A cordless nail gun is a quick and easy tool to fasten trim. It fires the nail and sinks the fastener’s head below the surface in one operation, making it the ultimate mobile trim tool. Finish carpenters and DIY woodworkers love cordless nail guns. Not only is the tool an upgrade over a hammer, but it’s also more convenient than the pneumatic version of this tool. With a cordless nailer in tow, say goodbye to the days of lugging along a pancake air compressor with you or drag a hose behind as you work.
Cordless nail guns easily and rapidly nail up door and window trim and attach chair rails and baseboards. They also handle miscellaneous fastening on repairs and furniture projects. Cordless nail guns come in two types: brad nailers for attaching baseboards and trim and finish nailers that fire longer, heavier gauge nails for securing thicker molding setups or working with dense hardwoods. This buying guide tells you everything you need to know about both types and give you our top recommendations for the best cordless nail guns.
Click on the links below for a quick look at the best cordless nail guns from our test, then scroll down to read about our testing process as well as in-depth reviews.
The Best Cordless Nail Guns
What to Consider
Most of the nailers in our test were 18-gauge nailers (Metabo-HPT, Ryobi, Milwaukee, DeWalt, and Craftsman). However, we also tested one 16-gauge nailer (from Makita) and even a headless 28-gauge pin nailer by DeWalt.
Type
Weight and Size
One misfired nail completely wrecks a piece of trim, causing you to have to tear it off and cut and fasten a replacement piece. The more weight and size that’s added to a nailer, the more difficult it becomes to place on its target and the more likely it is that you’ll misfire a nail. With that in mind, look for a cordless nailer that’s around six pounds, including the battery, and with evenly distributed weight. If the nailer is slim enough for you to easily see its nose, you’ll get the added benefit of positioning it more accurately on the face of a baseboard or a narrow piece of shoe molding than you would using a chunkier tool.
Nail Size
Nailers also vary in the nail lengths they fire. Most nailers fire nails ranging in length from 5/8-inch to 2-1/2 inches long. Keep in mind that their ability to drive nails in varies depending on the density of the wood you’re working with. While a nailer may drive a 2-1/2 inch nail into soft pine, it may not do so with oak.
Depth Controls
Any nailer worth its salt gives you control over the amount of force it applies to the nail and how deep it drives the fastener into the wood. Being able to control nail depth prevents you from driving nails through thinner and softer woods or leaving nails protruding out of harder or thicker materials. The best depth controls operate tool-free, giving you the flexibility you want without any added hassle.
Dry Lockout
Firing an empty nailer into wood leaves a small dent behind. Since you’re often working quickly when attaching trim and driving in nails, you likely won’t notice you’re firing blanks until you’ve left a row of empty holes in a piece of trim. Not only do these blanks force you to go back and reattach the trim, but they also require you to cover twice as many holes with wood filler. A dry lockout feature prevents a nail gun from firing by locking the nailer’s nose when it’s out of nails or brads.
Firing Modes
Many nailers feature two firing modes: sequential and bump. Sequential firing requires you to press the safety tip down and pull the trigger to fire a nail. With bump mode, you hold the trigger down and bump the safety tip against the material to fire each nail. Bump mode helps you complete bigger jobs faster because you fire nails much more quickly.
Why Trust Us
Our list of the best cordless nail guns includes five nailers that we tested ourselves and three additional products we selected after extensive research that involved carefully comparing specs and reading through customer reviews.
For the five nail guns we tested, we wanted to be sure our protocol was tougher than what these guns would typically encounter in a day’s work. For example, when testing for nail-sinking capability, we fired slowly and methodically into red oak, both 3/4-inch thick and 1.5 inches thick. When we increased the length of the nail, we doubled up the oak so that the gun was firing into either oak that was 1.5 inches thick or 3 inches thick (to ensure that guns rated for longer nails could indeed countersink the fastener when the fastener was longer than 2 inches).
For rapid-fire simulations, we prepared strips of various materials, such as white pine, radiata pine, birch and fir plywood, and MDF (medium-density fiberboard). In these cases, we were more concerned with the tool’s precision and speed than its raw power.
However, just to be on the safe side, anytime that we simulated a test in trim or built-in cabinet construction, we positioned our test materials (either as a single layer or as a sandwich of various materials) over Douglas fir, a common and tough framing material. That way, we could be sure that the nailer was capable of not only firing through the test materials on the front of the wall, but also the framing in the wall itself.
For most of our testing, we focused on 18-gauge brad nailers for the simple fact that these tools are light, easy to handle, and provide excellent fastening power for baseboard trim, door trim, window trim, shoe molding, and small crown. To attach heavy crown molding or built-up molding assemblies, use a finish nailer.
The Metabo-HPT sailed to an easy placement atop our rankings thanks to its easy handling and ability to sink a fastener in the toughest wood. It fired all of its nails in our maple and red oak tests with ease. Its brushless motor increases longevity and improves the tool’s already impressive firing speed. With this power tool, you get a brad nailer that’s as light as a pneumatic tool, but without the air hose. It’s 30 percent lighter than its predecessor tool, and its narrow handle creates a good line of sight to its tip.
Its compact and lightweight design makes handling the tool easy at floor height, mid height, and over your head, reducing the chances you’ll misfire a nail and speeding up your productivity. And since it uses smaller 18-gauge nails, you can fire more nails before you have to reload. The Metabo cordless nail gun is light, easy-handling, and powerful, and it takes full advantage of the potential locked in 18-gauge fasteners by delivering a power tool well-engineered to fire them.
Best Value
Ryobi One+ 18v Cordless Brad Nailer
Pros
- Compact size
- Affordably priced
Cons
- Limited nail driving power
Key Specs
| Weight | 7 lbs. |
|---|---|
| Battery | 2 Ah |
| Gauge | 18 |
The Ryobi 18-gauge brad nailer is the ultimate do-it-yourselfer’s nailer. It lacks the long-nail driving power of our test’s top finishers, but it’s inexpensive and quite effective for most household jobs, including attaching shoe molding and baseboards, installing softwood door and window molding, and putting up small crown molding. Hobbyist crafters and DIYers will appreciate the tool’s lack of bulkiness. It’s a bit shorter and slimmer than professional-duty nail guns, though we wish it were a bit lighter. The dial at the back of the tool adjusts output air pressure quickly and easily to control nail depth. Turning the dial clockwise increases air pressure and driving power, while turning it counterclockwise has the opposite effect. Simple and intuitive.
Best Budget
Craftsman CMCN616C1 Cordless Nail Gun
Key Specs
| Weight | 5.6 lbs. |
|---|---|
| Battery | 1.5 Ah |
| Gauge | 18 |
Craftsman’s CMCN616C1 deserves the moniker of “most improved” when you consider its predecessor, the C3 Speed Shot. Don’t get us wrong; that wasn’t a bad product. But the new Craftsman features more nail-driving power, a better sight line to its tip, and a more comfortable handle. We reliably fired nails into soft wood up to 2.5 inches thick and oak up to 1.5. Just be warned, when we fired 2.5-inch nails into harder red oak, the majority of fasteners had their heads flush or nearly flush to the surface, not set just below the surface as is ideal. These nails, with their heads standing “proud” off the surface, required an old-fashioned nail set and a hammer for us to finish driving them. That aside, this is a good, sturdy, and reliable nailer at an affordable price.
This cordless brad nailer offers exceptional raw power. With its larger battery, it fires up to three nails per second and a whopping 2,200 nails on a single charge. It switches easily between sequential and bump firing modes, and its depth is adjustable without needing tools to change it. Plus, it handles a broad range of 18-gauge nail sizes from small 5/8 inch nails to long 2-1/8 inch nails. FLEX also equips this nailer with a triple LED light that illuminates your work area. While it weighs more than other cordless nails at about seven pounds, including the battery, this tool is a great option for jobs that require a lot of nails.
The longer a nail is, the harder it is for a nail gun to reliably sink the skinny things into hard woods without either misfiring and jamming in the nose or firing the nail into the material but not properly setting it below the surface. This DeWalt consistently fires one nail after the other into red oak without a problem. Its slim handle, weight distribution, and balance improved our productivity while testing, as did its stout drive mechanism and lack of recoil. A lockout mechanism prevents dry firing, and we also liked the gun’s small nose that made it easy to hit our target. Place the gun and fire, then move on to the next nail. With this reliable DeWalt tool, it’s really that simple.
Best in Tight Spaces
Makita XNB02RJ Cordless Nail Gun
Pros
- Uses stronger 16-gauge nails
- Slim profile
Cons
- Balance thrown off due to large battery
Key Specs
| Weight | 6.2 lbs. |
|---|---|
| Battery | 2.0 Ah |
| Gauge | 16 |
This Makita model excels in small spaces and at awkward angles, like when you’re nailing trim at floor level, due to its slimness. And much of its surface area—especially its base and sides—is covered in rubber, protecting both the tool and the surface against which you place it. This finish nailer drives in larger 16-gauge nails up to 2-1/2 inches long, giving it more fastening power than a brad nailer. There’s also a dry lockout, so you don’t have to worry about firing a row of blanks. The kit version of the tool comes with two slim, 2-Ah batteries that provide more than enough power for a day’s work while keeping the tool well-balanced. We tried the tool with a larger battery and noticed a rear weighted bias.
This compact nailer fires nails that are so small you’ll want to check twice to make sure it’s working. These headless 23-gauge nails are designed for jobs that require more finesse, such as attaching shoe molding or adding small, intricate pieces of molding to cabinets. The nailer comes equipped with simple depth adjustment for firing in flush or countersunk nails. Makita’s pin nailer works with nails that range in length from 5/8 inch to 1-3/8 inches, and it fires up to 300 pins on a single charge. Plus, it’s compact enough to fit into smaller spaces and weighs only five pounds, including battery.
While it doesn’t carry the same universal recognition as other brands featured on this list, Porter Cable nonetheless makes some very good tools, including this 18-gauge brad nailer. Its most attractive feature is a thumb dial that controls depth of drive with an easy-to-see depth gauge. It also comes equipped with two LED lights that fully illuminate the work area. Plus, it fires up to 1,400 nails on a single charge, and there’s a no-mar tip, a trigger lock for safety, and a handy belt clip. As cordless nailers go, this one matches affordability with functionality better than almost any other, which makes it a great option for DIYers, especially those who are relatively new to cordless nailers.
Tony Carrick is a full-time freelance writer who specializes in technology, home improvement, DIY, home security, and outdoor recreation. He’s tested and written about everything from home security systems to power tools to gas grills. His product guides, how-to articles, and feature stories can be found in such publications as Bob Vila, Angi, U.S. News and World Report, Field & Stream, Futurism, and Switchful. When Tony isn’t writing, he can be found working on his latest home improvement effort at his home in North Carolina.
Roy Berendsohn has worked for more than 25 years at Popular Mechanics, where he has written on carpentry, masonry, painting, plumbing, electrical, woodworking, blacksmithing, welding, lawn care, chainsaw use, and outdoor power equipment. When he’s not working on his own house, he volunteers with Sovereign Grace Church doing home repair for families in rural, suburban and urban locations throughout central and southern New Jersey.
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