Festool TID 18 Impact Driver Review

The brand new Festool impact driver is finally out. This impact is being sold at a lower price point making it an interesting addition to the growing Festool cordless lineup. It is still priced higher than the competitions offerings. I have spent some time with this tool, below I will cover everything I found and my opinion on the driver.

The TID 18 impact comes in a sustainer, inside you have the instructions, the tid 18 impact, two 4 amp hour Bluetooth enabled batteries as well as the Festool fast charger that claims up to 60x faster charge times than the competitions standard chargers.

The Tid is fairly compact weighs about the same as the competition and has four torque settings that you can cycle through by pushing one single button. This impact has a very bright single led light on the base activated by the trigger. The Tid unlike it's predecessor accepts standard quarter inch hex bits and drivers. The batteries slide on and off easily with a two button locking system and it features an easy to read bright battery fuel gauge. On the lowest setting the Tid has a perfect amount of torque to set a screw without stripping it.

In the video I run the Tid next to a Dewalt and Bosch top tier impact all three impacts drive a regular inch and a half construction screw at a similar speed and feel the Tid has 1593 max torque at 3200 rpm and it sinks the lag bolt a little faster than the competition.

Now for what I do or do not like about the impact.

What I do like is the Tid readouts are easy to operate and

read the led is really bright and overall has

a good amount of power. The impact has a really comfortable size giving it a good feel to it.

What I don't like about the impact is the chuck has a large gap in the back

allowing quite a bit of dirt can easily get stuck back there. The LED light although bright is located on the base causing bit shadows, something the competition fixed by moving the light years ago. The biggest issue I found though is the large cooling airports compared to the competitions. This should keep the motor cool but it makes it very loud. As you can see in the video this tool has an insane blow off like I've never seen before it will shoot dust and small debris clear across the shop as well as into your eyes. Making it almost unusable close to your face. In the video you can see how a normal impact fires substantially less air throwing less dust into the air. Secondly the grip on the impact is not a rubber over mold like the competition, I find with a dry hand I'm slipping and losing my grip.

All of that being said at the end of the day this impact has the same Festool quality you expect at a lower price point. If you're on the Festool cordless platform or looking to get on it this may be a great tool for you. That being said I don't see this as a must buy since it isn't a ton of value over the competitor's battery platform you're probably already on. Add the fact the impact isn't anything special above the competitions and the small cordless offerings to go with it make this probably not what will pull you to the Festool battery system.