Are airtools dead or dying?

[Mr_B]

^ +1 on side by side, great if mobile or don't want air compressor but if serious on shop tools you going have air and air tools have bigger range and far far cheaper.
No way I could use battery tools only in garage repair full time, battery impacts are too big for lot of tasks and small ones lack power big time .

 

[deberly12]

Incorrect!

A small compressor will run an impact just fine. You may have to wait a minute for it to refill every now and again, but no biggie.

So much misinformation in this thread. Seems most of the responses on impacts and such are from users who are not using anything close to the latest generation of cordless tools.

Well I have a 30 gallon compressor and even when full at 125psi I could only get 2-3 good impacts out of a small 1/2 in impact before it would start slowing down.

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[Schurkey]

Cordless is for the 'occasional' use.

Every time I wanted to use my cordless drill, the damned batteries had self-discharged, and needed hours to re-charge. "Occasional" use was therefore impossible without keeping one battery on the charger forever, and exchanging the "charging" battery every day or two.

Unless you use the cordless tools every day, or every other day, they're a damned nuisance.

OTOH, I fire up the compressor, and in less than five minutes I have all the air-power I'll need. Dragging an air hose is FAR less bother than trying to keep batteries charged.

 

[Citation]

Every time I wanted to use my cordless drill, the damned batteries had self-discharged, and needed hours to re-charge. "Occasional" use was therefore impossible without keeping one battery on the charger forever, and exchanging the "charging" battery every day or two.

Unless you use the cordless tools every day, or every other day, they're a damned nuisance.

OTOH, I fire up the compressor, and in less than five minutes I have all the air-power I'll need. Dragging an air hose is FAR less bother than trying to keep batteries charged.

Li-ion batteries have really helped in this regard. Their self discharge rates are much lower so you really can expect a battery charged two months back to have decent charge today. This is one of the reasons I haven't bothered to get new NiCad batteries for my otherwise nice Dewalt.

 

[Mr_B]

Well I have a 30 gallon compressor and even when full at 125psi I could only get 2-3 good impacts out of a small 1/2 in impact before it would start slowing down.

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I've run 1/2" impact wrenches and hammers off 3.5hp belt drive 125ltr portable compressor no problem. would assume compressor setup/hose has some problem be that poor or gun old and cfm ridiculous . my facom stubby seems just as good on that setup at 120psi as when in the shop on 135psi.
even the rivet hammer gun no much bother but odd break needed keep hits max hard.

 

[crewchief888]

to answer the OP's question, i dont think air tools are dead or dying..

i have some cordless tools in my service truck, 18v milwaukee fuel 3/8" dr impact is probably my most used tool, followed by a 12v LED flashlight.
having a 1/2" dr cordless drill is nice to have, as well as an 18v fuel cordless grinder.

most of the time i can get my service truck close enough to what i'm working on, i can fire up my compressor to run air tools if i need to, however there are times i may be several hundred feet away working, on upper floors or a basement in a building.

out in the garage if i need an impact or die grinder, the compressor is there, for grinding and drilling i have corded tools. i do keep a 12v milwaukee drill and impact driver on hand.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

Air tools still have their place.

At home I use a cordless impact wrench, drills, grinders, etc. My 25 gallon compressor won't keep up with air hungry tools, now I just use it for nail guns and filling the occasional tire. But at work (RV Tech) air tools are the way to go for me. Unlimited air supply everywhere, and no need to worry about batteries running out. The only cordless tool I use at work is my 1/4" impact driver.

 

[deberly12]

Well it had 1/4 fittings on the hose. But this shouldn't have been that much of a problem. The gun was a brand new Craftsman. The 400 ft-lb model. I demanded my money back and won't get another. My Milwaukees are on the way and it will probably be a while till I try an another air impact.

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[anndel]

Nothing beats an air tool for tire and suspension work imo all can be done with cordless too but size to wait ratio still beats any cordless tool for brakes,suspension and tires

For engine repair it's a toss up I use my cordless ratchet mostly for valve covers and t belts and water pumps

/\ /\ /\ Ditto

 

[dsimatt]

When I started my job 11 years ago I was the only one with a cordless impact, now all but a couple guys have one but still 90% of the time air tools are used first.

The biggest issue for me is the cost of cordless is a lot more and when my snapon's die I will be switching over to Milwaukee to spread out the battery costs between a lot of different tools at home and work.

 

[thatguysb]

Personally if i had a excellent source of air and is quiet enough not to wake my neighbors. Air all the way. Air tools are extremely reliable and long lasting, air drills, saws and die grinders are amazing tools for fab work. No electric could compete.

 

[crucible]

My Bosch 1/4 18v lithium impact driver has been great, but I'm wary too of battery tools having gone through a few sets over the years that became useless when the batteries died and not worth buying new ones.

How bout corded? If you have a compressor, then you have electricity nearby, and are used to running tools with hoses attached.

I've got a very good Milwaukee 1/2" corded impact that does what I need it to do very well (Joe backyard mechanic here). I actively keep my eye out for a 3/8" or smaller 1/2 corded.......

 

[deberly12]

From an efficiency stand point....air is very inefficient. Let's remove anything gas powered from the equation. All three types get their power from the wall outlet at some point. Let's call this our starting point because that is where we pay for it. Lets talk drills for instance. Every transfer of energy as well as other things is an efficiency loss. A corded tool turns wall power directly into rotational power. There is motor loss and friction as well as some heat from resistance but all in all fairly efficient. With cordless wall power charges a battery that give off electric energy that turns the motor. All the loss of the corded as well as the heat of the battery and the charger.

With air you start with wall power. In the compressor it becomes rotational then linear then pressure. This pressure then moves through a regulator, fittings, a (typically) long hose and other flow control devices. After all of that it finally reaches the drill and becomes rotational. Each point has loss. In the end the overall system efficiency is a fraction of that of a corded or even a cordless tool.

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[sberry]

It's why we really use 4 1/2 electric for most grinding, so much cheaper to operate.

 

[rlitman]

From an efficiency stand point....air is very inefficient...

So? How much do you think you spend on running air tools vs running electric?

The cost of either is negligible. The same argument is made for inverter vs transformer welders. The efficiency does not really enter the debate.

 

[deberly12]

So? How much do you think you spend on running air tools vs running electric?

The cost of either is negligible. The same argument is made for inverter vs transformer welders. The efficiency does not really enter the debate.

For the most part you are correct. But everything adds up and it is interesting none the less. If efficiency never entered the debate we would still be hesting all of our homes with a fireplace. My 30 gallon 6.5 scfm air compressor is 15 amps and is small by air tool standards. If it runs 3 hours a day for a year it will add up to $200 dollars. Like you said not make or break the argument but as an engineer I always look at the most efficient way to do things.

 

[sberry]

air is used to get work done. Not because it is energy effecient but truth be told I can do it all with a couple air ratchets and 1/2 air gun. I can get it in for suspension, can make it work where it needs to and given good socket collection it fits in all these typical places without having to resort to smaller tools.
In fact the older I get the more I reach for a larger drive size and don't brutalize my 3/8 ratchets anymore the way I did when I was a sprout. 1 will last the rest of my career. I wore a couple out early on, still should have the old cman rounds if I would learn this earlier.
Having said that if I had a particular app, was under a good in front of an engine most every day would tailor tools just for it.
Now that I think about it has been months since I do much anything under a hood didn't involve a battery except for a plug clean on 1 old truck, they remove easy, by hand and finger turn.