The pick for best overall is the Ryobi. At $90 it was the fastest tool through
28 lug nuts at 73 seconds, spun the highest measured free speed at 457 RPM,
ran the longest at 43.8 minutes, and recharged in 54 minutes, all while
holding a usable 42 RPM at light trigger pressure and offering a four-position
rotating head. It gives up ground in two places: 1,441 g makes it the heaviest
tool of the group, and 23.1 ft-lb on the lag bolt puts it in the middle of the
torque order rather than at the top.
Work that regularly meets resistance points somewhere else. The Milwaukee M12
Fuel held 29.4 ft-lb before stalling and turned the loaded engine 76 times in
30 seconds, the two best results recorded, and its 39 minute recharge and
second battery keep it working. The cost is a 110 second lug-nut run, 23.3
minutes of run time, 89 dB, and one of the two largest heads in the test. At
the other end, the $60 Husky is a lot of tool for light-duty use: lightest at
977 g, 83 dB, 42.3 minutes on a charge, and a manual ratcheting mode that
keeps it useful with a flat battery, set against last place for trigger
response, a 147 RPM minimum speed, and repeated stalling against 7.2 ft-lb.
The clearest pattern across the group is that free speed and sustained torque
pull in opposite directions. The two brushless tools, the AC Delco and the
Milwaukee M12 Fuel, dominated everything involving load and were the first two
out of the run-time test, while the fast-spinning Ryobi, Husky, and Snap-On
led the no-load work. Spending more does not resolve that trade-off: the $482
Snap-On won its speed pairings but managed 14 rotations against resistance and
climbed to 205 F on a continuous run, and the $183 Ingersoll Rand, which has
the most compact head and the finest 14 RPM control of any tool here, stopped
at 11.7 ft-lb. Decide first whether the tool is for running fasteners down
quickly or for breaking them free, and buy for that.
