I wrote up the Maxus EX8016 X-Lite compressor as an Editor's Choice product for our HGTVPro news show HGTVPro.com Weekly, but I only recently had a chance to use the tool for any length of time. While I don't usually run a double-coverage defense with products I include on the show, I was so impressed with the 4-gallon twin-stack unit and its bevy of smart features that a real-time review had to happen.

Bottom line. Let's start with the BL. I used the 1.3 horsepower, 3.7 SCFM X-Lite in the three highest-drain applications I encounter as a home-improvement contractor: nailing off sheathing, running a roofing gun, and using my old Shingle Saw Pro II. It kept pace through and through.

I had absolutely no issue with laddered nails while rapid firing 8d, ring-shank nails or popping off shingles. And I wasn't nailing into any brand new softy 2x10 SPF; I was gunning into 80-year old Doug fir 1x12 sheathing and 2x8 rafters. I drove four nails into every 1x12 board up the roof — a way tighter nailing schedule than 1/2- inch roof decking, wall sheathing or subfloor. My nailer never starved for air.

It's worth pointing out that the EX8016 is a heavy breather and really liked having a dedicated cord straight out of the power supply — it tripped the lame-o surge suppressor strip I use as a multi-plug (no surprise, no demerits) — but on its own 100-foot cord, it ran fine, even in temps right around freezing.

I also ran my Shingle Saw Pro II. This pneumatic shingle saw (no longer in production; it's been re-designed) gobbles air big time. Nevertheless, one-off shingle cuts were a snap. Impressive. And X-Lite recovered quickly when the tank drained.

Weight a minute. When a tool's weight passes a certain threshold — around 80 pounds — carrying it becomes an experience of both necessity and pure dread. Such is the case with most compressors I've owned. But — and I mean and ALL-CAPS-bold-italics BUT — the X-Lite's aircraft quality aluminum tanks drops this baby's gross vehicle weight to a mere 57 pounds. I won't say that's feather-light, but holy mack-o (as my daughter says), there's no comparison between the X-Lite and other compressors where the lift-and-lug process toggles between a serious chafe at the minimum to an exercise in blood-pressure management by week's end.

Details done right. Beyond the light weight, the Maxus designers kept pushing during their design charrettes and executed smart, savvy details that carry the X-Lite furlongs further towards top-of-el-heapo status.

It starts with a carry handle/roll cage that's aces. See, the compressor is cubic — roughly the same shape as other compressors in the class — but the handle is positioned to deliver optimum carry efficiency between truck and site or between floors. Combined with its lighter weight, you can practically carry it like a suit case without having a back surgeon on speed-dial.

The roll-cage part of the handle houses everything — supply lines, gauges and the pump motor, to name a few biggies — so that it'll be darn tough to break them when Bruno the Meatball javelins a shovel or stack of 2x6s into the back of your truck.

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