Recommend a impact gun (battery)

[clarkey2010]

As above what would recommend?

Not looking to spend big money on one ie snap on etc as I couldn't justify the cost as it would only get used every so often

[mikey b]

I have had snap on can't beat them really but I have also used a dewalt 18volt one witch was pretty good some of the sealy ones ant to bad but try not to go for a nicad battery try to go for li ion battery one

[Toms306]

I'd recommend a mains one....batteries are crap in everything lol.

[toseland]

Str...er... Snapon.. second that..

get the halfinch drive tho

[zx_volcane]

cheap ebay jobbie will do for undoing stuff quickly - but the torque is crap and won't budge anything that is remotely tight. So usually need a breaker bar initially.

otherwise spend big bucks and get a proper job

[Danny2009]

Machine mart do a Clarke one for around £170 used one before and there pretty good depends what you want to spend

[nominous]

I must be missing the use case scenario for these things, tho I like toys so I'd love and excuse to buy one.

At home if I have something I wanna shift I use air tools. The impact gun is a lot smaller and easy to get into places.
If it's a tough nut then it's breaker bar time.

If I'm at the scrappy I use a breaker bar. Easier to carry.

Where are people using these?
£170 is more than the cost of an impact gun, air hose and a small compressor.
And the air can be used for many more things besides.

[Toms306]

I use a mains one, was under £50 when I bought it. Ideal for wheel bolts when you forget to crack them off lol. hub nuts, flywheel bolts, seized suspension/steering parts... Its not let me down so far.

[C2K]

Personally, I don't want the faff of air tools as they're not mobile and takes up valuable garage space, impact gun is great for large fasteners to be dispatched in seconds without having to chock/restrain and then crack/change tool etc. Made changing my brothers hdi hub a matter of minutes tbh rather than faffing about. Brilliant for stripping cars tbh.

I nearly bought the Clarke one but used my bonus to treat myself to a Snap-on CTU6850.

[darrenjlobb]

I must admit im yet to see a battery gun that particularly impresses me, and ive personally used a snap on one..Yes, for what they are there great...And i guess certainly serve a purpose / will un do most stuff.

But from my experience you cant beat a proper air one of decent brand (ingersol / snap on etc)..they just tear things apart (literally sometimes!) Do appreciate that not everyone has an air setup,so obviously depends.

I suppose for a portable tool, there good, but imo if you end up having to get the breaker bar out anyway, its not worth the money for me personally.

[Frosty]

I bought the snap on 1 off Mikey b when he sold it back along. Really glad i got it as i highly rate it and with the battery at full charge there isn't much that it wont touch. They are pricey though but i would say its better to buy a 2nd hand decent brand like a snap on 1 rather than a brand new cheap 1

[Danny2009]

Air gun wins hands down depends how often and where you will use

If it's just for home air line would be my choice but you need a good compressor to run it or you've got no chance and a decent size compressor isn't cheap

[Dum-Dum]

I got my clarke 24v one with 2 batteries and a fast charger in a case with a couple of sockets brand new off ebay for about £90 and its one of the most useful things I've ever bought.

[clarkey2010]

Cheers for all of the replies, air would be nice but simply don't have the space just yet for a compressor

[pugmanxud]

Look at the ryobi one+ lithium ones. mines great, will do 4 sets of wheels on and off before needing a charge. Being lithium it odesn't lose power slowly gives full power till last then cuts out. It undid my crank pulley when my air one wouldnt

[Niall]

I must admit im yet to see a battery gun that particularly impresses me, and ive personally used a snap on one..Yes, for what they are there great...And i guess certainly serve a purpose / will un do most stuff.

But from my experience you cant beat a proper air one of decent brand (ingersol / snap on etc)..they just tear things apart (literally sometimes!) Do appreciate that not everyone has an air setup,so obviously depends.

I suppose for a portable tool, there good, but imo if you end up having to get the breaker bar out anyway, its not worth the money for me personally.

Agreed with that. The snap on ones are probably the best battery one I've used but still not as good as an air one.
IMO, go for mains unless your going to spend money on a decent battery one like a snap on. The cheaper battery ones are as much use as a chocolate fire guard.

Oh and ingersol Randd make Snap on air tools

[HDi--Power]

http://www.ingersollrandproducts.com/am-...-impactool
1100 lbs/ft of torque for removing nuts, you wont find many 1/2 inch better than this beast, every bit as good as my air I/R

[welshpug]

second hand snapon ftw, you'll find yourself using it more than you realise.

[powerandtorque]

If you don't need it to be portable and have nearby mains power, for the money I really don't think that you can go far wrong with the Clarke CEW-1000 mains powered impact gun.

It's a little bulky and it's obviously limited to being used where you can get mains power (so no good at the scrappy for example) but it's a bargain frankly if you buy it on one of Machine Marts VAT free days (little over £50 I think I paid) and it's very effective, far more so than most battery powered variants that I've tried - and of course, doesn't run out of power half way through a job!

Mine's happily cracked off hub nuts, crank pulley bolts etc without issue even when I've snapped the end off my breaker bar trying to undo them without success.

I did have the Clarke CIR450 high power battery impact gun but the battery (literally!) exploded on the 2nd or 3rd charge and I was fairly lucky it didn't burn my house down when it went. I haven't heard of other cases of this and certainly it was replaced with a new kit without question, but something to keep in mind.

Also, despite the on paper spec, it didn't seem any more powerful than the lower power one Clarke do (the same one Dum-Dum mentions above I think) and certainly it's well down on grunt compared to the mains one that I have now.

[daddyfixit]

rechargeable snap on 1/2" drive would be first choice, expensive but does the job without falling to bits, and has the advantage of not being tied to an airline ? I have GIVEN 1/2" drive airguns to people to use and they are still in their boxes unused --as they preferred the snap-on ones !
I also won a 3/8" drive impact gun/drill/torch set in a magazine competition; great for getting in tight places, but wont undo wheel nuts----but great for re-assembling due to being so compact.
when things are gorilla-tight, the red snap-on 1/2" airgun gets used....never fails.

[Tom]

Also worth thinking of what you want to use it for, i imagine Chris's 24v badboy is probably quite heavy and unweildy to be using alot, i used a little 14v snap on one and was really impressed with it, then when i had a go with the 18v i thought christ i wouldnt want to be waving this around all day! inb4giggidy...

[welshpug]

18v snapon one isn't that heavy, the good ones always are heavier though, just man up.

[Dum-Dum]

My 24v thing isnt big or unwieldy although its not small. Its a nice size/weight and will undo up to about 100lb/ft tight stuff but not alot more however thats enough for pretty much everything on the car as long as it hasn't been over tightened.

It'll get in and do most suspension components like top mounts and pinch bolts so its dead useful. Alot fo the time I use it more for speed than force.