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Air Impact Wrench -v- Cordless

Priestley

By Priestley,
in General Automotive Discussion

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Priestley Rising Star

Priestley

Posted
Posted

I'm in need of a rattle gun for some work I'll be doing in the middle of nowhere. Not sure which combination I should use:

Rattle gun + compressor + generator

or

Battery operated rattle gun + generator

My question would be, are the battery powered rattle guns any good? I'll be using it to work on cars and farm machinery, anything from removing wheel nuts to stripping drive trains/suspension/engines and I'm not sure if the electric option will have the power to do this.

Any input would be appreciated :)

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TerribleOne Enthusiast

TerribleOne

Posted
Posted (edited)

I've got a Snap On cordless gun and its the best thing I've ever bought. Blows my old Snap On air powered gun out of the water!

I can use it at work for 2 days (alot of use) without having to change the battery.

Comes at a huge cost though...around $950 will get you a gun with 2 batteries and a charger. I've had this one for about 18 months and it's not showing any signs of slowing down.

It's got over 800nm of torque, the only 1/2" gun I've got that will undo a Honda balancer!

Edited by TerribleOne
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Priestley Rising Star

Priestley

Posted
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Posted

Battery powered is sounding good so far. Not having to cart a compressor around is a plus and if I could get 2 days out of it I probably wouldn't need a generator.

$950 isn't too bad. I've been looking at the Dewalt for about $600, have to check out the snap on.

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Mase Mentor

Mase

Posted
Posted (edited)

I'd be careful with the Dewalt one.

I've got a Hitachi 18V 3amp impact driver with the 1/2" fitting on it. It's great for your general nuts and bolts but anything really tight it struggles with and isn't really designed for it. I usually just crack the tight ones with the breaker bar, then use the impact driver afterwards. It can crack about 75% of the work I do on the car though. It did smash all the gearbox bolts on the bellhousing with ease and lasts a couple of days work so I can't really complain.

You'd be better off spending the extra money on the snap on one that is designed to do the job properly.

EDIT: Just saw the DeWalt has a bit more torque than the Hitachi one so you should be right.

Edited by Mase
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Duncan Grand Master

Duncan

Posted
Posted

The good ones are excellent. Battery life with regular use is pretty shithouse in my experience (think 1 or 2 sets of wheels then the torque starts to drop off)

but they are very flexible and convenient for occasional use. Wish I had the coin for one :P

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TKR Community Regular

TKR

Posted
Posted

yeh ill go with the snap-on cordless pricey but the power of it is nearly - to near same as the air ones well worth the buy i feel...

carefull tho some of the cheaper ones are powerless and really waste of time

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mxfly Veteran

mxfly

Posted
Posted

I use an air at work and i have a DeWalt at home. Although the work one has multiple torque/speed settings, I find the DeWalt do just as good a job as the work one, and you have a bonus of being portable. Sure the batteries dont last a long time, but I bought a kit that came with 2 batteries so one is on standby all the time. If you buy the DeWalt, make sure you get the heavy duty batteries.

And 600 bucks is a great buy considering I paid 800 a few years ago.

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  • 2 weeks later...
BezerkR32 Veteran

BezerkR32

Posted
Posted

x2

I've got a Snap On cordless gun and its the best thing I've ever bought. Blows my old Snap On air powered gun out of the water!

I can use it at work for 2 days (alot of use) without having to change the battery.

Comes at a huge cost though...around $950 will get you a gun with 2 batteries and a charger. I've had this one for about 18 months and it's not showing any signs of slowing down.

It's got over 800nm of torque, the only 1/2" gun I've got that will undo a Honda balancer!

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Swiper the Fox Grand Master

Swiper the Fox

Posted
Posted
I've got a Snap On cordless gun and its the best thing I've ever bought. Blows my old Snap On air powered gun out of the water!

I can use it at work for 2 days (alot of use) without having to change the battery.

Comes at a huge cost though...around $950 will get you a gun with 2 batteries and a charger. I've had this one for about 18 months and it's not showing any signs of slowing down.

It's got over 800nm of torque, the only 1/2" gun I've got that will undo a Honda balancer!

x3 its the only thing for quick engine stripdowns and that pesky balancer bolt

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GTR-N1 Grand Master

GTR-N1

Posted
Posted
I've got a Snap On cordless gun and its the best thing I've ever bought. Blows my old Snap On air powered gun out of the water!

I can use it at work for 2 days (alot of use) without having to change the battery.

Comes at a huge cost though...around $950 will get you a gun with 2 batteries and a charger. I've had this one for about 18 months and it's not showing any signs of slowing down.

It's got over 800nm of torque, the only 1/2" gun I've got that will undo a Honda balancer!

Replacement Wty too.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Duncan Grand Master

Duncan

Posted
Posted

so can anyone recommend a brand other than snap on that has been worth buying? I really don't want strap on gear in the garage in case people get the wrong impression

(ie I am a fool who pays for a brand name even if there are better tools at a cheaper price)

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BARCODE Contributor

BARCODE

Posted
Posted
so can anyone recommend a brand other than snap on that has been worth buying? I really don't want strap on gear in the garage in case people get the wrong impression

(ie I am a fool who pays for a brand name even if there are better tools at a cheaper price)

The Dewalt is very good for around $600.Had mine for over a year and can't fault it.Around 400nm with a full battery

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Victory Mentor

Victory

Posted
Posted

I recently went through the process of purchasing a cordless impact wrench and finally settled on a Makita BTW450 18 v unit.

These have comparable or better power to the "Snap On" units and the batteries are compatable with the full range of Makita cordless products. The only issue is that they are not imported by Makita Australia and are either sourced from NZ or USA.

Here is a link to one of these on ebay (I purchased mine on ebay from NZ) -

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Makita-BTW450-18v-L...=item4a9ca0815e

What will it cost?

Impact wrench ~$300

Batteries ~$100 each

Charger ~$150

Total around $750 plus delivery for each component

These units have heaps of power and once you have the charger and batteries Makita also make some good drills, angle grinders, nibblers, etc that use the same batteries.

These do everything that the "Snap On" units do but with the new Lithium battery technology. They use a very intellegent charger with a built in fan to keep the battery cool while charging and the ability to communicate with the chip in the battery and vary the charge rate depending on what the battery needs.

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Priestley Rising Star

Priestley

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
I recently went through the process of purchasing a cordless impact wrench and finally settled on a Makita BTW450 18 v unit.

These have comparable or better power to the "Snap On" units and the batteries are compatable with the full range of Makita cordless products. The only issue is that they are not imported by Makita Australia and are either sourced from NZ or USA.

Here is a link to one of these on ebay (I purchased mine on ebay from NZ) -

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Makita-BTW450-18v-L...=item4a9ca0815e

What will it cost?

Impact wrench ~$300

Batteries ~$100 each

Charger ~$150

Total around $750 plus delivery for each component

These units have heaps of power and once you have the charger and batteries Makita also make some good drills, angle grinders, nibblers, etc that use the same batteries.

These do everything that the "Snap On" units do but with the new Lithium battery technology. They use a very intellegent charger with a built in fan to keep the battery cool while charging and the ability to communicate with the chip in the battery and vary the charge rate depending on what the battery needs.

Thats interesting. I had a look at the Makita but wasn't sure about the quality.

A group buy could be worth looking in to: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/7-MAKITA-18-VOLT-BT...#ht_1143wt_1165

Works out at around $228 for the unit (no battery or accessories).

Edited by Priestley
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aleks Community Regular

aleks

Posted
Posted (edited)

I paid $880 for a Snap on with two batteries three weeks ago, wish I bough it earlier. Ni-cad batteries though, need lithium ion. But they charge pretty quick.

You could probably get away with an electric gun with an inverter instead of having to lug around a generator/compressor.

Edited by aleks
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