Meet the Makita DML811 LED worklight, their new 18V cordless/corded jobsite worklight that boasts some nice specs, features, and water-resistant construction.
Makita’s newest cordless worklight is designed for use indoors our outside.
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It has 3-mode operation and can illuminate dark spaces with as much as 3000 lumens of bright white light.
You can place it down on any horizontal surface, and aim it where you need it. Adjustment knobs let you lock down the head angle in place so that the work light doesn’t drift from its duties.
Or, you can place in atop the new optional tripod light stand (model GM00002703) if you need it off the ground.
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The Makita DML811 can provide up to 13 hours of illumination on low and 3 hours on high, with an 18V 6.0Ah battery. Whoops, all of your batteries are in use? That’s okay, it can also be powered via AC using the included power cord.
Where does that power cord go when you don’t need it? There’s a handy cord wrap built into the work light’s base. if you need a longer reach you can probably just use the included cord in conjunction with a standard extension cord.
What I like is that the power cord looks to be a standard design, and should be easily replaceable if necessary.
It looks like there’s an on/off button and separate brightness/mode button. It doesn’t get any more user-friendly than this.
A sealed battery compartment keeps everything nice and tidy. If you look closely, there’s a translucent grommet, which helps with dust and water resistance. The IP65 rating means that the light is dust-tight and can protect against water jets. In other words, rain – what rain?
Features & Specs
- 3000/1500/750 lumens (high/medium/low modes)
- Runtime: 3/7/13 hours (high/medium/low)
- Pivoting head with adjustment knobs
- IP65 water resistance rating
- Flood light illumination pattern
- AC adapter is included
- Measures 9-3/4″ x 11-7/8″ x 10-5/8″ (with handle folded down)
- Weighs 10.4 lbs with battery
- Large carry handle
Battery and charger are sold separately.
Price: $159
Street Pricing: $175 (as of the time of this posting)
Discussion
Makita isn’t as well-known for their LED lighting products, but it’s apparent that they’ve been doing a lot of research about what users want and need.
The carry handle looks large and comfortable.
An adjustable head angle? That’s of course a must-have.
3-mode brightness settings? Definitely a great feature.
An included AC cord that looks to be easily replaceable and extendable with 3rd party extension cords? Nice!
And it has a built-in cord wrap for said extension cord? Great!
An optional tripod mount? That could be useful.
Nice job Makita, this looks to be a well-rounded design!
Jared
3000 lumens is a nice-sounding figure – more than most of the competitor options. I like the AC option too. It does seem a bit expensive though – perhaps this will come down as it’s on the market for awhile.
It also looks a bit big and bulky – can you remove the light from that gigantic base? Looks like “lock” and “unlock” symbols are embossed on the screws, but I’m not sure if that’s just to lock the rotation or if you can remove it entirely.
Tim D.
It does seem a bit pricey, but comparing to the Milwaukee Rover is $150. The M18 rocket light is $199.
To me, it will depend on the price of the stand and if there are affordable packages with them both. If the stand is $100, and the light is $180….no thanks.
Robert
This on my Christmas list. Just one. Planning on importing the Bosch GLI 18V-2200 too. Unless I settle for the 1900 one available here. My pair of Syslites are the fan favourites of everyone that borrows them alas, I’m down to just my T18 with compact batteries and Bob’s your uncle.
Jared
That Bosch (the 1900 lumen version) was what I had in mind when I said I thought this Makita light was expensive. I’ve contemplated getting the Bosch before and, here in Canada, it’s regular price is about $99 but can be found on sale for closer to $70. I assume it’s cheaper still stateside.
I appreciate that ~50% more lumens from the Makita would be appreciably brighter, but I figured the Bosch has been around for quite a while and newer LED tech probably makes the brighter light less expensive to make than it would have been when the Bosch came out. Bosch also doesn’t have an AC plug but it looks to be significantly smaller too.
Also, I didn’t realize Bosch made two versions of that light. Weird. Just a thought, you might want to investigate whether the 300 extra lumens from the imported Bosch light is worth the expense – my understanding from lurking on flashlight forums is that it takes a pretty substantial lumen increase to be noticeable at those levels.
Jared
Ha! Just after posting my reply, I checked the price of the Bosch light at my local Rona – it was on clearance for $49, one unit left in stock. I snapped that up right quick. Thanks for the prompt Robert.
Robert
Noice!
It was by accident that I made a reply to your comment, but it looks like it was fate. ?
Koko The Talking Ape
I was just about to ask about that base. Why is it so big? It gives way more clearance under the light than seems necessary.
Jehremy
If you plug the AC cord in while a battery is installed will it simultaneously charge the battery?
Hoser
No.
Stuart
No. If that were a feature they would explicitly mention it.
Corbin Dallas
That jumped to my mind too – that should have been a ‘duh’ feature thats available on so many lights or stereos or similar tools that have both a battery and AC option. What a missed opportunity.
Hoser
I really like the base and folding handle which helps cut down on the height when transporting it. The only thing I don’t like is the multiple LEDs that it uses. That just makes me think of cheap led flashlights from many years ago that touted how bright they were because of all of the LEDs, but really they weren’t bright at all. I’m sure they’re high quality LEDs, but it just gives it a cheap look to me. That being said, it still looks like a solid light.
Lance
Let me start by saying I have a lot of cordless LED lights and flashlights.
The 18V Makita DML801 is, by far, my favorite light. It uses either 12 or 6 LEDs depending whether it’s on high or low mode. To be honest, I never considered a light with multiple LEDs to be worse than one with a single larger LED. If anything, the light is spread out more and shadows are less harsh when working close to the light.
Milwaukee’s M12 stick light is also a nice light, and it uses three LEDs in a textured silver reflector (and so does the M18 version, I think). Come to think of it, most of my LED lights have multiple LEDs. Only flashlights and searchlights typically have a single point light source.
Koko The Talking Ape
Having multiple LEDs says nothing about the quality or intensity of the light, other than more LEDs makes for a slightly more diffuse light, with shadows that are less harsh and sharp. More LEDs may be slightly easier to cool than fewer, more powerful LEDs, because they allow more heatsink material and air around them.
Those old marketing claims were nonsense. Doesn’t mean that this Makita light is bad (or good.)
Wayne R.
An advantage of LED arrays (even “small single” LEDs can be arrays) is that, in case of a failure, you might not even notice it. A single/small BMF LED has heat dissipation issues, too, leading to bigger, heavier heat sinks, and if that one LED smokes, you’re stuck.
But I get it too: Those cheapie flashlights with a buncha separate components have tainted things…
James
It’s good to see Makita’s new lights already rolling out, though I really want to see specs on the 10,000 lumen version (DML809) and the new wobble lights coming early 2020. I’m hopeful these will address one of the primary weaknesses in the LXT system (imo).
Nathan
SO having the Dewalt DCL61 (I think) that is the 1500 lumen corded or cordless light.
I wish mine had a tripod mount.
I like the makita device up to one point. for 175dollars it should charge the battery if plugged in. IE for that money and if using a cord – you should be able to charge a battery with it.
Drop the price to 70ish and it makes more sense as is. Still good looking device.
TonyT
$70 would be Ryobi pricing, for a significantly better light
Nathan
I think I paid 70 for my Dewalt granted it’s only 1500 lumen but my point here is for that dollars it should also charge the battery. Even if only slowly.
DannyK
An auto rewind for the cable would be a nice feature for a cordless light. And a charger. At this price-point $150-$200, would be so bad to add $25 for the additional features?
Bremon
Charger adds needless expense, and most people have piles of chargers lying around.
DannyK
exactly. Time to get rid of those pesky chargers.
Hoser
Ok, so you get rid of all your “pesky” chargers. Now you need to take your work light with you everywhere so you can charge batteries? And most pros have multiple chargers set up and charging at the same time, now I need three led work lights at $175 apiece taking up lots of floor space and outlets?? Or maybe everything should charge? Let’s put cords on all our cordless tools so they can charge while we’re using them. Progressive thinking. . . . .
Wayne R.
Excellent point. Maybe they should add lights to chargers?
It’s really (in my mind anyway) that, if it’s got a cord *and a battery cradle*, maybe it could charge too? This light’s got two functions (sorta, AC or battery) – why are so many chargers single function?
DannyK
Or you know, you lend your light to a co-worker/wife/neighbor/friend who doesn’t have a Makita charger and you need your charger for your other tools. I mean, why are we even talk about this. You don’t like. I like it. Some people are willing to pay more for convenience. You don’t. That’s fine. Although I’m amused by a row of lights charging battery, while we play football/baseball at a jobsite at dusk.
Evadman
That AC cord plug appears to be a standard unpolarized plug on the side that plugs into the back of the light. That’s a great feature because it means a replacement line can be picked up almost anywhere instead of having to order a replacement from Makita and waiting forever.
bj
I have the DML805 (what a joke) and felt the cord/wrap was sloppy, added weight, and hindered maneuverability. Since I rarely plugged the light in and I have a bunch of computer power cables, I purchased an IEC C14 plug, cut the cable short and replaced the cord on the Makita.
It’s about dang time Makita came out with competitive lighting. Better late than never, I suppose.
MyFortressConstruction
What I would like to see from Milwaukee or DeWalt is a tripod light with 3-4 heads that plug/clip onto the mast to be used as a standard tripod light, but then can be unclipped and used as individual lights for short amounts of time (1000-2000 lumens per individual light while plugged in, dropping down to 500 lumens and lasting around 2 hours when unplugged). The tripod will have a place for a high capacity battery or extension cord.
The light would basically be charging the individual batteries contained within each unit. Obviously, the electrical connections would have to be simplified past what I am saying in order for it not to be more than $300 per light, but I think this would be a fairly easy product to sell because I’m constantly using my cellphone as a light source because I don’t remember to bring in one of the smaller lights, not to mention I wouldn’t need an additional battery just to crawl into an attic.