Will an electric impact wrench give satisfactory results vs air wrench?

[69PHOENIX]

G'Day People,
Long and Perhaps Boring Rant to Follow So Be Warned!
About Forty Years Ago I Purchased a MAKITA Impact Wrench.
Was Used to Disassemble All the Spare Parts Cars our Club Bought.
Absolutely Fantastic
Mind You it Cost a Week's Wages back in Those Days But Never Regretted Spending the Money.
Unfortunately the Landlord of the Property I Rented bought some Tradesmen in to do Repairs
to the Property while I was at Work one Day and left them to it.
The Next Time I went to the Cupboard for My MAKITA it was No Longer There.
I was a very UNHAPPY Fella But there was Nothing I could do about it as a week or so had Passed.
To Continue the Story I was Working in a Wreckers at the Time and the Boss decided we needed a Impact Wrench.
I Told Him how Brilliant the MAKITA was But he Had an Old Ingersol Rand and being a Cheapskate he sent it out
foe Reconditioning.
It Lasted Two Months!
Sent it out again It Lasted Three Months.
So He Decided to Buy a New Black & Decker.
It Went in under Warranty Three Times.
When it Broke Again after the Warranty was Over He Finally Decided to Buy a MAKITA.
We Thrashed the *ss off that Thing for 18 Months before one of the Employees decided he needed it more than we did.
We Dismantled Hundreds of Cars in that time & the "Beastie" Never Paused for Breath.

I also tend to Count the Dollars on a Lot of Tools But I Have discovered that if you Buy the Good Stuff & DON'T LEND TOOLS.
They will be Serving you in Thirty Years Time.
(I Got into a Friends Ute one time, Picked up a Wrench off the Floor & said that's Mine.
He Replied "Like **** it is" I Replied "Well that's, Funny it has My Initials Engraved on It")
Take the Time to Stamp or Engrave Your Initials on ALL your Tools, It's worth the Effort!
ALL THE BEST FOR THE NEW YEAR.
Tony.M

 

[carfreak6970]

I ended up getting the Milwaukee M12 1/2 drive that I think is a stubby(?). I was rebuilding the suspension on a 56 packard and I dont have lift so I only have so much room under the car and the floor and only so much room between other components. It fit great, made cake work of the job and has 250 ft lbs to boot. The battery lasts a decent amount of time so no complaints there. Another advantage is that it is small enough that I can fit it in my road side emergency tool box when I go traveling

 

[65CopCar]

I don't own an air compressor (I know I should). Every once in a while I've seen electric (corded) impact wrenches come on sale (Princess Auto - the Canadian version of Harbor Fright). This week their 2 wrenches are on sale - one has a torque rating 260 ft lbs ($75) the other is 440 ft.lbs ($160).

260 lb-ft is a weakling. My biggest one is 1100 lb-ft. My medium duty id 650 lb-ft. I personally would pass on a 260 lb-ft if it was my main impact tool. I have 4 or 5 Milwaukee battery powered impacts both 12 volt and 18 volt. The serious ones are 18 volt.

 

[Boydsdodge]

I like the Dewalt cordless 20 volt tools. Just bought this for myself. I rarely use my pneumatic tools, If it's really stuck I use heat and breaker bar.

 

[shenango]

I bought this three weeks ago after trying to remove the flywheel off the back of my 410 with a corded impact. Maybe around 125 lbs. at most and it took awhile to start moving those nuts.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/DEWALT/5002909283?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-vf-_-tol-_-ggl-_-PMAX_Dewalt-_-5002909283-_-online-_-0-_-0&&ds_a_cid=279391351&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKqsBhC3ARIsAEEjuJgv6F1jahsAqbGNmh2WLmWtvW2KwAysK6sYbAeDu80aasB_dJBe5qwaAuSvEALw_wcB&gcls

Here’s your research on a corded 1/2” impact.

8.5 Amp 1/2 in. Impact Wrench with Rocker Switch

I bought this very impact about 6 weeks ago. With over 1000 ftlb breaking force it will sprain your wrist if you're not careful. You can't beat it for 90 bucks and no battery to give out when you're in the middle of a job.
Jerry

 

[volaredon]

Depends on the particular air powered impact and the particular battery one.
Ive had both that wouldn't spin a loose 1/4-20 nut and I've had others of both that would easily snap lug studs if you wanted to.
And air ones that worked great on the compressor at my day job but won't do shyt while run off the compressor at my 2nd job....
But if I were to buy a battery one I wouldn't want anything else but a Milwaukee

 

[Toolmanmike]

There's a ton of test videos on You Tube if you want to spend some time watching. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cordless+impacts

 

[64valconv]

Need I say more?

 

[68PK21 440.6bbl]

Some on the 'net ain't to happy with Milwaukee these days. (love the 2-stroke version as I hate batteries)

I'm having to deal with my nice little Bluetooth (Skullcandy) speaker which I think the Li-ion battery is finally going 'tits up' after about a year of service, shame it's a PITA and $$$$ expensive to replace these Li-ion batteries as this was a nice little unit to bring into the bathroom while showering.

Quite awhile ago I watched that British 'flipper' car show with that mechanic guy called ED and he had a whole 3 tiered rack of all the new Milwaukee tools and batteries, hey nice when your a tuber and they give ya the stuff for free but ffs who want's to deal with all the charging time with over a dozen batteries, what a time waster.
I had to deal with dickheads at work in the hospital that... well let's just say wanted to teach me how to work a screwdriver. Eventually my 'NEW' supervisor forced me to use his little POS Ridged power gun spin'ee spin spin driver... thought it'd speed up the job. lol OK I'll play the game, wheel my cart out in the morning to the floor, use it for 10 minutes and battery dies... back to shop, find sup'r... get questionably charged other battery, then time for break & smoko, rinse & repeat through the day. No really just went back to old 'armstrong ways for the rest of the day.

I just saw a custom rack for all these power tools on some Temu spam and had a <smh> moment.
Don't be square, use AIR!

 

[Plymouth man]

I don't own an air compressor (I know I should). Every once in a while I've seen electric (corded) impact wrenches come on sale (Princess Auto - the Canadian version of Harbor Fright). This week their 2 wrenches are on sale - one has a torque rating 260 ft lbs ($75) the other is 440 ft.lbs ($160). I would tend towards the $75 model because of my anticipated very infrequent use. I wouldn't buy it for lug nuts, I use a cross wrench for that. I use elbow grease, 3/4 inch sockets and drives and extension pipes when I need to, and I generally get the job done.

My interest in getting an impact wrench is for the various suspension nuts/bolts that, and this is where I'm looking for confirmation, that frozen / rusted bolts and nuts respond better to powered impact wrenching vs manual tools. Not necessarily for C-body work, the other car(s) I'd be working on are my 300m's. Assuming there's room to fit the tool onto the part - I think electric wrenches have a disadvantage compared to air powered in terms of their size so that's another possible downer here.

So what say you? Will I get satisfaction from a 260 ft lb $75 impact wrench, or should I pass on this idea?

I have 2 of the dewalt 20 volt they were 320 for 1 but came with battery and charger one of them is the xr model and it's stronger than the other one they ar worth the money especially if you don't have air

 

[MoPar~Man]

Until or unless we get some of these other brands in Canada (like Bauer or Hercules that are available from Harbor Freight and seem to do well in tests) I'm not going to pay the $$$ up here in Kanada for Dewalt. Now that I've seen that these cordless wrenches actually do have a lot of nut-busting power, I'll keep my eyes out for an affordable but capable model here. I still want to know why they can't make a corded model that is as capable and esp. in the same short size as battery powered.

Something that I actually would have more use for is a cordless wratchet, not for their power but their ability to more easily remove nuts and bolts in awkward places.

 

[SuperDave]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Ryobi. Maybe I'm the oddball one here, wouldn't be the 1st time. I prefer shopping at Home Depot and that's what they sell. I have several Ryobi tools, same 18v batteries fit them all. The little 2ah slender packs don't last long on an impact, you're lucky to get a dozen Ugga-Dugga's out of them before they are flat, always grab the thick 4ah batteries (or better).

It all depends on what your using it for and where your at. In a shop setting where you use it all day at one location, air is fair, especially with a big high volume tank. For the occasional "weekend warrior" busting knuckles on his own ride, batteries are okay, provided the tool has the torque needed for the job. My 3/8" sidewinder power ratchet works fine for assembly, won't over torque an intake bolt, just use a hand powered torque wrench to final tighten them. Great time saver. But when busting nuts or bolts loose, I reach for the big 1/2" impact gun. Because my big compressor is inside my workshop and my carport is outside and behind the workshop, my Ryobi see more use than my air guns. I do have a smaller 1/2 hp pancake compressor but after a couple Ugga-Dugga's, it's dry and takes 5 minutes or more to recover.

If you're working on an older car that hasn't seen a wrench in a long time, just buy the expensive one with lots of torque. The cheaper ones won't cut it any, you're back to the toolbox digging out a breaker bar and a cheater pipe.