1/2 in. 300 ft. lbs. Impact Wrench

I recently purchased the Husky 1/2 in. 300 ft. lbs Impact Wrench from The Home Depot to use with high impact sockets. So far I have enjoyed the performance of the Impact Wrench. It is a solid tool. I would recommend it if you are looking for a basic Impact Wrench. The Husky name speaks for itself.

It worked great torquing my nut on my motorcycle

does exactually what i need it to for work bes money ive ever spent

The impact wrench came with a compressor that I purchased new. The same week I attempted to rotate the tires on my car using the new impact wrench and it would not even budge the nuts. I checked and double checked the torque setting and it was set on the most torque. The air compressor was more than big enough to allow the removal of the tires. I then got my 'old' impact wrench that I had for almost 30 years and it removed the tires with little effort. I often wonder why a company would give you a tool that they know is inferior and will not do the job for you when they could give you a better tool and the extra expense would pay for itself in future sales and word of mouth sales. On a positive note...the 3/8 ratchet wrench they gave me seemed to work well.

This is my first experience with an impact wrench but found this tool easy to use. It fastens and removes nuts far faster than using a ratchet, so it will get a lot of use. It has 4 torque settings, so I was concerned that it might over tighten nuts, after all you can shear a small bolt with much less than the advertised 300 ft/lbs. Even at the maximum setting on a 1/2 inch bolt, it only took about 25 ft lbs on my torque wrench to loosen it. Impact wrenches are rated under ideal conditions including a perfectly rigid support and no elasticity or friction in the nut itself. Any flexibility will result in a loss of impact energy without adding to the final torque. Still I am surprised that this tool performed so much lower than the maximum. I did have an adequate supply of air at 90 psi, and my bolt was held in a vise on a beefy work bench and the tool was well lubricated.

As the title indicates this tool has up to 300 foot pounds of force - exactly what I needed to remove the bolt holding the blade on my 20 year old zero turn mower. This was a job I was dreading because I knew I could never get the leverage to remove it with my box or open ends. The tool recommends using an eight gallon compressor but my little two gallon pancake compressor was up to the job. Removing a complete set of lugs from a car would probably require that. There is a push button above the trigger to select forward or reverse and the handle is coated with comfortable rubberized material which keeps the vibration from hurting your hands. It really turns fast too - 7500 rpm with no load. It also comes with a protective storage bag. I'll be using this tool for those "can't get them off" or "can't get them on tight enough" jobs from now on.

This Husky impact wrench was purchased to replace an old one that had worn out. The old wrench was about 30 years old so it lasted well. I always had a bit of a problem with the old wrench if I powered it using my portable compressor. That wrench took so much air that I would have to wait for the compressor to recover. This new Husky wrench seems to use less air and works fine using a wheelbarrow compressor. If you take a look at the pictures I am removing the lug nuts on my tractor as a test. The lug nuts on the tractor use a 1 1/16” socket and they came right off. Being able to use the portable compressor on equipment is really convenient. How do you get a tractor with a flat tire back to the shop? You don’t. you have to pull the tire in the field. Another advantage of my new wrench is that the handle is rubber coated. The old wrench was just bare metal. If it got greasy it was very slippery. The torque control on this wrench has four levels of torque that are contained on one turn of the adjustment screw. My old wrench had a screw to adjust the torque and you had to turn it several revolutions to go from minimum to maximum. I am very happy with this nice modern impact wrench.

Let's face it, this tool sells for about 1/10 the price of a profession grade tool of the same size and capacity. So it would be unreasonable to assume it comes close in quality or reliability. Still, I think it is a reasonable light duty infrequent-use tool. Don't expect to use it for an everyday business. I noticed no abnormal operation during the fairly brief two weeks of time I have used it so far, although to be honest, nothing over a torque setting of 2 (or maybe 100 lb-ft?). It worked well with a small 6-gallon compressor, rated at 4 cfm. The tool weight is about what you would expect for this size, actually a little on the light side at 4.77 lbs. Attaching and removing the sockets was a bit difficult, as expected, since I did not want to oil the anvil as some folks do. I don't want one to come off while under torque. The manual says to pull off the bit with your hands ...or use a suitable tool. I used an ordinary screwdriver to pry them off. The direction control was also somewhat difficult to operate at first. I can't stress the importance of oiling the tool frequently. As a matter of fact, I think that should have been the very first step in the manual, since the tool will have been unused in storage for an unknown length of time. The inline oiler, which you should always use, would not be adequate to prepare the tool for first normal use. I would have liked to have seen a chart of torque/setting/psi values, but I suppose that would be asking too much. I do like the labeling of the direction switch (F--R) in "English" instead of universal symbols. Also, don't lose the black bag that comes with the tool. Use it always to keep the oil from drying too quickly.

Very light and convenient in tight spaces. Powerful enough for quick light jobs.