Metabo HPT (formerly Hitachi) has an incredibly good deal going on right now on their 18V brushless drill and Triple Hammer impact driver combo kit (model KC18DBFL2CM).
This kit regularly retails for $249, which is considerably less than the Triple Hammer used to retail for by itself. The holiday season promo price is an aggressively-low $149.
A couple of readers wrote in or messaged me about this promo, and yes – it IS a very good deal.
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Update: Acme’s very limited time/supply $129 deal is now over, and they are accepting preorders for March 2022. The $149 promo is still available at Lowe’s.
Update 11/18: This will be a $129 Black Friday deal at Lowe’s, starting 11/25.
The cordless drill is very good, but the Triple Hammer impact driver is the star of the show. This continues to be my favorite impact driver, period. It’s hard to describe, but this is the smoothest-hitting impact driver I have ever tested, and I liked it so much that I bought one to give away so that I could keep the test sample for myself.
Additionally, this kit comes with 2x 3.0Ah batteries, which I’ve found to be pair very nicely with the impact, and they should pair well with the brushless drill/driver as well.
This is the BEST 18V cordless drill and impact driver kit option at the $149 price point, compared to other brands’ brushed motor or value-focused brushless offerings at the same price.
Yes, I know that many regular readers have enough cordless drills and impact drivers. But for those of you shopping for a new kit for yourself or others, this kit is better than all the competing $149 combo kits I’ve seen so far, AND it beats them on price as well.
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The kit is currently out of stock at Acme, with a 3-5 week shipping ETA. For anyone on the fence, I won’t tell you what to do, but I know what I would do – buy first and think it over once I’m in line for fulfilment. You can always cancel the order before it ships in case of buyer’s remorse, but there’s not much you can do if the price jumps back up or backorderable inventory runs out.
Lowe’s has it for $149 with in-store pickup.
Price: $149 at Lowe’s
Key Features & Specs
Hammer Drill
- 1/2″ keyless chuck
- 620 in-lbs max torque
- 1800 max RPM
- 0-27,000 BPM
- 22+2 clutch settings
- LED worklight
- Weighs 2.8 lbs
Triple Hammer Impact Driver
- 1,832 in-lbs max torque
- 1/4″ hex chuck
- 4 speed/torque settings
- Soft mode
- Normal mode
- Power mode
- Self-drilling screw mode
- 2,900 RPM
- 4,000 BPM
- LED worklight
The same combo kit was a $199 promo for Father’s Day 2021. The “special buy” Triple Hammer impact driver kit, which is bundled with 1.5Ah batteries, is priced at $149 right now at Acme and $169 at Lowe’s. The regular Triple Hammer kit with 3Ah batteries is still priced at $389 at Acme Tools.
$129 is an excellent price for what you get here. Frankly, I don’t know how long it will last, as all of the sales flyers I’ve seen so far advertise a $149 price. Even if you consider the difference to be ~$14 if you only buy this and pay the $6.49 shipping fee, that’s still ~10% lower.
Aaron S
wow, awesome find!
AC
I have these tools, they are both great, and the Triple Hammer is my fav 18v impact as well (tied with the M12 Fuel Surge for best overall for me). Stuart is right, there is nothing anywhere close to the value for the price.
I think Lowe’s is also selling a five-tool kit with these drills, the brushless 18v recip (also good), the 36v circ saw (excellent, very powerful and lightweight), a light (well… OK), a charger, and two Multivolt batteries for $349. That is also an exceptional value–I have all of these tools (not the light) and they work great.
Zack
Acme’s price is back to $249. Lowe’s still has $149.
Craig
Wow, and it says it will ship in March
Stuart
Thanks! It looks like they completely sold out.
It might be worth checking back, as stores sometimes hold onto inventory for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, or they might receive a surprise restock.
But for now, it looks like the $149 price at Lowe’s is the best price right now.
Zack
Yup, still a good price if you have a Lowe’s in range.
Last night I was fighting with some thick mild steel and an old corded variable-speed drill (because I didn’t want to fetch the M18 brushed drill…) and at this price I’m OK with picking up a new color of battery.
On the low-speed gear setting, the included drill tops out at 400 RPM (per the manual), which is great for mild steel. In contrast, the Milwaukee wants to run at 550 RPM.
Zack
(Correction, the M18 Fuel does 550 RPM in “low”. The brushed M18 drills are either 400 RPM, or 450, I’m seeing conflicting numbers.)
Clay
Thanks for the heads-up, Stuart!
I bet you have quite a power station setup at the house for all the different battery platforms you have to test!
Stuart
Yes, and no.
Most of my regular day to day use involves my HPT Triple Hammer, Dewalt 20V Max, FlexVolt, & 12V Max, and Milwaukee M18 and M12. So that’s really just 3 chargers. Add an EGO, and that’s 4 chargers. Batteries can pile up, though. Craftsman V20, Ryobi 18V, Makita 18V, Metabo, Hilti, Bosch, Fein, and some others come out when needed.
Tim
Back up to $249 at Acme. Says shipping is now March of 22. Bummer that I missed it.
Big Richard
Menards also has it $149, and with their 11% rebate (ending 24Nov), you sorta get an additional $16.39 off. Bringing the total to $132.61. Not quite as good as Acme’s deal, but I was able to walk into the store and take it home. Thinking about buying another for myself.
David
Back to $259 – 11%.
Big Richard
If you’re looking online you have to add it to your cart to see the price. If you’re in the store, they may not have updated its tag. Have them scan it though, should ring up as $149. If not, pull it up online and they will honor that.
https://www.menards.com/main/p-7720120058353016-c-9066.htm
Big Richard
As of today, 18Nov2021, it is back to $259. I should have grabbed a second when I had the chance.
DAVID
Still $149 @ Lowe’s
Big Richard
Correct DAVID, I was referring only to my Menard’s mention.
Brent C
Does these use the same battery as Metabo 18v?
Big Richard
No, this is Metabo HPT (formerly Hitachi), completely different from Metabo.
Rob
Lowes consistently rotates insane deals on Metabo HPT.
The 36v recip and 7-1/4” were $99 a couple of months ago.
I grabbed the 36v impact driver kit just for the batteries and charger earlier because it was some obnoxiously low price for a week.
Vards Uzvards
Did they go lower than this one ($199) on Amazon.com? (I’m just curious.)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097S89745/
kumicho
different kit. The $199 kit is a 36v and batteries are multivolt. 18v 5ah / 36v 2.5ah. Solid kit
Vards Uzvards
Rob, I think I remember that _clearance_ sale – an impact driver (not the tripple-hammer kind, more modest), with multi-volt batteries, for a whopping $57, or so. I still regret not taking one 😐
Zack
They have those prices now, for the bare tools. Very tempting to buy into this system at these prices.
David
I need another drill/impact combo like I need more elbows, but this is such a deal… Ah, crap… the need vs. want dilemma…
Stuart
UPDATE
This will be a $129 deal at Lowe’s, starting 11/25.
Zack
Do you think there’s a chance they’ll refund me $20 if I ask nicely?
Stuart
Option 1: Try for a price adjustment once the deal and $129 price goes live.
Option 2: Buy another at the deal price and return the higher-priced kit for a refund. It looks like Lowe’s has free in-store or online returns. You could also try a return-rebuy in-store, but I haven’t tried that with online orders yet.
This is in Lowe’s 11/25-12/1 sales flyer, and so they *should* honor a price adjustment.
DAVID
I was debating those same options to justify an early purchase. Although Lowe’s makes a point of saying they don’t price match against Black Friday deals, the refund/re-purchase flip would seem to be a way around that — if they actually force the issue.
Stuart
It’s really hard to say.
A lot of retailers have special price-matching policies this year, but there’s no guarantee Lowe’s will be easy to get in touch with or work with.
But, that’s where Option 2 comes into play.
I wouldn’t necessarily purchase early, just in case it’s a hassle to get a price adjustment. But I suppose you could always return it if that’s the case, and it wouldn’t be much more trouble than the second price-matching option.
Zack
The price adjustment was no problem! I did a bunch of research on this week, and ultimately decided to triple down on my Metabo HPT collection with two more of the Black Friday deals: I bought the 36V drill, which comes with two Multivolt batteries (5.0Ah @ 18V, 2.5 Ah @ 36V), and the 36V circular saw (which requires these batteries) for a total of $300.
The circular saw fills a hole for me, and with the option of running on 120V AC power it’s a really compelling solution. I like how brushless circular saws stop quickly after cuts, it seems to be a more effective brake than the “electric brake” option that many corded circ saws offer.
It may not be as powerful as a 15A corded saw, but it should be powerful enough for my needs and I have the option of running cordless.
The 36V drill will be nice to have around. I’m curious how its performance will compare to the 18V drill, but mostly I needed the batteries. It’s always good to have one more strong cordless drill to cut down of bit changes.
Vards Uzvards
You can order it now ($129), at lowes.com.
Stuart
LINK to Product Page
Thanks for the heads-up!!
Aaron s
My Acme order just refunded to my card so I ordered from Lowes. I’ve had backorder weirdness from acme before where they refunded because they hadn’t shipped within a certain window of charging me. Can’t remember how it played out last time though. Not sure if they’re going to send it and charge me when they do or if I’m cancelled.
Stuart
Sometimes, you might see a pending charge to your credit card, but that’s just an authorization and not an actual charge.
Did you get a refund or did a presale authorization clear?
Backordered items don’t charge until they ship. It’s possible they saw it was backordered and then cleared the charge.
Check your order status – just because you weren’t charged, that doesn’t mean your order was cancelled.
If in doubt, you made the right move – ordering from Lowe’s also, but if in your shoes I’d check my order status and then contact Acme to verify if anything is unclear.