So I recently got rid of all of my 18v Snap-on cordless tools. I wasn’t very happy with them, mainly the 3/8 impact and just wanted to move on to something else. One main reason I wasn’t happy was the fact that I had to send the 3/8 and 1/2 in to snap-on within the first year of use, which I talked about in a pervious blog post. After I got them back from snap-on I could tell a difference but I still wasn’t completely happy and was worried about the longevity of the tools. My thing was for the very steep price tag on both tools, I just had a high expectation that was not met. So would I recommend these tools to someone? The 3/8 no, not at all. I feel like it is very underpowered and way over priced. The 1/2 on the other hand, sure if you want to send $700+ on an electric impact. I feel like the 1/2 would hold up for a while and it was pretty powerful.
Ok, lets move on. The DeWalt 1/2 completely blows the Snap-on 1/2 away, both in price and power. The DeWalt is a beast, it has been tested by many people and it puts out at least 1000 ft-lbs of working torque. The Snap-on is rated at 600 ft-lbs, so it’s really not even a comparison. You are getting twice the power at half the price with the DeWalt. All I can say is that I wish I would have never wasted my money on the Snap-on 1/2. The Snap-on isn’t by any means junk, it’s a very nice tool but there are just so many better options out there. My final word: If you’re a die heart Snap-on fan, buy the Snap-on 1/2. If you’re looking for the best bang for your buck, DeWalt is the only way to go. Another side note, Mac Tools makes a Mac branded version of the DeWalt 1/2 and its the exact same thing, just a little more expensive and it has a Mac Tools body. Another great feature of the DeWalt is that it has 3 power settings, which makes the tool very easy to fine tune depending on what you’re working on.
The Snap-on 3/8 18v…don’t buy it. Save your money and buy something else. It’s way over priced and way under powered. If you’re wanting to stick with Snap-on I would go with the 3/8 14.4v impact, it has about the same power as the 18v and is about half the size, which is sad because the 18v is supposed to have 230ft-lbs versus the 14.4v’s 120ft-lbs. I replaced my 18v Snap-on with a Mac Tools 3/8 20v max impact and the Mac impact once again blows the Snap-on away. The Mac impact is rated at 325ft-lbs and is cheaper by at least $100 than the Snap-on 18v 3/8. Another great thing with the Mac impact is that is a Mac branded DeWalt tool so all your 20v DeWalt batteries work in it. I also feel like the Mac is more compact than the Snap-on which is defiantly a plus. So for the price, size, and power the Mac 3/8 is an awesome buy if you’re looking to bridge the gap between the DeWalt 1/2 1000ft-lbs power house and the lower powered cordless tools.
I also got rid of my Snap-on 18v drill. I really have no complaints with it, I just thought it was pointless to keep if I was getting rid of all my other 18v Snap-on stuff. I may add a DeWalt 20v drill to my collection in the future, but for now I’m just going to use my DeWalt 12v drill.
In conclusion, I am a DeWalt fan. I have never been let down by anything I have owned by them. So if you’re asking me, I would tell you to save your money and buy DeWalt. I will say though, Snap-on’s 14.4v line is awesome and I will continue to use my 3/8 impact and both ratchets from that line. I also got a 20v DeWalt light in a package deal with the 1/2 and 3/8 impacts and it is an awesome light, I’ve used it a ton since I got it. I pick it up over all my other lights now. Below is a picture of my current cordless set-up. It will probably stay the same for a while now, might part ways with the porter cable grinder just because I don’t have anything else porter cable and don’t really plan on getting anything else.
