Milwaukee quietly launched a new M18 brushless high torque impact wrench last year, and it went on sale during the holiday season.
At the time, you could buy the impact wrench with a battery, charger, and tool bag for $299.
It was an okay bargain – I included mention of it in our Black Friday deal roundups, but it wasn’t a hot enough deal to receive greater attention in its own post.
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While not as powerful or featured as the flagship M18 Fuel model, the brushless high torque impact wrench still delivers up to 1200 ft-lbs of nut-busting torque, and 800 ft-lbs of fastening torque.
Things are different this year, as Milwaukee upgraded the deal to be a better value.
Now, instead of just the impact wrench kit for $299, they’ve thrown in an M12 cordless ratchet (3/8″) and a battery. Since the impact wrench is normally kitted with a multi-volt M18/M12 charger, you’re good to go.
This isn’t the first M18 impact wrench and M12 cordless ratchet holiday deal bundle that Milwaukee has offered, but it looks to be the first to have a brushless impact wrench.
The kit comes with:
- M18 2666-20 brushless 1/2″ high torque impact wrench w/ friction ring
- M18 4Ah battery
- M18/M12 multi-voltage charger
- Tool bag
- M12 3/8″ ratchet
- M12 1.5Ah battery
You can find this deal at Home Depot (kit 2666-22RH), and Acme has a similar deal where you buy the impact wrench kit (2666-21B) and get the M12 ratchet and battery as free bonuses.
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Price: $299
I’ll leave it up to you to determine whether this is a good deal or not. All I can tell you for certain is that it’s a better value than last year, when the kit with just the impact wrench was a $299 holiday season special buy. While I wish the price was lower, at least now you get more for the same money.
Compared to M18 Fuel
Here’s a handy chart for comparing the 2666 against the latest generation M18 Fuel high torque impact wrench, 2967, as well as model 2966.
Seth Goodson
I will take a look at this. I will have to compare the specs between the brushless and the Fuel models.
Stuart
Good idea; I added the specs comparison table to the end of the post.
Jared
Deal season is so much fun. For some reason I enjoy reading about them even if they don’t apply to me.
Stuart
Glad to hear it!
Mark. M
That’s a good deal for the average home mechanic, if you don’t have either tool or want to up your game. I use that M12 ratchet all the time (which also makes me sad b/c I have a lot of nice regular ratchets that get passed over for that :). The impact is the real deal. Had one for years but ended up selling it b/c it was overkill to some extent. For the stuff I work on the new gen mid-torque is more than enough. But I’d buy this kit in a heartbeat, good stuff.
Nate
I’m hoping that one day they’ll have the M12 Ratchet and M12 3/8″ Stubby impact in a kit as well. I’m in the Ryobi ecosystem so I’m all set with 18v stuff, but the M12 ratchet and impact are so appealing because of their size and ergonomics. I also have Milwaukee heated gear so I’ve started my M12 collection.
I know the 2nd gen stubby impact is supposed to be amazing, I’m just holding out they’ll bundle the ratchet with the 1st gen, which is plenty of power for me. Hopefully for a lower price point.
ColeTrain
Not to hijack a threat as this is a good deal but one thing I haven’t seen mentioned with all of these deals is what Lowe’s is doing with some tools. Maybe Stuart can change some light on this. It appears they gave up on the Skil 20 volt in favor of just the 12 volt. I’m seeing new displays at all my local Lowe’s. They’re practically giving away all the power core 20 volt stuff for insane prices, I’ve also seen them unloading HPT drills and drivers for close to half off. There’s a bunch of random Craftsman stuff too. Random bear tools from flex at $20 and Bosch 12v sanders for $29…
Stuart
They did the same with Flex – goodbye pricier higher powered stuff, hello cheaper more compact stuff.
I don’t think Skil has been gaining traction. Or maybe Lowe’s wants to create price point or voltage and feature differentiation. 12V entry price -> Skil, 12V mid price Pro grade -> Dewalt. 20V DIY -> Craftsman, 24V DIY -> Kobalt, 20V Pro grade -> Dewalt.
Bosch, Metabo HPT, and Flex don’t seem to be in the picture. There are displays with Bosch accessories and HPT air nailers, but nothing from Flex this season.
ColeTrain
Stuart, I understand if things aren’t selling you got to change it up and I understand the MOD BOX push for the holidays when tough built has no new product to market but pricing theory doesn’t seem to work the same at Lowe’s. I never saw much of a difference in price between the Skil 12 vs 20v tools and after seeing the new 12 volt display it seems that price actually went up for what you get. When I bought in it seemed like every tool came in a kit for $60 to $80 with a batt and a great charger. The new kits seem to be the same price and while the new battery has two-way charging and USB c the charger it comes with is literally an iPhone charger with a 12 volt tap. I don’t see the upgrade there and the batteries are $50 so I’ve been buying up all the older batteries for $15 on clearance. I have a few 18/20 volt platforms but 80% of my work doesn’t require them and these have impressed me so much I carry them everyday. They’re extremely underrated tools much like HPT. Everyday tool users seem mostly brand loyalists and have their purchasing mind made up when buying new tools but is Lowe’s that bad at marketing to DIY’rs and new professionals? My nephew just bought a house and asked me what I thought the best priced power tool was that wasn’t Ryobi and I pointed him right to the Skil 20 volt, now not in stores. I’ve been asked by people new to the trades “what’s the best price professional tool with a good warranty?” I tell them HPT yet I never even see anyone at Lowe’s looking at Hitachi tools. Have they gone downhill? I wonder how much better Hitachi would sell if home Depot carried them. Up until home Depot started carrying Milwaukee hand tools I thought Lowe’s carried way better hand tools than home Depot. The Kobalt stuff and now Craftsman have always been better than husky and yet I see husky crap everywhere. Seems like if you’re not TTI or Stanley Black & Decker it’s pretty hard to sell tools. I just worked with the kid who was surprised when he saw my nail gun. Thought Bostitch only made desktop staplers. Different world.
JR Ramos
I don’t know if this is a good deal or not – seems like a great way to make a new or existing Milwaukee user unhappy and maybe tarnish the brand image. Tools themselves don’t have to be the top performers (or Fuel) but the included batteries are going to be a big disappointment especially for those that may not be aware how better batteries can add to the performance/torque. I think I’d almost steer someone toward a cheaper decent brand like Ryobi or one of the flavors at Harbor Freight if it’s the price that’s most important. It’d be great if Milwaukee would pair better tools with decent batteries but it seems they very rarely do…but that’s also been the trend started decades ago by DeWalt and continues all these years later (possible exception with Makita and of course Bosch doesn’t play battery games the same way as the others).
For what the true costs of the battery packs are, maybe sell some kits with good packs that will wow the users’ socks off and then let them choose to buy lower performing batteries in the future if they choose to do so…but start them out of the gate correctly and preserve your “pro” brand image, imho.