Cordless Impact drive recommendations

I want to purchase a cordless impact driver. Which one is best to buy for general purposes? By general, I will use it most to take lug nuts off. After that just about everything I would do is going to be smaller. I am told a 1/2 is probably the do-all impact wrench.

Which one to buy? I am currently looking at Rigid or Milwaukee. Both are made by the same company so perhaps price may be the only difference. The two I am looking at appear on the outside to be almost identical.

 

I hear Rigid has a lifetime warranty. Includes the battery.

 

I just watched a comparison of Milwaukee and Rigid in torc tests and the disassembly of the driver itself on YouTube. Other than the battery connection and slight housing differences they are identical tools inside with identical performance. I do own several Bosch drills and drivers...maybe I should consider them just for the fact of having interchangeable batteries. I do wonder if they make a comparable impact driver.

 

Milwaukee Fuel.

 

This is the way…

 

I’ve been using a Ryobi since I’m already invested in their ONE+ ecosystem. I use it weekly to remove commercial mower blades, but it’s worked fine on lug nuts and everything else I’ve thrown at it.

 

Just saw a 1/2" Rigid at HD last night for $119.99 including battery
Headed back this afternoon to pick it up had to prove to my higher power it's the best deal I can find by far

 

I have a dewalt that works well, only got dewalt because I have other tools with same batteries. If didn’t have dewalt stuff already, probably would’ve gone with rigid.
I have a corded 1/2 impact as well, it rarely gets used now.

 

I use cordless tools every day in commercial construction environments, we burn through 1/4" impact drivers like Halloween candy. Hilti is my favorite but the most expensive by far. Dewalt, Milwaukee and Rigid all perform and cost about the same and I happily use any of them. If you have a bunch of cordless tools just pick a brand and stick with it so that you can keep all your batteries and chargers the same.

I wouldn't pay attention to peak torque given your use case, it's just a dick measuring contest for marketing at this point with how well all these cordless tools perform. Any modern 1/2" impact has enough torque to strip lug nuts and/or break the studs off if you use it like a ham fisted Neanderthal. I set the torque setting all the way down on my 1/2" Dewalt.

 

Milwaukee Fuel is tough to beat.

 

Thanks. I was kinda thinking that. There is a great Youtube channel that tests torque on lots of impact drivers. They said pretty much the same thing. We sort of have a mentality of "Why use 300fp of torque when 500 will do." More might be better, but more might be as you say, a good chance to break a bolt or lug off.

 

I like Bosch tools

I got this one

$139 BOSCH GDR18V-1860CN 18V Brushless Connected-Ready 1/4 In. Hex Impact Driver (Bare Tool)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09NQJKMYJ?ie=UTF8

 

Bosch is what I have for everything else so it makes sense for me. Does this work well for everything?

 

sure does, I use it all the time, I have several batteries since I have a bunch of Bosch tools

 

I started a thread in regards to this subject a few weeks ago…got a lot of good input, decided on a Milwaukee.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/impact-gun-recommendations.134383/page-3#post-3407958

 

Milwaukee is best (both tool and service), Makita is good. Dewalt is good too, but expect to get hit on by a lot of dudes.

 

Agreed.

 

If you're starting fresh with battery tools - Milwaukee.

If you already have a brand of battery tools started at your house - match it.

 

I use Milwaukee and dewalt at home. I honestly rarely pull the 1/2” Milwaukee out because it’s overkill. My 3/8” Milwaukee and 1/4” dewalt get used the most and work for about 90% of the work I do. My most favorite tool is my Milwaukee ratchet. Get one of those and you’ll never want to use a regular ratchet again.

 

If you are into Kobalt tools the Kobalt impact drivers 24v are no slouches. They will get the work done and normally come on sale for 2/3's or even 1/2 the cost of the bigger more expensive brands. Check out Youtube if you want to get some reviews before you buy it.

 

I'm very happy with my Harbor Freight Hurcules 1/2" drive impact.

It is compact and powerful.

Cheap in cost too. 5 year warranty on tool and battery.

 

Cordless impact and ratchets - definitely Milwaukee Fuel if you want to spend the money! Worth it IMO.

 

Revived thread but I'll chime in and vote for Milwaukee. I'm fairly new to cordless as I've recently moved away from pneumatic as I'm sure most do.

As for impact I have the 1/2 for extreme measures but for smaller quick easy jobs ill use the m12 stubby which has plenty torque. Also have the M18 driver that gets the most use of all of them.

 

I have the Milwaukee mid-torque 1/2" drive and it works great for my Tundra lug nuts.

 

This is the way.