Customer Reviews

Bosch PS40-2AH 10.8V Impact Driver w/Holster

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Length:: 1:11 Mins

UPDATE: As of August 2008 or so, (I don't know the exact date) I noticed Bosch must have had a focus group that decided "10.8 Volts" was not manly enough, and now this Litheon line of tools has been re-branded "12 Volt". I thought it was pretty funny. The battery and chargers are the same, they just used decided to use the peak voltage instead of the nominal running.

UPDATE PART TWO: After aver a year's heavy use of all three of my 10.8 devices, the batteries appear to be pooping out. I recently built a 14' X 20' stud wall and used the PS-20 to sheet it off, and I was surprised how much the battery life had shortened.
***
Anyway...

To give this drill the same name as that surprising device in "Men In Black is entirely appropriate. If you remember the movie you'll understand.

Five stars for being a truly superb and well made tool. If you even think you might need it, buy one. I was wondering if I could utilize an impact driver having gotten along fine up until this point without, but the design and the specs and the engineering conspired with my tool lust to make that a moot point. And the performance, despite being yes, noisy, is amazing for a driver this diminutive.

And suddenly I began to remember situations where a tool like this would have saved the day. As usual, my review is too long, all you need to know is in the first two lines so if you don't want to read the melodrama, close this page and just go buy one.. Oh, and just because I write favorable reviews here does not make me as one writer put it, "an Amazon cheerleader." I hate buying equipment online, truth be told. But this forum is indispensable to me.

I accidentally discovered this thing while looking around for something else at toolmonger dot com.. Unlike the PS20 and the I-Driver, I was not waiting months for the release, in this case it was a coupla weeks. So today I read it is already in stores. I grab my Lowes gift card and head for Big Blue. And there it was, $199.99. With a free holster thrown in! I was a little bit taken aback by the price, now that I have bought into this battery format you'd think I would not hesitate. I circled warily, and combed the store checking out a few other items while I tried to justify the expense to myself before being drawn inevitably back to the display.

I was out the door with it five minutes later. Now, if you have read my other reviews you'll know I am pretty impressed by the 10.2 volt concept even if the I-Driver was a little disappointing. I still admire the compact design and potential of the system and it seemed the new PS-40 Impactor would be just the right unit to put things back in perspective. I love the PS 20 but it does run out of gas a little more quickly than I would like, and it is pretty pathetic at drilling larger holes. Yes, I know, as someone here pointed out, that's why it's called a driver, not a drill. I get it. The I-Driver almost ended up on eBay, until I discovered it is simply unbeatable for a toolbag-sized device that can punch a 1 inch spade bit through the narrowest of joists. Go figure

First impressions: Nice case, 2 batteries and charger, 2 bits. This package came with a nice little holster as well. The unit is just as expected for a big bro to the PS20, but not so big as to be noticeably bulkier. The I-Driver is too large for my hand, but not the Impactor. As many will point out, the annular LED's in the snout are way cool, and sure to make the PS-20's wall-eyed single beam even more harder to take. The chuck seems tighter and less likely to show any runout, if anyone wants to put a dial indicator on and go for a comparison let me know.

I really had to wonder why I was buying an impact driver anyway, and was reminded of this immediately when I fired it up. The battery was hot right out of the box, and I first ran a 3" deck screw into the nearest available 2X4.

It's a noisy little [...], I should have expected as much. Driving a screw is- different. Seems slower, but as soon as I ran a side by side it narrowly beat or tied the PS20 every time. The way the impact action works seems to keep re-setting the bit into the screw head and there was no tendency to cam-out. I was hoping it would have a way to be set for impact or drill, but it's always on.

At this point, I am not sure the PS40 will be as useful as I imagined, but it definitely has a surprising amount of power. And noise, did I mention that?

And a new discovery: contrary to common belief, the LiIon cell does not run at 100% until death, it seems I was using less than a fresh battery. When I snapped in a hot one the performance increased dramatically. I tested it side by side with the PS20 on screws holding in the treads of some stairs I built, and the results were startling. I will have to make video and post it somewhere. Look for this on YouTube, maybe. (Aha!- I see Toolmonger beat me to it. Driving a 5/8 lag bolt into an undrilled 2X4- ? This is cruel. I hardly think of a situation where this would become necessary. Anyway. If you have 4 minutes to spare and an urgent need to do something there is no conceivable reason to attempt, go for it. But, the noisy little [...] did it. I did in fact shoot a side-by-side race of this driver with the PS20, it's in YouTube, but even spelling out the address didn't slip by the Amazonians. Do a search, it's there. Not surprisingly, the PS40 dusted its little brother.

UPDATE: Now with Amazon's help I can upload the vid.


Drilling was about the same, as far as speed goes, I don't really think that using an impact driver to make holes is the most polite way to do it, but this is all bench testing, my impressions of the I-Driver were much revised after I put it to work. Consider this review a work in progress.

Then, "ca-ching": I put a ¼ " hex adapter in the PS20, and a 1/2 " socket and put it to work on a 3/8" lag bolt holding down a shop vise. It gave a little "urk" noise and stopped. Next the Impactor; it backed it out in 15 seconds and I swear if it could have smiled it would have. And running it in, I had no doubt it could have snapped the head. This time the noise was appropriate for the task. In less than 5 minutes I found something it was good at, uniquely qualified even. I am still not sure it's worth [...] at this point, apart from loving the system so much. This time I will evaluate it intensely before the return period expires, and I will be updating this review as I learn more about it.

Finally, the LED's: Extra points to Bosch for paying attention. The annular 3 LED array is great, even though I finally got used to the Cyclops in the PS20, this is what it should have been in the first place. Plus, if you put the direction selector in the "lock" position, squeezing the trigger gives you a cool little pistol grip Bond flashlight, although I was having fun doing it by just pulling the trigger far enough to make the light come on along with that spooky weird hi-freq noise. It still creates a cone of shadow around the work more than on it, but I whenever I use a tool without a light it seems like something is missing.

I've had the PS40 for over a month now and find it to be an excellent driver - nearly perfect.

At first I was put off by the noise of the impact mechanism, but after drilling hundreds of deck screws I came to appreciate the tremendous amount of torque available. More torque is usually a good thing, but in a standard drill/driver excessive torque can be bad as it requires more work, is less precise, or possibly dangerous if the tool, say, twists you off a ladder. The PS40 doesn't have this problem, in fact, it requires less effort to drive the same fastener as a standard driver or drill. I found myself backing off on the downward pressure to the fastener - much less force is necessary to keep the bit engaged. In particular this is a boon for those situations where you can't get a good and strong angle, such as working overhead or where the screw is hidden from view. With the PS40, if you can get the bit in the fastener that's probably enough to get the job done.

The impact noise is loud but not "hurt your ears" loud. If you're using it inside it may annoy others in the house, be forewarned.

The size, grip, weight, balance, and battery life are all excellent. It really does feel like a phaser, that is, if the phaser actually existed.

As the description warns, the PS40 cannot be used as a drill (I tried). So you'll still need another tool for that. The PS40 will replace my Porter Cable 14.4 cordless drill and is a third the size and weight. I'll reserve the drill for pilot holes (its batteries are failing anyway).

For lighter duty driver applications, I would think the non-impact PS20 would be ideal (though I've not tried it). Given that the 20 retails for just over $100 (for the 2 battery & charger kit) I'm considering buying one to compliment the 40. If they ever sell just the PS20 driver alone I will definitely buy one.

The PS40-2A kit differs from the PS40-2 in that they throw in a belt holster. I wouldn't pay extra for it.

I strongly recommended the PS40 for mid to high torque applications, such as deck building, drywall hanging, and framing.

Powerful, lightweight, typical Bosch quality. The three LEDs are great for seeing what you're doing (especially with older eyes!) and the lithium ion batteries get you through the work without quitting. Best tool in my bag!!

The Bosch PS40 10.8v impact driver is an amazing little driver. Small, compact, and reasonably light weight, the PS40 is easy to carry around, and light enough to make it easy for anyone to use. The PS40s impact driver action lets the head re seat into a screw head with each impact, making spin outs nearly a thing of the past. I took the PS40 with me to help with a DIY cabinet hanging job, and it saved the day. Its strong torque and lack of spin out made it the only drill/driver there that could handle the cabinet hanging screws. Its lighter weight was very welcome when driving screws high on the wall. One word of caution, before handing the PS40 to someone without experience be sure to tell them to go easy. The small size can fool them; the PS40 has enough power to drive a screw completely through your work and deep into the stud behind it before you know it.

The only downside to the PS40 is that the impact action is loud. You won't notice this as much for light weight tasks, but as you start using the impact feature to gain torque on tougher jobs it does get loud.

All in all I highly recommend the PS40. Go get one for yourself; you will be pleased you did.

I don't usually write reviews, however this one is worth writing. We saw the Bosch 10.8V Impact Driver at a trade show. Seemed like a good product, but my husband and I were both rather scepitcal because of the battery size. I read a lot of reviews and everything seems positive so we gave it a try. It has been worth every penny and then some. We are both in the construction biz and use it on a daily basis. It has amazing torque for such a small impact driver. The batteries last only slightly less than our 18v drivers and unlike the regular cordless batteries, they are just as good on the last screw are they were on the first. You don't actually realize the battery is going dead until the driver stops. The guys that work for us have been impressed and we have to keep a close eye on thing to make sure it doesn't disappear!

I saw this tool demo'd at my local Woodworker show but was still wondering if the price was too much. Amazon sellers beat the "show" price by over $10 plus free shipping! Anyway this impact driver excels at driving all types of screws. If you need a drill this won't double as a drill because of the impact drive but man it'll drive screws all day long on the Li-on battery plus not wear our your grip or your arm holding it.

One caution - if you haven't used impact drivers before it sounds strange when it really starts cranking but it's working. Also be carefull about going full trigger until you get used to it or you may find yourself driving the screw right through something on way in too far. It has power to spare but you limit the torque by how much power you apply on the trigger.

If your looking for a medium duty impact driver and already have the Bosch Pocket Driver, this is a must have tool. Light, powerful and extraordinary batter life. Having both products give you 4 batteries and two chargers! The multi light head end of the impact driver is much more effective than the single led in the pocket driver.
Why not 5 stars? If your a serious deck builder and drive boxes of screws at a time, then the Dewalt impact driver is the one for you. It's a little more powerful and makes the job go faster.

NEWS FLASH! JULY 21, 2008 !!!!

I had to check, and recheck, but sure enough, Bosch is now packaging these in a 12volt version being sold at LOWES here in Fort Lauderdale, Florida...Everything else looks identical (case,2 batts, charger, etc), just the batts are now 12 volts! Bosch claiming increased speeds and torque! The price for this "High Voltage" versions wes $148USD as of 7/21/08. Odd. I couldn't find ANY supporting literature on the higher volt versions and include the PS20 models as well-

Hsppy Hunting!
AX~ Master Woodbutcher and Seasoned Termite

Not to strung but it not made to do heavy duty jobs just small/lite jobs i like mine.

This little giant is perfect for the average homeowner. Yes, it doesn't have the power of an 18 volt mega driver, but it's about one tenth the size and weight and it will drive just about anything up to and including 4 inch lag screws into spruce timbers. And the LD light is very handy. Buy the whole kit including the holster and get a DeWalt conversion chuck and you only need one tool around the house for drilling and screwing. The extra lithium battery in the kit charges fast enough so that you can work all day if you're so inclined.