For anything from putting up some fresh upholstery to papering up your living-room walls, a staple gun is a quintessential addition to your tool box. Make it an electric one, and you spare yourself the inevitable aches and pains of manually punching several dozen staples in, with a convenient machine that requires a single trigger you push with a finger to do the job instead. Electric staple guns can be both corded or cordless, the latter armed with rechargeable batteries that don’t restrict you in terms of where you can use them, since you don’t have to worry about having them plugged in. Corded versions, on the other hand, allow steady operation without the need to pause and charge. While both types have their respective advantages, the use you get out of a good electric staple gun also depends on which gun you decide to use – in this list, we’ve grouped together our top picks of the category.
KEN’S PICK
Roberts Model 10-600 Professional Electric Staple
A corded, 120-volt staple gun, the Roberts can hold 85 staples of the 3/16-inch crown and 20-gauge variety. ‘Crown’, when it comes to staples, refers to the visible part of the staple once it has been embedded into the material or surface you’re using it on, in other words the staple’s width, while ‘gauge’ refers to the thickness of the staple wire. With these heavy-duty staples and a powerful 15-amp drive solenoid, you get efficient and smooth performance, the staple gun equipped with a low-profile head that lets you use it in narrower spaces, for instance when carpeting stairs, without difficulty. The ergonomic rubber handle makes for easy gripping, the trigger operable simply with the press of a finger, with a bottom loading system for the magazine. The staples sink deep and hold incredibly well, ideal for upholstery or carpentry projects where you’re looking for something robust that will punch easily through thick folds of fabric or wooden surfaces. The 12 feet power cord also gives you plenty of room to maneuver.
KEN’S BUDGET PICK
Stanley TRE550Z Electric Staple/Brad Nail Gun
We’re all for the control this pocket-friendly staple gun offers with its “Hi/Lo” power settings, making it a versatile staple gun to use for different types of material, be it flooring or armchairs. Though the 8-foot power cord is a bit on the short side, we’re still pleased with this tool’s seamless ability to dispatch both staples and brads, accommodating heavy-duty stapling jobs with 3/8-inch Stanley Sharpshooter Staples or the readily available and popular Arrow T-50 series, as well as brad sizes of 1/2, 9/16 and 5/8 inches.
The staple gun is designed with a flush nose that lets you work in narrow or tight spaces with ease, in-built with an anti-jam system that makes dealing with jams a swift and easy business. The ergonomic design of the handle makes for easy gripping and usage, while a low-brad indicator lets you know in advance when you should be getting ready to reload.
RUNNER-UP
Makita XTS01Z 18V LXT Crown Stapler
A cordless model, the XTS01Z comes with a spring-loaded design making for lightweight portability, clocking in at 5.3 pounds, with the additional benefit of not cumbering you down to a specific area with a power source. The staple is powered by a rechargeable lithium ion battery, and can hold a wide range of staple sizes, accommodating 3/8-inch crown staples of lengths 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4 and 7/8 inches as well as the easily accessible Arrow T-50 series. This brilliant staple size capacity, along with the depth adjustment dial, makes for a highly versatile staple gun that can be used for a variety of functions, from pinning thin layers of wallpaper to more heavy-duty projects like soundproofing a home studio with thick folds of carpet or foam. The robust aluminum magazine makes reloading a breeze, the device built with an indicator window that lets you keep an eye on how many staples you have left, so you don’t have to bother reloading until you’re sure you need to.
The staple gun works with a contact actuation system, meaning a staple is only dispatched once the trigger and the nose of the gun are pressed at the same time – this allows for quick, rapid-succession stapling, as you push the gun’s nose flush to the area you specifically wish to staple and push the trigger simultaneously. This differs from staple guns using a sequential system, where the flush nose is pressed first before the trigger is pushed.
RUNNER-UP
Ryobi P360 3/8 – 1 1/2 Inch Crown Stapler
A handy little feature of this cordless staple gun is the LED lighting it’s devised with, letting you illuminate the specific area you are working on with the push of a button, so there’s less chance of misfired or misplaced stapling. The rechargeable lithium batteries make for lightweight and portable construction, without the hassle of being restrained by a cable or bogged down by bulky compressors as common with pneumatic staple guns. With Ryobi’s patented 18V ONE+ technology, the staple gun works with any of the 18V ONE+ batteries, so you can choose to upgrade batteries depending on your performance needs without needing to invest in a whole new device.
This nifty staple gun utilises both contact actuation and sequential modes, meaning you get to switch between two types of stapling depending on the kind of job you’re tackling. For jobs that require maximum precision, the sequential mode works best, releasing staples once you have pressed the nose up to the area you wish to staple before pushing the trigger, while quick-fire jobs that require speed work better with the contact actuation mode. An adjustable depth control lets you choose how deeply you need your stapling to punch through, letting you use it with a variety of materials and surfaces and modifying how much binding strength you require, so the staple isn’t driven in too shallow or too deep. The staple gun is designed to hold 18-gauge, 1/4-inch crown staples of sizes 3/8 to 1-1/2 inches, its multipurpose attributes earning it a well-deserved place on this list.