Made in "Japan" Makita Better? Let’s find out!

does it really matter where a tool is made is a tool made in china just as good as one made in japan today we'll be testing a makita impact driver that's made in japan and also one that's made in china the makita impact driver that was made in japan did cost me about an extra 60 so the question is is it better and is it worth the extra sixty dollars let's get the testing underway and let's find out in the first test we'll see which impact driver produces the most torque then we'll find out which tool loosens bolts the fastest we'll see which one can drive in lag bolts the farthest and then we'll compare the internals of the tool to see why one performs a lot better than the other at a price of 167 dollars for just the tool and not the battery or charger is this makita 18 volt lxt lithium-ion brushless four-speed impact driver 3600 max rpm and 1 600 inch pounds of max torque 4-speed power selection 3-year warranty at 167 dollars it's about 60 less expensive than the one that's made in japan for 225 dollars i bought the red makita from a person who lives in japan and he sent it to me directly from japan so since i bought this from an individual it doesn't come with a warranty the owner's manual is also written in japanese made in japan model td-172 which is a different model number than the blue makita 0-1100 rpm in mode 1 to 2100 and mode 2 3200 mode 3 and 3600 mode 4. 1100 impacts per minute in mode 1 2602 3603 and 3804. the makita xdt16 has the exact same specs as the bikinis made in japan the bluebikita weighs 881 grams at 855 grams the red makita is 26 grams lighter even though both tools have the same specs they have a little bit different outward appearance the cases on both tools look very similar but there are some subtle differences between the two the blue makita does have a couple more options on the mode selector switch compared to the red makita however both makitas have four forward and four reverse modes the bit sleeve on the red makita is just over two millimeters larger diameter making it a little bit easier to release the bit or the bit holder the anvil is also slightly shorter on the red makita which shortens the tool by almost two millimeters the brightness of the led lights on the front seemed to be about the same both the tools should be pretty close to the same noise level i placed the sound meter 24 inches from the tool and the red makita is very close to 79 decibels and the blue machine is just a little bit louder at 80 decibels later in the video we'll do a tool tear down but it sure sounds like the bearings are making a little bit more noise in the blue makita if you're working with delicate material good low rpm control is pretty helpful the slowest the blue makita would rotate without stalling is 114 rpm i'm gonna go ahead and use the same battery for the red makita just so we can get a fair comparison the red makita offers slightly better low rpm control at right around 100. in four direction level four the blue makita made 3418 rpm which is 182 rpm slower than his 3600 no load rpm rating however it actually did better than the red makita which would only spin up to 3 330 rpm so the blue makita is 92 rpm faster than the red makita let's test reverse mode in level 4. the blue makita topped out at 3 472 rpm once again the makita was slower in fact 81 rpm slower at 3 391. we have six makita batteries to work with so i'll swap out the batteries between each of the tests let's test the maximum torque output for each of the makita's using this test setup it's a really simple setup with two hydraulic rams wedged between two very thick pieces of steel running through the entire setup is a very large bolt the tighter the bolt becomes the higher the psi we'll see if either one of these can reach 2000 psi just to make sure we get consistent test results between different tests i'll be using a high quality synthetic grease the battery is fully charged testing for maximum torque and forward direction mode 4. the test will last right at 15 seconds unfortunately i already broke a socket adapter let's try this again the blue makita is building torque very quickly 1950 psi is pretty impressive is going to be pretty hard to beat the battery in the red makita is fully charged the red makita totally pegged the gauge and actually went past 2000 psi to about 2 200. i just finished swapping out the bolt this one's left hand threaded so let's test the loosening torque of each impact driver 1 900 psi wow the cage is totally pegged looks like about 24 2500 psi not only does the red makita hit harder there's also a lot less vibration in the handle from the time you hit the trigger until the time the two responds is called trigger lag so let's see which tool has the better electronics and goes to work faster i'll try to squeeze the triggers at exactly the same time the red makita is definitely faster on the first test i'll go and switch hands and we'll try this one more time okay once again it's the red makita that's faster so the blue makita makes higher no load speed but the red makita hits harder and makes more torque i'll tighten up the lug nuts to 130 foot-pounds and we'll see if the red or the blue makita can remove the lug nuts the fastest and the red making is slightly faster on the first lug nut and it's very close but the red makita is slightly faster once again i use an impact driver all the time for driving in screws so let's see which one is the fastest at driving in some three and a half inch screws and the red makita barely edges out the blue makita on the first screw and it's the red makita for the wind on the second screw okay my left hand got tired of losing and cheated on the third test allowing the blue makita to get the win let's try this again and it's definitely the closest race of the three with the red makita barely edging out the blue driving in a five inch light bolt shouldn't be too much of a challenge for either one of these impact drivers so let's see which one is the fastest both impact drivers made quick work but the red is a little bit faster let's try this again and the blue makita barely edges out the red makita this time and red makita wins in the third lag bolt coming out on top two out of three times i don't think either the impact drivers can drive in an eight inch lag bolt but let's see which one can make the most progress and then we'll measure how much torque it takes to move the lag bolt and the blue makita looks like it started off a little bit faster but the red makita quickly caught up and both impact drivers are running out of steam but the red makita seems to have made a little bit more progress makita red about three and a half inches the keta blue had about three and seven eighths inches to go i'm going to use a torque adapter to see how much torque it takes to get these lag bolts to begin moving 385 inch pounds the lag bolt for the blue makita began moving at 336 inch pounds which is 49 inch pounds less than the red makita in the next test let's see how many times each impact driver can rotate this engine with the engine brake applied it takes right at 60 inch pounds of torque to rotate the engine this will provide a pretty good simulation on how quickly each impact driver can remove a faster with rusty or gold threads the test will last right at 30 seconds and the blue makita did a great job of getting the motor moving and seems to be doing a great job maintaining momentum three and a half rotations for the blue makita let's see if the red makita can do even better and the red makita is definitely making better progress than the blue makita but will it overheat and it's a win for the red makita with four and a half rotations compared to only three and a half for the blue makita let's test the durability of each impact driver by dropping them from 12 feet onto a concrete slab i'll place a pvc pipe on the tool to help control the impact angle of the tool and the blue makita experienced a really direct impact to the anvil with a 5 amp hour battery attached this type of impact puts a lot of stress on the handle and the blue makita's handle experienced quite a bit of flexion but it didn't break okay makita held up just fine but unfortunately the socket adapter is bare the red makita impacted the concrete at a slightly different angle and the handle seems to have done slightly better but it could have just been the impact angle other than a badly bent socket adapter no damage to the red makita okay the makita held up just fine but the socket adapter is bent pretty badly the red makita definitely performs better but are the tool internals basically the same or are they quite a bit different the blue makita bearing on the back of the motor makes quite a bit more noise than the red makita from a distance the internals look a lot like but there's actually quite a bit of difference the connector and switch are definitely not interchangeable the red makita is on the left and the blue is on the right the controller boards actually look quite a bit different from each other even the rotor pinions were built using a different process the hammer cases are also quite a bit different a flathead screwdriver is all you need to pry open the hammer case on the red makita the blue makita is left hand threaded the hammer for the red makita is on the right and the blue one is on the left and as you can see there's a huge difference between the size of the hammers the hammer assembly for the blue makita weighs 225 grams the hammer assembly for the red weighs 229 grams so four grams heavier in a recent video i drove in a thousand drywall screws using an impact driver and it caused my hand to go numb from all the vibration put off by the tool i don't have a way to quantify vibration between the red as well as the blue makita but the red makita definitely vibrates a lot less than the blue so is the red makita worth the extra 60 dollars i guess that's a matter of opinion in my opinion it's definitely worth the extra money if you plan to use the tool a lot and keep it for a long time all the videos in this channel including this one are viewers suggested so if you have a video idea i hope you take time to leave a comment thanks so much for watching please take care and look forward to next time

Channel: Project Farm

Views: 981,669

Rating: 4.9291673 out of 5

Keywords: Seafoam, project farm

Id: l7hd4rKf2us

Length: 10min 26sec (626 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 11 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/vonstubbins]

Wasn't this done by AvE already?

[u/LEMental]

TL;DW always "overnight parts from Japan"

They are the best.