Air tools are no longer cool. Cordless isn't the future--it's the present, right?
Cordless tools provide two key benefits: convenience and efficiency. Of these two, convenience is overwhelmingly the reason people chose a cordless tool. A cordless tool powered by a modern LiPo battery is also quite efficient in terms of energy; the energy out of it vs what it took in to charge the battery is far more efficient than using air as a hydraulic medium.
But as you get more serious in hobbyist and mechanical ability, you will soon find that the argument for air tools really becomes no contest. As you progress in ability, it doesn't take long to get to the point where air tools crush cordless:
- All air tools are power-agnostic. You can freely mix compressors and tools and the tool doesn't care what brand the compressor is. An air compressor from 1965 can effectively power a 2026 air tool. But the opposite is also true--an air tool from 1965 runs perfectly fine on a brand new compressor.
- With even a minimum of maintenance, an air tool lasts effectively forever. A vane motor that's oiled will last decades. Likewise for hammers and piston mechanisms.
- An air tool is lighter and physically smaller for almost any tasks apples-to-apples vs a cordless tool.
- Many air tools have no cordless alternative. Media blasting, spray painting, and even hammers and impact tools generally do not have cordless analogs. And where there are cordless alternatives, often they are physically larger and heavier and have less run time available.
- Air tools are safe in hazardous environments. You will never have a battery catch fire or an electrical short out on an air tool. Simple, reliable. Indeed, hazardous environments are the main reason air tools were even brought into existence.
- Quality air tools generally have far less vibration and are much easier on the human user in terms of ergonomics when you combine the lower vibration with the smaller size and lighter weight.
A couple examples which hopefully aren't cherry-picked to kind of show the state of the cordless-vs-air tradeoff.
I have two power ratchets, one cordless and one air. The cordless ratchet is this Makita. It cost $140 for just the bare tool, has a max torque of 35 lb-ft and a max RPM of 800. It's 15" long.
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But the air ratchet is this Astro 1128 which is 700rpm and 50lb-ft while being less than half as long, narrower and much smaller in every dimension while being fully reactionless as well.
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The bread and butter of cordless tools is the impact driver. This is the tool that got me into cordless because it basically didn't exist as a corded tool or an air tool. They have gotten incredible. A current tech cordless impact is an incredible tool, capable of removing lug nuts, drilling holes and such and going it all in an incredible compact and lightweight tool. They are the F1 car of power tools.
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This makita, for example, has advanced "smart" torque controls for speed and RPM, is compact at 5.5" deep and yet still packs nearly 1600 in-lb sufficient to tighten an M16 bolt! These impact drivers--and the DeWalt and Milwaukee offerings are at least as capable-- are truly incredible tools. What does an air tool offer like this?
There really isn't a pneumatic alternative in terms of advanced controls. The closest tool would be something like this excellent SP air tool that has no "smart" controls whatsoever.
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The air impact is both physically larger and less powerful, although still putting out 100lb-ft and quite sufficient for just about anything where a 1/4 hex is suitable.
But here's the thing-- even when you pick the very BEST cordless tool where it has its biggest advantage over pneumatic, you're still left with a throwaway tool that will last a couple years and die. It it's basically tuned like an F1 engine and has similar durability and performance. The pneumatic tool won't give quite F1 performance, but it will get quite close while giving a tool that has a lifetime measured in decades while having superior smoothness and vibration. It requires a bit more skill to use, but rewards the users who possess it.
So we have two anecdotal examples, one where the advantage goes clearly to air and another where the advantage clearly goes to cordless, at least in terms of performance and power-to-weight.
What about some other tools?
Impact wrenches are increasingly becoming more and more capable in cordless. Claims are all over the place, which is why you need a trustworthy source like the Torque Test Channel's tool ranking list.
Right now, the top 1/2 battery impact is the DeWalt DCF961, a 650lb-ft beast that will torture a 1/2" square drive anvil and socket to their limit. It weighs 9.2# and costs $350 for a bare tool, and it will physically assault the user even as it bust nuts (and square drives). It's not smooth and it's violent. And like many newer cordless, it's a disposable tool with a couple years of longevity at most in heavy usage.
The Astro Thor G2--as the top air impact-- can't purely compete on brute power, as it's "only" 580lb-ft in the same working torque test. But the Astro is only $180, is just over half the weight at 5.2#, will fit tons of places you don't have a chance of fitting that huge deWalt, and is much smoother and more durable.
As you larger in impact size the disparity becomes larger. You can get a fully functional and quite effective Harbor Freight impact wrench that will deliver an honest 1300lb-ft (in Torque Tests own testing) for $340 as a 1" pistol grip impact. It weighs 15#. The Milwaukee 2868-20 is much longer, weight 5# more before you even put a battery on it, and costs $1000 as a bare tool.
There's plenty more comparison that can illustrate this point, but all will show a variation of the following theme: air tools are generally lighter, more compact, cheaper, smoother, and far more durable in a given power class of tool. And in the rare cases where they don't win on all these points at same time, they certainly are far more compelling overall. Look at an air angle grinder vs a cordless or corded equivalent and be shocked at the size and weight difference.
Cordless is super convenient and portable. But there's a lot that is given up in the name of portability, and I strongly suspect many people are throwing money away buying disposable cordless tools and replacing batteries when there's probably a smarter solution. Air tools are often that smarter solution. If you really need portable, there's the
pneumatic analog of a battery...
Cordless tools are here to say--they meet a legit need and do it very well. But what started out as primarily useful for contractors building buildings with no electricity where miles of air hoses were super inconvenient and unsafe (tripping) has morphed into a misguided sense of trying to make cordless tools fit where they are often a pretty poor solution overall.
Horses for courses--pick the tool that works best for the application. And for me and my mechanic and metalworking purposes, that comes down to about 80/20 air vs cordless.
ANd it will only increase now that I have a major compressor upgrade in the work along with permanent air piping in my garage.
