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Best air grease gun for a UK workshop

Updated: 21.10.2026

Best only means best for a job you can name. This page picks the best air grease gun for a home workshop that already owns a compressor, then says who should buy a keg and who should skip air. Stars do not settle it: the Draper shows 5.0 from one rating, the 12 litre KATSU shows 3.8 from three, the 40 litre shows 5.0 from one, and the 20 litre capture has no star line. Prices and the full rows sit on the [air grease gun comparison](/hub/compressors/air-grease-gun). Products Compared read those amazon.co.uk listings and public UK pages. We did not run a lab test. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.

Best only means best for a job you can name. This page picks the best air grease gun for a home workshop that already owns a compressor, then says who should buy a keg and who should skip air.

Our top picks

On this page

Best for a home workshop with a compressor

If you grease a car, a trailer and a couple of machines from a 400 g cartridge, the top pick is the Draper 70836, ASIN B08R7K7TW3, listed at about £30.99 and 1 kg. The bullets include two delivery tubes, bulk loading, air bleed valves, and a 12-month parts and labour warranty. That is the only pistol in the set. The next kept listing is a 12 litre pump at about £87.99 that you do not need for a cartridge. One rating is not proof it will never leak. It is a reason to read the plate for the air window the amazon capture does not print. Draper's own page states 30–120 psi, 4,500 psi outlet, and a 1/4 inch BSP inlet. Use those as maker figures, then confirm them on the gun. Skip this pistol when the grease you buy is already a drum, or when you need a 3.7 m hose to walk around a lorry. A gun with a crossed fitting is not a bargain. The checks behind this pick, including BSP and continuous flow, are on the air grease gun buying guide.

Best when the grease lives in a keg

A keg wins when changing cartridges would be the slow part of the day. The three KATSU pumps state the same 450 bar maximum and the same 3.7 m hose. They are three drum sizes: 12 litres at about £87.99 and 11 kg, 20 litres at about £112.99 and 13.9 kg, and 40 litres at about £119.99 and 15.1 kg. Take the 12 litre, model 481125, when that is the drum you already store and you want the lightest frame in the set. The 3.8 from three ratings is the weakest star line here. There is no review text, so you know the average and not the fault. Take the 40 litre, model 481134, when you will use the volume. It costs £7 more than the 20 litre model and holds twice the grease. Its capture rank in Automotive (73,689) is popularity, not a pressure test. Leave the 20 litre, model 481133, unless a 20 litre keg is the pack you buy. It has no star line, and the price sits £7 under a drum twice as large. None of these listings states inlet pressure or airflow. Aim Tools prints 90 psi and 50:1 for the 12 and 20 litre models. Attribute that to Aim Tools, and do not paste it into the amazon row. If your compressor plate cannot meet a figure you still have not seen, do not guess. The compressor guide is where that limit is spelled out.

What a higher shelf price is buying

Tooled-Up's pistol aisle, checked on 19 October 2026, shows why about £30.99 is the entry band and not the whole market. A Draper DAT-AGG was about £33.95 including VAT. A Sealey SA40 one-shot gun was about £52.95, a Lumatic continuous-flow gun about £59.95, and a Sealey SA401 continuous-flow gun about £64.95. An amazon.co.uk page for the SA40, which is not one of the four rows here, showed £55.22 and 4.3 from three ratings. You are paying that middle band for a named trigger style, a printed ratio on some models, and a brand manual, not for a laboratory crown. The Draper in this set does not tell you whether the trigger is one-shot or continuous. If you grease a long line of nipples and you want flow while the trigger is held, the SA401 class is the question to ask, and it lives around £65, not at the keg prices. If you want one pulse per pull so you can count, the SA40 class is the comparison. Neither replaces the keg decision. A £65 pistol still holds a cartridge. A £120 pump still needs a drum and a compressor that can feed it.

Who should skip an air gun

Skip air when the compressor is not already there. The pistol still needs dry, regulated air, and the keg needs it for as long as you hold the gun. A lever gun does the same nipples with no receiver to drain, and you can feel the handle load up as the joint fills. That feel is what a continuous air trigger takes away. HSE has recorded hand guns tested above 600 bar, so a manual gun is not the harmless version. Occasional work on one trailer is a fair lever-gun job. Skip air when the machine is in a field, on a driveway away from the hose, or on a site where the only supply is a battery. That is a cordless gun, which is a different category, not a second ranking on this page. At work, PUWER 1998 still expects suitable equipment and people who have been shown when to stop. A pinpoint wound from grease under the skin is an emergency, not a bruise to watch.

Common questions

What is the best air grease gun for a home workshop?
For a home workshop that already has a compressor and uses 400 g cartridges, the Draper 70836 at £30.99 is the top pick in this set. It is the only handheld pistol here, it lists an air bleed and a 12-month warranty, and the kegs start at £87.99. One amazon.co.uk rating is not a long-term test. Confirm the air window on the plate or the Draper page before you connect it.
Is the Draper 70836 enough?
It is enough when the job is cartridges or a small bulk fill and the compressor can hold the pressure the plate asks for. It is not enough when you need a 3.7 m hose and a 12 to 40 litre drum. The listing also omits outlet pressure and the inlet thread, so enough includes reading those figures somewhere other than the amazon bullets.
When is a KATSU keg the better pick?
When the grease is already in a keg and a cartridge would be the bottleneck. Choose 12 litres if that is your drum and you want the lightest pump. Choose 40 litres if you will use it, because it is only £7 more than the 20 litre model. Choose 20 litres only to match a 20 litre keg you already buy. All three state 450 bar and 3.7 m, and none states cfm.
Does 5.0 from one review mean anything?
It means one person left a top rating. It does not mean the gun was compared with anything else, and the saved listing for that listing has no review text. The 12 litre pump's 3.8 from three ratings is a slightly larger sample and a lower average, still without a written complaint. Do not crown a winner from either line.
Is the Sealey SA401 a different job from the Draper?
It is still a pistol for a cartridge, not a keg. The difference that Tooled-Up and Sealey publish is continuous flow rather than a single pulse, in a shelf band around £50–£70. The Draper listing does not state its trigger style. If metering each shot matters to you, that gap is worth closing before you assume the cheaper pistol behaves the same way.

Related pages

Sources

Public UK sources and maker pages from the research digest, checked for this page on 20 October 2026. Listing prices, stars and review counts are amazon.co.uk figures from the comparison files.

  1. HSE: hydraulic injection injury (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  2. HSE: track tensioning and high-pressure injection (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  3. HSE: PUWER overview (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  4. HSE: Pressure Systems Safety Regulations (PSSR) (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  5. Draper Tools: air grease gun 70836, 400 cc (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  6. Kennedy PGC400 instructions (Cromwell) (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  7. Sealey SA40.V2 instructions (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  8. SGS Engineering: air compressor buyer's guide (retrieved 20 October 2026)