EY79A3X hammer drill

Drilling & fastening Hammer drill Cordless 18V

The EY74A3X is a cordless drill manufactured by Panasonic.

The machine has a brushless electric motor powered by either a 14.4 or 18 volt battery.

It is the successor of the EY79A2X which has the same appearance and features. Panasonic even refers to the user manual of the EY79A2X for the EY79A3X on their website. The main difference seems to be that the newer EY79A3X has a higher maximum RPM.

Panasonic does not state the weight of the machine without a battery, but with a battery attached the machine weighs 2.05 kg.

Exterior

The machine has a black and gray color scheme. The tool looks more rugged than most other Panasonic drills.

The side of the motor housing has the brand logo "Panasonic" on it on gray. The logo is  surrounded by a black square pattern that imitates the look of woven carbon fiber in the 3K pattern, but this pattern is merely decorational and no actual carbon fiber is used in the body.

On the bottom of the handle a battery attaches by sliding in from the front. A metal belt clip is attached on the left or right side. At the base of the handle are membrane buttons to select the maximum RPM and toggle the work light on and off. there is also a battery charge indicator with three LEDs and an overheating warning indicator.

On front of the handle is a black trigger switch. Above it is a gray push button to reverse the direction of rotation on each side. In front of that is a white LED that illuminates the working area.

On top of the housing is a gear selector switch.

At the front is clutch setting ring with 18 settings plus a drill setting that disables the clutch. At the front is an all metal black chuck with a maximum opening of 13 mm.

Operation

The machine works as a standard drill. It is activated by pressing the variable speed trigger switch. The push button above it can be used to reverse the turning direction or as a trigger lock when the button is centered.

The resistance of the clutch is adjusted with the ring behind the chuck.

The gear can be selected with the sliding switch on top of the body.

Speed control function

The maximum RPM can be reduced by using the speed control function. The mode can be selected by pressing the membrane button at the base of the handle repeatedly.

Panasonic only provides a user manual for the EY79A2X. Since the EY79A3X has a higher maximum RPM it is not clear if the RPMs are the same in the lower speed modes.

Work light

The work light will automatically turn on, but can also be set to stay off off or remain on for 5 minutes. However Panasonic states that it is not a substitute for a flashlight as the LED does not have enough brightness.

This makes it different from the DeWalt DCD791B which has a similar "spotlight" feature but there the LED has a higher brightness.

Variants

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