While neither of these two were the first to the brushless party, Panasonic launched their first Brushless tool in 2006 with many others since. However most of these tools have been priced in the $400 plus range which puts them a little out of the comfort zone for most of us. As these kits and bare tools start to fall into the range of other tools many people are going to take a more serious look at upgrading.
Milwaukee M18 Fuel & Brushless Technology
Milwaukee Fuel was first announced last November at the STAFDA trade show (see our post) with lots of excitement. The “Fuel” platform does use brushless motor technology as well as receive some upgrades to the electronic power delivery. The interesting choice Milwaukee made was to develop their drill/drivers 2603-22 ($279, Ohio Power Tool) and hammer drills 2604-22 ($299, Ohio Power Tool) first before launching the M18 Fuel Impact tool 2653-22 (should be coming in a few months). The M18 drill/drivers and hammer drills will use this technology to push the limits of power, runtime and durability on all three fronts. Topping out at a very impressive 725 in lbs of torque, the most of any major brands 18v, 24v, 28v or 36v check style hammer drill. That is a lot of power to contain; we would definitely recommend the side handle with these ones. Expect to see these on the shelves this month.
DeWalt 20V Max Brushless Impact Driver
Just yesterday we posted our initial thoughts on the first DeWalt 20V DLF895C2 Impact Driver we got to see. Some nice features with the new bit system and mechanical 3-speed switch but in terms of power (1500 in lbs) certainly not the most powerful impact driver. What they did do was to try to utilize the all the saved energy and come up with the longest possibly runtime. The stat we were given was 53% longer runtime vs their brush impact on the same DeWalt 20V system. Pretty impressive for basically a motor swap. These should be on shelves in April.
Unfortunately at this point we haven’t got our hands on either for more than a brief minute. The real question will be is DeWalt talking up their push on runtime because they know they won’t have the most power? Or will the push toward longer runtimes hold true and give consumers options in terms of more powerful vs longest runtime? Perhaps the red team has really figured out the power tool trifecta of most power, longest runtime and most durable with FUEL? Rest assured we will get to the bottom of this puzzle soon enough.
For now you will have to be content to judge both on these tool competitors on their well funded marketing micro-sites and videos. No questions these tool companies are embracing multimedia! See DeWalt Brushless micro-site vs Milwaukee Fuel micro-site and see who you like better. Probably would not make you buying decision off that alone however.