I have 18v Milwaukee: drill, circular saw, 'Hatchet', flashlight, and
impact wrench.
All of them work very well at their intended purpose.
I have eight batteries. All of them are dead, and I cannot use any of
the tools because I refused to buy more battery packs and haven't gotten
around to finding someone to replace the cells, or find someplace to
source the cells so that I can do it.
Two of the packs lasted two charges each. I wonder if maybe my usage
was an issue--I figure no way could they die that fast unless I treated
them wrong. I discharge them on the tool, then fully charge them on the
charger, then store them inside. It may be months before an individual
pack might get used again. I wonder if that's bad for it.
I like the tools, but I won't buy any more Milwaukee tools until someone
convinces me I killed the packs (and how to stop killing them) or that
Milwaukee has improved radically with their batteries.
On 11/24/2011 12:24 PM, Brian Kemp wrote:
> I'm getting a cordless impact driver for myself tomorrow. The big
> orange box has good deals on a Dewalt combo (DCK236C for $149). But I
> also noticed they have special pricing on Milwaukee with the driver
> for $149 or a combo with a hammer drill for $199.
>
> Question for the list - How does Milwaukee compare to Dewalt? Both
> these tools are 18V. The Milwaukee uses Lithium batteries, which I
> understand to be better that NiCad, hence a price difference. I've
> used 12V Dewalt drills for about 15 years and am happy with my Dewalt
> power tools, though I occasionally exceed the capabilities of my 12V
> drill. Milwaukee is a brand I've heard of, but don't know how they
> compare to Dewalt.
>
> A plus for Dewalt is their battery design stays the same, so if I need
> new batteries, next black Friday I can just pick up on of the $99
> drills with two batteries. I read some reviews on Milwaukee changing
> their battery design to not be backward compatible, which is a concern.
>
> This is for advanced home use, so battery life in terms of lasting for
> years of proper use is also important.
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