Off-Brand Cordless Impact Wrenches

[The Famous Grouse]

Anybody bought and/or used any of the el cheapo Chinese 20 volt cordless impact wrenches? Like this one from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D4PG5MS?pf_rd_p=ab873d20-a0ca-439b-ac45-cd78f07a84d8&pf_rd_r=0X32Q8WCNSK31ZQM5GGM

There's a lot of them out there, they all look basically the same except for the color. Cost is very simialr, around $100. They are about 300 ft/lbs of breakaway torque, so yeah I get that they ain't a Milwaukee high torque nut cracker. They all seem to get pretty decent reviews as long as you're not trying to bust rusted 2 inch nuts off of a 1960s Cat that was used in a salt mine.

I was thinking of buying one to leave up at my hunting property, it would just be nice to have to speed things up. Don't want to spend big bucks for a tool that just sits up in the shed up there and gets used once in a while.

Anyone bought or used any of these?

Grouse

 

[Mutt and Jeff]

My favorite.

98volts of neuton meters power

 

[Goose]

Several months ago, I bought a Ryobi cordless impact wrench, without a battery, for $107.

I went with Ryobi 'cause I have an assortment of Ryobi cordless tools that all take the same battery, so I already had batteries and chargers. It's advertised at 300 ft/lbs of torque, and I believe it. I don't expect it to compete with my 1200 ft/lb air impact, but it's become one of the handier tools in my shop.

As far as the one's you're talking about, I guess you don't have that much to lose for your purposes.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Grouse,
Batteries are the weak link. Sooner or later they will need replaced.
Li batteries are most likely non repairable.
I know a man with a 36v dewalt tools. He decided it too expensive, $200, to replace the battery.
So he buys tools from Menards. Same story, batteries aren't cheap.

My advice is buy an impact what you have a battery and a charger for. Or find an impact that you can buy an adapter to use your old battery.

When my old 18v dewalt batteries die, I buy 20v dewalt battery. Now I have adapters to use 20v dewalt battery on 18v dewalt, 18v Milwaukie and an 18v Makita.

I now buy just bare tools and use my 20v dewalt battery..

 

[Hobo,NC]

With 300 ft/lbs of breakaway torque you are gonna be very disappointed.. : ( and then be stuck with a 1/2 impact that's not user friendly on other jobs... I guarantee ya anyone that has used a sub-par 1/2" impact to make a living with is gonna tell the same thing.

I use my Milwaukee 1/2" impact mostly to take wheels off what I use the most is a Milwaukee 3/8" impact because its so user friendly AND WILL do what that cheap 1/2" will do.

If you gotta go cheap shop around for a 3/8 it would be interesting to see how close the spec. are between the two... Either way going cheap are a 3/8 Milwaukee sometimes you will need a breaker bar I would get a 3/8 for the convenience of it...

 

[The Famous Grouse]

(quoted from post at 21:24:13 01/30/20)
With 300 ft/lbs of breakaway torque you are gonna be very disappointed.. : ( and then be stuck with a 1/2 impact that's not user friendly on other jobs... I guarantee ya anyone that has used a sub-par 1/2" impact to make a living with is gonna tell the same thing.

I use my Milwaukee 1/2" impact mostly to take wheels off what I use the most is a Milwaukee 3/8" impact because its so user friendly AND WILL do what that cheap 1/2" will do.

My sytem at home is Milwaukee M18, but it's just too much money to spend to buy an M18 impact (either 3/8 or 1/2) and then an extra battery and a charger just to leave up in the shop at the farm. Even used, that's $200 easy. That's kind of what I'm trying to avoid.

I have an M18 impact and then I use the little 1/4 impact driver for a 3/8 impact when I need smaller. Even that 1/4 impact has so much torque it will snap off a 1/4 bolt if you're not careful. I believe that is rated at 150 foot pounds.

So if the generic brand impact setups are anywhere even near 300 ft lbs, that's really enough for most of what I need to do. I have sockets and breaker bars for nut busting, the main thing I use an impact for up at the farm is speeding up jobs where a bunch of wrench twistin just wastes time.

Reviews on Amazon seem to indicate no problem busting most automotive lugs off with the wrench I posted. The batteries are a generic design, so lots of replacements out there if the battery dies, it's $25 all over ebay.

Anyone else actually tried one? Just thought more guys would have one for in the truck or whatever.

Grouse

 

[Kansas4010]

I wouldn't go with a brand you can't get
replacement batteries for. Sitting unused
and discharged wouldn't be good. If you
have a Harbor Freight close by maybe look
into their Bauer line of power tools.
They have a pretty big selection in that
line and everyone that has them seems to
like them. The newer Hercules line
doesn't have a very big line yet. Bauer
is their medium grade line and Hercules is
their best line. They carry the batteries
in store and prices aren't to bad.

 

[bmack95hd]

One problem with the off brands is service if needed.
Consider them disposable. I buy all Milwaukee because the
company I retired from is an authorized service center. You
can also go on line and do E-Repair with Milwaukee.

 

[jniolon]

also some of these off brand off shore tools are measured in Newton Meters instead of foot pounds... you loose even more there


john