Milwaukee M18 batteries

Status
Not open for further replies.
I was looking at some knock off Dewalts last night on Amazon. The fakes are half the price of the genuine article.

I think they would be great if you bought a combo kit that had some low amp hour batteries and were looking to expand. If they malfunctioned you would still have the stockers to fall back on. I'm not sure I would want to rely on them exclusively, especially for professional use which I would be using them for.

I have seen one knock off battery out of probably hundreds on jobsites. I think if they could handle professional use they would be more ubiquitous, batteries are really expensive at full retail. I think most people just wait for genuine batteries to go on sale, or steal them.

There is also the danger of recycled cells, but I am sure that can be mitigated by buying "quality" fakes.
 
I've had great success with the 12 volt knock offs. Reviews of 18 volt from same source are equally good but no direct experience.
 
Yes. PowerExtra from Amazon in both M12 and M18 have been well worth the money.

I bought a recon M18 mid-torque impact tool only, bought the M18 batteries and got a charger for free from a buddy with many M18 tools...half price of new.

I've been using the 5.0ah M12 for about 2 years and been very happy with it.
 
Our bean counters at work bought us a bunch of 18 volt dewalt generics a couple years ago and the very first time I picked one up I was over it! The ones they bought were about 1/3 lighter. Their amp our claim was total BS. And right now 2 ish years later there is none on our tool trailer. One by one they were trashed.
However I am told that interstate will rebuild them using the original case for half new price and I was told you have a better pack than new.
 
I've purchased knock-offs of both the milwaukee M18 and M12 batteries from ebay.
All worked great for a while. One had a tab that holds the battery into the tool break off. Still works, just sometimes slides out enough to lose connection at the terminals.
Another just stopped working after running it hard one day. Charger won't recognize it or try and charge it.
The third would randomly lose connection with the tool. I took it apart and all that it needed was for one of the metal connectors to be bent back into place, it was pretty far out of whack.

I can't complain too much, considering that these were half the price of the genuine Milwaukee batteries. But it seems a shame that two out of three had failures due to relatively simple components, while the expensive battery cells continue to function fine. I've had none of the above problems with the real batteries. Obviously the Chinese versions are made to a lower standard.
 
Last edited:
Places like EBay are Retail Houses that buy large lots of slightly rejected products from their manufacturer. Could be superficial problems, or internal that can;t be seen with the naked eye.

Just don't let your two eyes run around naked too long. The Po-Po may call or visit ya', if they do.
 
Cheap Li batteries.....What could go wrong
smirk2.gif


$100,000 in vehicles, But don't want to spend money for genuine Milwaukee batteries.....Come on man!
 
Yep and we've been running the 5 ah batts in our impacts for substation steel and switch erection. One of my crew busted out a 9 ah and I put it in my 1/2" drive utility mil impact to try again to loosen a footer nut. Holy sheet it ripped the gun outta my hand and pinned my hand between the gun and the structure. The Milwaukee 1/2 " utility impact is rated for 1000 ft pounds loosening torque....... if that rating is true it was done with the 9ah and not the 5ah. The bigger batts should have a cold cranking amp rating. Lol
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom