Cordless Impact For Christmas

[Kajun]

Bride to kajun: "What do you want for Christmas" ? Kajun to bride: "Cordless Impact Wrench".

Kajun to you guys/girls: What brand ? [I will use 10 times a year for less than 15 minutes a pop.] Main use is to mount/dismount blades on my commercial duty 90 inch finish mower .

Obliged for all opinions.
 

[glennster]

with the limited use, you would be better off with a 110 volt electric gun. you will be fighting with batteries. for a decent inexpensive cordless, the dewalt is not a bad gun. the super baddest but the most spendy is the snap on cordless 1/2 inch impact. it will set you back 500 dollars.
 

[JD Seller]

I have two. The strongest is the 18 volt Dewalt. The easiest to use is the Craftsman 19.2 volt. The trigger on the Dewalt is a joke plus it is real heavy so I rarely use it. The Craftsman is lighter and has a much better trigger setup.

You can see the difference in the pictures. The Craftsman has a separate direction control where the Dewalt uses a rocker switch. The rocker switch would not be so bad but it is back words. You hold the top to loosen the bolt and the bottom to tighten the bolt. Half the time I spin the nut off when I go to tighten a bolt. Plus you have two fingers on the trigger so it puts more load on the others to hold up the heavy impact.

The real difference is cost as well. You can find the Craftsman on sale with a charger and battery for $125-140. The Dewalt is going to be at least $50-75 dollars higher.

So where you are saying you are not going to be using it all of the time and even then just on mower blades the Craftsman should do everything you need. I think you will find after you own it a while you will be using it all of the time. I know I grab mine many time rather than drag an air hose out for simple things. I liked the 1/2 so much I bought a 3/8 one too. It is lighter and smaller so you can get into littler places. Great for hood bolts and such.


 

[JRSutton]

Assuming you have a cordless drill - if you stick to the same brand/battery so you can swap batteries between the tools, you'll have done yourself a favor.

Otherwise - hard to go wrong with any of the big names on a tool like this that you're not going to use too intensively.

Milwaukee, Dewalt, Makita, Bosch -

I'd say just go to a store that has some on display and see which one feels right to you. They'll all perform pretty much equally well.
 

[sflem849]

[big jt]

Do you have any other cordless tools? If yes get the one that shares the same battery.

Almost all my cordless stuff is 18v Dewalt. Yes I have the dewalt impact shown by another poster. I like it but it doesn't have the punch of a air impact.

If you don't have any other cordless stuff but think you may in the future pick a line that has a fair bit if variety of tools for that voltage and brand. As another said if it will only see infrequent use and will be your only cordless tool just get a air or corded electric.

hth

jt
 

[Michael Soldan]

Big,I use my cordless impact for tire removal and It will peel wheel nuts off like butter,but,the battery has to be fully charged.I am loyal to Dewalt after working for a contractor who uses all DeWalt tools,they are incredible,beat other brand name tools hands down in my opinion
 

[GordoSD]

Dewalt makes a 1/2 drive smaller and much handier than that one.
 

[GordoSD]

I bought my first Dewalt battery tool, a drill about 10 years ago. Drill, charger, one battery. Since then I bought a skill saw, no battery, sawsall, no battery;impact driver with battery; flashlight and vacumm, no battery; All on the web. Recently I had to replace the original battery.If you have a lot of tools and only one or two batteries they will last longer if they are used more often (the batteries).
 

[thurlow]

Have several cordless drills (mostly Dewalt), but have never had a cordless impact. Sears has the one pictured by JD on sale for less than 100 bucks.......
 

[Bryan inIowa]

If she really loves you ,,Snap On ! Pricy ,,but the best .
 

[JGayman]

Ironically, some of the corded guns seem to have less torque. I noticed the Makita battery powered impact tool is listed as 350 ft-lbs where their 110V version is 258 ft-lbs.
 

[George Marsh]

kajun,
When dealing with cordless anything, go with the brand you are committed to and have spare batteries. Batteries are your weak link.

About 15 years ago I got tired of the cheap cordless drills and tried a Dewalt from
Lowes. The salesman there said, if you don't like, bring it back. Never did, been committed to Dewalt from that point.

I hate the dewalt XRP battery, they only last for a few years. Some may say theirs last longer, and may if not used very much. Lithium batteries are too expensive and only hold half the charge. Find Nickle-Metal batteries, mine seem to last forever. I have to buy them from ebay and they are after markets made in china, where I was told dewalts are now made, not sure.

I have both 1/4 and 1/2 inch impact. If there is a not the 1/2 inch can't remove I have a 3/4 inch drive ratchet, sockets and cheater bar that will do the trick or twist off the nut. Love both my impacts. Like the cordless sawsall, cordless right angle grinder. Ocassionally use the circular saw and right angle drill. Love the 1/2 inch hammer drill. There isn't a day that goes buy that I don't use my dewalt tools for something. Carry them in the truck, have a 12v charger in the truck, so there with me all the time.

George
 

[sflem849]

[Kajun]

Men:

Gotta love this site. Thanks for all the detailed and thorough advice.