Anybody Own The Harbor Freight 18v Impact Driver?

LawnDart79 · Apr 19, 2011

Does anybody own this 1/4" 18v impact driver?

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-4-quarter-inch-18-volt-cordless-impact-driver-67028.html

If so, what is your opinion of it? If I bought it, it would only be for occasional use. I realize it's no Makita or Milwaukee and don't expect it to be.

Back in the day, I bought one of the cheapo blue 14.4v cordless drills and I still have it and use it today. It's been a good tool and I'm quite surprised at how well it has held up. It's lasted far longer than I ever expected. This is one of the reasons I'd consider purchasing another cordless tool from HF.

If anybody has this tool, please give me your honest opinion of it.

LawnDart79 · Apr 20, 2011

What, nobody owns this tool???

Well, I guess I'll have to be the first, cough up $35 for tool, battery, and charger and try it for myself. For $35, it's worth the gamble.

greasemonkey44 · Apr 20, 2011

popular mechanics or someone wrote up most of the impact drivers
they said its the cheapest by far, good for a starter to see if they like/need an impact
im sure itll drive screws like no tomorrow til it burns up
im interested to see if you like it, i do alot of volunteer work; and would like to know how well they work. practically disposable at that price
i have a m12 by milwakee that is fantastic, only 100$

creativecars · Apr 20, 2011

I bought one and it has done the job so far, but I really have not used it that much yet. It is still on its first charge, which was 2 months ago. I am impressed with how long that charge has stayed up. I got the tool for 19.99 -20%, and at a later time got the battery 9.99 - 20%. I did pay full 4.99 for the charger. There is a little LED light that is aimed at the screw head that may help in the dark, but I'm not sure. I was surprised the base/battery area rotates on the body of the driver. It seems ok so far.

John316 · Apr 20, 2011

I own this and have used it daily for about 5 months. For the money it's a great tool.

I have a Dewalt impact driver that will run circles around it though. In the work I do I remove/replace probably at least 200-300 screws a day in plastic and aluminum (I do warranty repairs on Electronic and Display products) and occasionally I need a bit of extra power and something that is easy on my wrist.

Pros: Inexpensive. It owes me nothing at this point. Powerful for a drill/driver in it's price range. Great Battery life so far (lasts me 3 full days!). Pretty durable. Easy on the wrist. Handy light on base.

Cons: Bulky, heavy and weak compared to my Dewalt LI 18v impact. It would only be a backup for doing any construction or building project, etc. The brake is starting to slip a bit.

For my purposes, it's great, but I have put it in a different class than the Dewalt I have and the Makita models I have used. In fairness though, the HF is rated for 850in lbs (possibly "optimistic") where most of the expensive 18v impacts are more like 1300in lbs.

Worth the $20

DanCo · Apr 20, 2011

+1 on the OP question, I'm currently in need of a cordless impact. As I'm just starting to get back on feet, I don't have the $$ for a Makita or IR I was looking at this. $20 for the gun, but for the same price as the charger & battery HF has a coupon for the drill/battery/charger-$15. I'll more than likely buy it next week. But more input from other would be nice.

creativecars · Apr 20, 2011

DanCo said:
+1 on the OP question, I'm currently in need of a cordless impact. As I'm just starting to get back on feet, I don't have the $$ for a Makita or IR I was looking at this. $20 for the gun, but for the same price as the charger & battery HF has a coupon for the drill/battery/charger-$15. I'll more than likely buy it next week. But more input from other would be nice.

At first I bought the drill set that I think you are looking at, thinking I would share the battery and charger, as it turned out, it is a different battery than the driver uses, and since I already have a couple 18v drills, I took it back and got just the driver. If you need a drill than get the drill, but the driver is a different animal, both very useful tools. The driver is like a little impact and is rated in “in/lb of torque” instead of a regular drill with descent torque.

timtim2008 · Apr 20, 2011

will it remove a tire lug?

greasemonkey44 · Apr 20, 2011

~71 ftlbs of torque, you wont be running lugs off with out breaking them first
its a light cheap impact more for woodwork, carpentry, light mechanics

creativecars · Apr 20, 2011

timtim2008 said:
will it remove a tire lug?

At 800 inch/pounds and 1/4" drive, I doubt it,
unless your working on a Barbie Jeep :bounce:

gsport · Apr 21, 2011

in the ad, there was 31 reviews... did ya read any of those??

Stick Figure · Apr 21, 2011

I just picked up the cheap drill tonight because i forgot my Makita twins at work and we needed to put up a couple pieces of drywall where we had removed a window. You might get by with it for a while, but what a weak pos drill. I should have just bought the second set of Makitas for the house that i have been wanting. I know we are talking about almost $200 difference in price, but i just can't see $20 worth of value in the drill. hope the impact works better than the drill.

shampoop · Apr 21, 2011

costs literally 10X less than mine. Then again, it wouldn't work for my purposes. But for the average homeowner who will realistically only use it for maybe a handful of projects and where using a bulky tool isn't really an issue, probably a great deal.

moose knuckle · Apr 21, 2011

I bought one, dont care much for it. My Milwauke 14v drill drives screws better/faster, but it has its places where the impact makes it useful.

LawnDart79 · Apr 21, 2011

gsport said:
in the ad, there was 31 reviews... did ya read any of those??

I did read those. I have learned from experience that sometimes the review of a tool here is far different than the review of the same tool on the HF website. ...so I thought I'd ask.

creativecars · Apr 21, 2011

Stick Figure said:
I just picked up the cheap drill tonight because i forgot my Makita twins at work and we needed to put up a couple pieces of drywall where we had removed a window. You might get by with it for a while, but what a weak pos drill. I should have just bought the second set of Makitas for the house that i have been wanting. I know we are talking about almost $200 difference in price, but i just can't see $20 worth of value in the drill. hope the impact works better than the drill.

Did it get the screws in, and the drywall up? Was that not of value if you got the job done? Did you get the cheapest drill HF has and expect it to work like the Makita?
BTW.. My dad has an old Makita that he thinks is great because of the name. My HF does 10X the work that thing will do, and the battery is cheap too, replace if I want to.

creativecars · Apr 21, 2011

LawnDart79 said:
I did read those. I have learned from experience that sometimes the review of a tool here is far different than the review of the same tool on the HF website. ...so I thought I'd ask.

I agree, I take those on the HF site with a grain of salt. I appreciate the people here on GJ that use tools and understand the difference between cheap and value.

Stick Figure · Apr 21, 2011

creativecars said:
Did it get the screws in, and the drywall up? Was that not of value if you got the job done? Did you get the cheapest drill HF has and expect it to work like the Makita?
BTW.. My dad has an old Makita that he thinks is great because of the name. My HF does 10X the work that thing will do, and the battery is cheap too, replace if I want to.

Job took far too long waiting on the drill, i didn't expect it to be as good as any of the Makita products i own or have owned but i didn't expect it to be an absolute low powered noisy POS either. The forward reverse switch is rough to engage, clutch adjustment didn't even want to move, and the battery better be cheap, its a ni-cad. that's at least 2 generations old in the affordable battery world.

Don't get me wrong i'm not a HF basher by any means, and have some of their products at home and work that i use quite a bit, but i just can't recommend that drill to anyone. Oh and before someone suggests this is just a bad version this is actually number 2, number 1 was broken when i opened the sealed box in the parking lot, cracked in half.

shampoop · Apr 21, 2011

Stick Figure said:
Job took far too long waiting on the drill, i didn't expect it to be as good as any of the Makita products i own or have owned but i didn't expect it to be an absolute low powered noisy POS either. The forward reverse switch is rough to engage, clutch adjustment didn't even want to move, and the battery better be cheap, its a ni-cad. that's at least 2 generations old in the affordable battery world.

Don't get me wrong i'm not a HF basher by any means, and have some of their products at home and work that i use quite a bit, but i just can't recommend that drill to anyone. Oh and before someone suggests this is just a bad version this is actually number 2, number 1 was broken when i opened the sealed box in the parking lot, cracked in half.

I LOVE everything about my $200 makita impact driver. So if there is a "similar" product on the market that costs only $20, I would 100% expect all of those negative aspects you mentioned. That's what happens when you buy something TEN times cheaper new than pro grade stuff.

creativecars · Apr 21, 2011

Stick Figure said:
Job took far too long waiting on the drill, i didn't expect it to be as good as any of the Makita products i own or have owned but i didn't expect it to be an absolute low powered noisy POS either. The forward reverse switch is rough to engage, clutch adjustment didn't even want to move, and the battery better be cheap, its a ni-cad. that's at least 2 generations old in the affordable battery world.

Don't get me wrong i'm not a HF basher by any means, and have some of their products at home and work that i use quite a bit, but i just can't recommend that drill to anyone. Oh and before someone suggests this is just a bad version this is actually number 2, number 1 was broken when i opened the sealed box in the parking lot, cracked in half.

I understand. I have used some of the really cheap 12V stuff and it wasn't worth charging. I ended up with a Skil set about 3 years ago and recently picked up the newer lithium ion battery, it really bumps up the usefulness. I am hoping this new HF 18V group of tools that everything is separate is a better quality. So far the little driver has done everything I needed it to.

chewy7 · Apr 21, 2011

i would use a screwdriver by hand before i would by that pos

creativecars · Apr 21, 2011

shampoop said:
I LOVE everything about my $200 makita impact driver. So if there is a "similar" product on the market that costs only $20, I would 100% expect all of those negative aspects you mentioned. That's what happens when you buy something TEN times cheaper new than pro grade stuff.

Wasn't Stick talking about a drill, not a driver.
The OP was asking about the driver.
I did get one, but have not worked it hard yet. It had no problems with 30 3" deck screws into 75 year old oak. My drill would have grunted at that. :bounce:

LawnDart79 · May 29, 2011

UPDATE:
I purchased the HF impact driver and so far I like it. I used it for a couple days to run in some 2 1/2" and 3" screws and such with no problems. I used to use my 9.6v makita to run in screws but with this thing, I don't have to do that anymore.

How long will it last...who knows, but it's working well so far.

shady1070 · Jun 26, 2011

After a month now, Are you happy with the impact driver? Or do yo wish you bought a more expensive model?

creativecars · Nov 29, 2012

Update, After a year and a half of use, it is still going strong. I am going to get another battery so I can keep one charging. I like the idea of a bare tool and you can get as many batteries as you want and for only 14.99 per battery its a pretty good deal. This would be killer with a Lithium battery.

Wangstang · Jul 31, 2013

Any one still have one of these around?

If so, can you please post some measurements. I've got a small project that involves adding some bracing to some floor joists and I need to know if I would have room to actually fit this impact driver in the space.

It looks like there is a newer version out:
http://www.harborfreight.com/18-volt-cordless-14-hex-impact-driver-68853.html
but it doesn't have as high of a torque rating.

The old Drillmaster model is still available with the higher torque ratings and extra batteries, so if it will fit where I need it, it would be the better choice I think.

Thanks
Wes

Josey Wales · Aug 1, 2013

I have both of these. The older one I couldn't advise anyone to buy unless they told me it would be used for light duty only.
The newer one is night and day the better tool. To me it's as good as an entry level name brand tool. The problem is that for a few dollars more....you could have that entry level name brand tool. IMHO

Rico. · Aug 1, 2013

chewy7 said:
i would use a screwdriver by hand before i would by that pos

Until you've used that "POS" your post means nothing more than wear and tear on your keyboard.

Anybody Own The Harbor Freight 18v Impact Driver?

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