Review on BOSTITCH PN50 Compact Impact Nailer by Ben Barrington

Given the generally high reviews I expected a lot more from this product. I currently have two full size handheld nailers (DeWalt and Ridgid) and was looking for something smaller to get into those hard to reach places; this one seemed to fit the bill. Unfortunately, its power is not sufficient to process pressure-treated wood. This may be fine with dry frame lumber, but it just can't be nailed all the way into fresh, wet, or old SYP deck joists. I bought this tool specifically to assemble a set of joist brackets and siblings together on my patio, but found the tool to be slow and unable to drive 10D or 16D galvanized nails to the correct depth. Hammering in at an angle (i.e. into the hanger holes of the strap) was ok, but I still had to finish the job with a hammer for many of the nails. Slamming straight into a sister pair of PT SYP 2x10 joists was a complete disaster - the tool just ran out of gas and at least 1/2 inch of a nail was sticking out every time. This happened across the full allowable range of air pressure - from 80 to 100 PSI - no difference in results. Worse, some 16D galvanized nailheads (a big brand from a big store) didn't readily fit the tool because the hole diameter wasn't big enough - so experiment with 10D instead. As mentioned, I have two other hand nailers and know how they are supposed to work, so I'm not entirely sure if this one was defective or just a bad design. Either way, he returns for a refund. .