It's all about the impact.

I was excited enough when I bought a used impact driver to, uhh, blog about it. So it should come as no surprise that I'm excited enough now that I own an impact wrench to, well, blog about it. It's one of the reasons replacing the shocks and struts on our RAV4 was so easy. Seriously.

Not only does it of course blow off lugnuts in a matter of seconds, it also didn't flinch–not for a second–at any of the bolts on that shock job. Nineteen-millimeter nuts: Just pressed my index finger and boom, done.

Yep, I can wax poetic over power tools. I certainly did about my Ridgid table saw I bought six years ago now. Like that saw, this Ridgid impact wrench kept bumping up against the top of the list as best cordless impact wrench. The only one to give it a run for its money was the Milwaukee, and I have to point out at three times the cost. It seems once a year, around Christmas, Home Depot packages this beast up with a battery and a charger for $150. I thought about getting it last year, but waited too long and the package disappeared. Until a couple of weeks ago.

The next job I have to tackle with this thing is replacing the rear wheel bearings on our Mazda 5. I couldn't get enough torque with a breaker bar. I'm hoping the ol' Ridgid will rip out the 7mm hex bolts without, well, flinching.