Battery Clip Gun vs Air Compressor: Which Is Actually Better?
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If your work is in a shed or a yard with air already plumbed to the wall, buy the pneumatic. It's cheaper, it's lighter in the hand and there's less to go wrong. If your work is out along a fence line a couple of kilometres from the nearest power point, buy the cordless, because the compressor is the part that beats you, not the gun.
That's the whole answer. Everything below is the working, so you can check it against your own job instead of taking our word for it.
The two setups, honestly priced
A pneumatic C24 ring gun is the cheap part of a pneumatic setup. Australian suppliers list them from roughly $389 up to around $550 for the gun on its own, depending on the model. Call it $550 and you'll be in the ballpark for a decent one.
Then you need air. That's where the number stops being simple, because it depends entirely on where you're working.
| What you need | Pneumatic | Cordless |
|---|---|---|
| The gun | around $550 | included in the kit |
| Air supply | compressor, sized to the gun | none |
| Power for the air supply | mains, genset or petrol motor | none |
| Hose | long enough to reach the far end of the run | none |
| Consumable | air, or CO2 canisters if you go that way | recharging the battery |
| Kit price | gun plus everything above | $1,799 for the cordless kit |
We haven't put a figure on the compressor line and we're not going to guess one. Compressor prices swing wildly depending on whether you want a small electric one for the shed or a petrol-driven portable you can throw on the back of the ute. Go and price the one that suits your job, drop it in the table above, and the comparison does itself.
What we can tell you is the shape of it. In a shed with air on the wall, the pneumatic setup costs you $550 and you're done. Out in a paddock, the compressor plus the thing that runs it is usually the biggest line on the page, bigger than either gun.
The hose is the real cost
Here's what doesn't show up in any price comparison. On a fence line you're moving.
You clip a post, you walk four metres, you clip the next one. Over a kilometre that's 250 posts and 250 walks. A hose follows you the whole way, and it catches on every stump, every tuft of grass and every bit of mesh you've just hung. Then you get to the end of the hose and everything stops while you shift the compressor, restart it, and run the hose back out.
On 1.7km with a 30 metre hose that's over fifty setups. Even at three minutes a shift, that's two and a half hours of your day spent moving a compressor rather than clipping.
Nobody puts that in the price comparison. It's the main reason blokes who've used both end up cordless for paddock work.
Where the pneumatic genuinely wins
We sell the cordless gun, and we'd still tell you to buy air in these situations.
Shed and yard work. Cattle crush panels, gates, feeders, sheep yards, anything you're building on a concrete pad with a power point. Air is cheaper and the gun is lighter to hold all day.
Production work in one spot. If you're making the same thing over and over and the work comes to you rather than the other way round, a hose is not a problem.
You already own a compressor. If there's a decent compressor sitting in the shed doing nothing, your pneumatic setup costs $550 and that's very hard to beat.
Budget is the hard constraint. If $1,799 is the difference between doing the job and not doing the job, a pneumatic gun and a borrowed compressor gets the fence up. The fence doesn't care how the clip got closed.
Where the cordless wins
Anywhere you're walking. Fence line work, repairs, going along an existing run fixing what the pigs pulled apart.
Anywhere there's no power. No genset, no petrol, no extension lead across a paddock.
Jobs where you start and stop a lot. Half an hour of clipping here, two hours of straining there. A compressor you have to start and stop is a nuisance. A battery gun goes on your belt clip and waits.
Two blokes working apart. Two people on one hose is a tangle. Two people with a gun each, or one gun and a spare pack, is not.
What about CO2 backpacks?
There's a third option people forget. Some C24 guns run off a CO2 canister in a backpack, which gets you off the compressor without going cordless.
The commonly quoted figure is around 500 clips per canister, with refills working out near 35 cents per 100 clips. Worth doing the sum on, because it's a consumable and consumables add up.
Take a 1.7km hinged joint run at 2,750 clips per kilometre. That's 4,675 clips.
- Canisters needed: 4,675 ÷ 500 = 9.35, so 10 canisters
- Gas cost at 35c per 100 clips: 4,675 ÷ 100 x 0.35 = $16.36
Sixteen dollars of gas for the run is nothing. But ten canister swaps on the job is ten stops, and when you run out at the far end of the paddock you've either got a spare in your pocket or you're walking back to the ute. Plus somewhere in town has to fill them.
For a contractor doing this every week, that's a supply chain to manage. For a bloke doing one run a year, it's fine.
The sum that actually decides it
Forget the gun prices for a second and work out your cost per kilometre. Here's how.
Step 1. Get your clips per kilometre. Count the line wires in your mesh and multiply by posts per km. There's a full worked version in how many clips per kilometre of fence, or the clip calculator does it for you.
Step 2. Work out how many kilometres you'll do in the next three years. Be honest. Not the kilometres you'd like to do.
Step 3. Divide the total setup cost by those kilometres.
Worked example. Say you're a grazier with 6km of boundary to redo over three years, plus a bit of repair work, so call it 8km all up.
| Setup | Total cost | Cost per km over 8km |
|---|---|---|
| Cordless kit | $1,799 | $224.88 |
| Pneumatic gun, already own the compressor | $550 | $68.75 |
| Pneumatic gun plus a portable compressor and a genset | you price it | you'll see it straight away |
At 8km with a compressor already in the shed, the pneumatic is the better buy and it isn't close. Now run the same sum at 80km, which is what a fencing contractor might do in three years.
| Setup | Total cost | Cost per km over 80km |
|---|---|---|
| Cordless kit | $1,799 | $22.49 |
| Pneumatic gun, already own the compressor | $550 | $6.88 |
The per kilometre gap shrinks to about sixteen dollars, and at that point the purchase price stops being the deciding factor. What decides it is the hours you lose dragging the hose, which we worked out above at roughly two and a half hours per 1.7km. Over 80km that's a lot of days.
That's the honest shape of it. Small job, air wins on price. Big job, the time cost swamps the price difference.
The things people ask that aren't about money
Noise. A compressor running all day next to you is loud. A battery gun isn't. If you're working near a house or in the yards with stock, that matters more than you'd think.
Cold mornings. Both have their issues. Air lines get moisture in them and a battery doesn't love a frost either. Keep a spare pack inside your jacket and you'll be right.
Weight. A pneumatic gun with no battery on it is lighter in the hand. The cordless gun is 2.75kg without a battery, and the pack adds to that. Over a full day of overhead clipping you'll notice. The belt clip helps because you're not holding it between clips.
Maintenance. Air tools want oil in the line and want the tank drained. Battery tools want the feed track kept clean and the battery not left flat over winter. Neither is hard.
What we'd tell you at the counter
Ask yourself one question. Where is the work?
If the answer involves a power point, buy the pneumatic and spend the difference on clips. If the answer involves a paddock, the cordless is the one, and our full rundown is in the cordless clip gun buyer's guide.
If you go cordless and you're doing full days, get a spare battery so one's always on the charger in the ute. And check whether the packs you already own will run it before you buy anything, because that changes the sum. We've covered that in Makita and Milwaukee battery fitment.
FAQ
Do I need a compressor for a cordless clip gun?
No. That's the point of it. No hose, no compressor, no genset in the back of the ute. The battery goes on and the gun goes on your belt clip when you're not using it.
How much is a pneumatic C24 ring gun in Australia?
Roughly $389 to $550 for the gun on its own, depending on model and supplier. Check current pricing before you commit, because it moves. That figure doesn't include the compressor, the hose or whatever runs the compressor.
Is a pneumatic clip gun faster than a cordless one?
On a bench with the hose already run, the gun cycles are close enough that it won't be what decides your day. On a fence line the cordless usually gets more done, because you're not stopping to move the compressor. We haven't timed either gun ourselves, so we're not going to quote you a rate.
Can I run a C24 ring gun off a small workshop compressor?
It depends on the gun's air consumption and the compressor's output. Check the gun's litres-per-minute figure against what the compressor actually delivers at working pressure, not the sticker on the tank. Undersized compressors cycle constantly and the gun feels flat.
Do pneumatic and cordless guns use the same clips?
Yes, if they're both C24. The clip is a 16 gauge wire ring with a 24mm crown, it's an open industry size, and any C24 clip fits any C24 gun. Boxes of 10,000 suit either.
Have a look at the full range in fencing clip guns.