Smitty

FWIW I have an old Craftsman air compressor handed down to me from my grandfather. I'm not even sure of the age but he rebuilt it in the 70's. I replaced the rusted out tank 2 years ago and I am still using it as my only compressor! It's a 2 cylinder cast iron oil bath and is FAR too old to be in the oil less era, but a very solid compressor none the less. My Mother in law has a Craftsman oil less that is OK. I've been around a few oil less compressors of various brands and personally I feel that they are all cheap! But to each his own, I'm sure some people love them!

If it is indeed the Hot/Cold delay, there is simply a thermistor taped to the side of one of the cells. One side is connected to the side of the top cell and the other is connected to the small contact beside the 2 main power contacts at the plug on the battery. You can buy one on ebay for $4. Just search "dewalt thermistor", the vendor is VoltMan.

The shop I work for is a production machine shop, the impacts are used for final assembly as well as all sorts of other odd jobs. I feel the 3/8" gets more torque to the socket than the 1/2" with a 3/8" reducer. As I said, the internals are the same up to the anvil according to the schematics. As for performance, I can't speak from experience on the 20v stuff as all my shop runs is 18v. However, in that case they both perform pretty equally and the battery life is very good, probably a half-shift at least. The batteries are expensive, although I think the lithium 20v 3.0 aH batts are a little cheaper than the 18v lithiums through most of our vendors. In any case, I'm sure you wont be disappointed, although personally I'm holding out for a brushless version before I go 20v on an impact. I absolutely agree BTW that the hog ring is far superior for frequent socket changes!!

I'm just guessing that the higher torque is a function of the slightly more efficient transfer of power through the 1/2" drive. The DC820/DC823 had the same anomaly. In the case of the 880/883, the magnet ring and armature are the same part number. In fact pretty much everything with the exception of the anvil and nose cone have the same part numbers inside the case. Even the hammer mechanism has the same number. As for the hog ring, I far prefer it to the pin. As the drive wears out it becomes less effective but if you have a socket or extension with a lock hole rather than a detent, that stupid lock pin will get locked in there and make it almost impossible to remove without pushing it in with a pick or small screwdriver. In any case I think they are pretty comperable, if they are at all like their 18v couterparts anyway (my shop has several of each of those).