Best Impact Drivers of 2024
Got a heavy-duty home improvement project to tackle? Our rigorous tests help you zero in on the ideal model for your needs.
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If you’re an avid DIYer, you need an impact driver.
To the untrained eye, an impact driver may seem like just another drill. But this extremely versatile cordless power tool drives screws more efficiently into wood, metal, and cement than traditional cordless drills can, making it a popular choice for heavy-duty home improvement jobs like building a deck or a fence.
“For any job involving driving more than a few screws, you really can’t beat the power and speed of an impact driver,” says Matt Schimmenti, CR’s test engineer for impact drivers and cordless drills. But it’s worth taking the time to find the right model. The best impact drivers can drive fasteners into hard materials like brick or concrete with ease, and drive screws into wood without the need to pre-drill holes; the worst fail to drive fasteners all the way in, or they lose their charge before you’re even half-done with your project. Our latest tests included models from big-name pro brands, including Festool, Makita, and Milwaukee.
Read on for reviews of five of our top-rated standard and compact impact drivers, listed in alphabetical order. And check out our roundup of the best cordless drills to expand your collection of power tools. For comprehensive buying advice, and to learn more about how impact drivers differ from cordless drills, see our cordless drill and impact driver buying guide.
Best Standard Impact Drivers
These full-sized impact drivers typically run on batteries ranging from 18 to 24 volts. They’re the best option for big jobs like building a deck or pergola.
Cat is a brand best known for its commercial excavation equipment, but its Cat DX71 impact driver provides a professional level of power at a reasonable cost. In addition to packing tons of power, it charges quickly, handles well, and provides ample run time, too. As with most models, this pick comes with a work case, a built-in LED light, and a battery-charge indicator on the charger. It has a standard three-year warranty. One caveat: Cat doesn’t make as many consumer power tools as some of these other brands, so if you want to swap batteries between all of your power tools, you may want to look for a brand with a more robust lineup of tools.
In the world of tools, Festool has an almost mythical reputation. The German brand is a favorite among high-end contractors, but their tools, including this TID 18 HPC 4,0 Plus impact driver are priced accordingly. The impact driver earned top marks for power and run time in our tests, thanks in part to its large 4.0-amp-hour battery. Like most models, it boasts an LED light, storage case, and battery-charge indicator. It also comes with two batteries and has a three-year warranty.
One of the highest-rated impact drivers of all sizes in our lab tests, the Flex FX1351-2A delivers stellar performance. Its power score is top tier, meaning the tool drives screws with ease, even into tough surfaces like laminated wood. This model also boasts top-notch run and charge times. Plus, it’s loaded with the features you’ll find with most models, including a battery-charge indicator, a storage case, a built-in bit storage holder, and an LED work light to help in low-light job conditions. And it comes with a generous five-year warranty.
Best Compact Impact Drivers
These smaller impact drivers typically run on batteries from 12 to 14 volts. Despite their smaller size, they pack plenty of power for jobs like installing cabinets or hanging shelves.
While it’s among the most expensive compact impact drivers in our ratings, the Makita XDT16R is a top performer all around. Its power, run time, charge time, and handling scores are all top-level, making this the only impact driver that knocked it out of the park in all four tests. Like most models of its class, it features an LED work light, which helps in low-light work conditions, a storage case, and a battery-charge indicator that displays how much juice is left. It has a standard three-year warranty.
The Milwaukee 2850-22CT costs less than the Makita XDT16R, but it still earns strong marks across the board in CR’s tests. This model’s run time and handling scores are both top-level, and its power and charge time ratings are above average, too. It’s also packed with the same features as the Makita but comes with a five-year warranty—two years longer than Makita’s three-year warranty.
How CR Tests Impact Drivers
We put impact drivers through their paces in our lab. To calculate an impact driver’s power score, we measure both the torque it can generate and the number of impacts per minute—unlike a cordless drill, an impact driver hammers, or impacts, a screw while it turns, dramatically speeding up the process. We make those assessments about power and impacts using a special machine called a dynamometer.
To assess run time, we measure how long a single battery can run the unit under a standardized load on our dynamometer. We also run tests to see how long it takes to fully charge the battery.
CR’s experts use each impact driver to drive screws into multiple layers of laminated beams, taking note of attributes, such as the balance and feel of the tool. We also look at the handle size and weight of the unit to determine an overall handling score.
Then we measure sound in decibels at the user’s ear to get a score for noise. Impact drivers tend to generate more noise than their similar-looking cordless drill cousins, and as it turns out, all the models we tested require hearing protection for safe use.
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