Firstly, what is an impact wrench? An impact wrench fastens up things like lug nuts, fasteners, bolts and other items it can access.
Taking off the lug nuts from a vehicle’s wheel is a tough job because something they stick in position and stubbornly don’t want to be undone.
This in a sense is both a good and bad thing; good because you don’t want a lug nut working loose and eventually leading to the wheel falling off the vehicle while it’s in motion down the highway and bad because you have a hell of a time getting the lug nut undone and removed!
Need for an Impact Wrench
It depends on the type of job whether you’re taking off lug nuts, bolts and fasteners regularly throughout the day in which case an impact wrench – and not a spanner – is going to be the better working tool.
Removing a bunch of lug nuts from a wheel to change an occasional tire is one thing. You only need to change the tire, replace the wheel, and then put the lug nuts back on and tighten each one sufficiently. However, if you’re working in a workshop where you’re regularly doing all four tires, then it’s a time-consuming matter and kind of tiring too to do it all manually.
Whether you require or would prefer a wireless or corded impact wrench is another matter though.
Cordless Impact Wrenches
The cordless impact wrench is based around being more portable because it doesn’t have the cord dragging after it. There’s no annoying long cord to move around the vehicle and avoid getting caught up on something. No problem with someone tripping over the cord and accidentally puling it out of the power outlet either.
They do require battery packs though. Usually a bunch of them to have one or more batteries ready to use. Using any power tool is only as good and can only be used usually when it has a workable battery available. You’ll need to continuously be charging up batteries when they’re not in use to avoid needing to use the cordless tool and finding that you don’t have a battery to go with it.
Fortunately, many times you’ll find that battery packs are usable across a range of power tools by the same manufacturer. They’re not always or usually transferable to other brands too; never assume they’ll work for all. But typically, when you have a Makita power tool, for instance, its batteries for their cordless tools work with many of their wireless tools.
Corded Impact Wrench
A corded impact wrench offers many of the same features but requires a power outlet to get the electricity it requires. Because of this, it offers more torque than most wireless cordless impact wrenches off. Bear in mind though that more torque isn’t always the solution as applying too much torque can mess up a nut you’re trying to remove.
The corded version is also lighter in your hand, even though it has the cable behind attached. There’s no battery weighing it down, so a small-handed person or someone with less upper body strength might prefer a corded version. Not having to deal with recharging batteries is less hassle too.