Milwaukee M18 Grease gun review.

[Hammell]

Well I needed...(wanted) a new grease gun for work. I make my living working on heavy equipment, bobcats to rock trucks, dozers and excavators. Lubricating dry neglected pins and pumping up tracks, 2/3 tubes of grease per track. I have always had an old Lincoln pump. Still works fine. But after pumping up Lord knows how many tracks by hand its getting old. Dozens easily, couple hundred? Its a great work out, keeps my arms and chest strong but.. Im ready to plug in and pull the trigger. I hope I'm not getting lazy, more of a work smarter not harder type of thing.

So I bought a Milwaukee M18 Grease gun that goes along well with my 1/4 impact Fuel, 1/2 Drill Fuel and 3/4 Impact fuel that Im happy with. To date, I haven't needed to do any track work, but. I have greased 5 skidsteers, two of them taking a tube each as they were neglected over snow removal, The M18 GG did a fine job on either high speed (8000psi) or low speed (10,000 psi). 4 amp battery is still a 3/4 power, and I must add. The grease was in my truck and warmed up (slightly) on the dash of my truck, the gun and battery sat all night in my truck of course, which temperatures hovered around, -4F or -20C. Im impressed so far. I look forward to using it to tighten up tracks next time I do a set, I would defiantly recommend buying the gun over a pump, just so much easier, faster, more productive.

 

[johndeereman]

YA Man I hear you it's next on the (ever growing ) list.

 

[Tom.C]

Nice I work on hd equip too and was looking at the m18 as I have many m18 tools, I just couldn't justify the price at the time so I got a pneumatic one but I'm still kinda liking it, how does it compare to a hand pump as far as power?

 

[Hammell]

Nice I work on hd equip too and was looking at the m18 as I have many m18 tools, I just couldn't justify the price at the time so I got a pneumatic one but I'm still kinda liking it, how does it compare to a hand pump as far as power?

A customer blew a track on his 200 Hitachi hoe (on a tall pile of sand...ugly) only a couple of days before I bought the gun, so I haven't used it to snug tracks up yet. But as far as I can tell it seems powerful with half frozen grease on the skidsteers I used it on. Good battery life. But tracks will certainly be its biggest challenge, I will report when I do one. Which usually is in a week or two.

 

[Tom.C]

Cool man ill be looking out for your experience.

 

[Hammell]

Well, Yesterday I got a call from a customer who blew his right track off his Hitachi 135. (about 15 ton machine.) So I did my tricks and got the track back over the carrier, then the idler, then it was time to pump up the track. The Milwaukee M18 did a great job, The 4ft hose is great, huge upgrade from the standard Lincolns. The track takes about 1.5 tubes of grease, setting 2, speed, (8000psi) had no issue snugging up the tracks in a very short time. Level 1 (10,000psi) wasn't needed that day, although it will come in handy on bigger machines, stubborn fittings in the future.
It was about -18 when I did the job, the only advantage a manual pump would have is would have warmed me up pumping all that grease.

Overall Im very happy with my purchase, made my day to day life easier, more productive. Battery life was good, tool works good in the cold, changing tubes, no issues. plenty of power. Easier on the body.

 

[amlv20]

How about loading up the tube of grease? Quick and easy? Do you have to bleed it or anything special and does it push through the entire tube?

I bought the **** pile IR cordless grease gun tow years back,**** pile cost me ove $300,biggest **** pile waste of my money ever.did I mention it was a **** pile? I would load a tube of grease and push plunger in while holding bleeder open,and it would run a 1/4 tube and then act like tube was empty,I found if I put a new tube in and packed the gun side and then packed the top of the tube with grease left from the old tube it would work and if I was lucky it would push through a full tube of grease.my tool guy even tried to load it and bleed it himself and it did the same thing,he warrantied it and the replacement did the same thing.so now I don't really want to spend and waste cash on something like that,

 

[pscrow86]

I've Had the M18 grease gun for about a year now and love it. I work on trucks and Heavy equipment as well and it's awesome. Perfect for adjusting/re-installing tracks. I have a ton of other M18 tools so it made sense for me to go Milwaukee instead of Snap-on. My SO dealer brought it in for me and I bought it through him so I paid by the week which helped me out.

 

[c-hawk19]

How about loading up the tube of grease? Quick and easy? Do you have to bleed it or anything special and does it push through the entire tube?

I bought the **** pile IR cordless grease gun tow years back,**** pile cost me ove $300,biggest **** pile waste of my money ever.did I mention it was a **** pile? I would load a tube of grease and push plunger in while holding bleeder open,and it would run a 1/4 tube and then act like tube was empty,I found if I put a new tube in and packed the gun side and then packed the top of the tube with grease left from the old tube it would work and if I was lucky it would push through a full tube of grease.my tool guy even tried to load it and bleed it himself and it did the same thing,he warrantied it and the replacement did the same thing.so now I don't really want to spend and waste cash on something like that,

I have the m18 grease gun. it is real easy to bleed. it has a little button you press and once grease come out the bleeder hole it is good to go.

 

[Hammell]

How about loading up the tube of grease? Quick and easy? Do you have to bleed it or anything special and does it push through the entire tube?

I bought the **** pile IR cordless grease gun tow years back,**** pile cost me ove $300,biggest **** pile waste of my money ever.did I mention it was a **** pile? I would load a tube of grease and push plunger in while holding bleeder open,and it would run a 1/4 tube and then act like tube was empty,I found if I put a new tube in and packed the gun side and then packed the top of the tube with grease left from the old tube it would work and if I was lucky it would push through a full tube of grease.my tool guy even tried to load it and bleed it himself and it did the same thing,he warrantied it and the replacement did the same thing.so now I don't really want to spend and waste cash on something like that,

Loading is easy. just a button to bleed. Gets all the grease out. Good stuff.

 

[bry@n]

I have the SO grease gun and I'm considering swapping fully to Milwaukee.

Does it matter which battery is used?

 

[Hammell]

I have the SO grease gun and I'm considering swapping fully to Milwaukee.

Does it matter which battery is used?

No, Just a 18v. But it depends on how much greasing you do per day. a 4 amp will do a lot of tubes, before recharging. so depending on your needs, a 4, 5, 6 or 9 amp are available. I have 4 amp on my gun and Ive done 6 skidsteers, and two hoe tracks. So far so good. battery life is half, in -18C. Pretty good id say.

 

[firebox40dash5]

I bought the M12 at the shop (just doing up to light trucks) after about the 4th hand grease gun in a row wouldn't pump or prime. I literally got fed up mid-job and picked one up from Grainger... and I never buy squat there if I can avoid it.

I put a locking coupler on it, but it also made it so much easier for those hidden fittings, especially where the locking coupler didn't fit, that required holding the coupler on with one hand. And in about 2 years using it (and probably only swapping 6 batteries) I think I had to screw with getting it primed maybe 2 or 3 times.

 

[lightning02]

I bought the M12 at the shop (just doing up to light trucks) after about the 4th hand grease gun in a row wouldn't pump or prime. I literally got fed up mid-job and picked one up from Grainger... and I never buy squat there if I can avoid it.

I put a locking coupler on it, but it also made it so much easier for those hidden fittings, especially where the locking coupler didn't fit, that required holding the coupler on with one hand. And in about 2 years using it (and probably only swapping 6 batteries) I think I had to screw with getting it primed maybe 2 or 3 times.

how you like the m12 version?

 

[FMC1959]

how you like the m12 version?

I have the m12 and use it mainly for my tractor. I don't have any severe jobs like the OP withe excavator or skidsteer tracks, but even he stated that at 8000 psi (the faster speed on the m18 and only speed on the m12) it had no problem.

I find it more powerful than any greaser I have tried, including air guns. I don't think it would ever lack power to do a job.

 

[FMC1959]

Also wanted to add that anyone contemplating, not cheap as a kit, but pretty affordable as a bare tool and sometimes can be had free as a bonus tool with another kit.