well over a year, and they get at the very least 2 chargers a day.

Our company has about 20 dewalt impact drivers (1/4" hex drive). And we very rarely have batteries fail before a year of at least 2 charges a day. We get the odd one that just dies, but we just get them replaced under warranty, sure its a pain, but defects do happen, and it is probably less than 1 in 20 batteries that is a dud.

Slightly off topic, the new dewalt impact drivers (1/4" hex drive) are much more heat tollerant than the older model and definantly leaps and bounds ahead of anything else on the market in terms of a screw gun. we regularly give the other brands a go when they release new models but they just cant keep up to the dewalts.

Dewalt still using NICad batteries was probably the one downside to them, but now wuth the new lithium batteries hitting the streets, they are IMO the only screw gun to consider.

lithium having much better heat tollerance, the charger is alot more advanced and will automatically tune up your batteries (discharge fully before recharge etc, the newest NICAD chargers do this to) and lithium is means to handle alot more charge cycles than nicad, so a lithium battery should last 5 times as long as its NICAD brother.

[badger]

i use dewalt all day every day, and the batteries do not die unless they are mis treated.

heat is the biggest killer of all batteries.

I will go through anywhere between 3 and 7 batteries a day, i have 12 batteries and 4 chargers. (3 drills running all day)

I always let one cool down before putting it back on charge. So I have one in the drill, 1 in the charger, and 1 cooling down. Sometimes i will use batteries faster than i can charge them, especially on a hot summers day, thats when i charge in my esky on ice bricks!

Batteries last me well over a year, and they get at the very least 2 chargers a day.

Our company has about 20 dewalt impact drivers (1/4" hex drive). And we very rarely have batteries fail before a year of at least 2 charges a day. We get the odd one that just dies, but we just get them replaced under warranty, sure its a pain, but defects do happen, and it is probably less than 1 in 20 batteries that is a dud.

Slightly off topic, the new dewalt impact drivers (1/4" hex drive) are much more heat tollerant than the older model and definantly leaps and bounds ahead of anything else on the market in terms of a screw gun. we regularly give the other brands a go when they release new models but they just cant keep up to the dewalts.

Dewalt still using NICad batteries was probably the one downside to them, but now wuth the new lithium batteries hitting the streets, they are IMO the only screw gun to consider.

i take it you have never tryed panasonic or hilti screw guns then?
they WILL last over 2 years of 2 charges a day and havent even managed to heat the batterys or drill for that matter up by the time the dewalt is smoking.

that said they are alot more coin and if i was giving them to other guys to use (abuse) id prob buy shit tools too cos even hilti wont last if the guy using it has no brain[/b]

[Shadow]

i take it you have never tryed panasonic or hilti screw guns then?
they WILL last over 2 years of 2 charges a day and havent even managed to heat the batterys or drill for that matter up by the time the dewalt is smoking.

that said they are alot more coin and if i was giving them to other guys to use (abuse) id prob buy shit tools too cos even hilti wont last if the guy using it has no brain[/b]

The work we do will cook every drill on the market no question. Even 240volt drills overheat.

The older dewalt impact driver did suffer from overheating more than the panasonic and hilti, but they also have more power than the panasonic, unless you go 24volt. And the hilti is sooooo expensive to repair when you wear out a trigger or something. Like $200 for a trigger. I can get a dewalt trigger for $39. When you drop a drill from 2 stories, its comforting to know you can get a new shell for $18. A hilti shell would probably be $100+ if you can get it.

The scaffolders that do all our work have 24volt panasonic drills, and our 18volt dewalts will out power them in most situations.

To be honest, im not really sure how long our batteries last, they get mixed up too much to really keep track. My batteries are nearly a year old now and they are still going strong so i know they will last a year. Before that i was using the company gear, and i would rarely have the same drill for more than 2 months before it gets mixed up somwehere.

We usually recharge a battery at least 2 and usually 3 times a day, so thats about 600 - 800 charges a year. No nicad battery released by anyone is rated to more than 1000 charges. Nicad battery technology is simply not capable of it. So 600 charges is pretty dam good.

Dewalt's lithium batteries are rated to 2000 charges. Makita s rated at 500.

To be honest, if a battery lasts 600 charges, i would be happy with it. A dewalt 18volt nicad battery is $65.

[evanstaniland]

Ingersoll Rand ones look pretty durable and comparable to the Snap On one.

http://www.irtools.com/IS/modelComp.aspx/item/21106

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp ... ir=catalog

im looking into the IR one

Evan

[Nice_Surf]

We have a Dewalt 36v at work at it works bloody great so much so that the boss has approved the purchace of a 2nd one but they're about $900-$1000 for one with 2 batteries
But again they work well as we pulled apart a heap of old transmition towers with it

[hudson44]

Thanks for all the input fella's. I've been around a few tool shops doing some research and i'm going to go with the Makita 18v lithium ion one. The bigger guns like the Dewalt and Snapon are awesome but probably more suited to the carpenters trade. I've gone the smaller lighter Makita as it still has 230Nm but i can put it in small places for doing bullbars, towbars and general mechanics and will still change a full set of wheels no worries.

A few blokes have said this is the leader in its class. (being compact LiIon). I like the idea of the li Ion as the batteries are a lot lighter, last longer and can be charged at any point in the battery cycle. Also one guy said they are not allowed to produce Nicad batteries after 2010. The cheapest price i have found is $730 but i'd rather fork out for something that will last.

http://www.justtools.com.au/prod1427.htm

Just for the record (it's not my opinion) but one of the sales staff said to stay away from the Dewalt cordless stuff. Rest of their products are top knotch.