Milwaukee fuel m18 compact vs non compact battery

[diplomat 1]

I am looking to get one of the m18 3/8 wrench set and I see one has a compact battery and one doesn't. My question is is the non compact worth it or not? Battery life a big difference between them? The compact is about $65 cheaper. Anyone have any experience? Thanks

 

[rlitman]

On the compact impact wrench, power is the same and it's nice to have less weight in your hands. Compact batteries get less than half the life of the big ones, but on that brushless tool battery life is stellar regardless.

 

[DieselSaves]

The compact batteries won't give your tools as much juice. We run both compact XC, XC, and 4.0 batteries and all will run any tool but the tool won't have the same capacity on the smaller(1.5 compact) battery. There was a release about this years ago that the high draw tools like the sawzall and circular saw were electronically prohibited to run on the compact batteries but newer tools and batteries would run but at a diminished capacity.

We've seen this ourselves where a drill wouldn't push a 1.5 inch forsner bit with the compact bat but the fullsize XC bat ran it fine. Both batteries were at full charge.

 

[firebox40dash5]

I have both battery sizes, the compacts are a lot nicer especially on the impact, but the fullsize packs give at least double the runtime (maybe a little extra as the draw is spread across 2 sets of cells) and seem to do a bit better for max power. I'd go with fullsize if I were picking just 1, especially since they're 5.0ah now. More likely to get a better deal on a 2.0ah compact (or 2 pack) than the brand new 5.0s.

 

[rlitman]

The compact batteries won't give your tools as much juice. We run both compact XC, XC, and 4.0 batteries and all will run any tool but the tool won't have the same capacity on the smaller(1.5 compact) battery. There was a release about this years ago that the high draw tools like the sawzall and circular saw were electronically prohibited to run on the compact batteries but newer tools and batteries would run but at a diminished capacity.

We've seen this ourselves where a drill wouldn't push a 1.5 inch forsner bit with the compact bat but the fullsize XC bat ran it fine. Both batteries were at full charge.

That is correct with respect to the drill, but is not correct with respect to the compact impact (I'm not sure about the full size 1/2" drive one) that the OP asked about.

 

[Stuey]

Many Milwaukee drills and heavy duty tools receive a boost in power when paired with an XC battery pack.

With the Fuel drills, the XC effect contributes to roughly 10% higher peak torque.

Impact drivers do NOT see an increase in power, because they require lower current to operate, even at max output.

So with an impact driver, an XC battery pack will simply contribute to longer runtime, and not more power.

 

[Greg85mcss]

I bought the xc drill & impact combo a few months ago with the intention of getting the bigger impacts eventually. I did a lot of research & talked to the people at the area Milwaukee warranty shop. Supposedly as mentioned above the 1/2 impact & one or two other tools won't run on compact batteries. Others have limited capacity but most are fine. I use my m18 & m12 impacts daily & have never charged an xc battery. M12 is over a year old & just went to ine bar. M18 is about half charge.