EBay Impact Wrenches

Firstly, the headline numbers are fairly meaningless on branded torque wrenches, so i'd expect them to be even more meaningless on a Chinese eBay special.

However, for £33...and if you already have Makita batteries, it's hard to think of a reason not to give it a whirl, especially as you can get the same thing from Chinese selling sites for £25 inc del. As long as you don't expect it to be anything special, anything more it does is great.

I've got a Ryobi impact wrench and it's not the most powerful thing in the world, but in reality it shifts old suspension bolts just fine. I've taken off loads of 10-15 year old pinch bolts, suspension arm bolts, ball joint bolts etc and the overwhelming majority whizz off in less than 3-4 seconds. Maybe 5% of them take 10-20 seconds before they free off but they all eventually free off safely. I'd imagine it'll be the same with this sort of thing.

If nothing else, it's so much safer taking of things with an impact wrench than with giant breaker bars that are at high risk of shearing bolts. Also an impact wrench allows you to free off bolts which are at high risk of being rounded by handtools as it's hard to keep the socket square (old brake disc bolts!) and they're also great for bolts which requires a counter wrench (shock absorber top nuts, ARB links, ball joint bolts).
 
Looks similar to the wrench in this 'review' by AvE, he seems to think it's really decent for the money (excuse his 'Canadianisms'). I'd have bought one if I didn't still have a NiCad Makita drill:

 
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I bought myself a mains powered gun, and it's been good for most stuff I have used it for so far. Some of the suspension components on the Mrs Audi were hard to sort due to limited access, but it's been used to buzz off locking wheel nuts, remove standard wheel nuts, and general motorbike stuff, really happy with it!
Silverstorm 593128
Max torque 350 Nm
 
If you have the batteries already it's potentially worth a try, but otherwise I agree with the first reply the headline figures tend to mean very little on these.

I also have a Ryobi impact that wasn't very expensive (c£120 with battery then I bought a 5ah for it too) and it's proven to be really useful so far just for how it shocks old stuff loose(particularly suspension and underbody things as mentioned) - it's clearly not as powerful as it claims though, the 520nm advertised for that will be mince
 
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Gaygle said:
Firstly, the headline numbers are fairly meaningless on branded torque wrenches, so i'd expect them to be even more meaningless on a Chinese eBay special.

However, for £33...and if you already have Makita batteries, it's hard to think of a reason not to give it a whirl, especially as you can get the same thing from Chinese selling sites for £25 inc del. As long as you don't expect it to be anything special, anything more it does is great.

I've got a Ryobi impact wrench and it's not the most powerful thing in the world, but in reality it shifts old suspension bolts just fine. I've taken off loads of 10-15 year old pinch bolts, suspension arm bolts, ball joint bolts etc and the overwhelming majority whizz off in less than 3-4 seconds. Maybe 5% of them take 10-20 seconds before they free off but they all eventually free off safely. I'd imagine it'll be the same with this sort of thing.

If nothing else, it's so much safer taking of things with an impact wrench than with giant breaker bars that are at high risk of shearing bolts. Also an impact wrench allows you to free off bolts which are at high risk of being rounded by handtools as it's hard to keep the socket square (old brake disc bolts!) and they're also great for bolts which requires a counter wrench (shock absorber top nuts, ARB links, ball joint bolts).
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I have the Ryobi one+ impact wrench, it's fantastic, I've no need to go Milwaukee etc as this has undone everything I've thrown at it. I even bought other one+ tools purely on the performance, the fluid transfer pump is pretty cool too. Not sure I'd go unbranded again after previous amazon/ebay buys that didnt last.
 
For home use, you cant really beat ebay specials when it comes to things like this, obviously get a decent socket set, spanners and anything safety related (jacks, stands etc) but for other tools I'm a advocate of buying cheap or at least mid range, if it breaks then it shows you need to spend a bit more otherwise its winner winner, you've only lost a few £ vs having £££ sitting in a toolbox barely used.
The only cheap tool thats let me down so far has been some bolt extractors.
 
adam cool dude said:
If you can save up get yourself an air compressor. Not only can it do many things. The rattle gun attachments are relatively cheap and very powerful. Initial cost is quite expensive but attachments are so much cheaper than battery equivalents.
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This really.

Not only what you said, but also air tools are often lighter and more compact making them easier to use in confined spaces.
 
adam cool dude said:
You could buy a decent compressor and gun for that price.
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But it’s not practical to take with you if your popping around your mates etc it’s on,y really any use if you only need it at home.

I have the Milwaukee 3/8” impact gun which is perfect for what I need although it won’t shift a bolt like a 1/2” would but then again I normally have access to compressed air unless I’m at home.

Did have a sealey one years ago but the batteries were a bit pants.
 
Scottland said:
I've got a DeWalt gun, and other than the weight it's really good. I already had DeWalt batteries so I just bought the bare unit for about £150. Worth it for me
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Yeah the DeWalt XR is a bit of a monster and an absolute bargain at £150. I would have got this one had i not already had the Ryobi One+. That said, there's a lot to be said for a more compact, less powerful impact wrench. There's been numerous times when i've *just* been able to get my Ryobi into a limited space. There's also been times where I wished I had something a little bit smaller like a Makita.
 
chaparral said:
But then you can only use it when you got the air compressor and electric close by

One very good thing about a cordless impact gun is you can keep it in the boot of the car for if you get a flat tyre..
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You shouldn't be doing up your wheels with a rattle gun and a simple tyre wrench will be able to change tyres. The fact is you very rarely have the need to take a rattle gun away from the garage and a compressor one is far better.

Using the little battery operated ones that use screwdriver bits I get completely as they are a godsend for diy.
 
Gaygle said:
Yeah the DeWalt XR is a bit of a monster and an absolute bargain at £150. I would have got this one had i not already had the Ryobi One+. That said, there's a lot to be said for a more compact, less powerful impact wrench. There's been numerous times when i've *just* been able to get my Ryobi into a limited space. There's also been times where I wished I had something a little bit smaller like a Makita.
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Yeah something smaller would be good as you can't always get a big heavy gun in some places sometimes. I do actually have a compressor too but haven't bought any air tools for it yet :p
 
adam cool dude said:
You shouldn't be doing up your wheels with a rattle gun and a simple tyre wrench will be able to change tyres. The fact is you very rarely have the need to take a rattle gun away from the garage and a compressor one is far better.
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Nearly every mechanic I have ever seen has used an impact gun to remove and fit wheels. But an impact gun has many more uses than just cars. Air fed has its uses as does a cordless, I’ll use my cordless far more than my air gun.
 
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