I bought the Senco 25 brad nailer last week. The decision between the Porter Cable and the Senco was difficult, I finally based the purchased on the wider range of brad lengths for the Senco and the oil less design . I have used them both and operation between the two is very similar. The Senco is [$] more and can't shoot into tight spots like the Porter Cable can due to the location of the safety nose.I did like the better construction of the Porter Cable, its part steel and part fiber resin, it appeared to be more durable, the no-mar tip is especially nice,and its very easy to see where you are shooting . The Senco is constructed almost totally of fiber resin materials and I wonder how well it will hold up to being dropped.The Senco power boast it awkward to use,the no-mar tip is too flexible and line of sight for shooting takes some getting use to. Either gun is good, the oil less feature is nice if you tend to to over oil your tools like I do.If your on a budget go with the Porter Cable.

I've been waiting years for this nailer to come out. While waiting I have bought and used several other 2" brad nailers. Not one compared very well against Senco's brad nailer, The SLP 20. It operates so much more smoothly , it isn't even funny. The oil-less design was revolutionary. Not only is it more convenient, it saves your work from oil stains. Still, I knew that Senco would one day produce a 2" brad nailer of their own. I also knew it would be the very best. I have to say ,it was worth the wait. Everything about it says quality. It carries all the best from the SLP 20 and improves on it. From the first brad you drive you will know just how good it is. Sooo smooth. No kick back like the other guns. Sooo powerful. You will never wonder if it's going to sink the nail. The adjustable depth of drive and exhaust are the icing on the cake. I also like the rubbery grip. It's very nice to hold. I have had no jams but if you ever do , they are easy to clear. Top it off with a hard to lose no mar tip and the ability to drive 2 1/8" brads and you have the best brad nailer at any price , bar none. Plus it's made in the U.S.A. all for just a few more dollars than the "cheapies". My imports are now for sale.

I have used other brands that were borrowed or rented. When it came time to buy, I picked the Senco above all the rest (toolpig's review was very helpful, thanks!). pThe main frame (gray part) is heavy aluminum which keeps the weight to a minimum, lowering fatigue. The top head is carbon fiber, like the stuff they built the Beech "Starship" out of, very durable and strong. The adjustable exhaust vent lets you rotate the blast of air 360° to a convenient direction. The nail magazine opens with a large, easy to operate latch, loading the nails from the side. There are grooves for each size nail head to keep them on track and prevent jams.pI found this very easy to operate and adjust. You do need to keep firm, but not heavy, pressure on the foot to prevent recoil and keep your results consistent. The countersink function is clearly labeled and adjusts easily with a few test shots. The no-mar foot is soft but tough plastic that does its job well - I have never left a dimple after thousands of nails. The oiless design means no drips or spray on your projects, and no maintenance other than blowing the dust off once in a while. If it ever needs an overhaul, they make a kit which is about a half-hour job to install.pThe only near complaints I have are: it is tough or impossible to use inside tight casework due to its over 8" height and the 18 gauge nails tend to deflect easily if they hit knots or other dense bodies in wood. I have found that extra diligence pays off when nailing into plywood edges; be sure the gun is absolutely perpendicular to the work, a hard glue layer will deflect these nails!pIt comes in a nice plastic case that also has room for one box of nails. You will have to add your own 1/4" male coupler plug - I use Milton "M-Type" ... Overall, this is another fantastic product from an industry leader - your tool and the U.S.A. company that made it should be around for a long, long time.

I am one willing to pay the extra buck, but in this category, I don't know if it is necessary. I owned the Porter-Cable 2" brad for a week and I replaced it because I wanted the best so I bought the FP25. The week that I used the PC it did everything i asked it to do- it will do the job. Where the FP25 earned points above and beyond the others is the oil-less design, the turbo setting, the largest nail range available, the handy belt hanger, and priceless USA construction. I have fired the largest 2 1/8" brad into oak at 95psi WITHOUT the turbo setting. Impressive. It is so smooth you can't believe it. I would buy this gun over the PC any day because the above features are important enough to me to pay more, although for most applications the PC will satisfy. The PC represents a great value, but really, I would expect to pay a lot more for the FP25 than we're being charged. It's that impressive. Buy this over all other brad nailers if you want the finest. If you want to spend as little as possible and still get a good nailer, the PC will satisfy.

pbrThis is the brad nailer against which all others are measured. The only "compromise" on this tool is the price, which, as one reviewer stated, "you could probably get two competitors for the price of one of these."pI shot some 1-1/4" brads in quartersawn white oak. Now... by anybody's standards, that's tough, 'cause the brads are so small, and they're really not designed to be used in hard, thick wood like that. But... this nailer sunk them in (in the "turbo" setting) with no problem.pIn softer wood, there's never any problem (even with the longest brads), and it's not hard to set the drive depth to control how much countersink you achieve.pFor anyone considering this as a first-time brad nailer, I'd highly recommend it. The light recoil and light-weight frame make it a dream to use... even for the faint of heart who have shyed-away from pneumatic nailers before.pPlease read your warning labels and follow the instructions, though... If you've never used a pneumatic nailer, there are a lot of "gotchas," and when they "get ya," it hurts.pDrive safely!

Have been through lots of nailers. Grizzly, Airy, Dewalt, Porter Cable, Bostitch. I've been using an Airy 1 9/16 brad nailer for years, and it worked flawlessly, but I find that the extra 7/16 really helps with certain kind of trim, so I decided that a 2" gun was in order. I use the Senco SFN40 angle finish nailer and figured that this gun was of the same quality. I was not disappointed. I looked at the Paslode, but it was so light and packed with little plastic pieces that I was afraid it would break in no time. Plus their warranty was not as good as Senco's. Plus, Senco customer support is AWESOME! Worth the extra price of their gear. I've installed a couple of thousand feet of molding so far with this gun and would recommend it highly!!pGreat job Senco. You have a customer for life

Senco FP25XP 18-Gauge 5/8-Inch to 2-1/8-Inch Brad Nailer
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br /The only thing I can fault this tool on is it's a bit tall. (Physics dictates that powerful air nailers have a taller piston section.) If it wasn't for that, my smaller brad nailer could be retired. I almost didn't buy the Senco because the photo showed a tool front that didn't quickly open to clear jams. Every time you open the tool to add/remove brads, the entire area where a brad could jam is completely accessible. This negates the need for the tool front to open. I've used this nailer with probably 20,000 nails, and haven't had a jam. Countersink depth is easily controlled via a turn-screw on the trigger. The pliable clear plastic tip protects fragile trim, but is removable for rough work. The nails will go through at least 1.5" of oak. The tool is comfortable to hold, lightweight, has a selectable direction air exhaust, loads quickly, and you can easily see when the brad supply is getting low. Plus, the oil-less design keeps your work clean, and there is no recoil. I have a half dozen air nailers staplers of various brands and would have to say this tool is first rate quality design. This is one of the best.

I got this nailer as a Christmas gift. It is my first brad nailer so I cannot compare it to other brands. It is extremely well made and very smooth. The adjustable power feature gives you that extra oomph when sinking those long brads into harder woods. Very comfortable to handle. Easy to load. Adjustable exhaust works well. If you want a nailer that's well made (and in the USA no less)and are willing to fork over an extra $50-75, then this is for you.

I bought this nailer and have used it for about a month now. I've used the max length brad into oak and so far this gun has not jammed. I give it a four stars since I think the price was a little on the high side. The thing that I liked about this gun is that it does not need oil and seems to be well made. The loading mechanism is little awkward and it took a while to get used to for me. I wish they'd packaged this gun with some sample of brads like Porter-cable or others.

My first though when I took this out of the case was that it was too light to work well. I was wrong, it sinks nail after nail and since I'm building furniture the oil-less feature is wonderful. The power boost works as advertised and has come in handy for me when changing from nailing pine to oak. I have been using craftsman 1 1/4" brads and have not had a single jam.pThis is very easy to use and my only complaint is the manual. The manual covers several models and instead of having a section in the manual for each model, the instructions are all jumbled together and you have to first figure out the lay out and then scan each page to find the information about your model. This is a small complaint but I do think Senco should rework their manuals.

I am in the process of finishing my basement and was in the market for a nail gun to do the finish work. Since I had never used these before, I relied heavily on the recommendations on [Amazon.com]. Hands down, the recommondations pointed to the Senco gun. I ordered the gun on a Friday and it was here by the following Thursday (shipping free!). The [Amazon.com] price was very competitive and you can't complain on the shipping. However, they did ship the gun, nails, and hose in 5 sepparate boxes with five sepparate catalogs. That doesn't seem efficient, but hey, I don't run the company! Back to the gun. The instruction manual is as people have said, brief and for many different guns. It isn't a difficult gun to operate though and was adequate for start-up and a brief intro into the gun. I hooked up the gun and was immediately firing brads into anything that resembled wood. I purchased some 2" 18ga brads and was able to fire them and adequately countersink them into treated lumber but had to use the turbo setting. I am pleased with the power adjustment and the turbo setting which allows a greater range of materials and nail lengths. Overall, the gun is light but still powerful enough to handle the task. The tool is well balanced and not too large to get into some of the smaller spaces I have tried. However, the tool does not appear to fire unless the foot is completely down which makes firing on a slight angle difficult at times. I have fired approximately 500 brads over the weekend and did not have any jams or problems with the gun. So far I am very pleased with the Senco purchase and would recommend this gun to others considering the purchase. .... Can't wait to use the Senco gun on all of my finish work and projects in my shop in the future. Overall I am very pleased with this purchase and [Amazon.com]. Have a great day.

I started to grab my 16gauge Paslode to nail my face frame on a base cabinet I have built for my shop. It dawned on me that I had received this Senco FP25XP for X-MAS. I plugged it onto my air hose, gave a few test fires into some scrap 3/4" Oak plywood and started nailing. It is so lite and easy to use, you almost think that you have a toy in your hands. A very, very nice one!
br /It shoots through 3/4" Red Oak into 3/4" plywood with no effort. It has sunk every single nail perfectly. It has a "Boost Button" on the side for extra power if needed, but I have not had to use it as of yet. One other side note I have noticed, is that my 2hp compressor did not kick on any while I was using this nailer. It would have kicked on at least once if I would have been using my 16gauge.
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br /For those who are teetering between this gun or a different brand, I can honestly say that this nailer is of the highest quality and craftsmanship. You will be delighted and proud to own it!

12/9/04 My company recently purchased this gun for installing shoe molding. We own 2 Porter Cable BN200A Brad Nailers and really like them but thought we would try something new. My 1st comments are that the case for the Porter Cable BN200A is much more compact yet holds a full box of brads and the size of the Porter Cable brad nailer itself is more compact. In all fairness though the Senco can shoot up to 2 1/8 brads while PC max is 2". The performance seemed to be the same as PC if using the Senco in "Turbo" mode (switch is on side of gun). Normal mode would not set the brads. Overall the gun seems to work fine and leaves a small hole so I can't give it bad marks. On my next purchase I would probably purchase another Porter Cable BN200A over this Senco because of the better feel and more compact design.
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br /Update 7/7/05 : I have noticed that the gun is already leaking air out the top meaning a seal has failed. Like I wrote earlier, our porter cable brad nailer is still shooting nicely.

I bought the gun about 6 months ago, was pleased at first even impressed but since things have changed. The gun has a problem of not sinking the nails, I'm talking about the head not sinking by about 1/8th of an inch. By the time I use a nail set to set the nail I may as well have brought out the 16 gauge,which doesn't go over well on finished cabinetry. Also the firing pin likes to stick. Considering switching back to the porter cable or possibly trying the hitachi. Hope this review was helpful, gave it 2 stars for the times its working as it should.

As a tradesman I've fired every gun on the market, and this gun is the best you can get! It's light and powerful and if you have problems countersinking nails with it, you need to check you air supply and pressure regulator because this gun will consistently countersink 2" brads through any hard-wood you can find.

I could say this in two words" Thanks Senco".I've been doing remodels for about 3years part time with a buddy who works for a large contractor.So many choices, but I narrowed it down to PC BN200A and Senco FP25XP.Oh boy, what a mistake that was !I couldn't wait to try it out. Fresh out of the box, I tried to nail a desk made of laminated partical board.The nails would not go into the would at an angle.So that same night I decided to order the Senco FP25. Got it three days later, just in time to nail down some oak base board on a house.I used my new gun and my buddy used an older model made by Senco. I pumped up 30% more and off I was. No problems what so ever. After watching my parnters gun not counter sink a few nails. I had him try it out. He was truly impressed and so was I. Let's just say that some how during clean up it ended up in his truck. "Get your own Ese". The gun can be hard to get into tight places at times.I guess we will just have to wait until Senco brings out the "Tight Quarter XP" model. Now ever time we're working and the wood seems to be imbedded with titanium. My partner turns to me and asks " I HOPE YOU GOT 30%" I wouldn't leave home with out this bad cat. I highly recommend it. You will not be sorry. Sorry Porter Cable!
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This is the second supposed pro series gun I've owned. The first started sticking between shots and wouldn,t countersink in hard woods. I'm a finnish carpenter by trade and while this gun preformed well for about 3 months. I had to keep it on turbo setting almost all the time at 110 pressure. So after returning that gun I got another, this would have been my 4th Senco gun. The second gun started having trouble sinking 2" in hardwoods and I started running it in turbo. In 6 months the second gun started leaking air at the head. I noticed the piston head was badly marred and scored at the retainer sleeve and was causing air to leak. I'm currently taking it to the repair center as Senco cust service won't send out replacement parts. This gun has not stood up to the rigors of professional use and should have its XP designation revoked.
br / UPDATE 10/21/08 After seeing a newer model of this tool in a tool store recently I reopened an old wound and rembered my non-setting piece of trash shoved under my workbench unused for the past 9 or 10 months and decided to try and get some justice for my purchase of this tool. Called Senco direct and got a great customer service rep and they are sending me a brand new gun, newer model, hooray Christmas in Oct. Will post how the new model works ASAP. But kudos to Senco for standing behind what was probably just a lemon.

This brad nailer replaced a nailer that I've had for several years and it finally lost its "umph to set brads".
br /I now have two Senco nailers, the brad nailer and the other a finish nailer and so far they are the best I've seen. I am well satified with the nailer and it performs just great.
br /I don't see how anyone can go wrong buying a Senco. They live up to their reputation for quality and reliability.

"Big Island" furniture designer and inlay artist: I saw this brad nailer in action during the construction of a $4.0 mil. house here on the coast of Kona, Hawaii. The house is trimmed throughout in clear heart redwood and Honduras mahogany. No problems! Rave comments frome the finish crew! I was impresed enough wih this gun that a shiny new one is perched right now on my dining table fresh out of the box from Amazon (2days ahead of minimum delivery est.! Kudos Amazon!)Great buy for me and my shop! It carries a trusted name, the lightness to ease my hand fatigue, and the brad size range capacity to make it extremely versatile. However, the caveat here is it will be a challenge to fit it into some tight places due to it's comparatively tall profile. I'll just have to get creative or simply revert to my trusty Porter Cable brad nailer in a pinch.My only gripe is that, right out of the case, I switched the "convenient" hanger hookie thing to the "lefty" position and now it won't fit back into the (darn) case! Shame on you Senco! Aw, "small kine, no worries! Bumbye, I stay happy, brah!"

I have just finished installing about 2000 square feet of V-groove ceiling in my home and found the brad nailer to be perfect. After the initial adjustments at the air compressor everything worked perfectly without additional adjustments. The nailer fell nearly 24' off of the scaffolding I was working on and didn't even get a scratch. The rubber tip that protected the wood surface shows very little sign of wear. In my opinion it's worth every penny I paid for it!

I have used this nailer to drive brads up to 2" in hardwood and softwood. No jams, and a mis-fire is rare. Lightweight and easy to use. BUT...I bought this to use for trim work, and I've concluded the 18 ga. brad just doesn't have adequate holding power to pull material together and keep it that way. The brad heads are very small, and they pull through easily. I thought I could just use more of them to compensate, but that doesn't solve the problem. In harder woods like yellow pine, the thin brads sometimes follow the rings and blow out the side of the piece rather than going in straight. A brad nailer is OK for light duty or just holding the piece in place for you while you hand drive some real finish nails. But for trim work I would recommend a 15 ga. nailer. I would buy the Senco 15 ga. nailer as my first nailer if I was starting over.

This is THE brad nailer bar none. No-mar tip, oil-less, adjustable power, belt clip, smooth action, and no need to disable the safety. Simply perfect.

Works great and very light. Only thing is the nailer doesn't allow you adjust depth if you have the air pressure greater than 90psi. Like if your compressir is hooked up to other tools operating at higher pressure let's say 100 psi, than the senco gun will operate at still the high pressure

I received my Senco FP25XP 18-Gauge 5/8-Inch to 2-1/8-Inch Brad Nailer a few days ago and was waiting on purchasing a compressor. I purchased a Coleman ProForce 6gal for $75 from Menards. After reading the instructions for the FP25XP I checked all the settings, loaded it with 2" brads and began rapid firing into a 2x6. I went through two full magazines and every brad sunk perfectly - I was very impressed. I also attached a piece of door casing to the 2x6 with no problem. I then shot some brads in my existing door trim which has slat and plaster walls behind it and every brad sunk perfectly. I did all this without enabling the 30% power increase. The nailer is light and very comfortable to hold. The redirectable air release in the butt of the handle is a nice touch too. I look forward to installing crown molding in my house with it.
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br /The only thing I noticed was the 30% power increase setting was rather stiff to shift to the left at first. I was afraid of breaking it but I eventually eased it over and now it transitions without a problem using the included allen keys - I guess it needed to be "broken in". Reading these user reviews helped me choose the FP25XP and I'm glad I did.
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this got to be a joke from senco. i own a brad from hitichi,porter cable and now senco. after 5 shot of brad nail the gun jam every 5-6 shot. for the money i thought this was a well engineer gun, maybe senco lost their touch. if you don't mind wasting time changing jamm nails this is the gun!

I have owned the Senco 18 bradnailer for almost two years and I love it. I am a hobbyist, so I don't use it as often as a professional, but I've probably shot 400-500 nails with it easy and maybe more. I've only had it jam once in all of its use.
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br /(I must say clearing the jam wasn't a simple as it could have been. I had to remove a couple of hex-head bolts and in the process a spring in the safety trigger came out. It could a few minutes and an extra set of hands to get the spring back in place while I replaced the bolts.)
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br /I don't know how I ever lived without my nailer-- I'll never go back to driving finish nails by hand!

I purchased this nailer shortly after it first came out. I used it commercially for installing cabinets. It failed me miserably.
br /The gun would not even drive 1 5/8 inch brads consistently. The increased power setting was an extreme hassle and still did not help. The only thing good about the gun is it feels solid and emits an almost gunsmokish scent. I gave the $200+ tool to a friend and bought a portercable which works.

Great gun great price at coastal tools 145.