By now you have probably heard about the Senco Fusion nailing system. If you have go ahead and skip this paragraph. If not well the Fusion is Senco’s new nailing system that allows the user to break free from an air compressor and fuel cells. That’s right, it works right off one 18V Lithium-ion battery to power this nailer. The idea and concept behind the Fusion are very cool.
Specifications of the Senco Fusion
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Aluminum Drive Cylinder
- Uses 15 gauge nails
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Fastener Length – 1 1/4″ – 2 1/2″
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Weight – 14.7 lbs
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Length – 20″
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Warranty – 2 years
If you have read our other nailer reviews, you know how much we like using nailers. They are just a cool power tool. When we first heard about the new Fusion, we just new we had to get our hand on this.
Features
The main feature of this gun is you don’t have to rely on air hoses or fuel cells to get your power. All your power starts with an 18V Lithium-Ion battery that when fired drive a piston in a cylinder that is filled with compressed Nitrogen that in return fires the nail, pretty cool. This is especially cool for the occasional user that wants a good finish nailer around the house that doesn’t have to deal with expired fuel cells since its not getting a lot of use.
The whole unit comes in a plastic case. The layout of the case is nice in that you can store the nail gun, the charge, battery and some extras all inside. With that said we do wish the case was a little more sturdy. Now it will protect your tool from drops in the case, but its not the best quality case we have seen.
The nail gun uses an 18V Lithium-ion battery which will provide up to 600 shots per charge. One very cool feature is once the battery needs a recharge, after a 15 minute charge you now have 80% capacity on the battery to finish the job at hand. The battery does take 45 minutes to reach 100% capacity. As with most batteries now a days, you have a fuel gauge to tell you how much power is left on the battery. One red light meaning your getting ready for a recharge, a yellow as a warning and two green lights meaning your good to drive some nails.
So lets jump into the tool. When you pick the gun up, it does have a nice feel to it. We were very surprised how well the tool is balanced even. Most nail guns don’t have the best balance, but the Fusion is one of the best balanced guns we have seen in a long time. From what we have seen the inside design of the gun seems to be incredible as we have seen the cylinder last over 200,000 shots before needing to replace. Which a user can just replace the cylinder without having to buy a whole new gun. While the inside may be a great quality, the outside does seem to lack a little. The small switch that allows the user to move from bump to sequential mode is a little loose, the dial to adjust the depth can also be hard to access especially with gloves. One disappointment was when we were checking out the gun, we accidentally dropped the magazine and a small plastic piece broke off. It didn’t affect the use of the nail gun, but it did jam in the magazine and was hard to remove.
Having a tool that meets the need of the user is important, that’s why we were happy to see Senco integrated both Bump and Sequential modes. The switch is located by the battery and actually has three positions, Bump, Sequential and off. When you move the switch to either bump or sequential, the work light in the front will flash so the user knows they are in fire mode. As a note the small LED work light works pretty well and provides ample light to see your work. Surprisingly the bump mode works awesome. Just hold the trigger and start shooting. Senco states you can fire 3 nails per second, but we found it to keep up with about one per second which is great.
Another cool feature is Depth of Drive. A user can use a thumb-wheel and adjust the depth of the drive to countersink or flush. One cool feature is on the front of the nailer, just below the thumb-wheel is a small gauge that shows the user an instant view of the depth of the drive. This is great because your not there just spinning the wheel wounder how much you moved the depth adjustment as with other nail guns. This is a huge plus for any user.
We have all jammed a nail gun and sometimes its hard to clear. The Senco requires no tools to clear out a jam. On the side of the magazine there is a quick release which removes the whole magazine and allows you to access the gun to clear out a jam. There is plenty of room to clear out a jam even if you really jam the gun.
Another note is the belt clip. The clip is nice and wide and made of metal, so it will hold up. You can position the belt clip on the left or right hand side of the tool. However the clip is pretty much useless on the left hand side since the magazine gets in the way. But move the clip to the other side and your set to go. There is also an on-board storage system to store another non-mar tip in-case you ruin the one that’s on the gun. One last note is the tool has a time out feature which helps prevent accidental firing of the gun.
Conclusion
Overall this is a great nailer. We like the fact that your not tied to an air hose or the cost of fuel cells. The overall operation of this unit is easy to work with. Having a quick charge battery system, means you have very little down time which is always a plus. While we feel the overall outside quality could be a little better, the internal quality seems to be top notch. You have all the options you could want on a nailer and more. If your tired of air hoses and fuel cells and want a great nail gun with lots of features, take a look at the Senco Fusion.
We always like to hear back from our readers on their experience with these tools – good or bad. Do you have experience with these tools? How has the long term use been? What applications have you used the tool for? Is this a DIY or professional grade tool? Let us and other readers know.
Ok, well I’ve had this Senco Fusion 15ga nailer now for almost a year. It is very cool! although there are some features that make you go hmmm.
The balance is very good, it feels natural in your hand. I like the fact that you do not have to haul a heavy air line with you all over a construction site.
However, the three second lockout? that’s a HUGE pain in the butt. When you are doing crown moulding 18′ up a ladder, you are lining up one piece with one hand, and attempting to nail the second piece? sometimes you need to adjust the second piece a little bit so the cope fits air tight – ok, I use the tip of the gun for this to hold it lightly against the wall till I can get piece #2 fit snug.
Well I guess the Senco folks thought it was a great safety feature to have the gun time out after three seconds. I do not! My air powered 15 ga (and other size air nialers) do not have a time out feature, and I don’t see the need for this. You have to remove the gun from the trim for a second or two, then line it up again, move in quickly and fire.
It also has a fussy lockout, so you have to pretty much stay close to 90 degrees to your work surface or it won’t fire. I like to shoot the nails in on an angle, but this gun limit’s me quite a bit. You can still get a bit of an angle, but not anywhere near what I can get with my air powered Hitachi.
I’ve also used the “bump fire” feature on this gun, it works well but you should know that this is a “hair trigger” setting. One touch to your wood and “Bam” it fires. You better be pushing in with a bit of determination in this mode, as the nail’s will not countersink.
The problem here is that this is trim work! not slaming down plywood. Lining up the shot is quite important, as you can split/damage your work with careless nailing.
The little light is ok I guess, mostly if it’s too dark to work, you can’t see what you are nailing anyway.
I do like this gun, but because of the problems mentioned above I won’t be purchasing their 18ga cordless nailer. If Senco changes or improves the features that I have mentioned, yes I’d go ahead and get one.
Oh yes, the case sucks, mine arrived broken. They sent me a new one no charge, but it’s freakin huge! I think they could easily shrink the case by about 1/3.
edit: there’s no way you’re getting 600 nails per charge! that’s like saying your new pickup truck gets 25 miles to the gallon – ain’t happenin. But it doe’s go a couple/three hundred, enough for a full day or nailing.
It doe’s charge up pretty quick, I generally put it into the charger when I go for lunch, and it’s almost fully charged when I get back. (about an hour) Do NOT leave the battery in the charger over night! apparently it will damage the battery. That’s a little inconvenient, as sometimes you like to stuff the batteries in to have it ready for the next morning.
Make sure you move the “fire” button to the middle (off) when you are done, otherwise the battery will dis-charge over night on you. I just remove the battery at the end of the day to prevent this happening.
I’ve only had two jams, one was a bent nail. Tis was an easy fix,I removed the magazine, replace the nails, re-assemble and back to work. About a minute of down time, not too bad.
The other time I have no idea what caused it to stop working. I removed the magazine and battery, put it back together and it worked again. Mystery jam!
I think that’s it 🙂
edit again: Mr editor, if you want to weld these three comments, or fix them please do so!
This gun works well most of the time. The gun countersinks the nails deep! I love that feature as it means that I don’t have to come back around and drive the proud nails in with my hammer and nail set.
This is especially nice when you nail 3/4″ MDF baseboard thru drywall into studs (metal!!) not a problem for this gun.
The holes from nailing are larger! larger than what is caused by the Hitachi, I don’t know why though, it looks not so good initially but a little filler fixes it all. Sometimes you don’t want it to look like you shot it with a shotgun, as client’s are walking through the job site, so you have to be a little bit politically aware of the impact. Sad but it’s a workplace reality.
Hi Laurie, WOW thanks for the feedback. Very well said, I personally do not use nailers that much so Feedback like yours is great!
I have one of these guns and have had issues with the batteries….they do not seem to hold a charge…Senco has replaced them but I am still having the same problem. Is it because I have left them in the charger overnight? If that damages the battery, that is kind of a major flaw…..I don’t have any other cordless tools that do this. I really want to like this tool!
How many times has this happened? It shouldn’t be because of the charger. The battery should have a system board that protects them from damage, unless you just have a bad charger. I haven’t seen any other complaints, but doesn’t mean their aren’t. This wouldn’t be the first time a company has had problems with their batteries. Thanks for letting us know.
Love the power, versatility, and ingenuity applied to this nailer. Have had it for about a year, but have not used it as much as I had intended for three reasons: 1) the driver leaves a gaping and irregular shaped hole in the trim material. Ok, there’s caulk for filler, but trying to fill these holes sometimes requires the skills of a sculptor depending on where the nail is placed and the hardness of trim material–it’s such an eyesore. I don’t have this issue with my Bostitch pneumatic. 2) The no-mar tip always leaves an indentation in the trim material; especially, soft pine door trim. Again, I don’t have this issue with the “B” pneumatic. 3) The 3-second lockout feature is totally unnecessary. If Senco really wants to grab a market share of the finish nailer business (and, I believe they can with this product), I would encourage them to address these issues. Thanks for the opportunity to vent because I was really encouraged to discover I could acquire a more viable replacement for my Paslode 16-gauge cordless that was stolen (it was perfect for installing door trim–I install a lot of doors), but the Senco hasn’t fulfilled my needs.
I love the nailer, the only problem is the battery won’t hold a charge. You can fully charge it and within an hour it is dead or let it sit overnight after a full charge and the battery is dead when you go to use it.
I had the same problem…Senco sent me new batteries. Go to their website and make sure you have registered the warranty.
I love this nailer, I bought the straight not the angle one. I got a bag to put the nailer in, I never got a case. WTF is happening to North America? Dewalt and Senco have bags for power tools and then offer nice cases for the same power tools in different markets like Europe.