After a disappointing experience with the Avid Power cordless drill, we decided to give them another shot. Would this Amazon impact driver fare better? To find out we ran the Avid Power 20V Max impact driver on the PTR Impact Driver Test Track!
Want to see it in action? Check out our video review!
Amazon Avid Impact Driver Design
Avid’s drill handle was uncomfortably short and we expected the same thing on the impact driver, but it’s taller, making it much more comfortable.
The head of this impact driver is fairly bulky, running roughly the size of Milwaukee’s M18 Fuel mid-torque impact wrench. It’s not quite impact wrench heavy, though, weighing 2.6 pounds bare and 3.3 pounds with the battery. But it’s not lightweight compared to the other impact drivers we’ve tested.
Two things we like to see on an impact driver collet are one-hand bit insertion and a spring ejection system. It just makes bit changes easier. Avid doesn’t include either of these features. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it’s sure to cost a couple of seconds on the Test Track.
Surrounding the collet are 3 LEDs. They do a much better job of eliminating shadows than the single lights we often see mounted just above the battery. We like that Avid used this style.
So really, the only major negative in the general design is that it’s bulkier and heavier than we’d like.
Avid Impact Driver Performance
With 2700 RPM and 1590 in-lbs of torque, Avid doesn’t reach as high as the professional-level models we use daily. However, those numbers are just fine for typical DIY use. How those specs translate into working speed is what we need to know, so let’s get down to the business at hand.
The PTR Impact Driver Test Track consists of 4 sections designed to test an impact driver’s real-world potential. We’ll start by driving 20 drywall screws, then 10 self-tapping screws into a steel stud, and give a nod to those of you using drill bits in your impact driver by drilling 10 holes with a quarter-inch twist bit. Finally, we’ll wrap it up with the toughest part of the course—ten quarter-inch ledger screws.
Currently, most of the entire test group is between 2 and 3 minutes. 1:59 is the time to beat and that belongs to the Makita XDT16.
The Test Track is where things fell off the rails for Avid on its drill time trial. Fortunately, the impact driver didn’t need any timeouts to cool off this time.
It finished in 2:48 and that’s the slowest of the 18V and 20V Max models we’ve tested. It finished the course with no problem, though, and it’s not very far away from the other name-brand models we tested.
Avid Power 20V Max Impact Driver Price
The kit runs just $50 on Amazon. For that, you get the impact driver, a 1.5Ah battery, a charger, a 10-piece driver bit set, a 14-piece nut driver set, and a soft case to keep it all together.
The Bottom Line
For $50, this Amazon impact driver from Avid Power is okay. It did the tasks we asked it to and it didn’t break. That’s an improvement over the drill’s performance. And there aren’t many $50 impact driver kits out there.
There’s still an issue hanging out there, though—one of our Avid batteries is already shot after just 5 weeks. We’re still not confident they’ll hold up for long considering they’re one for two with us so far.
We’d recommend you spend a bit more and get into a different system. Hart and Black & Decker run about $20 more, and the Ryobi HP Compact model we tested is $99 as a kit with two batteries. Or if you already have a cordless drill, you can use the battery that came with it and buy a compatible impact driver as a bare tool.
Specifications
- Power Source: Avid Power 20V Max battery (1.5Ah included in kit)
- No-Load Speed: 0 – 2700 RPM
- Max Torque: 1590 in-lbs
- Warranty: 2 years
- Price: $50
