Need to pick up an 18ga nailer and curious what people do (or don’t) recommend. Read a fair bit and I’m leaning towards a Grex 1850GB. Would love to hear thoughts on this or others. If going battery powered, it would likely be DeWalt due to existing ecosystem, otherwise would lean pneumatic. Thanks!

Grex is good, but honestly just about any pneumatic is going to be adequate. A known brand will offer rebuild kits; a super cheapy will be disposable. Pick one.

The Dewalt is going to be more expensive and is way bulkier. That said, it's all that I'll roll out these days because I usually only have a room full of trim or a couple doors to case.

I have one metabo tool, the NT1850DFT. Metabo makes a slightly cheaper version with a flywheel mechanism but this one is amazing. Very small, never had a jam. Vastly preferable to pneumatic for me. The dewalt has a flywheel and takes a second to trigger, the metabo has an air spring and nails immediately. It's also a pound lighter and smaller.

Not sure if there is a huge difference between brands for pneumatic. Either way it's an essential tool.

Zero complaints about my Makita pneumatic, though there's not that much difference among pneumatics in my experience. But, it has installed a lot of trim and has yet to dry fire or misfire on me.

My Bostich has been fine for 10+ yrs. I admittly don't use a lot of fastners in my projects though.

I’ve trimmed practically two wholes houses with a WEN 18 ga nailer I got off Amazon 15 years ago. That is to say, basically anything pneumatic and you’ll be fine. Just lube the slide every few hundred nails

I am fully a Dewalt shop for my cordless stuff but for my nailers I have to Senco cordless, they are pro level models with service backing. I just could not bring myself to buy the Beavis-like dewalt which is huge and not that practical for my furniture work. The Senco cordless technology is solid and the product range includes a 1/4” crown stapler and 15 gauge finish nailer which allowed me to eliminate a compressor in my shop.

I have a Dewalt 18ga and I love it. So quick to pick up and do whatever I want and put away, no hassle with a compressor. Did this \~200 sq ft ceiling and walls without breaking a sweat, with a few battery changes. (Should I have used a 16 ga for this…maybe? But it seems to be doing fine after two years and all I had was the 18.)

I just got the Milwaukee M12. It's my only battery I run so it made sense and it works great. Going air I don't think you could go wrong with a Bostitch.

I’m a full time carpenter. Currently using the Max for 18g and 15g, both great. We have the Bostich in our shop, which I like a lot. Senco pneumatic stuff is great. I’ve heard nothing but bad things about Makita guns from fellow tradesmen (no shade to the company…I have a ton of their stuff and happily use it every day). One of my coworkers has the battery powered Metabo, which I like better than others I’ve tried. Just my two cents.

okay, i’ve used two different senco, a porter cable, and a metabo nt50a5. all pneumatic.

the metabo takes first place, hands down. i’d buy it again, but don’t need to.

the porter cable lasted the longest out of the others.

the sensors were good at first but couldn’t stop breaking.

It’s a great tool but only shoots nails up to 1 5/8 which is not long enough to do base trim over drywall which is a big downside

+1 for Metabo. For the price, I dont think there is a better nailer of any gauge. I have their 23ga, 18ga, and 15ga. If I were going cordless, I'd get the Milwaukee. The way they work gives them about the same power as a pneumatic gun, along with a very high rate of fire.