You heard it here first! Something from the Harbor Freight that isn't garbage! Earthquake XT lithium impact wrench teardown and test. C**T HAIR RULER www.etsy.com/c... 🔥 T-SHIRT teespring.com/... 🔥
I'm not convinced that the release torque = tightened torque. Tighten a bolt up with it and then use a torque wrench on ever increasing settings until it stops clicking and moves the fixing. I bet it's not close.
AvE couldnt you reverse the test? Tighten with the impact then use the hydraulic wrench with gauge to see how much it takes to break loose? Just wondering. Please do one on the 1/2 " Ingersoll model. I use them at work and they are skookum as frig! Would love to see the inside and how they match up?
Nope. Not the same thing. These guns are designed to reverse bolts and nuts. This is where they have max torque. Not tighten them. You have to use a torque wrench to tighten them.
texasdee slinglead Anybody else mixed with AvE would flat ruin the whole vibe we tap the vein to with these. Bimbos and fumbling tree boys would fuck this right up, and I'm a carpenter/mechanic and I must admit this.
I watched this video during the pan demic when I lost my job and got a new one. I was short on cash and I needed a 1/2" cordless impact. I work in roadside assistance and I change a lot of tires, often on the highway where you've got some motivation to get the job done quickly. About 3 years ago I ran across this video and immediately went to Harbor Freight and bought one. Best decision I ever made and I've been hooked on AvE ever since. I have beat the living crap out of this impact every day for the last 3 years and she's still skookum! It takes lug nuts off of medium duty trucks no problem, and will buzz through just about anything. I've found a few problem lugs that it wouldn't break loose, but it has been rare, mostly Chrysler and GM vehicles with a reputation for bad studs that usually break when I go to the breaker bar, but more often than not a fresh battery does the trick. Cons - I also bought the 3/8, and I wouldn't do it again. No regrets, it was on the clearance rack, I needed a battery, and it is handy for some things, but it's got no marbles. I bought it for driveshafts and it won't break blue loctite so it's no good to me. I bought the grinder for the same reason. It's great for small jobs, but it's a battery killer. I've gone through 2 batteries in less than 10 minutes. None of that really matters, though, because this gem of a cheapo tool was discontinued!! Those bastards. Any chance you could help someone out that was in the same spot as me and do the new High Torque Bauer impact alongside the Hercules High Torque that replaced the earthquake last year? Thanks for being awesome, man, I really appreciate it.
As a computer parts enthusiast, I'm always weary about judging build quality by the weight of a product, ever since the whole lead weights race. Lots of people used to judge power supply quality by weight, so cheap power supply makers just started filling their power supplies with lead weights.
Most of these products were only available for purchase online direct from these companies in China. These things were infamous for being unreliable and dangerous. Pretty common for these supplies to either burn out before even reaching their advertised capacity, or just catch fire during regular use. I don't know anyone in Europe who tried buying one of these, but I have a feeling none of these power supplies were built with any regard to legal requirements outside China. I wouldn't be surprised if they switched to steel weights though, as it's probably still a common practice, even if most consumers aren't stupid enough to buy them anymore.
TheSpoonKing Weight wasn’t the deciding factor of quality here. He references the weight of the hammers and anvil because of physics. Using Newton’s physics; Force = mass x acceleration. If two impacts are the same except the hammer then the one with the heavier hammer will produce a harder impacting force on the fastener.
@@kstinson OP was referring to when AvE said the impact had a good weight in the hand in the beginning of the video. He said the weight of the tool was a good sign and wasn't referring to the hammers since the tool wasn't disassembled.
HaHa! Agreed, the man is definitely smarter than your average bear. But holy smokes! That impact should be a damn good one for what Harbor Freight is asking for it.
I never belive i would sit down for more than 30 minutes time after time and look at you open tools, and explain whats inside. But you explain and tell it in a way that makes me understand and at least make me interested. Thank you for making me smarter of choosing the tools i buy, and to learn something about the things we use in the workshop or garage
This was a great product breakdown. Love your enthusiasm and knowledge base. I laughed out loud when you referred to the plastic odor as "the smell of Cancer". LOL!
Not any cheaper than milwakee? The HF is $250 and you can always get a discount. The tool alone from milwakee is $230 at Home Depot. No batteries or charger.
Food for thought... I work at a nuclear site and once upon a time we had some issues with big process connectors loosening. We ran a study to find out why. These acme nuts get hit with about 1000 lb ft. While not the primary goal, what we found in the study was that the loosening torque is about 60-65% of the tightening torque.
Yet that does not always hold true. 57 Chevy steel wheels on a rear axle. To remove the wheels I needed a "X" tire wrench & a 4 foot iron cheater pipe. I broke off all the studs - What torque does it take to break off wheel studs? I am 160 lbs & can lift 100lbs. using a 3 lb hammer to beat on the pipe to shock it loose.
@@jonathanjones770 nope. In neutral some is sticking out on both sides. I have this tool and it's little 3/8 brother. Great tools. I use them at work everyday.
It's like they knew you were going to open it up. Glad someone out there still makes good quality products. And it was nice to see you so excited over a tear down, it's been a while.
My kids hits the 15 gallon compressor tank with hammer.... I heard your voice come out "pressure vessels are Dangerous!" 10 minutes later i am in the yard shooting can'ed air dusters with him and the pellet rifle showing him what catastrophic failure looks like. thanks AvE
Bought one of these yesterday based on this review. Was going to get the Milwaukee initially. Got tired of firing up the compressor and knocking shit over with the air hoses.
@@jabroni6199 I got an open box EarthquakeXT for $130. Was brand new, the outer packaging was damaged. Hard to beat that! My air and electric impact are going into retirement!
Just want to say that u are one of the few you tubers that actuly give us viewers a honest opinion and a bloody good laugh as well hope your channel keeps growing strong :)
We have one of theses at our auto shop, she works great for about 3-4 months before it looses all torque. We’re had to warranty it about 4 times last year
I actually bought this a few months ago. I had needed an electric impact for some automotive work. For the price, it was the best value, but best believe I checked your channel first to see if you had reviewed it. Having found nothing, I decided to take the risk and get one. Without ever having any intention of looking at the internals, I was pleasantly surprised with it's performance. Now that I've seen this, I'm glad I can stand by my purchase!
Lately I've been having the theory that the plastic made in mainland China is actually distilled from nearby factory fumes instead of using any new materials.
A man in a suit sits with his back to the door behind an ornate desk. A tired looking man with stains on his shirt opens the door to the office, tears streaming down his face. "Sir, the results are in...and...it's skookum, by God it's skookum."
Meh, all depends on the profits they get. HF brands (or any company with a respectable amount of capital) could make excellent tools, but that's not the market they've traditionally gone after. This actually kind of worries me. If HF starts making mediocre tools, where am I going to get my super cheap, barely usable, one-use tools from? :)
I am pretty sure they realized the they needed to do something with their electric tools over the last few years. Choosing to go with a Taiwanese manufacturer shows their goal was a quality increase. The new pricing is not throw away cheap, but cheap enough compared to the competitor to stand out.
It's quite possible the opposite happened: a product manager might have realized that cash was left on the table by engineering up to a level they don't normally pursue, and thus the proper profit margin will never be attained. Heads could role. On the other hand, they know they need the New Product Sphincter to squeeze out the occasional golden log to keep us on our toes.
Man, I am so glad you did this test. I bought this thing spending like 250 bucks thinking "harbor freight + 250 dollars = real dissapointment". But I've been PLEASANTLY surprised with it's performance. This gun can bust some big nuts. Now that I know it has your seal of approval I feel even better about the purchase.
I really love the HONESTY!! I am definitely not a Harbinger of Fate fan but I like seeing that they have done something right. Competition for the higher end tools is always good. Keep 'er between the ditches.
I went to some training by some loctite salesmen sponsored by my job and a lot of their demos showed that just because the bolt is tightened to X foot pounds doesn't mean it will require X ftlbs to remove it, hence the need for their product. According to that, you'll have to see if the amount of torque required to remove a fastener is linear to the tightening torque to really find out what the impact will put out.
I'm thinking you're creating a pretty ideal setup here. The more rigid everything is the better the impact is going to do, and the solid brass nut and spacer clamped rigidly into a decently sized vise is very solid.
Josh Martinez not sure if your in the great white north or what but east coast time is 10am... give me a minute and I'll make this a Irish coffee and play catch up !!!
Amazing, the Hazard Fraught tool even with a few warts gets the treasured AvE Skookum rating. And now I know to take another look at Taiwan made products.
Why not tighten down the nut with the gun and then loosen it with the hydraulics to get a number? Maybe use a left-hand thread if the reverse-action of the gun has more 'torque' than the forward.
LazerLord10 could be wrong, but it might not have the same amount of torque forward. He reviewed a different model, and as I recall it was 1100 ft.lbs reverse but only 300 forward. (If my memory id's correct)
People he said LEFT HAND THREAD! Now that has been cleared up, doesn't sound like that bad of an idea, just don't know the accuracy of the hydraulic torque wrench in removing the bolt, I see a lot of broken bolts in his future.
well that doesn't matter, I get what your saying, the problem is the fastener is literally incapable of holding the torque of the gun. So when he tightened with the big hydra, he tightened until it actually did slip once, so that fastener is at it's limit. If he tightened with the gun all he'd do is smack until he over torqued the fastener and stripped it out. which is what he's already done :P If he could somehow directly attach the harbor fraught to the hydralic and attempt to basically have them fight each other by like using a shank between them that in theory could work. Though it'd be sketchy :P
Could be. Gotta remember that like i did many entry level mechanics and the like start out with hazard fraught tools. They buy as much as the can and then upgrade as they go. Get the tools to get the job done then upgrade to nicer tools as time move forward. Theres still some tools from hazard fraught i have that i prefer over more expensive upgrades.
Max Maruszewski they must be. What I would give to go to a weekly management meeting and watch an ave review . boy howdy, could you imagine the excuses flying from department heads😄
Let's do the math. When you get a few hundred thousand people talking about what tools to avoid and voting with their wallets, the manufacturers don't have to listen to us, they just have to listen to their customers. Let's ballpark how many tools even get sold in a year.... Gotta figure... 300,000,000 people in the US, half that for a household count, maybe 1/4 have a garage with tools, that's down to 30,000,000. Joe Amateur white collar no-trade is buying new tools, what, once every 15 years? 2,000,000. So, only a couple million drills get sold in the US every year (a drill being probably the most common power tool, to give it an upper limit). Spread that across 5 majorish manufacturers that's only 400,000 apiece. These videos are getting that many views. Then take a less common tool. How many guys own an impact gun versus a common drill? 1/20th? 1/30th? 1/50th? Then consider that the guys not watching are probably asking advice from someone who is. It's certainly possible that a significant portion of the English speaking market for tools in a year is watching this channel and adjusting their purchasing accordingly. I might be off by an order of magnitude, but even then, you're easily hitting 10% of the market, that's more of a swing than advertising makes. That ain't fuckin' around, even at only 100 bucks a pop, each of these videos is having tens of millions of dollars of dick swingin' on the market.
I would like to think so. AvE pointed out it was made in Taiwan. I'm guessing that is the reason for the better quality. The real question here is: Will Harbor Freight stock more decent Taiwan made tools?
Every time I don my Ave shirt a new video is uploaded. Funny enough I found and older broad at Walmart that loved my focus you fack shirt and asked me what was in the vice, so I told her it was a reference to a saying of yours and we had a good laugh.
I actually like the way they have the reverse switch- I wish all devices did it their way. Here's why: most devices leave the switch proud on both sides, no matter if it's in F or R. By going flush on one side, you can easily tell which direction it's set to. Again- really minor detail, but I kinda like what they did with this.
You think maybe the brass nut makes it easier though? It's a very pliable low friction material and possibly requires less torque to remove the bolt from than a steel counterpart. That's why it's used in ammunition casings. Would have thought a steel nut would require a higher degree of 'breakaway' torque thus the energy delivered on the initial impacts tends to ramp downwards in many impact tools. Also brass doesn't rust and many applications requiring an impact wrench tend to be on wheel and chassis parts which have nearly rusted together.
I like your hunch, I had the same thought that brass might be self-lubricating or lacks the tensile strength to hold the fastener at the same impacting torques. The assembly the bolt is in might be giving with every impact. I wonder how the threads looked at the several stages of being torqued. If they deform from not being rigid enough, it might go a long way as to why the fasteners are preforming this way. Should have done a known side by side of an impact that "shouldn't" be able to get the job done.
I looked up some friction coefficients. brass-steel : .35 steel-steel : .5-.8 Maybe you have a point but my money is on the fact that no mater what material, the same friction needs to be overcame to tighten the thing in the first place
James Sloan If you really want a bolt to seize in place, dip it in bleach before assembly. She'll rust right the fuck together. When both components are made of steel, that is. Poor mans permanent locktight.
Yeah, I would have liked for him to show us a torque wrench attempting to loosen the tightened fastener, Just for confirmation. There are a lot of ways the test can go wrong, we should be looking for as much confirmation as possible. (Just not confirmation bias :)
cencalmatt English is not my native tounge, and even though I’m pretty good at it I guess even the most fluent speaker of a language might make this type of mistake. Heaven knows Swedish is not an easy language either...
Thank you for your honest reviews! I made the mistake of getting a Hercules but after seeing this I quickly returned it for the Earthquake as I plan to do pretty heavy vehicular work.
Halfway through this video I look down and happen to see a HF mailer sitting on my desk with the Earthquake XT in the corner. Inside is their "side-by-side" comparison with the Snap-On CT8850WB. $249.99 US doll-hairs. If I had any reason to need one, maybe I'd consider picking one up.
The stank is the waste filler material that can't be made into soylent green. They have over a billion people and been around thousands of years....ever seen the gigantic cemeteries in China.... yeah, me neither.
in general, the Taiwanese are very proud of their industry, so machining and materials used are also generally better. I know I'm preaching to the choir but you're right.
This is timely. Been thinking of picking one of these cordless earthquakes up for a facility maintenance gig I'm starting this month. Need something inexpensive to toss in the truck that won't break my heart if it walks off the job site. This looks like it'll fit the bill nicely.
Semiconductor not silicon. These test results don't shock me at all... I told this story on another vid but once had to take off a huge nut from my power steering pulley. Brought it to a collegemate's home who stuck the impact air tool on it. Looked like it was never gonna break loose because he only had a small pancake style 1 hp compressor driving the thing. Started it zipping away but no removal. He said to give it a minute and it felt like forever but sure enough about 90 seconds later the thing came loose. Impact + Time = Shop Magic
The stink is remilled (recycled) plastic. I work with blown film, and (coloured remill) always stinks. Don't quite understand the science and why natural or clear remill doesn't stink anywhere near as much. My take on it is that is may be burning a little as is goes through the extruding screw and barrel as on coloured remill there is a heap of frictional heat. You may have 30-40 degrees C higher temperatures than settings on heating zones, especially just after the feed section of the screw. My theory is that it is burning as when its running the haze of smoke is quite noticeable and that stinks just like the Chinesium smell we all know and love.
+NoLongo I don’t think there’s Earthquake 1/2” & corded! but rather than that you probably meant the “Bauer” corded impact from HF, which it seems a monster for what it’s been advertised, has 1050 ft-lbs of breakaway torque !
Electronic braking on a brushed motor only needs a single FET to short the motor when the trigger is released. It doesn't need a heat sink due to the short duration in use so is probably tucked behind that board.
You just can't beat AvEs honesty. He says it like it is and that's how it should be. way better reviews than those feels good in the hand reviews. Ain't nothin' like takin' her a-part and seein' wut makes er chooch.
lol. It sounds like you are starting to get a crush on HF tools. Some of their stuff is pretty impressive now. Even their zipties are getting to be pretty decent.
Working for the phone company, we use every imaginable race and creed of ty wrap/zip tie. You'd be astounded at the number of unopened bags of ty wraps I find in the forest...
Hey, I enjoy your vids and your presentation (which is definitely not PC), but your comment section (which, if I have the time, I do read most of) can be so hilarious. TY for bringing us all together:)
This shill vijeo for Hazard Fraught worked because immediately following I went to buy shitty sand paper and a Chineseum imperial socket set and get my free magnetic parts tray.
We just welded 2 lug nuts together, put the earthquake on one side and snap on cordless on the other. The earthquake spun snap on backwards both in reverse and forward. Definitely a strong gun. Well worth the 239.
From my years of experience with Horrible Freight, I just thought that's what China smelled like until I actually went there. Turns out the country just smells like smog, so I'm not sure where that smell comes from either!
id say its definitely recycled material working in a blowmoulding shop we have specific materials for specific bottles and recycled always has a smell wheres virgin material has pretty much no smell also fun fact atleast red masterbatch has its own specifc smell aswell
I know this may be impossible. But it would be cool if you could get your hands on some space grade tools. Such as a mock drill that is on the Curiosity Rover or something. I couldn't imagine anything more skookum than a tool used in a multi billion dollar space program
Love the channel! I just subbed. Love how you actually take the tools apart! You helped save me money cause I ALMOST bought the HF Hercules brand. Instead went to Lowe's and got a dewalt drill and driver set for cheaper due to the 3 year warranty. Hf deals aren't always what they seem!
