IPH Dead Blow Hammers – Engineering Review & Destruction Test

Written by Luis Montes Updated On January 29, 2025

Four IPH hand-held dead blow hammers arranged in line against a wall

Photo source: www.youtube.com/@ImpactPolyHammers.

On the outside, all dead blow hammers look alike. That is until you put them to a real test, as Stercorarius, a well known member of the garage journal, claims and experimented when he gave his hammer the first real swing.

You could spend an eternity doing woodworking with a cheap dead blow hammer or using it to set up work in your mill vise and won’t notice major signs of tear and wear. But what if you encounter a job where you must repeatedly wack the heck out of something? We guarantee you that most dead blow hammers will fail.

Impact Poly Hammers has considered several design and manufacturing details to craft one of the most versatile and robust dead blow hammers to tackle mild and serious heavy-duty tasks.

We’ll review the features that make them stand out from popular competitors and the mindblowing results of a destruction test.

Visit the Fortis HD tool section to purchase the IPH dead blow hammers, both the hand-held and sledgehammer versions, to tackle any heavy-duty task.

Table of Contents

Destruction Test
Improving the Competition Designs
Last Thougths

Destruction Test

Let’s jump into the performance comparison and, toward the end of the post, review the features that differentiate the Impact Poly Hammer (IPH) products.

We compared an IPH dead blow hammer to others from popular brands. The test involved hammering a steel shaft several times to check the wear on the hammer’s face and shaft.

The tests varied in hit numbers, starting with 250 and increasing by an additional 250 hits every time until they reached 1,500 hits.

The interesting thing about this test is that we only used one IPH dead blow hammer throughout all rounds.

Here are the results:

Destruction test: 250 hits (Link to video version)
Brand	Weight	Hardness	Results
	34 oz	96 HA		No visible deformation. Minor cuts and scratches. No outside tearing.
	28.5 oz	80 HA		There was a lot of head deformation. Big chunks of rubber came out. Substantial damage.

Destruction test: 500 hits (Link to video version)
Brand	Weight	Hardness	Results
	34 oz	96 HA		Slight cracks and marring. No real damage or lacerations.
	34 oz	85 HA		End cap off the head. Steel shots coming out. Complete failure.

Destruction test: 750 hits (Link to video version)
Brand	Weight	Hardness	Results
	34 oz	96 HA		Shallow cuts. Some surface marring.
	32 oz	96 HA / 68 HA black sections		Lots of chunks came out. Exposed, dented steel.

Destruction test: 1,000 hits (Link to video version)
Brand	Weight	Hardness	Results
	34 oz	96 HA		There were no missing parts.
	28 oz	96 HA / 68 HA black sections		Visible metal. Face completely destroyed.

Destruction test: 1,250 hits (Link to video version)
Brand	Weight	Hardness	Results
	34 oz	96 HA		Completely intact. Slightly deeper cuts. Tiny pieces started to come off.
	43.5 oz	100 HA		The hammer's face was worn down to its metal frame, and the outside edge was cracked extensively.

Destruction test: 1,500 hits (Link to video version)
Brand	Weight	Hardness	Results
	34 oz	96 HA		A little piece of polyurethane chipped off.
	28.6 oz	93 HA		Worn out to its metal frame. The bottom side of the face was completely damaged.

Improving the Competition Designs

Photo sources: www.reddit.com & www.garagejournal.com.

To understand the outcome of the destruction test results, let’s compare the design of the IPH dead blow hammers with what we found in the interior of the above competitors.

The Quality and Bonding of the Polyurethane

A heavy-duty technician separates the unbonded urethane from a hammer’s frame

Photo source: www.youtube.com/@ImpactPolyHammers.

With each blow of the hammer, an unbonded urethane shifts from the frame. The wrap quickly cracks and tears, exposing the metal head.

A plastic chunk came off from the face of a dead blow hammer

Photo source: www.youtube.com/@ImpactPolyHammers.

Also, a poorly controlled urethane casting process can lead to too many air pockets (inner bubbles), reducing the overall density and strength. The hammer will quickly break into chunks, which is precisely what happened to this senior member of the Heavy Equipment Forum when a piece of the hammer came off and hit him square in the mouth.

The urethane hot cast process of the IPH hammers includes sandblasting the mold internals to eliminate most contaminants and a unique chemical that provides a much better bonding than that between urethane and bare metal. Should you puncture the polyurethane, it won’t peel off the rest of the hammer.

However, even with a controlled casting process, there’s still one challenge that several dead blow hammers fail: withstanding extremely low temperatures.

The polyurethane of most dead blow hammers becomes so brittle that they literally blow themself up. We found similar testimonials from members of three different forum sites that have blown up their hammers in cold weather:

Impact Poly Hammers formulated polyurethane withstand tough winters better than our competitors. We’ve seen warning labels on competitors’ hammers not to use at -10 °C (-14 °F) while the IPH low temp range is -30 °C (-30 °F).

The Frame

A cut apart IPH dead blow hammer. Overlay arrows show features such as the thickness, welds, and solid handle

Photo source: www.youtube.com/@ImpactPolyHammers.

The IPH hammers have a frame twice the thickness of most competitors, and their head end caps are fully welded. The robust design contributes to a flat hammering surface and no cap and head connection deformation.

Most hammers’ heads have pressed-on caps and a thinner metal frame. Combining those variables causes the caps to cave in and pry the edge of the hammer’s head, leading to premature wear of the urethane and, in some cases, steel shot leaks due to the cap getting off the head.

A cut apart dead blow hammer. Overlay arrows show the deformation on the end caps

Photo source: www.youtube.com/@ImpactPolyHammers.

What we found most critical from the test was the handle designs of some hammers because, in addition to wasting time and money, a broken handle could be a risk hazard.

Luckily, no significant injuries, just some cursing and a lesson on using high-quality tools.

Two cut apart dead blow hammers lay on a table. Overlay arrows show a weak spot on one of them due to the fiberglass handle and head connection

Photo source: www.youtube.com/@ImpactPolyHammers.

Unlike the IPH hammer, which has a solid steel handle fully welded to the head (should you accidentally hit the neck of the hammer, you’re less likely to have a breakage there), some competitors have a hollow handle, small tack welds, or a fiberglass handle simply snapped on a neck tube.

Avoid downtimes and accidents with the IPH dead blow hammers, available at Fortis HD.

You can expect personalized customer service, improvement on your job site, and better rates than anywhere else.

The Dead Blow Mechanism

A cut apart IPH dead blow hammer. Overlay arrows show the head’s “free flow” feature

Photo source: www.youtube.com/@ImpactPolyHammers.

Like the IPH dead-blow hammers, some of the hammers we tested feature a free-flow head design. This design allows the steel shot to move unimpeded, maximizing the “dead blow” effect.

However, there are two head designs you should avoid, and we will explain why.

Handle Through the Hammer’s Head

A cut apart dead blow hammer. Overlay arrows show the flaws of having the handle through the head

Photo source: www.gardenersedge.com.

Right off the bat, when the handle goes through the hammer’s head, it blocks the free flow of the steel shot, which is the core mechanism of dead blow hammers.

On top of that, these hammers feature tack welds. When the top weld fails, the head oscillates around the handle penetration hole with each blow and eventually elongates, leaving enough space for the shot to leak.

A Thin Profile Head and Washers Instead of Steel Shot

A cut apart dead blow hammer with a rod and washers instead of steel shot

Photo source: www.youtube.com/@ImpactPolyHammers.

The flaw with this design is the combination of thin steel plates for the head frame and the rod guiding the washers. The rod transfers a good amount of blow force directly to the center of the opposite end cap, which is the spot of less inertia.

As the thin head deforms, the washers won’t be able to move as freely as they should.

Last Thougths

We don’t intend to trash our competitors. However, testing and comparing the IPH hammers with similar tools was the best way to prove their efficiency.

Will you be the next person to post on a forum that your dead blow hammer fell apart in less than a week or that the soft face only lasted a few weeks before splitting?

Or would you instead tell others? “I have used the hell out of them since then, and I have zero regrets. They still look brand new and have never left me wanting.”

The ball is on your court.

Available at Fortis HD!

The IPH Dual Faced Dead Blow Hammer saves space in your toolbox with one hammer instead of two, and the IPH Woodworker Dead Blow is perfect for woodworkers as it has square edges that make it easy to get into corners.