I've gotten sick of cheaper bits snapping and rounding off so was looking at Wera sets and bits but there seem to be plenty of reviewers having them not last long in impact drivers either. I wanted to get Wera as someone gave me a couple of bits a while back and they were pretty bulletproof.. the screws always seemed to take damage before they would but now these mixed reviews. Are there a lot of fake / imitation sets mixed in there? I've been looking on amazon/ebay.
Best impact resistant bits?
- Thread starter kaseryn
- Start date
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EddieM
I've been happy with wera impaktor bits, don't know if there's been a drop in quality though. Using an impaktor bit holder is recommended. Don't know about fakes either, but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
I've given these some serious grief of late:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-mixed-screwdriver-bit-set-32-pcs/94904
Unfortunately I've dropped the adaptor though
John
https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-mixed-screwdriver-bit-set-32-pcs/94904
Unfortunately I've dropped the adaptor though
John
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Deleted member 174758
Another happy Wera Impaktor user here. Only advice I can give is don"t buy from Ebay unless it's a known bricks and mortar seller. One of our apprentices got some "Wera" bits that weren't quite right and we suspected that they were snide. As said elsewhere they last longer in the OEM bit holders.Still sold by Toolstation
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Deleted member 174758
It really depends on several factors, Woody, but if you are only using a drill/driver, combi drill or low powered impact driver and driving limited numbers of screws in a session then cheaper bits will suffice - if you are driving high volumes, especially if you are doing so with a higher powered impact driver (over about, say, 130Nm) then it isn't hype, or "marketing con" as you term it - it's necessity. I can only assume you are fortunate enough not to need such high torque kit in your line of work
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I use a Bosch 10.8v, and don't recall the Nm. I've had it a long time and initially tried impact rated bits including wera, but really found no difference in life time and the cost difference was not worth it. So just use normal bits and they last a reasonably long time. As long as the bits fit snugly and don't chatter I'll stick with them.
I acknowledge that people may have greater demands based on the work and tool power, but impact driver does not mean impact bits are essential. That's where the marketing comes in.
Wera are good quality. I bought a bahco set a few months ago as it was cheap and it had a few unusual bits that I have needed occasionally, rubbish.
I bought a pack of 25 pz2 dewalt impact bits on offer at Toolstation a couple of years ago.
Still have more than half of them and never had one snapping.
I only replace when they wear out and lose the grip on screws.
I also have a very old wera pz2 bit that keeps reappearing in the driver's case, but I've used it and abused it so much it slips unless i apply lots of pressure to it.
Still have more than half of them and never had one snapping.
I only replace when they wear out and lose the grip on screws.
I also have a very old wera pz2 bit that keeps reappearing in the driver's case, but I've used it and abused it so much it slips unless i apply lots of pressure to it.
Me too, but I got them about 6 or 7 years ago, and my experience is the same. I thought they were basic bits, but on checking they are impact.
Before that I had these Milwaukee bits, and they are crap - they snap readily and are slightly rounded and don't have the extra fins that a PZ bit should have so don't grip well. They are my loaner bits.
I bought the milwaukee impact bits in the "puck" case, which is a handy little organiser to keep them in. They look different to the milwaukee bits in the photo above. Refill the puck case with milwaukee bits bought on ebay.
They've been fine for me.
I do remember breaking quite a few bits on cold days in previous winters. Maybe just coincidence, may be the bits are more brittle in freezing weather.
They've been fine for me.
I do remember breaking quite a few bits on cold days in previous winters. Maybe just coincidence, may be the bits are more brittle in freezing weather.
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Deleted member 174758
About 10 years back I used to buy DW bits and they were just fine, or rather, they were fine until in about 2011 or 12 when I upgraded from a 12 volt impact driver (my last bit of 12 volt Makita, which was rated around 125Nm, but which never busted bits) to an 18 volt brushless 3-speed model which was a little bit more powerful, at 165Nm. Cue bit snapping en masse. Standard DW PZD#2 bits might last all morning, but were just as likely to fail after an hour or even just half a dozen screws. Tried loads of manufacturers: Bosch - no better, Stanley - far worse, Milwaukee - poor fit and rounded out bits far too readily (which can be dangerous), Makita - no better than DW. Everything I tried was carp until I found Wiha - better, but still not perfect, and then a dealer gave me a couple of Wera Impaktor bits, which up till then I'd never heard of. At an eye watering £2.50 a pop with the bit holder (which has a spring inside) a further £13 or so, I thought, "This had better be good". It was. I was getting 3 to 5 days plus out of bits when heavily used (by that I mean something like 400 to 500 5.0 x 100 screws a day driven into structural softwood, for example), sometimes ten or more days when more lightly used. The problem became more acute when I upgraded to a 180Nm impact driver (DTD171) early last year - cheap carp bits just explode when that us used in high torque impact drivers. Even the DW black impact ones don't last that long in my experience. Every so often I do go back and buy a pack of Makita or DW or Milwaukee or Bosch bits - every time I am still disappointed.
So not so much marketing hype - more just need - but if you aren't using one of these high torque impact drivers you just won't get much or any advantage from Wera Impaktors. To use a car analogy, it's a bit like running a basic 848cc Mini on 5 star petrol (for those old enough to remember both), it's still petrol, but all it will do is cost you more to get there than if you bought basic 2 star
Well now, this is interesting. I picked up the Impaktor holder and a 50mm Impaktor pz2 bit and gave it to my mate to use this morning as he seemed to be suffering from more breakages. I don't know what hid DW impact is rated at but its 18v XR so i imagine at least as much as my Makita which is 170Nm. He had bought a bunch of Wera bits but they were the bitorsion 25mm bits not the Impaktor ones and he had one snap early on so then i gave him the 50mm Impaktor bit. That broke shortly too but now i think it's not really meant to be used with the bit holder? The last proper test for me is to put a 25mm Impaktor line bit in that holder and see if it lasts at all.
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