I build decks for a living and this is my second 1/4 inch Dewalt Impact Driver. I didn't think I could love a tool more than my first impact driver. Was I wrong! This is absolutely the greatest tool made for people who drive a lot of screws. There is virtually no hand torque compared to using a regular drill-driver, the impact mechanism does all the work for you. Second, the small size and lightweight won't wear out your arm from a day of driving hundreds of screws. The Nano battery is so light that when I first picked one up, I thought it must be a dislay dummy battery. Dewalt claims this battery has the same work rating as the NiCad battery but it sure seems to last much longer to me. If you drive lots and lots of screws, or just want a very lightweight driver, give this tool serious consideration. Yeah it is pricey, but for dedicated screw driving it can't be beat.
Some people have complained about the shutdown feature on the Nano battery. The battery shuts down when it reaches a certain discharge level to protect it from being drained too far, which is evidently not good for a lithium battery. I happen to love this feature for a couple reasons. One, it delivers nearly full power right up to shutdown. And as I stated above, this battery seems to last much longer than my NiCad batteries. By shutting down, it makes me avoid something we all do with NiCad when they run down, using the drill like a screwdriver to drive those last couple screws before changing the battery. This practice is very hard on the driver motor. Second, I believe this feature will result in longer battery life with more charge cycles because I will be charging the battery at the same level each time. One of the reasons for premature NiCad battery failure is inconsistent charging cycles, i.e. charging it when half dead one time and completely dead the next.
As for the fit of the new battery on older tools, who cares what it looks like? I don't want Dewalt making a battery bigger and heavier just for cosmetic reasons. I am glad this new Nano battery is more compact. I use my tools daily and size matters, the smaller and lighter the better. DEWALT DC827KL 18-Volt 1/4-inch Lithium Ion Impact Driver Kit with NANO Technology
this is a great tool made better. It will out drive and drill any of my regular drills with power to spare. This new Nano tech tool is even better due to the bright light that lights up the work. I used it the other day hanging some undercab lights and the bright light made finding the mounting hole a breeze. I gave my older model to my son because I liked this one so much better. The new lithium batteries sure made the weight easier to lug around. I can't say much about how long they last but I will be replacing my old ones with these new ones as they wear out!
I've been comparing this driver against the Milwaukee 2650, the Makita BTD141, the Ridged R8823, the Bosch 23618 Impactor and other drivers. All these drivers are excellent tools and I'd be happy with any of them.
To my amazement, one of the fastest drivers during my brief testing was the lightest weight driver which was the Dewalt DC827KL. This driver only weighed 2 pounds 2 ounces without a battery on my scale. And even though this driver specs out at 1,330in-lbs of torque (less than some of the other tools), it had no trouble breaking loose nuts torqued down well beyond this torque limit. And this driver is blazing FAST!
Just because a tool is rated at a given torque spec doesn't mean you'll have that much torque available at the bit or at all RPM's. The engineers behind this tool have done an incredible job of putting the torque to work to maximize its throughput because this tool out-drove all the other tools I tested it against in terms of speed.
And the battery technology behind the nano batteries from A123 systems is second to none. These nano batteries may not have the most amp hours when compared to some competing products, but amp hours don't tell the whole story. It's just a measure of capacity and doesn't tell you how much amperage can be dumped at a given instant or how long it can sustain dumping that much amperage, or how much capacity is lost after 1,000 charges or how much capacity is lost after a given period of time, etc, etc, etc. These nano-phosphate batteries from A123 systems that are used by Dewalt clearly stand above the other lithium ion chemistries currently being used by other cordless power-tool companies for several reasons including...
* They can provide much more amperage than other chemistries (Lithium Manganese, etc). When the tool needs its juice to drive hard as its being used under heavy load, these nano-phosphate batteries can supply a greater amount of sustained amperage to the components that need it where as other Lithium Ion battery chemistries such as from Moli Energy (Lithium Manganese) can't give the tool as much sustained amperage as the nano-phosphate batteries can. And this is one of the reasons why Dewalts tools work so well with these new nano-phosphate batteries.
* These nano-phosphate batteries have a much flatter self-discharge rate over time. In other words, you will not lose much capacity with these batteries compared to the batteries used by other cordless power tool companies.
* They offer a much higher cycle life when compared to the batteries used by other cordless power tool companies. If you're also a techno-geek, then look at the technical data (especially the charts) from the different battery manufactures that are being used in various cordless power tools and it will truly be an eye opening experience. These nano-phosphate batteries can be charged a heck of a lot more times than the other brands of batteries and they lose a heck of a lot less capacity over time and cycles than the other brands of lithium ion batteries. For instance, at a discharge rate of about 3 amps at 25c, the Lithium Manganese based batteries lose about 23% of their rated capacity after 300 cycles. But Dewalt's nano-phosphate based batteries from A123 systems only lose about 12% of their capacity after 1,000 cycles!
* And then there are issues regarding safety, durability, damage from overcharging, etc. And the nano-phosphate battery stands on top again as a safer battery technology in terms of storage, fire, etc, and it can withstand overcharging better than other chemistries which have been known to burst into flames due to issues with cell imbalance / overcharging.
Dewalt's nano-phosphate battery might not have as much amp hour capacity as other brands of batteries, but it sure does have some serious advantages that allows their tools to perform very well under load and with good value to the people who put these tools to serious heavy duty work on a daily basis. These new nano-phosphate batteries will bring new life to your older tools and the newer tools designed around these batteries will perform better than ever.
The DC827KL sure is a great driver, but it wouldn't be as good without the nano-phosphate battery. It would be interesting to see how Milwaukee's new 2650 or another brand of impact driver would perform with this battery technology. But Dewalt has it and it's a must have for the professional who earns his paycheck from using his tools. - Dewalt - 18v - Battery Packs - Lithium-ion'
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