The next impressive cordless impact driver we will be looking at is the Makita BTD142HW cordless impact driver. This tool has lots of great features, and is similar in size to the DeWalt DC827KL that we just looked at. Lot’s of power in your hands. That’s the best way to sum up this tool.
I always like tools that provide versatility, and in this case, this is a well built impact driver that can be used for many household or work site tasks. This impact driver provides quite a bit of versatility. What type of versatility are we talking about?
How about these examples:
- Fastening lug nuts on a car – think of how much easier it will be to change tires on your car with an impact driver
- Drilling holes – in many types of materials
- Fastening screws – you’ll be able to drive 4 or 5 inch screws into hardwood with ease
- Tightening bolts – quick action and power
And these are just a few examples of what can be done with this impact driver. Read the rest of this review to learn more about what’s in the kit, what type of specs this impact driver has, and how balanced it will feel in your hands.
A Balanced Feel
The Makita BTD142HW has a great feel when you behold it in the palm of your hand. It will fit like a glove, and that is not really exaggerating, this is what most buyers say. If you haven’t had a chance to hold it in a store, that is okay, you can pretty much know that this will feel good in your hands.
A well balanced tool is also the key to reducing fatigue, and this driver has great balance. You will be able to drive screws into that new deck of yours all day long. All without suffering the fatigue you may experience using a standard style drill.
This impact driver also only weighs 2.8 pounds with battery.
This Impact Driver has Power
This impact driver has plenty of torque. It is built around a Makita built four-pole max torque motor that delivers:
- 1,280 in-lbs of maximum torque
- 0-2.300 RPM no load speed
- 0-3,200 Impacts per minute
This drill has enough power to drive concrete screws without pilot holes, as someone once said.
A Quick Look at the Specs
We already went over the power that this unit has to offer, and the fact that it only weighs 2.8 pounds. What are some of the other specifications of the Makita BTD142HW?
- 5 3/4 inch overall length
- Hex shank of 1/4″
The short length of this driver makes it useful in tight situations where space is at a premium. Just think about the last time you were unable to get a good angle on fastening a bolt with your normal sized drill. Sometimes it’s just hard to get a good angle in the tight spots. This driver will be able to squeeze into spots that you normally wouldn’t be able to get at with a normal sized drill with a longer length.
Long Lasting Batteries
One of the more impressive features of this cordless impact driver is the battery life, charge time and cycles. The 18v lithium ion batteries last a long time. You will be surprised at how long you can use this drill before you have to swap the batteries.
And when you do have to swap the batteries, if you plug the drained battery into the charger right away it will be fully charged in about 15 minutes.
This is what makes this drill so useful. If you keep the batteries fully charged before a day of work, you will be able to get a lot of work in before running out of battery power.
The batteries can also be charged and recharged up to 2,ooo cycles according to the specifications. If you actually recharge your batteries that many times, then congratulations to you on all the work that you accomplished over that period of time! For rigorous use, it may take years to wear out the batteries to the point of needing to be replaced.
Good battery life is very important to me, there is nothing worse than suddenly needing to use a tool and finding that the batteries are not charged. This happened to me a lot with my older tools using NiCad or even less advanced batteries. These new Lithium Ion batteries always hold their charge while they sit waiting on the shelf and they take a long time to expend all their energy. It’s almost the exact opposite of what I was used to using with my older drill.
These batteries and the charger are also “smart”. They use computer chips to communicate with each other during the charging process – which controls the current, voltage and temps to optimize the longevity of the batteries.
The charger also has a built in fan to keep the batteries cool during charging. Those are some nice touches to help preserve battery life, and it will show as you use this drill over the years.
What’s In The Kit? What About a Warranty?
The Makita BTD142HW 18-Volt compact impact driver comes with a case, 2 18 volt lithium ion batteries and a rapid charger.
You also get a 3 year warranty on the tool and a 1 year warranty on the batteries and charger. This is pretty standard in the industry and should help cover you in case you need to work out any bugs during those first vital few months of operation.
Nice Extra Feature: The LED Lights
One nice extra touch with this impact driver is the LED ring lights that act as a “flashlight” to help see the bits and driving/drilling surface during low lit conditions.
This is very handy in darker indoor situations such as basements, crawl spaces or even just low-lit rooms. It is also very handy if you are working into the evening and it begins to get dark while you need to continue to work to wrap up your long day. It sounds like a fairly trivial feature at first, but the first time it comes in handy, you’ll really appreciate the light.
Overall the Makita BTD142HW compact impact driver is a great tool, and if this is about the size of impact driver you are looking for, you really can’t go wrong here.
