Cordless drill vs impact driver – which should you choose?

Benefits of an Impact Driver

Impact drivers are powerful tools that use an impact mechanism to drive screws, drill holes, and can even be socketed to loosen nuts and bolts in a pinch. However, an impact driver and an impact wrench are not the same tool, and it’s certainly not ideal to take lug nuts off with your driver, so be aware that prolonged use like this will be inefficient and potentially damage the tool.

Extra Torque

While impact wrenches and impact drivers are different tools, they do use the same internal mechanism to get their work done, and this is what separates a driver from a cordless drill.

An impact driver doesn’t simply have a motor that turns the output shaft. Instead, it has a hammer and anvil system. The hammer spins rapidly in the tool and delivers percussive strikes to the anvil, creating short bursts of immense force that allow an impact driver to produce massive amounts of torque.

Less Vibration

Despite all this power, you won’t feel the torque as much on your end, because it is applied directly to the anvil and not throughout the entire tool like with a cordless drill.

Drive Larger Fasteners

All this torque also means that impact drivers are incredible at driving fasteners and when this impact mechanism came along, it revolutionised the construction industry because driving large fasteners was no longer a painful process of pre-drilling holes for every 3-inch screw needed.

You can also just drive larger fasteners in general with an impact driver, making it a better tool for driving longer screws, large amounts of fasteners, and even putting in lag bolts using an adapter.

Less Chance of Camming Out Screws

Everyone has tried to drive a screw only to have the drill bit spin wildly in the head and demolish the bit slot, making it basically unusable. With an impact driver, because the torque isn’t being constantly applied, the drill bit is able to fall back into the bit slot in between the bursts of torque from the impact driver, making cam-out an almost non-existent problem for this tool.

Lighter and Smaller

Impact drivers are a bit more compact than your average cordless drill and they tend to weigh less as well. This, combined with reduced vibration and not having to fight the rotation of the tool, like with a drill, means that impact drivers are often are more enjoyable tool to work with.

Benefits of a Cordless Drill

Cordless drills have a simpler mechanism behind them than impact tools, with a constantly rotating output shaft that is very singularly built for drilling. There are a few reasons you might want to still go with this power tool over an impact driver in certain situations.

Cordless Drills Are Better at Drilling

The main reason to get a drill over an impact driver is because it is much better designed for drilling. While an impact driver is fantastic for driving fasteners in thanks to its hammer and anvil design, this same mechanism is what makes it inefficient at drilling holes. A standard cordless drill will put a hole in wood faster because the output shaft is constantly rotating, while the stop and start of an impact driver is much less effective.

Working With Delicate Screws

Cordless drills are often a bit better at handling delicate and smaller screws because they have lower torque and a clutch that prevents overdriving and helps them to avoid burying fasteners.

Drills Are Generally Cheaper

Impact drivers are usually going to be more expensive than their drill counterparts and on top of the initial price of the tool, you need to buy special hex shank bits that can run the cost up if you need a lot of specialty drill bits for projects. These bits have to be suited for an impact tool, because the sheer force that the mechanism produces will shatter standard bits.

Impact Drivers Are Noisy

While a cordless drill isn’t exactly silent, it still makes quite a bit less noise than an impact driver. Because the mechanism inside impact tools is constantly creating percussive force in order to turn the anvil with a ton of torque, you’ll hear a lot of noise once the hammering kicks in, making them far noisier than a drill.

Which Tool Is Better?

At the end of the day, these are two tools that server similar but different purposes, and they’re both incredible tools in specific circumstances.

A cordless drill is probably going to be the better choice if you think you’ll be doing a lot of drilling holes and are less concerned about efficiently driving in screws. Because cordless drills are cheaper, they’re also a good choice for a casual DIYer who isn’t on a tight schedule and just wants a power tool that’ll do a decent all-round job and outperform their screwdriver.

On the other hand, if you’re going to be doing a lot of driving fasteners and need to drive large fasteners, then an impact driver is going to be the better option. It’ll likely also be the better choice if you’re working long days and need the reduced vibration and lighter design that an impact offers.

If you’re working in a professional setting where you are needing to constantly drill and drive screws, then your best option is to get both tools. The nice thing is that it’s extremely common to find these tools in two-packs and Milwaukee offer Power Packs at Repco that contain hammer drills and impact drivers together, allowing you to add masonry to your list of jobs.