Best impact wrench

thecremeegg

thecremeegg

thecremeegg

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Joined
13 Oct 2006
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Location
Surrey
Need a new impact wrench as I'm doing more and more jobs at home. Has to be electric and ideally cordless but if wired ones are much better then I'll get one. Budget is £100 max so anyone got a recommendation?
Thanks!
 
I've got a 35 quid 12v wired RAC effort from tesco that has done well so far, biggest problem with it is it really is only designed to hit once or twice in a row. I used it to extract / install my rear trailing arm bushes and it didn't like it much....didn't break though.

I don't know if the more expensive electric/ cheaper cordless ones are any better for this, but I did notice a lot of the cordless impact guns weren't able to deal with a great deal of torque - to the point where I wasn't sure they'd be much use
 
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I undid a hub nut with this one, two seconds and it was loose. Normally I'd be using a 3ft pole over a breaker bar - so if that was in any sort of tight space it'd be a godsend
 
Matt82 said:
If you can do corded the Clarke 240v gun is very good. Does hub nuts for fun
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This. Only half decent battery ones are the likes of SnapOn etc. for £££. My Clarke one hasn't failed me yet :cool: Including the 32mm triple staked nut in the gearboxes I do. Normally need a 6foot scaffold pole for those beggars.
 
Generally speaking if it's properly tight/seized then a normal impact gun won't touch it anyway and you need to go get yourself a 2ft breaker bar and save yourself £400.
Guns have their uses, don't get me wrong, it makes a job much quicker when using one but when you do encounter a tight one, guns are not going to help you out!
Where they do come in handy is as above, rotating components you can't hold properly, then they are a godsend. :)
 
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Matt82 said:
If you can do corded the Clarke 240v gun is very good. Does hub nuts for fun
Click to expand...

That clarke is utter utter crap for anything other than lug nuts, waste of time IMO.

You want to invest into a Snap on 18v if you are getting anywhat serious about diy.

It's the difference between 12 seconds and 30 minutes, it's the difference between an acheing stressed arm and a laugh.
 
You had broken yours then or youre talking about a different gun because if you read what you quoted from me, i said it has no issues with hub nuts
 
Fuzz said:
Generally speaking if it's properly tight/seized then a normal impact gun won't touch it anyway
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Depends on what you mean by "normal". A good air impact wrench will shift almost anything (or shear the head off in the process if you aren't careful).
 
Titanium Ingersol Rand 1/2" air - one of the highest removal torque guns on the market at the time I bought it. Used extensively in the trade and is pretty much the de-rigour air gun.

Seized bolts... no chance. Get the bar out and a bit of tube.
 
Budget is £100 so a worthwhile air gun is out of the window - especially if a compressor is also required.

The mains powered Clarke gun is more than adequate for most home mechanic needs. Lug nuts (wheel nuts for us Brits) will be no problem at all, in fact likely massive overkill.
 
The Clarke one looks to be rather large and heavy so probably rules it out. I think it looks like I'm going to be out of luck unless I up the budget annoyingly :(
 
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