I have six different, no, make that eight different battery platforms, and don’t see having different platforms as an issue. The tools are used in different locations between two houses 2000 miles apart, a shop, a garage, and a “rental “ house where my wife’s 90 year uncle lives. Sure beats dragging my 80 gallon compressor around. I haven’t replaced a battery since the industry switched to Lithium a dozen years ago.
Ridgid batteries and cordless tools have a lifetime warranty as long as you register them within 90 days of purchase. I have a boatload of them and never have had to use the warranty. Some are at least 8 years old.
I have a 3/4" gun for the Dual wheels on my COE. It has been to Indy several times, given to me by my friend Rolla Vollstedt.
I have a Snap on 1/2 inch battery powered impact that is handy for on the road or at the track but it is heavy. I have enough air hose I can get anyplace on my property to use my air tools.
I saw a guy on youtube, always took at least 1 of his 12V TOOLS To The U-PULL-IT to use for testing stuff. South Main Auto channel. All late model stuff but his basic chasing down open/broken wires and open circuits methods are valid across all things 12V. Saved me several dollars on OT stuff I have to keep on the road. Good Luck.
I’ve had an Ingersol Rand 2131 for about 23 years in my box at work. Still works perfectly with plenty of torque and it’s adjustable. ****erfly for the lighter stuff. Can’t stand battery powered stuff since it seems like anytime I need one working the battery takes a **** or just gives up the ghost completely. $200 for 23 years I’d say that is waaay less than the cost of replacing batteries for that amount of time.
I have a 1/2" Milwaukee 18V impact that is great and a 1/4". I have a DeWalt 1/4" impact its a good tool. One of the Milwaukee batteries died and I put it aside for the hazardous waste. One day I decided to see if the battery could be revived. I found a Youtube on how to revive a battery by connecting the dead battery to a second fully charged battery to put some charge in the dead one. The charger did not recognize the battery when it was totally discharged but saw it with some charge from the donor. The battery came back to life and has been fine for the last year. The same thing happen with a smart charger not recognizing a totally dead aircraft battery. We had to use an old regular battery charger to get it charged.
The two key points are Lithium batteries and 8 different battery platforms. The industry switched to Lithium and they do seem to live a lot longer than the old batteries did. They also increased the voltage in most of the tools. So I agree that battery life appears not to be problematic from that point of view..... but battery replacement cost when one or more eventually fails is a big consideration. Buying 8 different batteries and chargers vs buying 1-3 batteries and one charger doesn't seem cost efficient, and if you need more than one tool for an all day job somewhere other than your primary location, you may need to take all/several chargers with you. The Lithium batteries supplied with most tools is usually a 2AH unit . They are pretty hardy, but most people opt for a 4AH as an extra. Using one type of platform usually means you end up with several interchangable batteries that came with the other tools. Then you pretty well have plenty of power no matter what you are doing. BUT..........I still think an air powered impact is best for really hard to remove nuts. That's my story and I'm stickin to it.................
Yes, I agree that was my dislike as well..........but you will be pleasantly surprised with the difference todays tools make and with battery life. Just choose a brand that has more affordable batteries before you buy one. I really think you will like one of those small impact drills that get rusty screws out much easier when at the junk yard or away from the shop. Like I mentioned earlier, try the Kobalt and if you don't like it they will refund your money for 30 days. Might even be longer than that.....but I bet you will keep it.
I've got two 1/2" 18volt Milwaukee impacts and use them both, usually the smaller one. Both are about 10 years old and are still using the original batteries. The larger one will break wheel stubs if you overdo it. I did use my air impact the other day just to see if it still worked and it worked great. I do like the sound it makes, you can pretend you're part of a racecar pitcrew. My wife bought me a Milwaukee 12 volt pop rivet gun when I was rebuilding an enclosed race trailer. It's a fantastic tool to have and it can sit on the shelf for months without charging and is always ready to use.
This reminds me of the Youtube video a guy made riding his brand new electric bike. Video last pretty long of him riding around town. All the sudden the elec bike is smoking he pulls over jumps off the bike with his video camera and the bike is lying on the ground and it bursts into flames as he is filming. He films it for a good 15 minutes burning. No fire trucks come , a few people stop and watch the flames and black smoke ... LOL !
The big, high pressure, high volume, air compressor is here and has been paid for for many years. There is enough hose here to reach anyplace I'm going to need an impact gun. I have an older 1/2 drive impact gun with 600 ft/lbs torque, it to has been paid for, for many years. When this air impact gun dies, I'll buy another air powered one. I'm not doing enough around here anymore to warrant the expense of investing in battery powered tools. I too was one of those guys that had the "always dead battery" experiences with the old style battery power tools years ago, I just don't trust the new stuff enough to take a chance. We have an 18 volt modern battery powered weed whip, I'm not impressed with having to carry two batteries along to trim the weeds around here.
The Jalopy Journal
