New Milwaukee M18 Tool Improvements
Milwaukee Tools just held their annual PIPELINE media event where they unveiled the latest additions to their expansive product lineup. The backbone of this years event was touted as THE NEXT BREAKTHROUGH in M18 FUEL TM. This next breakthrough is actually as series of iterative improvements across 4 key components that make up the M18 tool platform – batteries, chargers, motors, and electronics.
M18 REDLITHIUMTM FORGETM BATTERIES
At last years PIPELINE event in 2023, Milwaukee announced their newest innovations to the M18 and MX batteries with the REDLITHIUM FORGE series. The M18 XC 6.0 FORGE battery was released taking advantage of a pouch style design that boasted similar performance to the M18 HD 12.0 battery in a package 30% smaller and 40% lighter.
This year the M18 REDLITHIUM FORGE XC 8.0 AND HD 12.0 batteries were announced. These batteries take advantage of a tabless cell structure currently found on the MX series FORGE batteries. This tabless cell structure benefits from a new laser welding process to connect the individual cells allowing for a more robust connection as well as unlocking a feature previously found only on the MX batteries that Milwaukee is calling COOL CYCLE. Open vents in the battery housing allow for active convection cooling when paired with the new SUPER CHARGER.
In addition to the faster charge times and increased power in a smaller package, Milwaukee claims these new batteries extend lifetime performance as well.
M18 Dual Bay Simultaneous SUPERCHARGER
With the release of the FORGE series batteries last year, Milwaukee introduced the new SUPERCHARGER series of batteries chargers. These chargers can recharge the FORGE batteries and previous generation REDLITHIUM batteries significantly faster, roughly 2X faster than the RAPIDCHARGER and 4-5X faster than the standard charger.
This year the SUPERCHARGER is incorporating the active cooling technology COOLCYCLE that forces air through compatible battery packs. This airflow can cool overheated batteries within 90 seconds to begin charging. Without COOLCYCLE ambient cooling could take as long as 20 minutes before charging can even begin. Additionally the airflow will keep the battery significantly cooler, aiding in the quick charge times and helping ease the strain on components over their lifetime.
As seen in the graphic above, the new 12.0 FORGE battery can charge cooled off a high demand discharge and charged in as skittle as 45 minutes with the SUPERCHARGER compared to 127 minutes for the previous gen 12.0 battery and RAPIDCHARGER.
POWERSTATE Brushless Motors
The POWERSTATE Brushless Motors also benefit from a next generation upgrade. A new manufacturing process that Milwaukee is employing has allowed for an increase of 36% more copper in the stator windings while reducing the overall size by 15%.This is achieved by individual stator segments remain exposed exposed for high efficiency windings and then welded together to form the concentric ring.
REDLINK PLUS Electronics enhancements
To quarterback all these improved components, the electrical curcuits and wiring also recieved an upgrade. The next generation REDLINK PLUS electronics are built around improved curcuit boards that are smaller yet more robust. Additionally these boards can interface with much thicker wiring that is necessary to handle to increase current flowing between the new batteries and more powerful motors.
How do all these upgrades add up?
Most tool innovations these days are incremental and the margins by what makes a new version tool “better” can sometimes be hard to quantify or justify a sale. Milwaukee has spent years making incremental improvements to 4 key backbone components with batteries, charges, motors and electronics. In the past 12 months we have seen significant upgrades on all 4 of these components starting with the release of the FORGE batteries last year. But what happens when all 4 get incorporated into a new tool designed from the ground up.
We were excited to see the first tool to incorporate all these upgrades are the new 7 1/4″ Circular Saws, both top handle/sidewinder and rear handle/wormdrive. The new 2834 model is set to replace the existing 2732 model in August 2024. This newer has been redesigned from the ground up and features some new ergonomic improvements like a redesign of the sometimes cumbersome thumb activated trigger lock.
The new M18 FUEL 7 1/4″ Circular Saw has an increased cut capacity at 2 5/8″, a 1/8″ bump up from the previous generation saw. The new POWERSTATE motors drive the blade at 6000 RPM, 200 RPM higher than before and produce a peak power output ~50% more.
Additionaly the newer saw is able to deliver all this new performance in a smaller lighter package. The 2834 weighs in at 7.9 lbs, which is 10% lighter than the previous 2732 weighing in at 8.7 lbs.
While its easy to see how these new core components are delivering a significant bump in performance to the circular saw lineup, the potential to have similar performance gains in smaller packages across the M18 lineup is an exciting development. While not all tools on the M18 lineup may see as large a performance gain as the saws we are eager to see how these new developments filter through the product lineup.