Home Depot has this Milwaukee M12 Fuel cordless impact driver and ratchet combo kit on sale as a holiday season special buy for $199.
The same kit, model 3453-22HSR, was $249 last year. This year’s deal saves you an extra $50.
So, is this a good deal? Milwaukee says it has a retail value of over $522 if you purchase everything separately. Don’t look at that. Let’s see if we can break down the real-world right-now value.
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At this time, Home Depot also has a special buy on a 1-battery M12 Fuel impact driver kit, model 3453-21, for $99.
The 2-tool combo kit gives you a larger tool bag, M12 Fuel ratchet, and a second 2Ah battery.
The combo kit comes with the 2567-20 M12 Fuel 3/8″ high speed ratchet, which retails for $199 by itself.
The high speed ratchet 1-battery kit retails for $249 right now. Looking at our past Black Friday tool deal coverage, it was as low as $199. This is for just the ratchet, 1 battery, a charger, and toolbag.
Going back to the 3453-22HSR combo kit, the 2022 Black Friday deal was $229 for the combo kit plus a free battery.
If you’ve been meaning to get the ratchet, this is a great deal. If you can use the high speed cordless ratchet and the impact, this is a great deal. If you’re not sure if you need a ratchet, just get the promo-priced impact driver kit instead.
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This deal is lower priced than in the past – I don’t believe it’s been as low as $199 before, or at least I can’t find such pricing. As mentioned, it was $249 last year and $229 the year before (with bonus battery).
The next-lowest price for all of this would be $298 right now, $99 for the impact kit, plus $199 for the ratchet, and that would still leave you short of the second battery from the combo kit.
I’m labeling this a Hot Deal.
Alexk
I won’t buy another loud impact driver. The Surge or similar should be the standard. If I want to ruin my ears, I’ll go to a rock concert, assuming I can find one that starts at six and ends at eight.
In the back of my 2002 Ranger is my new M18 table saw. Yesterday, while picking up dust masks, the sign said $449 for the saw, 12ah battery and rapid charger. I told my girlfriend I bought a cordless saw for $200. She said “I hope it makes you happy”. She didn’t mean it. I should have said it was $100, because a 12 ah HO sells for $249, a rapid charger is $99 so really, the saw is a hundred buck, though I left HD with a buck and change from $500 with the saw and a ten pack of n95 masks.
Rx9
I had a conversation with my wife about power tools recently and she characteized regular drills as “the ones that hurt your wrist but not your ears”, standard impacts as “the ones that hurt your ears but not your wrist” and my hydraulic impulse (M18 Surge) driver as “the nice one”.
Clay
Well said.
Also I think with a little prompting she might get you an oil impact for Xmas…
Clay
Oops, I see you already have one (sorry, my phone did not load the whole post)
Goodie
She can always get him another one. 🙂
Brad
Well damn, didn’t think Stuart could bait me into any tools this year but those M12’s are to good of a price, in for one! The batteries will be going out as stocking stuffer’s with the $99 M12 screwdriver kits.
The only thing I would say about this package is if you tend to on the ratchet allot you’ll want to buy into the 2.5ah high output batteries. The 2.0’s work fine in the impact but something as demanding as a ratchet or grinder will suck them dry fast the 2.5’s will last way longer.
Stuart
I considered that too. But, the way things are priced, I cannot find a better deal for folks that plan to upgrade to higher capacity batteries down the road.
Whether you plan to get 2.5Ah or maybe 5Ah batteries, there’s no less expensive or higher value way to get the same ratchet.
I love the holiday season!
Brad
Yea it’s a great price even if you have plenty of batteries (I have x2 2.5ha, x2 1.5’s).
I get the 2.5HA’s from Milwaukee’s Amazon page funny enough, they drop the price to $44.49 regularly –> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BHGW53W1 <– that's the best "official" price I've seen outside of ebay or sketchy sites.
Stuart
Amazon is not an authorized Milwaukee dealer. I believe that almost everything you see there is purchased from Home Depot stores by resellers, and there’s a chance some of the stuff are stolen goods.
I have also been reading a LOT of reports about counterfeit batteries.
Lincoln
Is the impact driver returnable? I have no use for another impact driver.
Stuart
No, it’s a combo kit, not a bundle.
Tool-only: $199
1-Battery kit: $249
2-Battery kit with impact driver that goes into storage box: $199
Or you can wait to see if the 1-battery kit will drop to $199 again. There could be other promos, but I’m not seeing any better bargains right now.
Lincoln
I ended up grabbing it, you were right it was too good of a deal. Thanks Stuart!
Jeremiah D
Toolnut has the makita 6″ pruning chainsaw with 4.0 starter kit for $219 in their daily deals. Im not on that platform but seems like a solid deal
Mike McFalls
I completely agree with all comments about using a hydraulic impact versus standard and the noise. As for the ratchet- I’ve wanted a Milwaukee ratchet for some time but will not buy one until there is an M12 model with friction ring versus detent.
Dave
Picked one up. I have the brushless m12 impact 2nd gen I believe? It’s 5-6 old and replacement will be next especially the smaller footprint. Also have the brushed m12 ratchet and love it especially the smaller head but having a little more torque with the brushless ratchet will be nice where space permits.
Scott F
Do people really find the non hydraulic impacts to be loud? I have the M18 Fuel, it is the first and only impact driver I ever used. I have never found it to be THAT loud – am I just desensitized because I’m used to pneumatic tools working on cars? My most heavily used battery tools are also 1/2″ drive impact wrenches, which are equally “loud”, but still not.
I have never tried a hydraulic driver and so have no mental comparison to the noise difference. I do not doubt there is one, but am surprised at the passion for hydraulic for sake of noise.
JoelLikestools
The surge is great. Got it to do projects while the kids were napping. Also awesome in confined spaces. The sound difference is very noticeable. The surge reminds me of a stand mixer on its lowest setting.
Julian Tracy
Impacts are only loud when you aren’t the one using them, lol.
Jim Felt
Or as they say in the trades: WHAT???!!
Julian Tracy
I’ve had a few of the M12 Ratchets, but switched over the the Dewalt 12v Extreme. They feel much less bulky and the reverse switch is twice as large, making it much easier to switch even with gloves on.
Shane
I was just in HD a couple of hours ago and they had the M12 3/8” ratchet(tool only) and the cutoff tool(tool only) for $99 as well as a couple of others. I don’t watch the prices that closely, but that’s the cheapest I have ever seen either one of these that I can recall. It took every bit of my composure, not to go ahead and pick up the ratchet.
Stuart
To be clear, that’s the M12 ratchet. This is the M12 Fuel high speed ratchet. Completely different tools.
$99 is an okay price for the non-brushless and non-Fuel ratchet, but there are occasionally better values. The same isn’t true here – I think the mentioned deal for the M12 Fuel high speed ratchet is a great price, hence the post alert.
s
this is a really good deal, but keep in mind the physical differences in the fuel vs non-fuel ratchets.
it really comes down to how one intends to use the ratchet. neither is a high-torque device. the fuel will spin faster, and batteries last longer, but has a larger head.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/m12-ratchet-fuel-vs-non-fuel.436474/
overall, i’m using electric ratchets in clearance-limited scenario’s, so the non-fuel has more advantages for me for space reasons.
Smokey
Hey buddy, while you’re posting hot buys, I recommend checking out Lowe’s this weekend. I believe you were the one who loved the Craftsman V wrenches, well Lowe’s has some holiday shippers of Craftsman V ratchets and other stuff for dirt cheap. It’s online too.
$19 for some individual flex head ratchets. $59 for a 3pc long handle flex head set, comfort grip and regular, or same price for a 4pc set with 3x standard length flex heads plus the non-flex stubby 3/8”. My store didn’t have a price tag on it, but I saw $59 on the graphic and thought it was wrong because the 3/8” flex alone costs more than that.
Stuart
Thanks, I appreciate the heads-up! I’m waaaaay ahead of you. I price-checked something earlier today, and the pricing was strangely low. And then something else was shockingly low. So I figured it was a good time to check out Lowe’s gift center.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DBmhjOfyZeE/
https://www.instagram.com/p/DBmqEFgyr7J/
I had a nice 40-mile round trip visiting 2 Lowe’s locations.
They even have the 1/2″ flex head ratchet for $20!
I had a nice chat with 2 Lowe’s associates, and one of them walked off with an armful of tools.
I regret passing up the 3pc comfort grip set – one store had just 1, the other didn’t have any ratchet sets.