Milwaukee batteries

[dnschmidt]

The list price for a Makita 5ah and a Milwaukee 5ah are both around $160. Just like was mentioned in your Makita battery rant thread. Nobody that doesn't just have money to burn would buy either one by itself and not on sale. I paid around $50 each for the 8 or so of both brands that I have as part of tool/charger bundles.

You want to talk about expensive, price out some Hilti batteries. My brother uses Hilti tools and the 36v 5ah batteries are around $350 list.

The problem is that the Makita's batteries NEVER go on sale whereas the Milwaukee's are on sale somewhere 24/7. Nobody cares what the list price is it's what you have to pay for a battery that's all that matters.

 

[tak1313]

When I need a battery (Milwaukee), if I NEED an OEM battery, I usually get them from an authorized dealer. If I can get by on a non-OEM, I usually buy an OBVIOUS aftermarket - ie. ones that are blatantly NOT labelled Milwaukee.

There are too many COUNTERFEIT Milwaukees these days, and the counterfeiters are getting better at mimicking the real stuff as posts and videos go up in the wild on "how to identify a fake battery." At least with the aftermarket labelled stuff, the seller/manufacturer isn't trying to BS you into thinking it's the real thing, and many of them are decent enough for modest use.

I don't have any aftermarket M18s, but I do have a couple of aftermarket M12s (4ah), I have never "stress tested" the aftermarket ones, but they have performed well enough FOR MY NEEDS when I have used them. The only quirk to them is that for whatever circuitry reason, if I use them in my M12 inflator, when I first turn it on, it gives an error for battery temp, but I just clear it and it works fine (note that I only use the inflator for my wife's Prius or my Tacoma, so it's not heavy use).

From WHAT I CAN TELL, the vast majority of counterfeiting issues these days are in the higher AH batteries, not so much the lower (1.5, 2.0, etc) batteries (but maybe in the high output ones). I assume it's because of the lower OEM prices make the margins less desirable.

 

[gregjsmith]

Just waiting for the day a third-party company steps up and makes high-quality replacement batteries that match OEM performance. Would be nice to see some real competition and bring those crazy prices down!

 

[BroncoAZ]

I usually get the bare tool/battery combo deals from Home Depot. The batteries last a long time, I was using one of my original 5.0 batteries from 2016 yesterday on my new track saw.

I looked in my spare battery drawer yesterday, holy **** I need to sell some off as there are a dozen each of the M18 and M12 from the past year I haven’t touched.

 

[tak1313]

I usually get the bare tool/battery combo deals from Home Depot. The batteries last a long time, I was using one of my original 5.0 batteries from 2016 yesterday on my new track saw.

I looked in my spare battery drawer yesterday, holy **** I need to sell some off as there are a dozen each of the M18 and M12 from the past year I haven’t touched.

How well does the 5.0 work on the track saw? I recently picked up the Milwaukee because using my Makita gets annoying on long cuts because finagling with the cord always gets in the way at some point, and the Milwaukee is compatible with the Makita tracks.

I haven't used it yet, since I'm just a home user, but was wondering about the 5.0. The 5.0 is currently the biggest I have, but I've heard/seen/read that the track saw really needs AT LEAST the 6.0, if not the 8.0 to be reasonably usable.

 

[BroncoAZ]

How well does the 5.0 work on the track saw? I recently picked up the Milwaukee because using my Makita gets annoying on long cuts because finagling with the cord always gets in the way at some point, and the Milwaukee is compatible with the Makita tracks.

I haven't used it yet, since I'm just a home user, but was wondering about the 5.0. The 5.0 is currently the biggest I have, but I've heard/seen/read that the track saw really needs AT LEAST the 6.0, if not the 8.0 to be reasonably usable.

I was cutting 1/2” plywood so not a real challenge for the saw. It was fine with the 5.0 but typically I would grab a 6.0 or 8.0 as I have several of each, the 5.0 happened to be sitting on the bench.

 

[n8n]

I had a similar question last summer/fall as I had to use a string trimmer to do my whole yard (not possible with lawnmower even if I had one) and I ended up buying a second M18 Fuel 8Ah battery from Clark's Tool and Equipment. It was a "High Output" not a "Forge" battery and I've been told the latter are better, but the couple times I used it it's been fine (the purpose was to be able to do the whole yard in one go; when the first battery ran out use the second while the first is charging rather than having to take a break for a couple hours) Price was right too, it was $130 shipped (I had to look up the receipt in my email, I didn't remember who I'd ordered it from only that it was recommended to me by someone here)

Now what pisses me off is I can't find my M18 impact gun but that's not a problem you guys can help me with.

I guess if any die I will be looking into rebuild services as I believe they're just a bank of 18650s like most lithium batteries.