New impact driver advice

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Vormulac

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Hi guys,

I know this is a road well travelled, but the threads on impact drivers tend to meander I'm not sure how recent the most recent one is!

I have had a Performance Pro (B&Q) one for a few years now and although it has been surprisingly good, the batteries are now largely knackered and the impact operation doesn't kick in as reliably as it used to. However, it has served to prove what a useful piece of kit an impact driver is, so I'm planning on buying a replacement.

I had (don't ask me why as I've never owned any) assumed I would go for a Makita, but a friend of mine visited Axminster the other day and was told by the guy doing the tool demos that he rated the little 10.8v Bosch over the Makita. That surprised me, but on doing a little digging it seems that that Bosch has more grunt than any other make (100Nm of torque) can match without climbing significantly in voltage.

I can probably go to somewhere around the £150 mark (give or take) if need be, so what would people say about which impact driver they would go for and why?

Cheers all,

V.
 
I've got the little Bosch, and although it's good, it doesn't match the bigger drivers.

I currently use a Milwaukee V18 impact driver, 'cos my other drills are Milwaukee. But I have also had a Makita 12v Impact, and thought it was superb. Very well balanced, comfortable to use, and just as much power as my Milwaukee.

I still have a charger and some 12v Makita batteries (for use with the Makita site radio), and will be keeping my eyes peeled on the Bay for a cheap 12v Makita Impact.

HTH.

Cheers

Karl
 
That's really interesting, as the Milwaukee is rated at 158Nm of torque, way above the 125Nm that the Makita can claim. I guess that does rather indicate that just throwing numbers around with impact drivers is fairly pointless and it comes down more to balance and battery life (although at 3Ah vs 2Ah the Milwaukee would seem to have the edge over the Makita there too!).
Curiously, I couldn't find the 10.8v Bosch on their website just now, has it been discontinued?
 
I don't think the additional torques are of any benefit (to me at least). There is only so much torque a screw can take before it will shear. DAMHIKT. Depends on what you're using it for I suppose.

The Makita batteries I use are 2.6ah, so not a million miles from the Milaukee's.

Don't know about the Bosch impact being disontinued, sorry.

Cheers

Karl
 
Vormulac":ywz4swsa said:
Curiously, I couldn't find the 10.8v Bosch on their website just now, has it been discontinued?

see
here thats the bosch drill driver , the impact driver, and two batteries for £110 !
 
I would have a look at the panasonic options. I know of a few people who have them and they swear by them. The panasonic batteries are supposed to be far superior and reliable to other makes. I think they do a 3.5ah battery. Not sure on cost, but worth a look.
 
big soft moose":6oasdi0z said:
see
here thats the bosch drill driver , the impact driver, and two batteries for £110 !

And it's a good package IMO. I should know - I bought the same drill/impact driver last year. The drill is only suitable for pretty light duties (as you'd expect) but the impact driver has plenty of grunt. And ten minutes of work with a scalpel modified the carrying case to hold *both* tools.
 
I've got a 12v hilti impact screwdriver which I think has a 3.0Ah battery and is excellent. It will happily screw 100mm x 6mm screws into softwood without any pilot hole on a charge and goes on for ages on one battery. The big advantage of a 12v over an 18v is weight. Once you've used a good light weight driver you won't want to go back to an ordinary cordless drill.

Steve
 
I use the 12V Makita impact driver and am very pleased with it. I also have the Makita 12V drill driver and am not impressed with the new chucks in them. (not a patch on the old ones) This one keeps coming loose in use. Can't fault the impact driver though. HTH. :wink:
 
mailee":q8w556s3 said:
I use the 12V Makita impact driver and am very pleased with it. I also have the Makita 12V drill driver and am not impressed with the new chucks in them. (not a patch on the old ones) This one keeps coming loose in use. Can't fault the impact driver though. HTH. :wink:

Agreed..especially re the chucks. One solution I've found is to hold the chuck semi-loosely in the hand, fire it up and tighten your hand. The short sharp shock usually tightens the chuck up pretty well. They are rubbish though all the same.
 
Oh blimey, I was starting to lean towards a heavier duty machine than the little Bosch, but that deal looks amazing!

Incidentally BSM it wasn't that I couldn't find the little Bosch for sale, it just doesn't seem to be mentioned on their website, which made me wonder if they had dropped it - might also explain why they are being given away free?
 
i've always used makita and i've still got the same 12v impact driver i've used for 3 or 4 years now on site. I think that its excellent and offers more torque that i can use (it will put a 5" screw in to oak with no pilot and will shear the screw before it stops) so cant see the point in a bigger heavier model. I totally agree with Karl about the balance of the tool, its excellent and although the red batteries are only a low AH rating they charge quickly and i've got six (three that came with this and three that came with a drill driver) and have never been caught out needing more power (even when screwing down chipboard flooring on site i don't run out of charge and ill put in a good few hundred 50mm reisers). In short i can't recommend it enough.
 
I'v got the older 14.4v Makita one - only because I already had 3 batteries between the other tools, so just got the bare body. Not really having used any other one - but sufficient to say it doesn't have any issues driving 4" nbr 10's in all day.

I do suspect the 10.8v wouldn't stand up to sustained use for the larger screws, etc. but then it depends on what you want to do with it.

HIH

Dibs
 
Dibs-h":i7yimyf6 said:
I do suspect the 10.8v wouldn't stand up to sustained use for the larger screws, etc. but then it depends on what you want to do with it.

HIH

Dibs

Yes - i'd agree with that. It's a good little impact driver, but I use it mainly for smaller screws in hard to reach places.

If I only had the choice of one ID, then i'd choose the Makita 12v.

Cheers

Karl
 
Thanks everyone. It looks like 12-14v is the sweet spot and the most resoundingly celebrated make is Makita.

I shall have a trawl of t'interweb and see what I can find.

Cheers!

V.
 
Karl":3jsfqpzp said:
Yes - i'd agree with that. It's a good little impact driver, but I use it mainly for smaller screws in hard to reach places.

+1. I use the Bosch 10.8v as my 'go everywhere' kit, 'cos it's often all I need (wish they made a 10.8v combi...) but for heavier work I have an old 18v DeWalt ID. Driving the same size screws the impact mechanism kicks in much earlier with the Bosch than the DeWalt - it just doesn't have the same grunt, obviously - but then it's a fraction of the size/weight/price, so I don't really expect it to.

Cheers, Pete.
 
I have the 10.8 drill driver and the impact driver mk2. Over the last six months they have had a right pasting and have matched everything I have thrown at them.
I am refurbishing my house at the moment and the the impact driver is removing slot head screws 4" long and 20 years old as if they were in butter.
I am renewing old chip board floors and replacing with plywood for tiling, 80mm x 5 screws straight in with the impact driver.
I also have an old 14.4 volt makita drill/driver but it is not a patch on the Bosch. The Bosch drill/driver was used today to drill 45mm with a hole saw through 18mm structural ply, no problem.
I would thoroughly recommend them at that price. I also used a stanley knife to alter the case to accommodate the impact driver.

Les
 
Hiya

I am going to STRONGLY recommend you try a Panansonic. I am biased as I have one but have had it for about 5 years now it has incredible battery life from the 3.5ampHr and the recharge only takes about 20 mins from flat to max.

It is a tool of amazing quality far in excess of Makita, Bosch and Dewalt torque is excellent for a 12v and it is light and fits superbly in the hand and you can use it for hours without fatigue. I just used it to screw down a 12mm ply sub floor at 10 inch centres in a 5mx4m room using about 400 5x40 screws, all on one charge.

I got mine from Amazon in the US as a deal for the impact driver and drill and I don't think that model is still available. However if you are looking at better impact drivers the panasonic will be the last one you ever need to buy IMO.

In fact I have just remembered my first ever post on UKW was when I bought them

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/pana ... t6289.html

HTH
 
I remember reading for a long time that Panasonic are the very best of the best, but you do rather pay for it. Looking at the current line up there appear to be two models, can anyone tell me the difference?

EY7540LZ2S
EY7540LN2S

One is fractionally lighter than the other, one has a 3.3Ah battery opposed to the other's 3.0Ah - other than that the specs are identical, but one is £70 more than the other I must be missing something?
 

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