Another impact driver, you have to be kidding me. Yes, we already did the Dewalt 20V impact driver and are in the process of doing the Ridgid impact driver. Well, the Milwaukee M18 Impact 2650-20 is next on the chopping block. This came with my new M18 Combo kit and out of all four tools, this was the one I was looking forward to playing with. Actually all of them I couldn’t wait to play with.
Once you use an impact, you will probably never go back to a drill to screw in fasteners ever again, especially if it’s the Milwaukee. The word is still out as I think Dan really loves his Dewalt, but I am a huge fan of the Milwaukee. It’s light, powerful and has great balance. There are two things I do like better with the Dewalt, the light and one- handed bit change. You can still release a bit with one hand, but not insert a bit. The impact is powered by an 18V Lithium-ion battery and you can use either the high capacity 3 amp or the compact 1.5 amp battery. The battery powers the 4 pole frameless motor that causes the 1/4 hex to spin 0-2,200 rpm and puts out 0-3,200 IPM. Pretty impressive for a driver that only weights 3.9 lbs. Oh yeah it puts out 1,400 in-lbs of torque. That is why I love this driver, the power, the weight and the balance of the tool.
I would like to say that I have already framed up a room, hung drywall and did more with this driver, but I am not that ambitious. However, Dan and I did play around with it for some time. I needed a new place to hang all my tools in my basement, so we did get a lot of use out of it and it does rock. I was so happy using this instead of a heavier and bulkier drill. I ended up using the OEMPTA bit the whole time, which makes life easier. The small LED light that is located under the Hex chuck did pretty well, but not as well as the Dewalt work light.
If you have M18 tools and don’t have the driver yet, what are you waiting for? This is one tool you will be reaching for even more often than your drill.
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Hey guys,
first of all great review site. I’ve been using the m18 kit for a little over a year now and its great apart from one battery going on me everything has worked fine, and i give my tools a fair amount of abuse. That being said my impact driver has always felt slow and lacking power when compared to say a makita or panasonic impact driver. Im from england so i don’t know wether you have had the same experience with your impact driver? or perhaps it may just be a dud impact driver?
cheers!
luke from sunny britain
I have never used the Panasonic before, but everything seems to spec out pretty close.
Torque
Panasonic – 1,370
Makita – 1,330
Milwaukee – 1,400
IPM
Panasonic – 0 – 2,000 / 0-3,300
Makita – 0 – 2,300 / 0-3,200
Milwaukee – 0 – 2,200 / 0-3,200
I am not sure what is going on but even an extra 100 ipm figures out to about 1.6 ipacts per second so it might seem faster. I wouldn’t think you would feel a huge difference so maybe you might have a problem with the impact.
It seems the DeWalt 18v XR Recip saw is better when pushing hard.