Amazon, which never seems to have any noteworthy tool deals anymore, finally has a great Dewalt tool deal.
At the time of this posting, they have a “limited time deal” on the Dewalt DCF845D1E1 impact driver kit. It’s on sale for $145.
The Dewalt 20V Max XR brushless motor impact, DCF845, is a compact and speed model with multiple speed (and thus torque) settings. It’s kitted with a compact 2Ah battery, compact PowerStack pouch cell battery, charger, and tool bag.
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Deal Analysis
Dewalt’s single speed range impact, DCF840, is typically kitted with a 2Ah battery and charger and is promo-priced during holiday seasons for $99. It’s not on sale right now, but that’s going to be our baseline for deal analysis purposes.
For $46 more, you get an upgrade from the single speed DCF840 to the XR series multi-speed DCF845, and a second battery pack – a compact pouch cell PowerStack battery.
$145 seems to be a great price for this DCF845D1E1 impact driver kit.
Here’s a comparison chart featuring all of Dewalt’s current model impact drivers:
| Dewalt 20V Max Brushless Impact Drivers | |
|---|---|
| DCF860 | 2500 in-lbs 3800 RPM |
| DCF850 (Atomic) | 1825 in-lbs 3250 RPM |
| DCF845 (XR) | 1825 in-lbs 3400 RPM |
| DCF840 | 1700 in-lbs 3200 RPM |
| DCF887 (XR) | 1825 in-lbs 3250 RPM |
| DCF809 (Atomic) | 1700 in-lbs 3200 RPM |
| DCF787 | 1500 in-lbs 2800 RPM |
The DCF845 isn’t Dewalt’s best model, but it delivers close to the top performance in a relatively compact package.
Price-wise, Acme Tools has the same kit for $169, which they call a “hot deal.” Home Depot also has it at the “special buy” price of $169.
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If you’re not sold on the DCF845, Home Depot occasionally has good deal prices on the Dewalt DCF850 Atomic series impact driver, where it’s bundled with a single PowerStack battery and charger for $149. At this time, Home Depot’s best deal on the DCF850 is a kit with a 5Ah battery for $169.
Lowe’s and other retailers have the tool-only DCF845B for $149 right now.
Thus, I think $145 for the Dewalt DCF845D1E1 XR brushless impact driver kit with 2 batteries is a great buy.
$169 seems like a fair deal price already, and with Amazon’s pricing, you save another $24.
Would you recommend a different impact driver kit at similar pricing? What about a different impact kit at any price?
I feel that the DCF845 is a good choice in general. This isn’t one of Dewalt’s many holiday season promos where you get a stripped-down tool with the cheapest battery for $99.
MM
This kit is a good value, mainly because of the powerstack battery.
In my opinion impact drivers have had plenty adequate power for several years now. I value quality of life improvements much more than I do power for this tool. If I had to go buy a new one today I’d be picking between the Dewalt hydraulic model (DCF870), or the Flex quick-eject, and I’d be doing a certain amount of grumbling either way. The 870 is nice and quiet but no trigger ejection. The Flex has the trigger eject but that means a whole new battery system….
I serviced my DCF895 two weeks ago, taking apart, cleaning it, and repacking with fresh grease. I hope to get a lot more life out of it as I really don’t want to be buying a new impact driver right now.
Robert
Why is Dewalt packaging the old compact 2 AH battery anymore? Unless they are clearing out old stock.
Stuart
Cost? I’d say the PowerStack battery makes this a more premium package, while the 2Ah battery gives you a spare (or longer runtime) without driving up the cost.
Most tool users want the lowest price possible, and this seems to be the compromise Dewalt came up with.
Ted
Does it being sold directly by the DeWalt store on Amazon mean we’re definitely not going to get caught with an Amazon counterfeit?
Amazon has a binning problem where they group everything with the same SKU in one bin regardless of where it came from…this results in a lot of their batteries especially being counterfeits.
I don’t know of buying from the DeWalt store on Amazon resolves any of that, but unless it’s a unique SKU, I’m not sure how they’d stop it given their inventory practices.
Stuart
At the time of this post, it’s sold and shipped directly by Amazon.
Even for a retailer that sources exclusively from Dewalt, there are too few checks to stop people from buying legit products and returning counterfeits in their place.
Sometimes people “rent” tools via buy-use-return practices. Others
buy and swap batteries or tools.
In general, buying online has become a gamble.
Buying direct from Amazon *should* be secure. I’ve read that some companies work closely with Amazon to avoid commingling of inventory, but can’t find official confirmation of this.
I’ve seen a lot of complaints about counterfeit batteries, but not full kits.
Scott K
If it’s being shipped by Amazon, there’s a chance what you’re getting isn’t what you expect because it could be coming from a warehouse with poor quality control. The “Sold By” matters most for return and warranty purposes.
I’ve had some issues with Anker products sold by the brand but fulfilled by Amazon – I view his as an Amazon issue because what I received (more than once) was clearly different than what was ordered.
Dave
I recently figured out that “Visit the XYZ Brand Store” is a red herring. All it is is a Amazon landing page for brand products, not necessarily sold direct by the brand. The seller is the one under the buy now button.
Nathan
Get a picture of an impact driver in a box
Ok so on the chart where is the hydraulic one. Isn’t it like 650 in lbs and 3000 rpm? If it has 3 speeds I might get one
Otherwise I agree for a power driver this is a good deal. Would like to see a drill driver kit that uses something like this. The 3 speed is key imo. I run both an 887 and an 895
Stuart
It was on the news last week that someone bought a no-name drill kit from an online marketplace, and all they got was a piece of paper with a picture on it. This can happen on ebay as well.
The hydraulic one isn’t on the chart – and won’t be – because it takes too much explaining why the specs are vastly different.
eddiesky
Dewalt must have a tonne of overstock of cheap tool bags. Why not containers to go with promoting DXL or Tough System 2.0 /TSTAK? Right?
Stuart
No.
MM
For some reason Dewalt often packages their kits in TSTAK boxes for the European market though they don’t seem to do that in the USA.
Years ago they did provide black plastic boxes for many of their tools and kits in the USA though they were not part of Toughsystem, TSTAK, etc. I think a handful of tools might still include those but they seem to have switched to the bags instead for most things.
Stuart
I’ve seen more delicate equipment, such as the pricier laser levels, kitted inside Tstak tool boxes, and the newer plumbing and electrical specialty tools are kitted inside ToughSystem tool boxes.
will
I’ll take those bags over those old molded garbage boxes they used to use. Though the tstak that Europe gets would be great. Europe seems to always get the better end when it comes to electronics. They forced USB-C, 2 year warranties as standard and they forced dewalt to label all 18v as 18v. Though oddly enough 12v is fine even though it’s really 10.8v I believe.
Oarman
The Metabo HPT Triple Hammer BOLT has comparable specs, comes in a 2×2.0ah battery kit with a hard case, and I think is just a nicer tool. Amazon’s been floating it around the $130s for a while so it arguably wins by the numbers. But a lot more people are already in Team Yellow’s battery system and for good reasons.
JR Ramos
“…never seems to have any noteworthy tool deals anymore”
Wut?
I don’t know what your focus is or what you may mean by “tool” but there are frequently excellent deals, still. I’ve posted a couple times about some Bosch 18V tools and that’a frequent theme (sometimes better than waiting for a free battery deal at Lowe’s, sometimes not). Some days ago I noted that the leaf blower was on sale for $149 (since expired…but that was with Amazon as seller, so not some dicey third party vendor). Recently I got some great scores on Starrett, Insize, Morse, DeWalt, and Diablo items, far below normal sale prices let alone retail norm pricing. But on the flip side, the inflation at Amazon is really showing again lately, too, with many items seeing 20%+ price increases compared to just last summer (not a tariff thing I don’t think)…many things seem nearly double what they can be bought for locally, too, above MSRP where that applies, and seemingly not commensurate with the various Amazon tack-on fees for FBA or fast convenience, etc. But heck yes there are still a ton of great deals that show up literally all the time.
Side note, I notice over the last few weeks that many of the Powerstack batteries are seeing very low sale prices, and some of the Milwaukee models as well. Makes me wonder if they’re clearing stock for some reason, like new models (or in DeWalt’s case maybe just the labeling changes). Waiting for a good deal on that new 3.5Ah Powerstack but those certainly haven’t seen sales prices yet that I’m aware of.
Big Richard
The best deal on the 3.5Ah PS batteries I have seen was Acme’s 48hr DeWalt flash sale last week, where they had 20% off batteries. But at $135 a pop or $200 a 2pk, it’s still a lot.
But the size:power:runtime ratio looks absolutely mint. It makes more sense than the 5Ah PS, more in the spirit of the OG 1.7Ah PS, where it just punches well above it’s weight class.
MM
I was tempted to buy a couple as I think they will be a very handy size but I am not really wanting for batteries right now so I figured I’d hold off for a better deal.
JR Ramos
I missed that one but I would have bitten on it. I almost ordered one with their 14% valentine’s deal but figured it wasn’t that good. I think it’ll be a great size/output for the little 3″ cutoff saw. The 1.5Ah isn’t half bad on that tool and will deliver the juice nicely but the 3.5Ah seems perfect for it.
Stuart
Amazon’s tool deals section is usually my starting point, and I’ll also look at their industrial section.
I can sometimes find decent random tool deals via my search script (although the results have gotten very inaccurate over the years) – https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/amazon-coupons-deals/%3C/a%3E – but those usually involve extremely limited inventory, and so they’re not fit to post about.
Are you talking about products sold and shipped by Amazon, or 3rd party listings fulfilled by Amazon? I avoid posting about a lot of 3rd party tool deals for different reasons. Because of Amazon’s dynamic pricing and unpredictability, it takes a lot for me to consider a deal to be post-worthy. This one made the cut because it seemed to offer appreciable savings and appeared to be a stable promotion that wasn’t likely to sell out or end 30 minutes after the post went live.
I don’t know what’s going on with battery prices right now. Retailers might still be shedding holiday season inventory, and 3rd party sellers are offloading all of the batteries they bought from Home Depot and other retailers over the holiday season.
JR Ramos
Their search and algorithms are just a total mess now. I don’t even look at those category sections, just come across the deals when browsing or searching for particular things. I’ve had them generally with Amazon as the shipper…sometimes as seller but sometimes third party, too (I most often avoid the latter on there). Last year I picked up a handful of excellent Makita router bits on there for $11 to $18 each (their bits, made in Israel like most of Whiteside’s, seem to always run way higher than they should, in the $45-$80 range, poor value compared to others). Those were sold and shipped by Amazon, who knows how they ended up at those prices…my guess is a vendor that bailed or was penalized and lost their stock for some reason (that’s ugly, but it happens a lot and people get screwed pretty badly sometimes).
About a year ago I noticed that search and pricing on Amazon just went really wonky. Now, even if I do the most simple accurate search for something, say with the brand and model number, and I *know* they sell it, it may or may not show up in the search results at all. They make it exceptionally hard to search by brand now, too…soooo much paid placement and what seems like an earnest effort to push all the random china brands (not even the bigger established china brands lately…).
I think Milwaukee may be making room for some new offerings. M12 Forge battery is for sure on the way, possibly by this year’s holiday season but we’ll see if what transpires. I couldn’t get the skinny on whether it’ll be pouch or tabless, though. They’d probably like to get rid of as many M18 5Ah packs as they can, too, and be rid of that dog. It’s good to see the prices drop and stay dropped, though…such a racket.
Stuart
My Whiteside bits were made in USA.
It was in the news recently that Amazon will start listing products they don’t sell, at least on the app. So… that’s going to be fun.
I haven’t heard anything about M12 Forge batteries. Neither pouch nor 21700 tabless cells work well with their current form factor.
M18 5Ah might be around for a while. Maybe there will be a pouch or tabless cell 4Ah battery. I’m not sure what their ideal battery lineup might look like, and whether it would include the 5Ah.
JR Ramos
Your bits are probably older then. It’s been some years now since Whiteside started offshoring the majority of their bits…..not positive but I’d assume they still have some US made as well. I think it’s probably been at least 4-5 years since they started doing that, and retailers had to begin covering pouches with new labels because Whiteside failed to note the change (and/or discard old packaging after the change). As I have had to get replacements for older bits I noticed the COO. I think Amana has theirs done in Israel as well. The Whiteside in particular seem just as high quality as the old US bits for the most part. Bearings have sure gone to pot, though.
M12 Forge is a’comin’…..hopefully that “this year” thing pans out but I’m not holding my breath and two years wouldn’t surprise me. Unless that 18650 tabless thing was actually created then I’d assume pouch…totally plausible with minimum engineering fuss.
Stuart
Looking at my order history, it’s been a few years since I bought my last Whiteside bits or sets, and so I must have missed the COO change. I’m sure there’s also some new old stock out there.
MM
@JR Ramos
Amana definitely makes at least some of their bits in Israel, I just received a couple yesterday and they were both marked as such.
Big Richard
“I haven’t heard anything about M12 Forge batteries. Neither pouch nor 21700 tabless cells work well with their current form factor.”
It would not be a pouch or 21700. The Ampace JP30 (tabless 18650) is likely the cell that an upcoming M12 Forge would use in a 3.0 and 6.0 flavor. It offers 20% more capacity and about 40% more power than the Samsung 25S used in the 2.5 and 5.0 HO batteries. Considering they use the larger Ampace JP40s in the 8.0 and 12.0 Forge, it would be the logical choice.
While power is not the most critical thing in 12v class tools, the advantages of tabless go beyond that and offer faster charging and longer lifespan. For a tradesman, being able to charge a 6.0 M12 in 25 minutes is a good sell.
We will see if it ever comes to fruition, plans can and do change.
MM
21700’s don’t play nice with the M12 battery form factor, but they can be made to fit. About a month ago Torque Test Channel demonstrated a homemade 3-cell 21700 M12 pack using EVE 40PL’s. It was the same size as the 6-cell M12 packs yet capable of much higher discharge rate.
Big Richard
@MM I did see that, but considering they would be the same size I’d take a six cell 6.0Ah pack made of EVE 30PLs (also tabless 18650s like the Ampace JP30s I mentioned above) over a three cell 4.0Ah pack made of EVE 40PLs. They would have similar discharge rates of 72A and 70A, respectively.
The tabless 18650s are still very new, but I think we will see them soon enough.
fred
I have 96 Amana items. Israel is the COO of 52 items with purchase dates starting in 2010. Thirty-one of the 96 – were USA-made but all in 2009 or earlier. The only Amana item that I have made in China is a saw blade bought in 2020. Germany was the source for 8 bushings bought in 2022, Italy for 3 boring bits bought in 2023 – and Taiwan rounds out my Amana inventory with 1 boring bit also bought in 2023. I also have 10 tools from Timberline (an Amana brand) that were all made in Israel.
I have 76 items from Whiteside – all USA-made – but all purchased from 2005 through 2016
Looking at my tool inventory – the oldest ones made in Israel were router bits with the Black&Decker brand dating from the 1980’s. or early 1990’s I also own 4 Bosch router bits made in Israel and purchased from 2009 to 2015.
JR Ramos
Fred…you have a lot of router bits!!!! That’s interesting about the 80s/90s BD bits being made in Israel. I don’t think I’d ever heard Israel-anything until the early 2000s. I think back then I skipped BD router bits in favor of Vermont American, who I think at that time was still all US made bits, and some Porter Cable.
Richard, that was a fast pivot by Ampace to bring out the 18650! I’ll have to go read about that and see if anybody has been torture testing. Do you happen to know what material they’re using for the anode? There’s been a lot of…innovation/experimentation…with anode material over the last few years but unfortunately many of them offer the same debilitating advantage-disadvantage tradeoffs that we have always dealt with, some more than others. Being able to reduce resistance is great but if we allow that to really dump the juice and the cell can’t do that in a healthy way for the long term then we see early capacity loss (kind of like what Milwaukee was doing to the 30Q and HG2 cells…they could deliver but it was painful for them to do so). I don’t think tabless construction on its own can solve that problem, and for what power tools can ask of a cell, it’s more important with 18650 than with 21700 or larger.
I only have three…wait, five…Amana bits. They’re great quality. I got two of their micro 1/8″ shaft bits for dremel use and I’ll be darned those are great to have at times. The Bosch I have are old US or newer China (and their China bits are actually excellent…maybe dull just a tad earlier in hardwoods but I’d put them as a near-top quality bit…unlike the majority of China router bits I have seen or had the displeasure of using).
For the M12 form factor…I’d be happy with a six-cell 21700 if they’d make one. Leave the stem empty or cram a board and bigger wires/contacts in there, and the shell would only grow a little bit in size. The homemade one on TTC was interesting and I’ll bet if they were able to make it more professionally it might have performed better (then again, it was only a 3S1P pack…). The stem is an achilles heel but it doesn’t necessarily have to be filled or limit improved energy delivery. I’d really like to have something larger than 6Ah in an M12 pack, though, at least for a few tools that like all the power but would also benefit from more capacity….not sure a Forge will deliver that but it would still be a likely improvement for some tools.
Big Richard
Lowes has this same kit with a “free” 8Ah DCB208 battery for $219. So for an extra $74 you get an additional 8Ah of juice. That’s $9.25/Ah, below many people’s $10/Ah threshold on what is considered a deal.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/DEWALT-20-volt-Max-1-4-in-Brushless-Cordless-Impact-Driver-2-Batteries-Included-Charger-Included-and-Soft-Bag-included/5014291475?idProductFound=false&idExtracted=true
Tom
I prefer the DCF 850 over the DCF845 because its length is 1.2” shorter (3.94” vs 5.15”) – great for those tight spaces (rare, but nice when you need it).
Bob
It’s like pulling teeth to get the AH rating on Power Stack batteries, you have to read the fine print. I guess that’s because the power doesn’t stack up to the price. Really, pouch batteries are cheaper to manufacture than traditional batteries, so DeWalt takes us for chumps.
MM
The smallest ones are 1.7ah, which for some reason is not labeled clearly. The original 4ah lithium-ion batteries weren’t labeled either, they just said “XR” on them. I have no idea why Dewalt does this.
The larger Powerstacks–3.5ah and 5ah–are clearly labeled.
Stuart
Do you have a source to back this claim, or is that your opinion?
I think the amp-hour rating isn’t openly advertised because consumers tend to focus on numbers. 1.7Ah is less than 2Ah, and so less informed consumers will automatically assume the 2Ah battery is better.
JR Ramos
It’s an accurate statement. There are a lot of things that can go wrong in the prep and assembly of the jelly roll and canning in round cells (to say nothing of the precision that is necessary to ensure consistent characteristics and quality). Pouch cells are pretty simple with much less complex machinery and assembly methods. I have no idea about the raw material costs for the magic soup in each, probably similar overall (assuming quality manufacturers…but there’s a load of variety now (but…thankfully most of the low hanging fruit has benefited and improved greatly in the last several years, or exited the game, if not). I’m not positive but I think the machinery and supply chain for round cells is so well established and has driven prices down through economy of scale and competition that it probably has an advantage there (which is saying something, since pouch cells are not new by any means, and very widely used).
DeWalt’s marketing history has been shim-sham and trying to pull wool over eyes….please buy what we say and don’t ask us for technical specs or ask us to follow industry norms when it comes to those. Not to be overly harsh about it but they’ve done that for a long time and continue to do so, assuming/hoping that consumers aren’t as smart as they used to be (or as they used to think they were…haha). Milwaukee has sadly been following suit and that seems even more prevalent of late. I think you’re probably correct about the assumption that “more Ah is more better” as a common way of thinking….which of course was generally true when the landscape wasn’t as diverse.
Stuart
The pouch cells I’ve seen are custom made for specific battery sizes and performance profiles whereas cylindrical cells are mass manufactured and seemingly customer and application-agnostic.
Pouch cell battery pack assemblies are also going to be different and more complex. At the least, every brand I’ve spoken to referenced additional cell monitoring tech, given that soft cells can be more prone to expansion than hard shell cylindrical cells.
Some people inaccurately believe that the pouch cells in cordless power tool batteries are the same as those in smartphones.
The pouch cells in cordless power tool batteries could be cheaper than cylindrical cells, but unless there’s data or evidence to support this, it’s supposition or opinion, not fact.
JR Ramos
That’s common with pouches but just as common to use one of the hundreds of stock catalog items. Round cells are often customized as well, but the majors push hard to get customers to just use their stock cells – they will customize if there’s a good reason to and if the quantity will be big enough. Samsung and LG both did this willingly for awhile, as did Sanyo before they became Panasonic. Not sure about Sony but they never had much to offer (besides great cells). Yes, different aspects with the different tech…not a huge deal to engineer around…our power tool companies are just really slow to adopt and release but they could have done this years ago (just like finally getting on the 21700 bandwagon which took far longer than it should have, given the obvious and beneficial advantages that were clear from the get go).
Good luck finding those hard facts that you want regarding cost. Heck, can’t even track down reliable statements on gross margins for a category. 🙂 In the big big world of actual manufacturing and industry, those numbers are well hidden. Once in awhile some sales rep for some of the China manufacturers will reveal a tidbit that is very interesting or ties puzzle pieces together and will apply to the supply chain and the majors, extrapolatingly. From what I know and all those pieces, round cells are likely a tad less expensive or it’s a close washout, generally. If you want custom then all that goes out the window even for large quantities.