DeWalt Electricians Cable stapler- Worth the money? 

ive got one its great for loft work or rewires. for the loose cable just tap the first and last staple in with hammer. not too hard just a tap and its tight enough to hold it still. Also to get even spacing with your staples use the magazine as guide by resting it on the previous staple its almost 300mm which is the minimum for a horizontal run for a cable

We are doing lots of prefab houses. I have 5 of them in the business, and it is a massive time saver. As said in previous comments, just push the gun harder so you can limit the bounce back. Then there is no way of cable sliding under the staples

Pushing harder on the stapler makes the staple go in further, this thing has made me a fortune when I bashing out those 1st fixes 👍

Just wired a workshop that will have "Dot N Dab" on top of Thermalite bricks. This tool is fantastic as the staples stay in and hold the cables well. I tried using the normal plastic clips and they just fell out at the slightest opportunity. Many comments below describe how to best use the tool, please read them before dismissing it as unsuitable. However it will not work on brick or HARD mortar. I have had reasonable success on soft mortar and cement blocks, penetration is generally ok but may require a hand pressing on the head of the gun. Superb on wood. As has been said many times below, this tool senses the cable size and adjust automatically to drive the staple in the correct depth. Gentle tap with a hammer on the clip if you need it any tighter. No manual adjustment is necessary. However I would wholeheartedly agree that the fixed size of the staples makes this a tool for use where the cables are not on show especially if you suffer from any form of OCD. Clips are metal and as such are fire rated provided what they are stapled to won't suffer from premature collapse. Mine came with two batteries but haven't had it run flat on me yet. It's one of those tools that when you need it it's fantastic but is not an answer for all stapling scenarios.

Been using one for couple of years, with a smaller battery its well balanced and fits nicely between studs etc. It is designed to not pinch the cable at all. You see some cable that has been hit hard while being clipped and it causes a hot spot, this was designed with that in mind. If you need to hold the cable tight, just give the first clip a tap with a hammer and its solid and you can pull against it. The other thing not mentioned here is you can actually get 2 2.5s on top of each other in a single clip which works and its great for cat5/6 as you get several under a staple. Like all things it really depends how you use it and what you do as a standard job. I do full house renovations so this gets used for electrics, AV, data, accent cables and more. Box of 500 staples is less than fire clips and I don't alternate between fire clips and regular, I just use all the same so this is cheaper.

I agree with a lot of the other posters. The whole point of this tool is that it senses the thickness of the cable(s) and doesn't pinch it/them. If you stack two a 2/C or 3/C-#14AWG it still doesn't pinch them so the thickness doesn't really matter. You get to tack all the cables down really fast. If you want a cable lock point then just hit one of the set stables with a hammer until there is enough friction. This is a tool specifically designed for the US market, for the NEC code and Romex cables. The fact that it may even be useful in a foreign country is an unexpected bonus.

Hey i bought this tool about 1 month a go .I only do security Systems and let me tell you that the tool îs great. A few hammers on a staple every 10-15 staples and the cable îs tight , wont move .... The speed îs great.....you get things done very fast. And with the hammer thing....the cable îs tight . Hello from Romania

Got one and love it. Also works on soft block and mortar (though not recommended by the manufacturer) Yep there is the issue of the looseness but as stated previously they can be tapped in and still save a bucket load of time.

I am not an electrician but a kitchen fitter and furniture maker. I really enjoy your channel.

Fire rated, doesn't pinch the cables and will work on light block work. Love mine, Milwaukee is releasing a 12v one this year too but both are designed in mind with double stacking cables and not being tight so it doesn't cause a hot spot. It's american designed for wooden structures so it's designed to their building codes not ours.

I bought this around 2 years ago,, it’s perfect,, i love it,, specially rewires,,

Thanks Nick for pointing out that it appears to be a useless piece of crap. Easy fix would have been an adjustable 'impact' strength to actually grip the cable

This is the best tool I bought for a long time. We have a few now, used them for must be 2 years I think. Saves loads of time. They dont pinch cables by design. You can press harder to get a tighter grip. The beauty is they wont fire into cables by mistake. Perfect for new build especially. You can also stack them on top of each other under the clip to further save labour. As you say wouldnt want to use them if on show. Will be better when you can get a red version :)

I've got one and use it loads, also in block. If you push harder when clipping it goes in further

This cable clipper came from dragons dens. DeWalt bought the rights to it.

Efixx did a good video on this stapler,, explained well in depth in terms of regulations on cable movements

It’s designed not to pin the cables tight to the timber so weather you have 1mm or 10mm cable it will still leave the same amount of gap. If you are that worried about the cable being loose than just tap it in with a hammer, it will still be way faster then clips. Also using the flex volt battery doesn’t really help the weight, a standard 18v 2ah lasts ages.

Surely they could make clips with the same metal part but a bigger plastic part to grip thinner cables?

If it were a bit more compact and had 1mm and 2.5mm clips it would be way more useful imo 🤷‍♂

I’m in Canada, been using the Arrow T72 wire stapler for 12 plus years and now the Klein 450-100. Here they have had 2 sizes of staples to cover wide range of electrical cables but smaller ones are more common for 14/2 and 14/3 awg wire. I use more staples to keep everything neat and tidy than are required by code and is still faster than hand staples and a hammer. 300 staples is about $15CAD or £9

3 times the price of normal clips, plus the price of the thing and it's still not holding the cable. Some people are saying hammer in the first and last clip (which isn't going to look tidy for the rest of the cable) but if I'm getting my hammer out as well anyway then I may as well just manually clip the whole lot. Thanks Nick, saved me a fair bit of time, money and aggravation here

Perfect tool great for under floors and in loft’s

A company was on dragons den a while ago with a similar design but they were pure plastic staples and the gun he used was smaller

Is it any good for the oval conduit? It would be a huge time saver if it is.

Good idea but it's not ready I reckon, not until there is some kinda standard for the staples and diffeernt sizes. To be honest, The staple industry has needed some inovation on the tools that fire them for years. I have about 8 different air guns from my softfurnishing/custom furniture years and some of them where £300 each, some where £30. I know supply and demand, but why the fk are cordless staplers and nailers £300 plus for a branded one. I was gonna get a makita brad nailer but thats about £300 bare, the tech has been there for years, solinoid and motorised types. They need to work on a process to plastic dip and stack the staples, make them for each cable size and come up with a universal striking hammer. If anyone has used a cable tacker, the staple points can diverg into the cable, even the non divering ones. And regards to clips, if you push the nail thru, they are a piece of piss to get them started, hang your cable in and smash home.

Too bright? It's essentially in your beloved Batman logo colours. What these things need is adjustable insertion depth. Otherwise it's quick and that's about it.

I was excited to see this Uncle Nick, BUT after your review of it I’m left a little deflated…. I have heard rumours that Milwaukee are meant to be being one out this year🤷‍♂️ so that would be interesting to see if it’s any better. I guess it can’t pinch them tight due to the way it fires it in and may potentially damage the cable …. I don’t know. I was thinking of getting one but I’m massively turned off now by that. Great vid though mate and love the honesty

Genuinely amazing! Totally recommend it

Counter productive I know, but, could you not hammer those clips in alittle more, after the gun has done its job? From what the camera shows, it looks like theres a good 1-2mm of clip exposed that might be persuaded to embed further, if more force was used? Just to prevent the ability to pull the cable backwards and forwards.

Dewalt and Milwaukee are late to the game. I have had a Halex gun like this for almost a decade or so. The Halex gun loads the same way and has a depth adjustment so you can accommodate different cables and not have the cable loose under them. I can staple one or two 12/2 flat with no issues pinching or being too loose. The Halex gun body is deeper but it has actually been better in tight spaces where you can not actually get a hammer in or swing it sufficiently or have trouble reaching your arm and holding the staple to start. I have tried to buy as many staples as possible and and extra stapler because they may become harder to find. I am not sure why you would not use the gun for visible cables in a garage. The Halex did not sell and was short lived which tells you why I think the industry and especially the other consumers/contractors are just plain stupid. It is a great and useful tool. I know milwaukee has one out now as I have virtually all milwaukee tools. I would not buy dewalt as I think most of their tools lack in engineering, design, and also performance and reliability.

What a load of pants! always looking for tools that make my life easier but this ain't one😅

Got one it's OK, just OK, however to get it clipped correct you have to give staples a knock with a hammer on the side least close to the t+e. The purple on the staple is an adhesive and once there in wood they are really difficult to remove and you will damage the t+e in the process. I find it a bit nerve wrecking putting in 10mm t+e as the fear is misfiring into a conductor. My opinion is don't bother..... Great concept but really difficult to get tidy and really impossible in tight spaces plus cost of staples is bat shit crazy.

I’ve got one, bought it a couple weeks ago, for extensions and things it’s been great so far, but on the other hand as nick said 1mm or 1.5mm I used in a bathroom and the cables just sagged and pulled through

Great video nick

I'm a Bosch guy,think it's time Bosch bought one out then probably would get one,I've got a manual holds much better from the this video made by lindey white staples,I've seen arrow do a stapler too manual again, good video 👍🏽

I don't see how I can barely get the klein romex stapler into many spaces and it's way thinner than this. Old school buildings use shorter spacing short enough where your cam barely place your fist into

Wonder if the staples would be wide enough for 2x FP200 cables, this would be handy for fire alarm rewires if so.

Can’t see it working well when you have a number of cables to fit in that span on the landing (you know in the UK) even though people don’t see it under floors, I like it neat and tidy..

I got given one to try from the Dewalt rep beginning of 2019 I tried to use it a couple of times but just don’t rate it (it’s Crap ) it’s good for speed but like you said it doesn’t hold the cable tight enough or neat enough for me. It got thrown in a drawer in the garage. It might be ok for the American market which it was designed for

Nice video old chap! I have heard that if you push a little harder on that stapler, it will hold it tighter. You should not have to do that though. Milwaukee is better I believe.

A mate I out with a full rewire and garden shed had one. They're quick where it could be used but the size of them definitely limited its use, heavy as well. The thing I disliked the most was how bad the job looked with those gargantuan staples.... downright ugly. Less so with two x 2.5 T&E but even then, not pretty. It might be better if narrower staples but no good for those used to OCD cable runs. Also, £200 bare and the price of staples! Don't get me wrong, 95% of my toolbox is yellow and black but nah, not worth it. And if you hit your nails with the hammer, use a pair of pliers to hold the clip or even get a hand staple gun. I'm keen to hear if you and Adam think differently. Thanks for the vid.

It’s yellow and says dewalt wot is there to like 😄👍

FYI Milwaukee has a m12 stapler now

Tap the first clip & use a 2amp battery 🔋 or get the new DEWALT power stack battery’s out in March

DeWalt might be able to make some other staple sizes hopefully it looks gd but unfortunately pretty bouquet so I wonder if they have plans to make a lighter version of it

Like it. Think Sean at cablesmith has one

i think the problem is that the clips are NOTY designed for British cables but American cables and are wrongly sized its clearly been rushed in to the market here to catch up with others

Someone else mentioned that slack to me once, mine doesn’t do that tho it’s nice and tight.

Thanks for your review on this been waiting for it as was thinking of investing in one. Ive changed my mind i agree i dont like how slack they are.

How are you allowed to use that sheety cable on wood and not CYABYF???

Great video. Like all tools it will have its use in the right situation..

I’ve just uploaded a little video to show you how tight mine goes, sometimes too tight if you ask me 😂

lofts yes anywhere else oh cellars that would have been all for me,oh nick did you make a vid of the large conversion second fix october 2019?

Jeepers me, That's a right piece of junk! What a bloody mess it leaves the 2.5 and they only do one size of clip? You could imagine the customers face when the job was priced to only use 10mm because that's all the staples hold 😂😂 It would be great fun to do 40 downlight in 10mm 🤣

I think there’s a new model coming out with the drill grip pal 🖤💛🖤💛🖤💛

Uncle nick Unless I had a few new builds coming up that is a waste of money In my eyes, maybe good in a loft

hey man what camera do you use? would love to use something similar for my videos :]

When you going to test the clips with high voltage like you did with the ideals, wagos, splice lines and terminal strips

Thanks for sharing this with us take care

Site I worked on he used loads, little tap hammer every now again perfect

Are the staples stiff enough to not double over if you tap them with a hammer to tighten?

I wonder if mainland european cables (round ones i mean) would be thick enough to get grabbed by the staples. Those rectangular UK crossections aren't favourable for the system. And i think your test frame has too much give to try the push-harder-to-shoot-deeper as guys before me are talking about.

Nick your a legend 👏 cheers

Good honest guy nick 👏 as a maintenance spark be no use to me hmm hard to beat nice hammer clipped cables way t go nick

DeWalt need to rethink this tool. Get feedback from sparks. To make this expensive toy/tool fit for purpose it will require the use of correct size staples for eg 1mm T&E. With only 1 size staple currently available it is only fit for 1 size T&E style cable onto wood. It will not work on plaster, block or brick. Remember the staple/clip should hold the cable so it does not move but not to tight as to cut into the mechanical outer insulation layer.

perfect for those terrible network guys that ruin a house by slapping data cable all over skirting board

I watch you too much, my daughter said that’s the man who done my lights 😅😅

I think for this to be viable in a new build you'd have to run all your cables in first and then run round after with this

You clip the loft on rewires? I have a friend who just runs them parallel to joist and not on top incase it gets boarded and he seems to think it's okay 🙈

Would this work on mortar/brickwork/breezeblock?

I'll give you guys a summary, you do domestic/newbuild houses buy it. Commercial/industrial don't buy it

No adjustment on the unit to drive staples a bit deeper?

Come on nick you only just got this ? Game changer I just hit the odd one with a hammer if I want to get it tight.

looks like you got the 10mm gun, you also need to buy the 4mm, 2.5, & 1.5mm gun.

The 10 year old Halex romex gun I have has a depth adjustment. Just another failure for Dewalt.

What if you press in harder against a solid surface? Do you get better depth?

Is there no impact depth setting like a pining gun…..?

Not a spark mate but they’re saying push harder and stop trying to slate dewalt

The tightness is probably by design.

It's supposed to be loose and not pinch.

Had one simlar to this in the 1990's for cat 5 utp. was not very good and without been able to change staple depth and type its one expensive one trick donkey.

Wont be that light with that battery, on the 2Ah which is really light it fires around 2000 staples, with you battery your last all year on a charge!

I just bought a wiha hammer 🔨🔨🔨🔨 HAMMER TIME

Great idea but needs development.

The biggest downfall of this kit is that they don't have different size staples

Looks pointless when you have to hammer the staples in

should have got the milwaukee

How is it on fp200

It's too big and too heavy than the Milwaukee M12 cable stapler.

have another sparky following behind you with a hammer to nail them home

Wouldn’t be so big n heavy if you didn’t have a 12ah battery on it lol

Looks absolutely rubbish! Speed is all well and good but not at the cost of quality of work. I’d spend more time trying to make it look half way decent using this then it would take me just using my hammer and clips. It’s a good idea in principle but definitely not getting this first gen version

No resistance on your rig either

Byeeeeeeeee!

That looks to be absolutely useless 😂

It’s not even tight round the cable

Amazed theres no depth adjustment, like with nail guns. Thats two kack tools dewalt have sent you!

This probably does not meet 522.8.4 or 134.1.1. A new install like this is totally rubbish, inadequate fixings would warrant a C2 immediately.

A funny tip end ???😦😦😦

Спасибо, отличный обзор! Инструмент разочаровал меня, не буду покупать.