Quote Originally Posted by Greg R Bradley View Post
........... the current state-of-the-art in 18v impacts it is the Makita BTD144........On medium power it is about equal to.....small battery BTD142. On low power it is about equal to the 12v max impacts.
Neighbor has the 142 [his wife came to me for items to put on on his Christmas gift list - she went "Full Monty" - black series impact driver, flashlight, drill/driver, 2 chargers,4 batteries - If I had known she was gonna get him everything on my list, I'd have added more stuff]]. The 142 is pretty nice. My other stuff started dieing out, so I got the black series drill/driver - 452. It's good. Then, when the second of the old ones cashed out I got the 144 impact driver, and the 454 LXT drill.

Observations:
1] The 144 impact driver is great. the 3 speeds fit the range of tasks. However.........
2] The 142's single speed range is, IMO, right between the 144's low and medium.....and seems to be dead-nuts in the "sweet spot" for driving screws in furniture. Kinda like Goldilocks - 144 low is too little, 144 medium is too much, 142 is just right. BUT - the 144 on medium and high can do stuff the 142 cannot do. I have actually considered adding to the herd with a 142, but that is a pretty low priority for me.
3] On the [compact] batteries that come with the 142 and related black series family of tools.............they are lightweight, in both definitions of the terms. They are very easy to use, because of the "pounds and ounces" factor. But - their charge life is not all that much. Makita did not lead me astray - I'm just commenting on my experience. Plus - be aware - the bigger batteries fit into the "green" products [144, 454, etc] and into the "black" series [142, 452], but the reverse is NOT true - the compact batteries from the black series do not fit into the green series. I figure they don't have enough muscle to run them.

So - after a year or so experience, if I had it all to do over again, I would do it all over again - same stuff. Which includes 2 chargers, 3 big batteries, 2 small batteries, and a flashlight, to go along with the 452 drill, 454 drill, and 144 impact driver...................I'd still like to get that little impact driver, tho

Understand, please, that this is the first Makita stuff I have bought............and I'm a now fan for sure....bought some other Makita stuff since then, due to my experience.