Harbor Freight's New Hercules Impact Driver Beats... Everything? 

No, the dyno's not broken :D If the Makita's a Cadillac and the Milwaukee a sports car, this is a muscle car. Have to appreciate it for what it can do in raw performance and for the price, but you may have to think about what it would be like daily driving it, or maybe that's exactly what you're looking for! Big ups to those who have downloaded our live tool rankings: etsy.me/3G8j3QK Which allowed us to purchase the high speed camera. What do you want to see tested next? As always, Torque who started this channel works in product development for Astro Tools - who don't make impact drivers, but it's always important to consider multiple sources when looking at a tool!

been in the industry for 20 years. i remember people making fun of me for buying HF sockets, too cheap. this was back in 2011. glad HF is coming to stir the pot. i feel as if Milwaukee is getting to comfortable, def need some competition to let em know if they dont listen to their audience they will get left behind.

I bought the Hercules with a battery and charger for $97.99 at my local Harbor Freight. I’ve used it a couple times and it’s been a great tool so far!

wow the fact that the Herc managed to beat let alone keep up with the Millys ...just wow. I am impressed

Even fan boys have to admit that was impressive, and that doesn’t even account for the cost.

Milwaukee: "Our tool is slightly shorter and has 2 more LEDs!" DeWalt: "We wrote XR on ours and added a speed switch!" Makita: "If you know, you know. Just buy it." Harbor Freight: "Hold my beer..."

Hercules also has a new 4ah battery with 21700 cells, it would be interesting to see if their new impact driver can see any improvements

Well that explains why they had the older brushed model on firesale the last week. Add in the fact that you can get two of those 5 Ah batteries for $99, you’re not going to break the bank even if you don’t have the batteries for it.

Congrats to HF! I'm not in the Hercules system but this has my attention. This might be worth just having as a one-off. Or foot in the door.

Makita for the win for QoL / daily usability. Nice job goes to HF for exceeding the expectation. This is a great channel.

Sounds like the Herc is a perfect candidate for my side job. Don't need ultra reliability, just something cheap that will break lug nuts a few times a day at most

Let's go, Harbor Freight! Keep up the good work! The industry needs a bit of stir!

I have been using Hercules every since they introduced them! I use them everyday, and I love all their tools!!!!!!

Your videos keep getting better! Love the high speed camera work. I’ve been using the older Bauer impact driver in the shop for about 18 months now, and it has held up well and worked nearly as well as the DeWalt driver that it replaced. Honestly, I’ve been hoping the Bauer would show some signs of wear so I could justify buying something new. That Hercules might be my compromise solution. Maybe I’ll give the Bauer gear to my shop helper and buy some new Hercules gear.

Harbor Freight has been pushing the hercules line to compete with big brands, the 5 year free tool warranty and the 3 year battery warranty is a huge step, plus the batteries are redesigned with new cells.

I've had my Hercules impact and drill for a couple years now and I love them. If I had the choice I would always take Hercules over ryobi dewalt or any not just on price alone but performance too

That Hercules is a beast! Seems to be a great value! Awesome video!

Wow - very surprising but awesome result. Thanks for the detail as always!

needed a drill recently (at the kid's house working on a small project). straight to HF. Spent about 5min wondering if I should be the Bauer cordless. But for the price and one-off of the work, just picked up the wired Warrior drill for $15. No regrets. Left it at the kids place. This is what HF excels at

im a diesel mechanic and I use the Hercules every day its been a great tool very impressive

I own DeWalt XR. I now own Hercules brushless too and gotta say I'm blown away. This impact made me put my atomic dcf850 into my home shop instead of work where I need heavy hitters. We'll have to see how well it holds up over time though

I'm so glad that you tested the new Hercules. Lots of suspense and hype around it. I am invested into Milwaukee M12 line, but I did just get the Hercules Ultra Torque for Christmas with the 8A extreme battery so I guess adding this cheap beast to the collection wouldn't hurt. I'm also interested in the hammer drill, but I feel it will be about average compared to Milwaukee and Dewalt but definitely hang with red and yellow. The price per performance is what got Mr interested as well as hanging with best in class tools. Durability is questionable for any new product, but I feel it should do fine especially with the new 5 year warranty. HF stepping up their game and listening to their customers and meeting industry demands. It's been a while since we had a shake up in the power tools space.

I appreciate the slow mo videos at the end of the video!

I own this new Brushless as well as the OG brushed version. I LOVE the new Brushless! It is a fantastic tool. I've owned the brushed for years and ran it until you couldn't hold it building 2 decks and it still runs to this day. But the new Brushless is so much smaller and just feels good. Very happy. Can't wait to try out the new drill!

Another great video! Love the inclusion of Nm in the video, makes it a lot easier to follow for me not having a clue what the pund ratings mean. Greetings from Norway :)

I bought this because of this channel! Thanks for the service and videos!

Friday mornings are always better with a cup of coffee and a new video from TTC. Thanks guys!

Been waiting for this video. Thanks guys. I bought the brushless Hercules impact driver and hammer drill driver. The price for tool and batteries just can beat with a 5 year warranty and in store trade ins.

What a beast! Also, picked up your chart the other day, the spreadsheet is awesome. Used it to research a good air impact for tire season!

I think the problem with going much above 170/180 on a 1/4" hex is that you're going to be destroying a lot of bits and adapters. There is a "practical" upper limit here- and that's the tooling. Eventually you hit a power level where it's no longer good at being a driver.

Couple that with the fact you can buy a quality high ah battery, Samsung 21700 cells for way less than Milwaukee/Makita/DeWalt. Just shows how the big names are ripping off their customers in battery prices. Hercules still has a long way to go, as they just don't have the variety of tools the professional needs to use, so better suited for homeowners or weekend warriors. Or those like me that don't mind having different battery platforms.

Few things i got from this video, HF is stepping it up and it's good to see. I forgot how many beans the kobalt XTR has but explains why I snap deck screws off if I'm not careful lol. I enjoy seeing more test on the kobalt next gen tool even if this one happens to fall behind a bit. I had higher hopes.

Love that youre willing to be surprised and still put out the data. The high speed is super helpful to understand the NVH components of a tool. Thanks for all of it

Thank you for your hard work and dedication! I'm looking for a complete system to buy into and y'all make the decision making a lot less stressful.

Wow at the amount of concussive force That Hercules has in that slow mo wow

At this point. I have no idea why you would ever by a Snap-on "Electric" tool besides it being entirely made in the U.S.A. At this point, many brands beat Snap-on impacts at a 5th the price and with twice the warranty. If you do. Please tell me why? I am interested.

Another success! Love you super accurate videos! The slow mo. is amazing, you have to compare all the impact driver leaders for vibration. I bet the metabo hpt and makita will have the least vibration.

Slow-mo Request: Use a shared point of reference across test subjects. The amount of vibration and movement from each driver kind of gets lost because of the slow motions camera’s (relatively) narrow range for exposure and depth of field. Maybe use something like those circle dot reference point stickers for 3D scanning. Heck, with something like a checker board/camera resolution test car/QR code pattern you might be able to turn the moment between frame into quantitative data… PS: I almost certainly ripped that idea from some MythBusters episode. Also people have coded programs to calculate the speed of vehicles from doorbell cameras and fixed reference points. Something similar to calculate relative movement? Even if it’s in some arbitrarily proprietary measurement?

That high speed camera's already indispensable to this channel.

I was just looking the other day on your channel for this review! Wow, that high speed footage is surprising…

Shoot, I’ve been a Red AND Yellow guy for years up until last year. The only red or yellow tool I’ve bought in the last 6-8 months is the DCF891 because Harbor Freight doesn’t have a mid torque yet🤷‍♂️ they’ve been blowing my mind and my wallet and I’ll be an inside track club member for life if they keep this up

Still very happy with my XTR purchase. Between me and my dad, we have the entire line of Kobalt tools. However, I went Atlas for yard tools. I only have 3 battery chargers, the Atlas and big/small Kobalt. Your channel has really helped us buy tools confidently while not breaking the bank. Thank you for that! There's another channel that tests tools and that farmer does a great job. Being a data nerd, I love the dyno and the way you display the test. Any chance you can test some of the yard tools from HF? Mower, leaf blower, weed wacker, chain saw... it would be cool to see. Thanks again!

Nothing earned that number 1 spot more than that Hercules. Damn boys…. that was awesome 🫡

I just worked all day with a brushed Hercules 12v impacted and it kicked as w a 2ah battery. 3" screws in and out of wood no problem. Cost like $30-40 plus packs. Also my brushed hammer drill generally gets it and I just got the brushless multitool and it kicks ass so far too! I do enjoy my Hercules products for home and work!

I saw the German brand Festool relased a new Impact driver. It would be cool if you can test them out because they make some really professional tools especially for woodworking

that slow -mo bit almost blew my edge.... sheeesh this channel is always evolving

Excellent testing and ranking methodology

honestly for an impact driver i don't personally find the raw power very important at all, i have the makita 172 and i almost always start in power mode 1 or 2 and increase if needed, the comfort, trigger feel, and fancy modes are much more useful to me (also the mode switch above the trigger is a feature i couldn't live without now). the screw extraction mode that automatically stops the tool was a godsend for mindlessly pulling a couple hundred screws out of a deck i was dismantling recently

First time watcher, popped up as a suggested video. This was oddly informative, all info, zero fluff.

I am a fan of the Hercules line though I've not purchased any Hercules tools. I just got into the FLEX line and currently have 5 FLEX tools: Inline 6.5 inch circular saw, Hammer Drill with Turbo, Impact driver, Reciprocating saw and vacuum. With the saws, which were kits, I got a 5.0 Ah battery and fast charger with each. and with the Hammer Drill/Driver kit, I got a 2.5 Ah and a 5.0 Ah battery and a charger. The vacuum was tool-only. With the sales and promotions, my total cost per tool (with 4 batteries and 3 chargers) is about $137.00 per tool - INCLUDING TAX! That is CRAZY inexpensive for these tools and comes in even lower than the HF impact driver when you add the charger and 5.0v battery, which would be $70 (tool) + $70 (5.0 Ah battery) + $40 (charger) or $180 plus tax. Love both lines but went with FLEX for lifetime warranty, which others reported as being a legitimate no questions asked deal. FWIW , I've owned Milwaukee, Makita, Bosch, Ridgid and Ryobi; DeWalt, too, but never had any luck with DeWalt tools so won't buy another one. Milwaukee and Ridgid have been our best long-term usage, with Makita right behind. We'll see how FLEX holds up.

Nice,I’ve been waiting for this.

I bought the Hercules two weeks ago. I needed to get aircraft panel screws out of a 60 year old USAF jet fighter (museum). It didn't even break a sweat. I bought it for the selectable speeds, hopefully to avoid screw damage. So far it's working flawlessly. Now I'm considering HF's new Hercules drill.

The hand vibration is a good point. In my limited experience it's most concerning with oscillating tools, I've felt hand numbness after some sessions.

I own a few Hercules powertools and they've been excellent.

Great vid! Have yall analyzed what power tool brand is overall best to get into since people usually stick to one brand?

Post more please you’re the reason I sleep well at night

That has happened to quit a Few of our M18 batteries. Their extremely loose fit+virtually no vibration control eventually causes them to fail. We now put little dabs of silicone on the tools in the back corners of the battery compartment to stabilize them a bit more, and that has improved things. ALSO on our concrete vibrator and SDS we duct tape the batteries in place.

Great test of some cheaper impact drivers! Could you test the Ryobi PBLID02B Next? Also rated for 2,200 in./lbs.

Love the new camera Cheers Guys

Neat. I like see how it holds up

Excellent performance for the Herc at any price point. Of course, although the Herc comes at a low price, that advantage is tempered somewhat by a limited HF tool line.

Just bought the Hercules today! Thing is a beast, for the price! 👍 Time will tell how well it stays together, as far as endurance, but I’m just a homeowner, using it around the house, and will be using it on my car, no doubt. Great product for the price. Just wish it came with a case, to store, all the pieces, Charger, tool, ect…

awesome stuff. slow mo is sweet!

The high speed camera is going to be a great addition to the channel.

what a good review , thank you!

Another great Job!

Man that's wild and kind of surreal! Also wild that Milwaukee has such a bad rep for quality control issues that have more or less been shown through your channel. 12ah batts with multiple dead cells right out of the gate, batteries literally falling apart, gen 4 impact throwing in the towel mid test, what's next?. I'm definitely not impressed for what those tools cost $$$.

So far I have been pleased with all of the Hercules stuff I have bought over the months. The only time I have encountered a problem is when I first bought into the tool-line. I bought my mother one of their 12v drills so she had something that was compact and lightweight to use outside while doing outdoor projects or improvements. The first drill ended up being a lemon and pooped out fairly early with little use. But I brought it back and had it exchanged for a new one with no questions asked. Though the store employees looked at me rather surprised as they told me the Hercules tools are rarely brought back for replacement. Even though it was the first Hercules tool I bought and it died quickly I also understand that thousands of them are manufactured in a day and not every one of them is going to be perfect. You're bound to get the one that doesn't work. Which is what happened to the first drill, it just quit. No smoke no nothing. So unlike most people who default to calling them junk and go with something else I stuck with them. The second replacement drill has been flawless so far and my mother loves it for its' compact size. She's used it quite a lot and for her needs she's said the little 2Ah batteries give her decent run time. So I've been tacking on things that I've been wanting since then. The portable fan has been very useful for keeping cool at work this past summer when I'm working in parts of the building where the air is stagnant. I have bought the brushless 7-1/4" circular saw but I have yet to use it. So I'm hoping to cut some wood this coming summer. :)

Wow... I have a very old DeWalt 18volt driver that is not what it used to be... Might be looking at Hobo Fright.... I can't believe I'm saying that lol.

Great review

Wow pretty impressive! FYI, Skil refreshed their brushless 12V drill and impact drivers, which of course has me feeling inadequate about my gen 1😉. It's not much cheaper than this one, but I imagine it's probably a lot lighter (and the batteries are much cheaper), and it also has a 5 year warranty iirc. Would be interesting to see.

If they could just put a dedicated 3/8 in.² on the front of one of those, it would be a winner, oh, and keep it about the same price instead of $200

I love my Hercules 20V ID. I've had it for several years, used it for several home renovations and has not disappointed. The battery lasts an incredible amount of time. In love with this brand.

That's quite astonishing but I'm very interested in the difficult to quantify aspects of usability and overall experience that you mention which Makita excels at if I understand you correctly.

I've been having so many milwaukee quality control issues like that. Battery tabs broken, tools locking up, straight up not working, my ratchet motor burning out and my coworkers have the same issue. We all have switched to Snap On to replace the broken milwaukees. No issues yet.

Crazy. I recently got an XTR for a smokin deal (since I was able to find some 1/2” and 3/8” kobalt impacts for $39, I decided to jump into the line…..already in Dewalt, M12, Ryobi, Worx and EGO). I can’t get into another line, perhaps I could find a Dewalt to Hercules battery adaptor and give it a try.

just picked mine up today and it's a very nice tool, I have Milwaukee gen 3 impact driver too but now I'm going to sell the Milwaukee stuff and go full Herc, oh I work on cars and houses for anybody curious as to what I use these for.

Gotta try the 21700 cell 4ah from hercules… ive seen it boost performance on these tools pretty substantially

Looks like there’s gonna fights at harbor freight. Good stuff fam!

Ive been useing the 1/4 bauer professionally and its worked for me for almost a year even with it being soaked in trans fluid and sprayed down with brake cleaner multiple times. One of the battery life indicators leds did go out but its never had a problem with battery life as long as I put it on the charger at the end of the day. I plan to use it til it breaks so I can buy the hercules.

Thumbs up for throwing in the “Come at me bro” lol

I’ve got the HF Hercules Impact driver and it main use is to put up road signs for construction jobs. Needless to say it’s been abused, but we don’t use it on a daily basis. I’ve also used it to do a metal roofing project. Put hundreds of screws in and out for about 10 hours that day. Also used it for various DIY projects. I can’t speak for it on a daily basis, but for a DIYer that will use it maybe once a week…the driver along with their 5 amp hour battery would be an awesome investment.

Hercules is the tool . I have the ultra torque and the thing slaps ☝🏻. Im hooked. Going Hercules impacts now over Milwaukee.

Honestly from what I've seen from home depot and Lowes recently there isn't even a reason anymore to go anywhere besides harbor freight for tools.they get the job done and if they break just go inside and they just give you a new one

I'm definitely going to pick one of these up. When I know I'm going to fight a lot of rusty nutz and bolts. I'll wear a gloves that have a palm pad so as too absorb a lot of the vibrations. The price point my be the attraction, But, this opens up a new category: Throw away and replace

I have the 1/2” brushless Hercules… works like charm… batteries get hot when removing lug nuts! Pretty awesome for their price point and warranty!!

Am I too late for the fan boy screeching? 😂 joking aside I’d like to see the numbers on the Herc using the new high output battery

And now, 1 year later, HF came out with a revised model for the 20V 1/4" Drill Driver (Model HCB81K1) and bet this lil' puppy is even better!! I just bought this and the 1/2" Drill Driver Combo and these are really, really nice tools. 5 Year warranty too? Donskies!

Is there any test you do that looks at how much torque these drivers provide without impacting? I find the added control by having a lot of linear torqe before the impacting kicks in can be quite useful on my gen 3

That's f'n great, i love when HF does well

Awsome video definitely subscribing

"The real reason we are gathered here today is...Torque". It's so nice that you are the real reason we are gathered here....every time you post a video. Although, without Test......you are just a pretty voice.

Last year my old Milwaukee impact(15-20 year old plug in) finally died. I replaced it with a cordless Hercules. I liked it so much, that I went back and got the driver and the drill..... I've been pretty impressed so far. One thing no one seems to test with tools is how long the battery lasts. With the small impact, I never swap batteries if I start the day with a full one. One of my brothers swear by DeWalt, but when I used his small impact it took 2 batteries for a full day's work.

I had just about every dewalt tools and have switched over to hercules. Its impossible not to be pleased with the quality of the tools and prices are great.

Well done video, thanks again! Nice to see how the competition is stacking at different price points. I'm fine with paying a little more for proven longevity and quality, but I'm starting to draw a line. Case in point...I have a number of 20V DeWalt tools and a few M12's. I would like to add the M12 Hatchet and 20V Atomic 1/2" ratchet but these are $200 each for the tool alone. I get inflation, but this is getting a bit out of hand. I can use my small bow saw and a manual ratchet for now and keep $400+ in my pocket. So seeing where good hard earned dollars can go is becoming more eye opening. Thank you again for taking the time and using your hard earned $$$ to put out this excellent content. I'm still a red and yellow fan, but haven't been as eager to run up to the brick and mortar stores to add to the arsenal as before.

Very impressive from Harbor freight with only knock I have on the Hercules line is its Tool only no kits

I would love to see series of testing on breaker bars and hand ratchets. I always find myself breaking breaker bars and stripping out my ratchets and I think it would be very cool to have a video comparing all the top names.

I know this is an old video, but I’m going to be doing a “real world test” of my own with this impact driver. I’m a union ironworker, and we just finished erecting a pre engineered metal building. Tomorrow we start putting the sheets on the walls and roof. Just bought this today, and will use it throughout the rest of the job. Will report back on how it handles a couple thousand self tapping screws into steel 👍

That Hercules is a beast! Have you guys ever tested the 2,200 in-lbs. rated Ryobi PBLID02B? Would be interesting to see how it stacks up.

Bonkers power out of all these little contraptions. When I was still a tool buyer cordless electric impacts were all only good for zipping stuff together. Wild..