You could imagine those two as different gears in your car. Lower gear (Impact wrench): high torque, the car can climb uphill, but slower. Higher gear (impact driver): your car is faster, but doesn’t have as much power. Imagine trying to race uphill in 5th gear. Your gearbox would cry. Or race super fast on a highway, but in 1st or 2nd gear. Wouldn’t work well either. That is basically the difference between impact wrenches and impact drivers.

Great video! I learnt this the hard way - bought an impact driver (with 240nm of peak torque no less!) with a 1/2 inch drive adapter thinking I could use it as a cheap impact wrench (it came in a very cheap battery set). The driver couldn't even take off the lug nuts on either of road cars (admittedly, a better battery would probably see it succeed there, but if it can't take off lug nuts, itll have no hope against rusted nuts and bolts). I had set myself a rule that if I ran into a bolt on the cars that the impact driver (turned 1/2 inch impact "wrench") could not handle, I'd go out and get an impact wrench based on how much the driver had struggled with its 240nm rated torque. I thought maybe a mid or low torque impact wrench would be what I bought once I ran into a particularly rusted bolt. Having seen the impact driver struggle to remove lug nuts (because the tire place had overtightened them of course, but still), I went out and bought the Ryobi monster high torque impact wrench. And hot damn, it just smashed those lug nuts out! Once I retightened the lug nuts with a torque wrench to 98nm, the impact driver was able to handle removing them again. I'm still not sure why a 240nm impact driver couldn't remove lug nuts that were probably tightened to maybe 150nm (surely not more? They are rated for 98-130nm), but the whole thing made AMPLY clear that an impact driver is NOT a replacement for an impact wrench and that a tool is not determined by its collet - as you say, it is the motor design that matters. What I didn't realise, and your video showed me, is that an impact driver is much better for driving stuff than a wrench! Thanks for the great video!

Thanks for clarifying the differences between impact wrenches and drivers. A lot of other sites and videos were basically saying the wrench has more torque, but not explaining why. From my understanding after watching your video, it seems like the wrench is a more powerful tool, but gentler for mechanical work than and a driver. Makes sense for the type of work.

I appreciate all your videos thank you for doing a very very good job informing us on how things work.

Don’t worry about goofballs, dopes and their negative comments! Every highly opinionated 11year old and lonely old crank will have a whole lot to say about facts you got wrong or information you left out but you’re the one doing the research and creating the damn content!

I had this question all the time in my head when I was trying to buy an impact driver to build a shed by my self. Because I have several old cars, I thought maybe I can just buy an impact wrench, use some kind of adapter and use it as a impact driver for wood work. I was totally wrong. I'm glad that I bought a makita "impact driver" for building shed. Verrry useful.

You should do a video of an impact driver vs impact wrench where you increase the size of the lag every time to find out how big of a lag it takes for the impact drivers speed to no longer be able to beat the impact wrenchs torque

I just saw this video, and it confirmed my understanding that impact wrenches are slower but stronger. I purchased an impact driver last year, and between moderately high use driving screws into framing building a shed and high temps in Texas it died in like 6 months. My hope is that an impact wrench going slower will actually last longer.

love how you took it apart keep them coming please do this with milwaukee.

You sir are not a moron I've seem most of your videos and they're great, you are always trying to improve your videos and the test you do.

Hard work pays off. Keep on keeping on brother. Some people just don't like it when others are trying, and succeeding, to get better at their trade.

Best video ever on this topic. Thank you!

Thanks for the clarification Dave, very interesting video 👍👍

Great video as always, thank you for the info. 👍👍

loved the video again, you have my support!

Dude your content is amazing. I feel guilty watching it for free.

Great clarification! Don't let them get to you. They watch one video and think they're experts. It's on them if they don't know what it is or how to use it.

Do ingco tools videos. Im sure people outside the US would love to see that. Great video as always. Keep it up.

Dude , don't sweat the small stuff , if they don't know difference or know what tool your using , that's on them .... Haters are gonna Hate , no matter what. Keep your Head Up ....👍✌🖖👊

Ok, now after watching the entire video here’s my real comment: Very informative. My question is who defines the terminology? It’s like you said, you almost always see a 1/4” hex collet on a impact driver and a 3/8 or 1/2” anvil on an impact wrench, so I don’t feel like I’ve steered anyone wrong by telling them that is a way to visually help distinguish between them. Good info, keep up the good work.

Very nice informative video. Simple and clear

Your videos are great bro 👌 👊💯

Dude your not a moron ( if that's how you spell it). You do a great job with the channel I love it. Those who call you that should try a youtube channel and see how it is

Great video as always it doesn't matter what you do there's always going to be haters just keep putting out great videos and prove them wrong

Loved the videos you think you can show us a review of the Ryobi garage upper cabinets? I now there new I have not seen them in stores.

Wow i doesn’t know it before this video :O I life in Germany and here no body knows what a impact driver/wrench is only the car mechanics know 😂 we only have 1 word for it only impact (...) and under this name are both of them driver and wrench ist little bit difficult here. Great video thanks 💪👍🏻

Nice job bro 👍👍👍.

I seriously can't believe people try to argue with u and call the screwdriver a impact 😂😂 hell its closer to a drill than an impact driver

Great video. As far as anybody that doesn't like the video because there so much cooler and know so much more then they can go watch another video or make their own channel.

Wow this is the video I was looking for! Crazy that the impact driver is faster for a "hard" task like that. I would not have guessed that. Haven't picked up a 3/8 impact wrench yet because I haven't needed one yet lol.

Ignore the stupid haters. You’re doing great.

What do you recommend for taking lawn mower blade bolts off? Wrench or driver?

Surely it's more likely to be the planetary gear set that is different, rather than the motor? And the strength of the spring used to hold the anvil.

You should test the Stanley fatmax impact driver.

What product would you recommend for car lug nut removal and installation on a car...home duty....

Great video, very informative and ejoyable though I’d say the biggest “mistake” you made in the script was that the impact wrench is soooo much more versatile since if you have one that is 1/2 inch every adapter you put on is smaller so there is more metal than going from 1/4 inch hex to e.g. Half inch. The adapters i was talking about are from milwaukee and they make you 1/2 inch impact wrench into either a impact driver- the 1/2 inch to 1/4 inch hex adapter or it can turn it into a drill with the 7/16 inch adapter for linesman, electrician ‘s and plumber’s bits. So that would be for example augers, selfeed bits or spade bits (1/4 inch hex)

Impact or wrench - which one would you suggest when driving lug bolts M10,M12 lumber to lumber

I cant answer for others, but I think those comments you got may have been one of those times where how you say something matters more than what you say? Example, in this video you point to at 3 different things and say "anvil", 2 of them are the same component seen from different sides and the last one is just pointed at while really talking about something else. By all means, its not wrong, but as someone who fairly recently got into power tools I can see how that can be a bit confusing. That being said I like your videos. I like how the tests you do (even though they may be harsh) are applicable to real use cases. Too many tool channels focus on those silly tests like where they connect two drills and see which one dies first and such, which tells me nothing about how usable the tool is in what its intended to do. I want to know if I can hang up pictures in the living room with a cheap drill, not if a $1500 drill can kill it. Your channel I feel like I can reliably go to and see what the tools can actually do. Great job man!

Thank you for making this video to teach the trolls.

So what does this mean for your impact wrench showdowns with lag bolts if an impact driver can beat an impact wrench. Its not the jam its the speed for lag bolts? But the jam is more important when shopping for impact wrench

Since your knowledgeable let me ask you something. Do you think I can take for instance car lug nuts off with an impact driver? If not, would a 1/2" Makita impact wrench have easily enough power to do it?

I bought a dewalt impact driver XR and to my surprise it takes off lug nuts just fine . I didn’t know the difference between the impact wrench and the impact driver it’s all super confusing

Do you think hilti siw 6 impact wrence has more power (not speed)than m18gen3 impact driver ?

It's all in the mechanics. That's the differences.

Hey man caver where did 30 videos go ? If this is episode 421 and you only have 392 videos?

I own a driver and a wrench, it's good to see what the main difference is. At the end of the day, as long as it does the job, I'm happy.

Don't worry abt those calling you all sorts of things, they don't have the money to buy it...

I am commenting without watching the entire video.

By the way, why did you swap the collet?

I just have *one* question: how many of these devices (drivers/wrenches.. whatever) have you lying there in your shop? If that's not pure passion..?!

One question what do you do for a living? I only ask cause all your tools seem to be new. Do you actually work with all these tools everyday?

David in this day & age, opinions are now fact to many on what is on YT or any social media platform. Instead of doing real research themselves, they just look at FB or whatever & take that as gospel. "Because their favorite person" said it, it must be true! Or your "Keyboard Warriors" who are fully loaded with biased opinions or just like being mean. It's in their nature. Ignore them & move on guy! Great video!

So if there is a fast car and a slow car then one of them is not a car? I still dont understand the difference.

Wonder if you’re gonna get an apology from the mouthy ones

Anyone who doesn’t know what the difference between a impact driver and a screwdriver is ain’t real bright. But as far as swapping the the anvils between a impact driver and a impact wrench baffles me as well. What is the gain in doing that?

Daultless Dave!

☕☕☕☕☕☕☕🥐🍳🥓🧀👌 It's a person doesn't understand It's size crew gun the other one says Impact There is a difference make time and screw guns are usually a lot quieter Take care

Hey bro it’s self explanatory if you can’t tell the difference it’s cause you don’t know tools you are doing a great job

diferent is gearbox, motor are same

Brother they must be new to the channel or they have no clue about Cordless power tools.

I guess I didn't qualify as a moderator...

This is what I learned from this video 1 their is no difference between impact driver and impact wrench WHEN YOU SITTING ON THE MOUNTAIN OF TOOLS 2 your are taking comment too seriously note i comment in middle of video

This stuff is confusing as hell

Some people i know think my impact drivers are drills lol i have to tell them its not a drill i think they dont have a clue these people dont know nothing about tools ha

No

Yeah two different types of tools

Lol....dont worry about it brother. You can't fix stupid. All your real tech fans know what your talking about

I’m commenting 22 seconds into the video, just to annoy you. 😀

Only Makita 👍

2 Esdras 7:100

1st

I've seen lots and lots of your vids. You call the tools what they are, maybe you have a slight hardly worth mentioning, can't even remember the video (s) where you g😵😖fed.