The holiday shopping season just kicked off, and there’s a Milwaukee M18 cordless drill kit deal back on sale for $99. That deal is available online and now in stores too.
But what if you already have a good 18V cordless drill but want a new impact driver? Good news, two new deals just popped up.
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Over at Home Depot, they have two Milwaukee kits on sale for $99 – an M12 impact driver kit, and an M18 impact driver kit. The M12 kit comes with 2 batteries, the M18 kit with just 1.
The M18 deal is available online or in stores. Just look for the “special buy” box, as in the above photo.
Milwaukee M12 Impact Driver Kit, 2462-22
$99 isn’t the lowest we’ve seen this M12 kit go for, but I believe it’s the lowest price we’ve seen since 2013. You get a decent 12V-class impact driver, 2 Li-ion battery packs, a charger, and a hardshell carrying case.
Read more about this M12 impact driver here
This is a nice compact impact that pairs well with a 12V or 18V-class drill/driver.
- 1000 in-lbs max torque
- 0-2500 RPM, 0-3300 IPM
- 6-1/2″ long
- 2.3 lbs w/ battery
- Kit includes 2x Li-ion batteries, charger, carrying case
Buy Now(via Home Depot)
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Milwaukee M18 Impact Driver Kit, 2656-21
When it comes to marketing 18V-class drill or impact driver kits for $99, there are usually 2 options that a power tool brand must choose from.
1. They could design a tool around the lower price point, lower the specs, strip off some features, and bundle it with 2 lower capacity than usual battery packs.
2. They could take their regular line tool and bundle it with a single battery.
There is an exception to this – Bosch’s DDB181 drill/driver, but that’s a separate discussion about $100 drill/driver kits.
Milwaukee’s 2656-21 kit comes with their regular impact driver and only comes with 1 battery to help drive the cost down to $99. The bare tool alone (2656-20) is regularly priced at $99, and the usual 2-battery kit is $169. So how is it that this kit can be priced at $99, which going by the price of the bare tool means you are essentially getting a free battery, charger, and carrying case?
Read about this previous M18 impact driver deal here
For $99 you get a well-rounded single variable speed range impact driver, a charger, and compact Li-ion battery pack to start you off. The price was a little lower when this kit first appeared ahead of Father’s Day, but there’s no guarantee it’ll get any lower now.
If interested in buying this kit, you could wait and take the chance that it’ll sell out, or buy now and try for a price adjustment should the price go down.
- 1,500 in-lbs of Torque
- 0-2,750 RPM
- 0-3,450 IPM
- 1/4″ Hex Quick Change
- 5-1/2″
- 3.1 lbs w/ compact battery
Buy Now(via Home Depot)
Now here’s a difficult question: If you were looking to buy your first impact driver, or buy into your first Li-ion power tool platform all over again, would you go M12 or M18?
I don’t know if I can answer this, as I keep changing my mind. I think that most users would benefit more from the M18 line, but I think I would personally go with the M12 lineup. Even though I formed the question, can I allow myself to answer with an enthusiastic both?
Nathan
I was hoping you could expand on why you might lean toward the M12 series, yourself. I’ve got an old Black & Decker NiCad that’s (as NiCad’s like to do) slowly biting the dust, and even before, I was really starting to push the B&D beyond it’s very basic home/DIY uses. So I’m looking to upgrade and the M12 and M18 look like great options under these holiday season deals.
Stuart
A lot of M12 tools would be sufficient for my personal needs vs. M18 equivalents.
For core tools, I typically prefer 18V-class tools, although 12V-class are handy when compactness and light weight are desirable. But for things like a rotary hammer, band saw, polisher, M12 is highly appealing, not to mention less expensive.
The M12 line is also more unique. Who else makes a 12V-class band saw? Rotary hammer? Polisher? LED spotlight? 5-3/8″ circular saw? (https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/milwaukee-m12-fuel-circular-saw/%3C/a%3E%29%3C/p%3E
Mike
IIRC, P-C, maybe B & D, Makita all offered 12v or less circular saws at one point or another. They were universally sorry-ass tools, of course.
Anyway, the m12 circular saw is 5 3/8″ or something, not 6 1/2″. Aluminum foot, boo. No included dust chute in USA, boo. Virtually peerless offering here in states, double boo.
I freely admit a tiny bias towards Bosch, as far as ‘pro-grade tools’ go, but I really wish they would sell their rail/track and especially the tuned down Mafell clone track saw they sell to anybody not in the USA it seems. I’ve used that saw, and it really stood out(to me at least) from the other track saws I’ve used; Festool, Makita, Triton, and DeWALT. I think Makita is prob best value, maybe even plain best, from those four. But the Bosch, hands down is better. Out of respectand just sheer decency, I won’t attempt to compare Mafell with any of the above.
Stuart
Thanks, you’re right!
Sorry, someone was asking how great it would be if a brand came out with a brushless 12V-class 6-1/2″ circular saw, and so that’s how the number stuck in my head. You’re right, the Milwaukee M12 Fuel works with a 5-3/8″ blade.
Mike
Oh yeah, almost forgot…Panasonic offered a decent 12v Rotary NiMH for a while, and later a 14.4v Panasonic/Greenlee which was a truly nice tool. So if Panasonic counts, 14.4v should too I guess. But still, your original point stands. Basically, no company outside of Germany has a similar drill. Certainly not with the distribution and retail presence of Big Red Chairman Mao Cheese Head.
Mike
and remember that weird Rockwell H3 or M3 or something? I think it was a 12v.
pete
Usually the m12 drill AND impact AND 2 batteries AND charger go on sale for $100 during the holidays and they sell out fast! I use my m12 kit almost 99% of the time for work and 100% for home use.
Stuart
Oh, you’re right. Looking back a year:
Oct 31: https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/milwaukee-m12-drill-impact-driver-bonus-battery-deal-102014/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Nov 18: https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/milwaukee-m12-drill-impact-battery-kit-bundle-deal-update-112014/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Nov 27: https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/milwaukee-m12-drill-impact-driver-3-battery-kit-deal-112014/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Price went from $129 to $99 and included a drill, impact driver, 2 batteries, charger, and bonus extra XC battery. I haven’t spotted this or a similar deal this year yet.
JayT
For me, the M12 is more than enough tool. I have the first generation impact driver and it has the power to drive any length screw and reasonable sized lags. Plus it’s small and light enough to carry around in a tool pouch and get into tight spaces.
I could see a contractor needing the extra power and run time of M18, but as a homeowner and DIY’er, the M12 does anything I’ve ever needed in a more compact tool.
fred
I agree that my older model M12 (2450-20) is my usual go-to tool – but faced with driving a lot of big lags for a garden project – I bought a M18 2765-20 (7/16 Hex) driver.
John
I would actually forgo the 2462-22 and go for the fuel version 2453-20 instead. When I started, I bought the M12 Fuel hammer drill 2404-22 kit because I only really wanted the drill. The deal at the time I got the 2462-22 for free bundled in at CPO. I really thought not much of the impact driver but remarkably I’ve used the heck outta that free tool and really love it. However the BIG issue is there is no 2 gearing mode on the 2462-22 which the fuel version does have. I bought the 2404-22 and 2453-20 bundled kit for my dad and I absolutely have envy that his 2453-20 is leaps and bounds better than my single gear 2462-22. So If I had it to do over again, I would definitely shell out the extra couple of bucks for the full on Fuel model 2453-20.
Nathan
Yeah the two settings are worth a lot. Without them you really need two different tools: an electric screwdriver or m12 impact for the delicate jobs and an m18 impact driver or drill for the power jobs.
That is why I paid extra for the Fuel m12 impact driver: I wanted to get by with a single drill/driver type tool if possible and suspected that the two “gears” would be very useful. The reality is I’ve been surprised just how many times i find there are things I can’t do with the driver set on level 2 but are easy on the 1 setting, but on the other hand there are times when I would make no headway at all without the full power employed and could even use more power.
Happily, my strategy has worked so far. The m12 fuel driver has never failed to do any job I needed it to, but there have definitely been times (big spade bits in old lumber, big lags in treated lumber) when a bigger tool would have made the job a bit faster or easier.
Jesse
I have an m18 combo. The 12 would work for all of my needs as far as the drill/driver and impact driver go, but I got the m18 so I could share batteries with my m18 impact wrench.
Jerry
Helped a neighbor with a few home improvement jobs, and he brought his M12 drill and impact driver from work. I was thoroughly impressed with how well they performed for how lit and compact they were. The M12 impact did everything we asked of it until we came to the gutters. We were replacing loose nails with gutter screws, plus adding a few more supports. It worked fine whe running a screw into the old nail hole, but just couldn’t quite drive a gutter screw full depth when it didn’t have the old nail hole to follow. It did, however have enough power to drive deck screws. It was a little slower than my 18V impact driver, but it was capable of doing the job. Considering how it could clip to my tool belt as I climbed up a ladder, and barely knew it was there, I was impressed. Wish I paid more attention at it to see if it was labeled as brushless, because if it was the regular brushed tool, and the brushless one performed better, it would probably be all the tool most home DIYers would really need.
Jason
I have the M12 fuel impact and the Bosch 18v hybrid impact. I love the M12 fuel’s feel and weight, and it is a capable impact but even for home/project use I found that I was stripping heads on screws more than with the 18v. Also the M12 may have a lot of torque but it’s impacts are much rotations. For the m12 drill, I’ve found that I do most of my drilling with my impact now and don’t need a compact drill. Even for Precision drilling for wood working or drilling steel.
I have an m12 kit with 3.0 battery from last Christmas that I never used and am thinking of selling to put towards the M18 gen 2. I guess I have a tool problem. But it was a great deal for $100.
Toolfreak
Good deal either way, getting the M18 tools with one battery each, or the M12 tools with spare batteries galore if you buy multiple tools.
I don’t regret getting into the 12V Max platform at all. The compact size makes the tools so easy to handle and use in tight spots, and they have all the power I need. They were a great value, getting kits that inlcuded a tool, two batteries, carrying cases, and sometimes even another bonus tool.
The compactness of that M18 impact driver shown above lets you know what an influence compact 12V tools have been – compact drivers didn’t even exist until the 12V compact tools came out and everyone found out how great compact tools are.
I suppose 18V tools that are compact enough might be the best of both worlds for someone who is concerned that compact 12V tools won’t work for their tougher jobs, but I still see contractors, builders, techs, and other people who use power tools every day using compact 12V tools instead of 18V simply because they are all the tool that is needed for most work, and they can tote it around with them way easier than the heavier, bigger tool.
I’m glad both formats exist and we can buy both and use both according to our needs. That you can get good deals on both also says a lot – one probably isn’t dominant over the other in sales volume, either.