Dewalt has announced a new DCF870 20V Max cordless quiet hydraulic impact driver.
This will be Dewalt’s quietest cordless impact driver, and is said to be “the industry’s highest rated max torque hydraulic impact driver designed for noise-sensitive environments.”
Dewalt says that it can deliver up to 57% quieter operation.
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Dewalt also says that the new DCF870 oil impact driver “delivers up to 40% faster driving with consistent performance in demanding applications and cold temperatures.”
It has a built-in worklight with 9 LEDs, and a 20-minute worklight mode for lighting up dark spaces in a pinch.
Dewalt’s going after the Milwaukee M18 Fuel Surge, saying that their new DCF870 oil impact delivers:
Up to 195% Faster Driving (3″ x 3/8″ lag bolt into PT 4×4 using DCBP034 vs. Milwaukee 2760 using 48-11-1820)
Up to 250% Faster Driving 5 Lags (Total driving time of 5 consecutive 3″x 3/8″ lag bolts into PT 4×4 using DCBP034 vs. Milwaukee 2760 and 48-11-1820)
The 20V Max DCF870 will be available in tool-only format, DCF870B, and also in a kit with compact PowerStack battery and charger, DCF870E1.
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Specifications
- 1/4″ hex bit chuck
- Max torque is TBA
- 0-1100, 0-3000 RPM Speed ranges
- 3 modes – low speed, high speed, worklight (20 min auto shutoff)
When in the 20-minute worklight mode, the speed is the same as the high speed setting.
Price: TBA
ETA: Fall 2024
Discussion
I am all for a quieter impact driver!
Oil impact drivers have a different performance characteristic compared to traditional impacts, and so it will be very interesting to see how the new DCF870 compares with Dewalt’s also-new DCF860 impact driver.
The DCF870 is part of Dewalt’s 20V Max lineup and has been given XR branding, denoting that it has a brushless motor and premium features.
Dewalt points out on their product page that the new DCF870 impact bests the Milwaukee M18 Fuel Surge, which launched almost exactly 8 years ago.
It’s great to once again see some competition in this space!
J.C.
I don’t know what took them so long to bring this out but I’m glad that they are doing so. This will hopefully be a nice option for people on the DeWalt platform. As Stuart said, competition is a good thing.
MM
My thoughts exactly.
I only wish it had a trigger bit release.
JR Ramos
I’m sure this will be a great driver – DeWalt has been doing great with them for awhile now. I do not like the comparison specs because they put their pouch cell up against the CP2.0 18650 cell. A more fair comparison would have been to use the HO CP3.0 battery. Maybe they did that because it’s what Milwaukee includes in their kit form. They’ve had a long time to study, emulate, and improve, so maybe it would still beat it out but I would imagine the battery would take a good chunk of the edge off. Meanwhile, Milwaukee needs to get back on the ball and take care of these engineering and/or QC issues that have been causing so many failures lately.
Stuart
In the past, Milwaukee has told me that there’s no “XC benefit” for impact drivers due to the nature of their designs.
Users might see a difference in performance between the CP 2Ah and HO CP 3Ah or XC3/4/5 Ah batteries in the context of a cordless drill or maybe a circular saw. But for an impact, unless you’ve seen firsthand performance differences, the comparison seems reasonably fair to me.
They provide the exact tools and test conditions if anyone wants to doublecheck.
The “up to” qualification means that’s the max difference users can expect to see in testing. I think most users will take it with a grain of salt.
I think I still have a Surge sample. I’m more interested in testing the DCF870 against other impacts, but will likely see how the two oil impacts compare with different batteries.
JR Ramos
Using lag screws for comparision, there is certainly a difference. That’s a big load. Voltage drop and recovery…the core differences in these battery platforms, right? High drain like a circular saw kind of surpasses what these compact packs can be expected to deliver.
I know how DeWalt works…and we all (nowadays) can see that in the amount of asterisks and footnotes that litter their advertising. I mean it’s been some years now but they didn’t EVER want to admit to this shady tactic marketing until they were finally called out on it loudly enough…now the asterisks. Milwaukee joined suit as did most others eventually. I put DeWalt in about the same category as Harbor Freight sometimes with their attempts at wooing the uninformed buyers.
One thing that is GREAT is how just about all of these impacts today are so powerful and quick with great battery run time. Not at all one of my favorite or most used tools but I appreciate them a ton when needed and I’d pick up literally any brand to use without much worry about performance.
MM
In the case of an impact driver or impact wrench the maximum load the motor will encounter is the sum of the inertia of the hammer and the force it takes to overcome the spring. So, once the torque is enough to make the driver start “hammering” it does so with the exact same electrical load regardless of how large the fastener is. It’s not like a saw where the deeper the cut the higher the load on the motor. With an impact driver the load is always the same because it’s spinning the same size and weight hammer regardless of what fastener is attached to the anvil.
JR Ramos
Take a given battery and charge level….how many 2″ #8 screws can you drive until a voltage cutoff point and how many 1/4″ x 3″ lag screws can you drive until reaching the same voltage cutoff point? Let’s assume constant work instead of rest periods.
The load is not the same. Is it? Friction coefficient isn’t, so the load shouldn’t be.
And assuming solid material here (i.e. wood) rather than nut/bolt fasteners.
I’ll probably take them out to play with this but from memory, having used an impact wrench with bit adapter for driving emergency 4″ screws into posts, the action was very very different than an impact driver even though they use similar mechanisms. I don’t want to fool with the setup (don’t think my PS would be stout enough anyway) but it would be interesting to see the watt output start to finish with various fasteners on an impact driver.
JR Ramos
Pondering this more. If the load is actually the same, which I’m finding it hard to wrap my head around totally, the output asked from the battery definitely increased because more speed is necessary to drive these larger fasteners (wood). Take Milwaukee’s 1-2-3 modes, for instance, and on the lowest speed/lowest bpm setting of 1 it sometimes will not finish driving a 1/4″ lag, else it takes much much longer to get there. Bumping it up to higher speed/bpm gets the job done in a more reasonable manner but requires more juice. Can’t have that increased motor output for free.
JR Ramos
Tools Tested does some pretty good measuring – he did a simple static torque (nut/bolt) with impacts but he hasn’t yet done a dyno (not sure how to do that smartly with an impact driver, come to think of it). In his results the “better” batteries did show some rather insignificant increases in max torque for some models, but most were basically the same. The Milwaukee did show some more significance (….in this example with the DeWalt and my comment above) going up the range.
For the CP 2.0 vs. the HO 3.0 it’s only on the order of 3.5%, which is essentially meaningless, but the further gains using other batteries suggest that the batteries/juice are not irrelevant in the equation.
Time stamps for graph: M18 battery performance: https://youtu.be/gIodZ2l30h4?t=112
I think this is quite different than something like a lag into solid material, but maybe not. I didn’t catch it in the video but I assume he ran the tools on high/max settings.
MM
Larger or longer fasteners will require more hammer hits to drive so the process will take longer and will use more energy out of the battery because of the longer time. But if you were able to put an amp meter on the motor it should draw the same current whether it’s driving a #10 screw or a half-inch lag.
JR Ramos
Ok, there’s clearly something more going on here. Looking around at other data on Tools Tested it’s clear that the battery does indeed matter on these and it’s not speed setting. He had a screw driving test and looking at both DeWalt and Milwaukee results there are definitive differences in power (reduction in time, not insignificant) stepping up in the range of their respective battery options. I think that one was 12v tools. But that was same tool, same setting, same fasteners, solid material…only variable was the battery.
I emailed a contact I have in engineering with one of the tool companies (sorry, can’t say which) and hope to hear back from him to get his input. I get what you’re saying about the hammer mechanism itself but there’s just clearly more to the story. I don’t think all of these tools have a constant current boost/control circuit but the DeWalt and Milwaukee do, so maybe that’s a contributor. That would matter less on a nut/bolt scenario vs. solid material with increasing coefficient of friction…I think.
MM
@JR Ramos
There is one extra variable I can think of, which is how much torque the mechanism can transmit before it starts hammering. I just grabbed a 3″ #10 screw and drove it into a piece of scrap. The screw made it about 1 inch deep before my driver started impacting. During the time it wasn’t yet hammering the motor essentially was coupled to the screw directly. I then tested a 2.5″ long #6 screw. The driver sunk that down to the head without impacting even once. So, in the situation where the torque required to turn the fastener is below whatever it takes to overcome the hammer spring then the load is coupled to the motor.
FF
This is not true. Force will be transferred back to the motor
depending on the material being driven into. That will put additional loading onto the hammer, pawls, and ultimately the motor.
Craig
No sir , I have the surge and use it a lot. I can tell you there is no difference between batteries. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Tool Junkie
Kind of a dumb comparison to reference for DeWalt. The Surge was designed around setting screws lightly – like not overtorqing them into wood or metal, so of course DeWalt’s impact would drive a lag bolt better. Not designed for that. 8 years later?!
JR Ramos
Meh…marketing. They’ve always been that way with more-better-higher-max stuff. DeWalt is at least more accurate and worthy of it than Harbor Freight but it’s the same approach really and the same attention-grabbing points with hidden caveats.
Noe Garcia
what failures have been happening lately?
Jimmie
I wish Dewalt had offered this when I broke down and bought the 850. I’d gladly give up some torque for half the loudness.
Robert
Are there any downsides to the oil aspect of these oil impact drivers? Any maintenance needed because of the contained oil?
MFC
No, but my m18 surge died after a few months of normal use and I didn’t bother to take it apart (under warranty). That was actually one of the multiple reasons I left Milwaukee’s m18 lineup (still have a few tools like their press tool and lights).
Anyone else have issues with their surge?
Joellikestools
No issues with my m12, although it gets very light use. I had bought an m18 but didnt like thoe form so I gave it away.
fred
My M18 surge was purchased in 2017 and got a workout that year on a basement to attic house remodel and a barn/studio construction project. Since then, it’s been sitting in a tool bag on a shelf. I tend to use my m12 (non-surge) once in a while and my 2765-20 (7/16 hex) a lot more around the gardens.
So, no failures on my M18-surge – but not enough use to tell.
Derek
I’ve had an m12 surge for about a year now, no issues at all, love it. I use it everyday for work (electrician).
D. Sellers
I had purchased a new surge impact a couple years ago from Facebook marketplace, which included the box but no purchase receipt. during normal use it performed well until the bit got jammed and after dislodging the bit, the anvil no longer held anything. They still accepted the warranty claim being that the sn provided was still within their return, free of charge repair warranty.
During the wait time, I was still very impressed with the tool and since they can be had for less than $100 new on fbm, I bought another. No issues with either the refurbished or the new surge. As a intermediate Diy guy, I would recommend the M18 fuel surge impact driver.
The comparison between this DeWalt impact driver and the fuel surge is interesting but the test I’m most interested in seeing is the decibel level between the two tools to see which one is quieter, under their max load test.
Dennis
I have the M12 works great, no issues
Bought the M 18 was making noises after driving in timberlocks , returned it, got a new one . it seems the new one isn’t as fast or powerful as the old one . Going to send it back to Milwaukee
JR Ramos
No maintenance but as a data point I can say that I’ve seen a few photos of M12 that were leaking oil up front and had performance issues & weird noises. Pretty sure those were all M12. With as many as have probably been sold and put into real use, it would seem like a very small percentage and nobody is clamoring about bad tools for that reason.
Tucker
Might pick up one for work to see how it compares to the Atomic. Quieter would sure be nice.
Personally, I prefer the feel and form factor of the M12 Surge which I have at home vs the Dewalt, but I can see how people like the Atomic.
eddiesky
That photo is just .. .stupid. You don’t use Impact tools on steel door hinge screws. They are screws, needing screwgun/driver not impact. The hammering on stainless screws? Not all fasteners can take impacts.
Youtube influencers using impacts to build with screws… (shakes head).
And about Atomic, I love my 12Volt driver. Light. Compact. Lasts long. And built so many IKEA pieces (PZ2 bits a must!).
Aaron
I have the older brushed 1/4″ impact and that works decent, motor might be going out. Wonder if they’ll do this, if they haven’t already done this with the 1/2″ impacts.
MFC
I don’t want more power, I want better reliability. I’m not using my impact drivers to drive lags (I use my drill or an impact wrench). Impact drivers are made for little screws, that’s it. But because they are lightweight and easy on the wrists all of my guys use them for everything.
I would like to have an impact that was “weak” but wouldn’t die after a year of abuse. I guess we’ll see with this hydraulic driver.
Jared
I agree that top-line impact drivers from pretty much any brand are powerful enough. The 1/4″ hex is already the weakest link. At this point making more power might not make for a better tool.
But if you’re making all the power you need and more, it seems awful nice to do it a little quieter.
Noah
Maybe try a brand that has a lifetime warranty like rigid or metabo hpt’s triple hammer impact. I don’t know about the newer Makita impacts, but my father has his old 18v Makita impact from 10+ years ago and it’s got great control/comfort
MFC
The first time I picked up a makita, after using dewalt and milwaukee for years, I was shocked by how smooth it was.
Lance
I have the Makita oil impact driver and it’s FANTASTIC. Very smooth, very quiet, and WAY better control with smaller fasteners than a standard impact driver.
The only downside is if you’re using it repeatedly for a long time on large fasteners; it does heat up, and this causes the oil to thin a bit and it loses a bit of torque. This is only an issue on large fasteners though.
Hazen
I had the Ridgid impact drivers. Best I’ve ever owned. Faster, quieter, a s more powerful. I bought three. Last one just died after about 5 years of hard daily use. Took it apart and wires and other parts wore through from vibration. Can’t navigate the damn warranty process, seems a feature of their services, not a bug. Had success in the past, not now. Was thinking about switching over. This could be what gets me to.
Lyle
Wow, Ridgids warranty process was always easy for me. They even helped me register a tool that I forgot to register when I first bought it. All my pneumatic nailers are Ridgid as well as 4 shop vacs.
Big Richard
The early prototype model was rated at 50Nm (442 in-lbs), just under the Surge’s 450 in-lbs. The final production model is supposed to have 56Nm (495 in-lbs), which is still not a lot but that is 10% more than the Surge. Throw in the 1000 IPM advantage over the Surge (5000 vs 4000) all while in the ultra compact form factor, and this thing just might be all kinds of awesome.
Michael
I don’t even care about the specs in this case. Shut up and take my money already!
Sam
For the longest time I envied my coworkers’ surges when doing cabinetry installation, the noise when putting your head in a cabinet and fastening them to the wall gets old this is ideal for this type of work. Love my atomic but glad to have another option for work like that.
Farkleberry
As mentioned above, touting this driver’s ability to drive not even 1/4″, but 3/8″ lags is curious, if not suspect.
Now that compact 1/2″, or at least 3/8″ drive impact wrenches are nearly the same size as impact drivers, why not just use the far superior tool designed for the job?
Impact drivers have small hammers providing many light quick impacts, perfect for quickly sinking small screws without stripping, drifting off course or bending them.
Impact wrenches have larger hammers to provide the power to torque down bolts or drive bigger lags.
Hammering away on big, long lags with impact drivers is a great way to destroy your driver prematurely. At least this driver is less likely to vaporize the oil bathing the hammer/anvil than typical drivers, but the components are all sized for smaller loads.
Why not tout the speed advantage over the surge using something suitable, like deck screws?
JR Ramos
Why suspect? The M12 will do 1/4 lags without much trouble and it will do 3/8 lags if need be (I run that one on a 6.0 older battery, haven’t tried it on the teeny compacts). I’ve done a lot of lags into 2x and 4x material, dry and damp alike…gen 2 would do it but the newer gen 3 has seen more use from me over the last year. M18 will kill it all without issue and I’m sure this 18v DeWalt will as well even with the lower output of the hydraulic. Impact wrench is surely better suited if this is a regular thing. Ability is one thing…wisdom is another, I suppose.
Farkleberry
To each their own. $100-150+ for an impact wrench is not inconsequential, but neither is a new driver that wears prematurely.
I say suspect because oil filled are weaker as you pointed out, so even less suited to big fasteners. The weak/quiet tradeoff is most appreciated indoors where lags are rare.
I would like to hear how this tool is superior in the category’s wheel house, not some fringe scenario.
Is a Camaro faster than a Mustang offroad?
If I was just trying to get by, I’d probably just drill nice big pilot holes and run lags in with a drill. In fact, with the new kickback control drills, this is may be best practice (no splitting, broken bolts, etc) and similar in total time, especially for big, long lags. Obviously drilling all holes at once or having 2 drills is most efficient.
JR Ramos
I was just adding support to “ability” since that probably shouldn’t be in question and that was your first statement. I mean it’s great to be able to do that when necessary….take an average home gamer that might use it for normal screws but wants to put together a larger playground/treehouse setup or whatever…tool can do it, but no, you wouldn’t want to ask that of it for regular use. Same could be said for electricians really.
I’m sure TTC and Tools Tested will get their hands on it soon and provide some good numbers. (That said, their tests are fantastic and useful but don’t tell the whole story with some tools, like durability over the long haul.)
If it’s superior, ok. Whatever, right, as we sit at this point in time with the majority of impact drivers capable of doing everything we need, getting more compact, and making us happy (for cheap, if you want). I think “superior” at this point may be peaking and further gains may not be super useful but it sure is impressive what they have been able to develop and milk out of designs.
And probably most important to many is not the comparison between brands, but rather a significant improvement or step up within the brand they already own and use. The comparisons between brands are most helpful for brand new buyers or specialty tools.
fred
For landscape timber projects I’m often using 1/2-inch galvanized lags. Using my M18 7/16-hex impact driver – I drill clearance and pilot holes with 7/16 shank auger bits – then pop in a Proto hex-to-square adapter with a socket. I think the tool was designed for use by linemen for drilling and attaching hardware to telephone poles. For me it replaced (bought 10 years ago) carrying corded impact wrench, drill and a generator. Today’s market has more options for cordless drills and impact wrenches – but I still think that the various 7/16-hex drivers should have some appeal as well
Farkleberry
Never heard of this tool before.
I think this is an impact wrench not a driver though. At 750 ft lbs of torque, it’s a pretty stout one, and until recently, especially so for its size.
My limited experience drilling with an impact driver has been that’s it’s annoyingly loud and slow. Fine for a few small holes, per JR Ramos, though.
This tool seems to have an interesting quick chuck setup that would also be worth a drilling speed penalty to only have one 6 lb tool on your hip in the bucket 50′ up. They also mention some other linesman specialty bits available.
If you’re doing a deck a few feet off the ground, maybe use a 2-3 speed drill to pre drill everything off a template. Then change bits with standard chuck and sink lags if drill has a good side handle and/or kickback protection or an impact wrench.
For comparison both this tool and the new Milwaukee 1/2 impact both weigh 5.8-5.9 lbs, but the new one makes 1200-1600 ft/lbs.
I might guess it’s that much quicker for pretty much everything, but maybe not? Raw torque numbers do not correlate to speed when sinking deck screws with an impact driver for example.
Standard twist bits and 1/2 impact sockets, etc. are pretty ubiquitous. I try to steer clear of too much proprietary $tuff, that often pays off for specialized users. Having one tool to rule them all is appealing though.
MM
That 7/16 hex shank seem to have emerged as the step up from the 1/4in hex. It shows up on auger bits, self-feed bits, hole saws, bridge reamers, etc. There are other tools out there with the 7/16″ quick-change chucks like stud-and-joist drills and pneumatic impacts.
Farkleberry
I learn something new every day… or every 10 years:
https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/large-hex-impact-wrench-uses/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
JR Ramos
Aug 30, 2024
7/16″ hex predated 1/4″ if I’m not mistaken…it was around far before any cordless tools that could handle it existed. There was a larger size as well (9/16 or 5/8, can’t remember). Most of the big companies had various augers and bits for them: Lenox, Irwin, Starrett, Apex, Greenlee…not sure if Klein did but probably so. It was popular for hole saw arbors, too. I think it was most popular with linemen and electricians either in hoss electric drills or on impact wrenches with an adapter. For industrial assembly the 7/16″ wasn’t uncommon for screwdriving bits but I think 5/16 was probably used more.
The specialized 7/16″ drive sockets for linemen were outrageously expensive 30 years ago, probably still are, but they sure save a lot of time and get the jobs done better.
MM
@JR Ramos
I think you’re probably right that it’s an old standard but it seems to be trickling into more mainstream rather than being limited to things like linemen. I don’t know this for a fact but I suspect it was used in things like factory assembly as well. I bought a milling machine from a factory liquidation auction about 20 years ago. It came with, among other things, a bunch of specialty 7/16″ shank bits. Some were about 6″ long with clutch drive tips, the other was some huge cross-style tip I didn’t recognize but it wasn’t standard philips or pozi. There were many of each. They had nothing to do with the machine so I can only assume they originated elsewhere in the factory but got piled in with that lot.
I’m not sure where the standard originated but it seems to be more popular now that cordless tools are available with it. It used to be that you’d rarely see it outside specialty industrial tools, nowadays it’s common at Home Depot and Lowes.
JR Ramos
I think we do see it more now but with hole saws, extensions, and augers it seems like it’s always been around. I remember not long after I bought my prized DW100 3/8″ drill (one of the first few hundred made) I got a Starrett hole saw arbor to do a door lockset and was perturbed that the shank was too large for the drill chuck. Sold bunches of those arbors and never realized the one we carried was 7/16″. Ha. That would’ve been around 1994.
There were so many cross-derivatives…I think most of which were designed by Phillips. Torq-set was really popular in aviation, where the arms are just offset from center. I think the Reed & Prince was similar to Phillips but made to not cam out. Freisen and Mor-Torq. I think some of these were developed during or right after WWII in the heyday of big manufacturing but there was a flurry of development through the 60s and 70s too. I knew a couple of guys that I wish I could ask but they’ve both passed on now – both of them knew just about everything about everything and I learned so much from them. Both were workers and then became industry reps and I could always count on “the rest of the story” from them, because they lived it all as a working timeline.
fred
The introduction of new fastener drive styles does seem to have slowed down recently. Reed and Prince (Frearson) – a bit pointier drive bit tip than Phillips – was popular for a while – but seems to have waned. We got a lot of rework business on assemblies that were made in France – so B.N.A.E. cross point drives were de rigueur. Mor-Torq and Torq-Set drive fasteners were also pretty common in our work. The newest entrant that I know of is the Aster Recess – developed by LSI Aerospace.
Of course – in our remodeling and plumbing businesses – variants of Phillips, Pozidriv, Robertson and Torx were mostly what we encountered.
Wikipedia has a page on fastener drive styles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives
Farkleberry
I see what you’re saying now about using standard augers and presumably a 7/16 hex to 1/2 square adapter to use standard 1/2 impact sockets.
This tool apparently has some more linesman friendly features like extra long grip for use with thick insulating gloves and the Milwaukee branded 7/16 multi bit drivers are specific to the limited range of square drive utility pole fasteners, maybe they have more too?
Of interest to all users, bits just click in one handed, a la Makita impact drivers.
It’s power to weight ratio is a bit long in the tooth, understandable for it’s advanced age.
A $10 adapter to use standard impacts is trivial, though having extras would be prudent, as local replacement may be difficult.
I see the appeal of this tool and wonder if a less linesman specific, updated model is realistic for more carpentry uses, a la fred.
My questions are:
How fast this drills vs a powerful drill? Impacts would seem to be less efficient.
Does the impacting to tear up the hex auger shanks, the hex adapter shank and the chuck itself? The traditional square drive seems like it would be less prone to rounding corners than a hex shape.
Farkleberry
Hopefully this tool and other new oil filled impacts bring interest, competition, economy of scale, and further development to the category.
I remember hearing the Milwaukee is one of their infrequently updated tools.
Makita has one but it’s $240 bare, and not in stores.
Metabo HPT/Hikoki has had one overseas only, since maybe 2021.
Farkleberry
Impacts drivers are simply amazing for not stripping or breaking screws, but boy are they obnoxiously loud.
Maybe there’s a market for oil filled impact wrenches, etc., as well, despite their lower torque.
Joachim Osmundsen
I talked to a dewalt rep this summer, and he was not stoked about the driver, and didn’t recommend it over normal impacts.
JR Ramos
Interesting that he would give an opinion like that. Did he say why he didn’t like it?
Tfox
Did the majority here not realize DeWalt, Craftsman, and Milwaukee are all the same company now. Only real difference is price, the Milwaukee line is the “high end”, Craftsman the lower. Though hands down Milwaukee is the least reliable, but so offer more power
Stuart
You should really start fact-checking the stuff you read on the internet before you blithely repeat it. Craftsman and Dewalt are part of the same company. Milwaukee is part of a different company. Dewalt and Milwaukee are fierce competitors in a Coke vs Pepsi kind of way – I don’t see how anyone could think they’re part of the same company.
Nathan
Sorry but the load against the motor and this it’s current draw is not the same between a #10 3-1/2 screw and a lag screw unless the lag screa is also . 19in and 3.5 long. No it’s a . 24 or . 50 diameter lag screw with much more friction in the wood
.but outside of that also recognize that modern impactors are so much stronger today they rarely get slowed down .
But outside of that I find this comparison for a hydraulic device odd. You would t really use this outside driving lags or timber screws. It would do it sure. But I don’t think the primary market for it is running down that sort of hardware. #10s sure. Inside and quiet absolutely. Seems awfully strong. But I’m interested.
MM
It is true that a larger lag screw has more friction in the wood compared to a small one, but in an impact driver or impact wrench there is no direct coupling between the motor and the load therefore that fact doesn’t matter. The only thing that the motor is connected to inside an impact driver/wrench is the hammer that it spins and the hammer spring, and that is a constant load. If we were talking about a non-impacting mechanism, like a drill or a saw, then it would be true that a bigger or longer screw or cut would require more power to turn in order to overcome the additional friction. If we drive a #10 screw and a big lag screw with an impact driver the current the motor would draw would be the same, because it’s the same hammer that’s being spun up in both cases. However the lag screw would take more hits from the hammer to drive because of the additional friction so it would take longer time.
The reason why modern impact tools are more powerful than older ones is because they have a heavier hammer or they hit faster (more impacts per minute), sometimes both.
Rx9
I own both a regular impact and an oil pulse impact, and the regular one is basically gather dust while the oil pulse has become my workhorse. My wife can’t stand the clatter of the regular impact, and I find the oil pulse delivers a smooth, consistent and considerable amount of torque to the fasteners I’m driving.
It’s a shame it took sbd this long to get to market.
Clay
Wonder if they will make a 12v one?
I love my 12v Xtreme impact but would love a quieter one.
CMF
I have at least a dozen impact drivers, from various brands. The only hydraulic I have is the M18 Surge, and I love it.
For me, there is no downside, except, not really a negative, but care is needed. When working with delicate screws or anything where you do not want to overdrive the screw or bolt, the Surge can easily overdrive.
It may be listed with a lower torque, but unlike all my other impacts, where you can “feel” the tightening at the end, the Surge keeps going like screwing into butter. So care is needed.
But it works and feels great…and I am not a big Milwaukee fan, but they got this right.
Brian
Is this available yet? I’ve been scouring the internet and can’t find it but people seem to be commenting about it. Am I missing something?
Stuart
It was announced but not released yet.
Clay
Hopefully out in time for Black Friday deals….