This nailer is like a german sports car. It's got power, performance and handles like a dream. The single most important feature for a good siding nailer is the ability to accurately dial in the depth that the nails are driven. For cedar, or cement board siding the depth of drive is crucial. This nailer lets you adjust the depth of drive with absolute accuracy. You can flush nail all day long and you almost never have to pull your hammer out to set a proud nail. In addition, this nailer is light at 4.6 pounds which is also important when your using it all day on a ladder or scaffolding. pThe other feature that I love is that the nailer is extremely well balanced for a coil nailer. Most coil nailers are nose heavy because they don't have the stick housing to counter balance them. This nailer is not nose heavy and just has a great feel in your hand. Of all my tools, this is one of my favorites. I have not had a single jam and I've fired thousands and thousands of nails with it. This is a high performance tool, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has any amount of siding to put up. It's a time saver, and truly a joy to use.

I am a DIY'er. I bought this nailer to install Hardieboards on my house. This tool saved me a huge amount of time over a hammer.
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br /However, I am not a pro and here is what I found challenging:
br /1. The depth gauge was fairly easy to use but after a while I found that I had to just nail in a course and quickly hammer the nails home. Call it user inexperience (which clearly was the case) but I ended up under-driving rather than over-driving on purpose.
br /2. If you don't watch the plastic nail strap or cut it off frequently, it could twist around and foul the tool, requiring a stop to fix it.
br /3. It comes with the "automatic" trigger function: Hold the trigger, push, and nails will pop out until you let go. I found that difficult to work with: I can see how that would be useful for roofing, but for Hardie Boards, it made me pay too much attention to trigger pull/release, rather than paying attention to quality work.
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br /Why 4 stars and not 5: Because the single-trip (one pull, one nail) mechanism doesn't come with the tool. I had to order that from a Hitachi dealer (referred by Hitachi themselves when I called) and it cost an additional $60-$70. Porter Cable, for example, will provide a different trip mechanism for free for their finish nailers (or at least they did when I bought one). This should have been included, or at least the price not so excessive, for such small and few parts.

I've done a lot of siding and I've tried a couple of different siding nailers but I always come back to the Hitachi NV65AH. These are workhorses of siding. I shoot an average of 1200 nails through these a day and the only problems I've had involved drops from scaffolding. What amazed me is how few problems I've had. After being dropped from 18 feet up the gun developed a slight leak. Not even enough to put it out of service. Considering how much dirt gets on these, from setting it on the ground or hanging from my belt into the dirt, I expected more problems.
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br /The light weight is a big deal too. Most of the other siding guns I've dealt with are at least a pound heavier. Doesn't sound like much but this tool is almost always in my hand. A pound makes a difference.
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br /The only reason I didn't give this five stars are the plastic sheeting keeps falling off, I keep getting new ones because the wire tends fly off when driving nails through Hardi plank (inevitably hits me in the face) and you can't get a rebuild kit for these, at least I haven't been able to find them. Hitachi's website says all work must be done by a certified Hitachi repair person.
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br /Yes the price is high and I wouldn't suggest buying one for one house, rent if you can, but if your work is construction your not going to go wrong here.

I shot one box of 4800 2 1/4" ring shank galvanized nail through this gun the first time I used it. Oiled it often and kept clean as possible. There was the occasional miss where the nail had fallen out of the coil but it was harmless. Depth gauge worked well and was easy to adjust. This gun is lightweight, the Senco is a beast.

I just got done putting 11 squares of cedar shingles on my old farmhouse and the Hitachi nailer never let me down. An occasional jamb but that is all. But I only recommend the Hitachi nails. I was driving 2 1/2 inch ring shank stainless nails.brNothing but a great tool. I also sheeted,framed interior walls and flooring. Great all around and great for the homeowner,brThanks Hitachi.

Very lighweight, yet rugged. Adjustable drive depth a real asset when installing Hardipanel, or any James Hardie fiber-cement product. Get the real hot-dipped galvanized ring-shank nails from Hitachi (don't accept plated imitations!), stock number 13385 for 2 1/2 inch, and you can install Hardie as fast as you can cut it!This gun also good for fence building, and for attaching any "one-by" material to "two-by" substrates.

Excellent for quick and speedy installation of siding. Nails Hardie siding like it was pine. Make sure you adjust for correct length of nails or you will constantly be cleaning misfired nails. Some nail brands shoot better than others. Overall nice and handy tool.

Great gun. Be aware that the single-shot trigger will cost you $25 from Hitachi. Pretty annoying, since Senco sends theirs out for free.

Hitachi has a great nailer but they absolutely, positively need to include the single shot upgrade kit at no extra cost as this gun fires multiple nails far too easily and jams like you wouldn't believe. It's a great nailer as far as feel and weight but do yourself a favor and install the single shot nail kit.
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br /Hitachi, shame on you for not building this into the gun or offering the upgrade at no extra cost.
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br /As it stands now, I'd recommend to others to look at the Makita coil nailer as the best choice and then the Porter Cable as the second choice.

This is the best coil nailer I have ever used! I have run a siding crew for over 5 years and have tried them all proformance wise this gun rates #1 in my eyes.

This tool is great. Uses both wire and plastic collated nails. The performance is absolutely fantastic, has it has never caused a problem nor has it ever broke down. Great Value!

I had started hanging cedar shingle by hand,but it was way too slow and I was wasting alot of shingles due to breakage. I purchased this nailer and it proved to be a time and labor saver. I needs to be kept oiled or it will jam but very easy to unjam. Do not think twice just buy it. Now I have a fence to build, lucky me I already have mine.

I purchased not just one, but two of these supposedly highly rated coil nailers. The first unit would not set 2 1/2" nails anywhere near flush. Like 1/4" short to a full inch short of flush. Tested through various materials and tested not only by me. I took the unit in to the Hitachi factory authorized service center, and they had the same results. The service center said it must be falulty and that I should retrun it.
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br /So Amazon had a replacement at my door in less than 2 days. (Thanks Amazon for many years of excellent service) Anyway the new gun did not set nails any better than the first unit. So I took it in to the Hitachi service center as well. With the same results. They told me it was a faulty nail gun and I should return it like I had the last one.
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br /I suspected that there may have been a bad series of nail guns out there and I just got two of them. So, just to be comprehensive, I contacted Hitachi customer service and was re-directed to a head tech person who told me that he knew of no bad guns and that they just don't alway work as advertised all the time. Gee... Thanks a whole bunch Hitachi.
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br /So I packaged up the second hunk of junk and sent it back.
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br /Since I already owned two other Porter Cable nail guns (finish and framing), which have never given me any trouble in quite a few years; I ordered a Porter Cable COIL250. It came with a nice case like my other PC guns (the Hitachi gun only came in a carboard box). Porter Cable also sent me a restrictive trigger replacement for free (Hitachi wants close to $40 for one, I understand). The Porter Cable COIL250 has performed well over the past month as I have run thousands of nails through it.
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br /I would be very wary of this Hitachi NV65AH, maybe their larger coil nailer is OK, or maybe there was just a bad group of guns out there, I don't know. I do know I will not order another Hitachi nail gun. Buyer beware!!

being in the siding business for 35 years, i have tried them all, Starting with the 12 pound duofast guns from the early 1970's.....this hatachi product is light , easy to load, very fast nail advance with not too much jam up. all guns eventually wear out, some just sooner than others, if you use this gun every other day for 10 hours, you will probley get a good year or so from it, then......... throw it out, dont rebuild it, it will break again very soon, not worth the rebuild, i have a collection of many brands, i feel this one the BEST!

We bought this nailer because it was recommended by our son in law, a finish carpender. He was right. This is tough and easy to work with.

I had a terrible paint/siding problem on my home and finally decided to tear off all the trim and siding and start completely over. This gun saved countless hours and honestly made the project a joy! Driving nails into fresh studs may sound easy for any nailgun but this gun had no problems driving thousands of nails into my 30+ year old studs. I had only one jam in 8000 nails. Turns out the nail head was deformed and must have jammed the piston when it tried to return up into the head of the gun. It took some delicate tapping with a hammer but the piston went back where it was suppose to and all is well. I didn't have a single jam or failure to feed otherwise. I thought I would save some money and tried the Porter Cable COIL250 but that thing is a beast! Sure I liked the case but the gun is much larger and not as balanced in the hand. Hitachi does make a plastic case for this but it's $40 extra and you need a local tool dealer find it for you. I couldn't find it online anywhere but eBay.

I purchased this hitachi coil nailer. I had an older one that worked for years was a good gun. When it broke could not get parts. Hitachi is famous for not keeping parts. The gun will not 2 1/2" or 2" nails flush. They stick up 1/4" short to a full inch. I am a contractor that needs to depend on tools. Would not recomend any one buy this gun.

This is the absolute worst siding nailer I have ever used! I have used other Hitachi nailers that work great but this gun sucks! It jams at least once per clip which is unacceptable! I highly recommend to stay away from this gun!!!!

How would I know how to rate a tool I have not recieved.brThey lie about the shipping times. They take days to forward your order to someone else. Those people ship it, not Amazon.com, these guys are only middlemen making a commission on the sale, so you do not get reliable information. Do you really want to buy throught them. Why perpetutate a unethical company??brStop ordering from them and let the tool manufacturer know about it.