am not happy with this product. i don’t know the reason but it spins out of screw quite often. my guess is it’s overpowered. i also have a 14v impact driver and it is just great.

Impact drivers have been around for a long time, but only in recent years available in this form. The popularity and use of screws for all types of projects has made the cordless drill/driver ubiquitous. Cordless impact drivers take this concept a step further. Utilizing rotory impacts that produce instantaneous torques much higher than a practical battery driven driver could produce as a continueous torque, the impact driver can drive screws with considerably less effort. The impact driver can be smaller yet drive larger(much larger)screws. It reduces the effort expended. It makes driving screws when in an awkward position practical. Also, fewer striped heads or screw torque-out occur with an impact driver. Impact Drivers spin at higher speeds than even the fastest drill/drivers, driving screws much more quickly, then when they sense resistance, automatically switch to impact mode. This higher speed is also good for drilling small holes thru metal, in that most drill/drivers run too slowly for this application. Finally most impact drivers will drive a 3/8ths diameter 6 inch long lag bolt into solid dry oak without a pilot hole easily, yet handle a light screw with precision and no fear of over-torqueing. If you don’t have one, get one.

The Makita LXT 18 volt Lithium Impact Driver is the best I’ve used, and I’ve used most of them. It is the right combination of battery power/capacity, weight and overall size, with an excellent feel. The batteries are easy to switch, and the charger is fast. The light is one of those features that looks gimicky but turns out to be really usefull. This is my second impact driver. The first being Makitas original 12 volt model. It took six years of hard use to wear out the batteries of the original, the driver itself is still going strong. As soon as I find the original 12 volt batteries for the right price I’ll replace them and have two drivers (very usefull). There are a couple of cons. The battery charger has a fan to control battery temp when charging. If you leave the battery in the charger the fan will run long after the charge is complete. The noise is agravating in an otherwise quiet shop. Really annoying on an otherwise terrific product. The single biggest con is the price. Come on Makita! This thing is just too expensive. Also Makitas solution of offering the same driver with a less capable battery at a lower price point is just plain dumb. Sounds like a dopey MBA’s idea. MAKITA! REDUCE THE PRICE OR YOU WILL LOSE YOUR MARKET SHARE! This is a very competitive area with good offerings from Rigid, Dewalt, Milwaulkee, and others. Makita leads the pack in tool quality but trails in value. The Makita LXT 18 volt Lithium-Ion Impact Driver would have gotten 5 stars if not for the price.

Piggy backing on the other reviews (weight, speed, torque, easy bit change [albeit it will only take the med length or longer hex bits, or adapters, as it locks in the bit like a ball bearing lock shackle does], etc), I’ll just mention my own experience.

First off, let me say this is near the very top of all my tools. I was driving in several dozen stretches of 2×2 redwood slats on top of a patio cover project, and my old 9.6v kit just couldn’t hack it. 1/2 of the 3″ gold deck screws either stripped out long before getting set in, and/or the bits were getting shredded. And only 20-25 screws a charge. It was pure aggrevation.

Ordered the LXT-600 kit which comes with one of these drills (yeah, I already own all of these tools corded, but lithium cordless…just needed an excuse). Like a prayer answered! Roughly 75-100 screws per charge, and only lost a few. In no time, like butter. Blew up a couple of Dewalt bits…just shattered them in half (use Apex, much better…this is what the carpenters who work at the school district with me use. More expensive, but…). I demo’d this baby to a buddy at work, and drove the same 3″ screw nearly all the way through a 4×4.

BUT, a warning (why the 4 1/2). After quick, long periods of shooting screws, this unit gets hot in the web of the thumb (if right handed). I had to wear a glove to keep going on the deck project. The other day I was using it to drive self-tapping screws to hold a wood deck down to a trailer (probably better done with a driver drill, I realized later, or pilot holes), and after running straight for 1/2-1 minute a few dozen times, I had a blister on my hand which turned into a 3/16 wide x 1/16 deep divet (now healing). I hope makita makes a snap-in deflector plate or cover for this area. I plan on calling them about it (sure they know already). A thin neoprene or fingerless glove (at minimum) would stop the problem. Other than that, this is a great tool.

My Mom and I purchased this for my father for Father’s Day and it has gotten a lot of use putting in my new kitchen cabinets. He couldn’t believe that we actually picked out the one he would have picked out and he loves it. He especially likes the light that comes on as it helps to see in tight, dark places like under cabinets!

I’ve been using this impact driver on a major deck rehab project, and it is worth every penny. It will drive a screw non-stop into anything. Hit a knot? Who cares? Just let it ratchet away on it for a while. And all without breaking your wrist with torque. Much less finicky than a driver drill with bit and screw head alignment and pressure as well.

It’s also fantastic at backing out old screws. Screws I couldn’t budge with my driver drill, or just starting stripping the head on, back out with no fuss.

However, it isn’t a replacement for a regular driver drill. There is no stopping at a particular torque setting. Forget using it on small screws. It’s basically for larger screws only.

You need to pay attention or it’s very easy to overdrive a screw too deep or strip the hole. With a little practice it’s not hard to feather/blip the trigger and get it right. But don’t let your attention wander. The transition between fast spin in on screw starting and the slower impact driving also takes a bit of getting used to.

It’s also loud. A half dozen screws won’t make you deaf. But more than than that and you’ll want hearing protection. (My neighbors keep wandering over to see what is making the strange racket.)

The snap/impact action also plays tricks on your eyes. You often get a wagon-wheel effect where it looks like the screw is turning backwards as you’re driving it in. Kind of disconcerting.

Overall though, I would buy this driver again in a heartbeat. I am very satisfied with the power and handling.