Milwaukee has soft-announced a new M18 and M12 Gangbox Rapid Charger, 49-59-1804, which features a magnetic base and cleat for quick installation to steel job boxes commonly used at commercial jobsites.
The new Milwaukee GangBox Rapid Charger features 4x M18 charging bays and 2x M12 charging bays. It can charge 2 batteries simultaneously.
The charger features 6 battery slots (4x M18, 2x M12), but only 4 can be populated at the same time. This was presumably done to increase versatility while saving space.
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Thee charger also features 2x USB-C 15W charging ports for charging small devices and personal electronics.
Larger boxes can accommodate multiple chargers side by side.
It also features a 450 lumen flood light for illuminating the storage space.
The mounting system (magnetic and cleat) allows for some flexibility. Here, two of the chargers are shown mounted to the bottom of a job box shelf.
Price: TBA
ETA: Q3 2025
Discussion
I have absolutely no use for a charger like this, but I like the design. There’s a compromise in the “hybrid” battery slots, in how use of the M12 slots block the two inner M18 slots, but that helps to keep everything compact and accessible.
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It’s undoubtedly going to be a bit pricey, but this isn’t consumer product territory, it’s commercial “someone else is paying for it” gear that could save time and effort in a team work environment.
I’m guessing that maybe Milwaukee went with 2-channel rapid charging, as opposed to super charging, to keep thermal buildup low.
I’m also thinking that the magnet must be substantial, to be able to hold the charger with up to 4x M18 12Ah batteries, and resist wiggling around when batteries are being inserted or removed.
A Q3 availability estimate means it’s expected to launch between July and September, at the earliest.
fred
We had a batch of Knaack brand boxes that we used to try to secure tools when we were working on larger jobsites with other contractors. We’d often chain the boxes up – tack weld 2 or more together, bolt them down or attach them to our shanty to help prevent overnight theft.
In any event this product sounds interesting – and I will alert my ex-compatriots to watch for its release. Thanks for the heads-up.
JR Ramos
These days powerful cordless grinders would make quick work of that. And one of these days someone (probably Skil) will come out with a cordless plasma cutter.
Hang ’em high, boys. The highest crane you have.
fred
I had an experience where a contractor left his Mercedes inside a double-fenced jobsite – thinking it would be secure during off-hours visit to a theater and then after-party. To his chagrin – he found the tower crane on the site had apparently been used to lift the vehicle over and out onto a flatbed truck. It was an age before cordless grinders and ubiquitous surveillance cameras – but we heard later on that the police did make an arrest of one or more of the “inside-job” culprits.
We figured that most of our security measures might act to dissuade generally honest folks from becoming light-fingered – but would only be a minor inconvenience for dedicated thieves.
Bonnie
The latter paragraph sums up basically all physical security. Locks deter neighborly snooping and opportunists, but very little will practically stop a dedicated thief.
My family has almost no photographs beyond a certain time because in the 90s they were stored at one persons house, and a group of thieves backed a box truck through the front door and just grabbed everything inside.
Bob
I wonder how the “charge 2 batteries simultaneously” works. Will it charge two, and then charge the other two? Something else?
Stuart
That’s *usually* how it works. I’d assume left and right are independent channels. Once the first batteries are charged, it switches to the others. If accurate, you’d want to be mindful of how you slot your batteries.
Adam
I know it was never the intended use of these chargers, but it would be nice to see 45w USB-C charging on these devices. One less brick to carry around to charge a phone at adequate speed, or power a laptop.
Lance
Agreed! Milwaukee and others have already started offering USB rechargeable devices. It won’t be long before they’re offering powerful USB charging on M12 batteries, and maybe their USB batteries as well.
15W ports makes this thing nearly obsolete before launch… a shame as I’m sure this charger will be an expensive device.
Stuart
I doubt they’re going to add built-in USB charging to M12 or M18 batteries.
Look at Skil’s USB-chargeable batteries – they’re considerably larger and they charge very slowly, and it presumably adds to the price of every battery.
As for 15W, USB-C power delivery specs limit 5V to 3A (15W max power). They’d have to step up to 9V or 15V output to increase the wattage.
A 45W/65W/100W USB-C PD charger could be convenient, but do we need that on every battery charging product?
mark w
All these fast charging systems still aren’t good for the batteries either. I know the tech changes over time with these batteries but my wife & I have always bought our phones together last 10 or so years. I use usb-a ports & cords to charge or if I’m using faster charge ring I unplug as soon as I get 100%. I never leave it on a charger, never let it get hot & then charge it before it cools down, etc. my wife does none of that & her battery life declines maybe 25-40% before mine. My mom plugs her phone in and runs gps up on her car dash WHILE IT CHARGES. And it cooks her battery being in the sun, running a demanding app, & charging the battery at the same time. 1-2 years into ownership she’s always like “my battery never lasts idk”
Nathan
That’s more a failure of device design than an inherent issue with battery constraints.
There are plenty of devices that have battery bypass built in, you can even find certain cellphones that implement it. Similarly, devices can request different power profiles to best extend battery life when charging and to minimize charging when its full.
Manufacturers don’t implement it because they’re not forced by regulation/law.
Cameron
The M12 blocking the M18 design, is definitely flawed, there maybe some intention being it, but most people will use this to store and charge, & I’m going to fill all slots if I can. The little bench light is a nice touch though, a type C 65w would also be a nice addition for a laptop or tablet.
Stuart
I think the alternative would have been to not have any M12 slots.
MM
There are ways they could have resolved that. One option would be to put the M12 sockets at the front, where the light is currently located. The light could then be reloaded under the M12 sockets where the big Milwaukee logo is currently.
Stuart
Certain mounting conditions would have gravity acting on the battery. I can’t think of any cordless power tool battery charger that has a battery attached in such a manner – they typically slide down or are connected sideways.
I’ll be sure to ask about this once more detailed announcements are made.
MM
What I was suggesting would have gravity act on the battery exactly like it does in its current configuration. If that was unacceptable for some reason they could easily have the batteries load from the top.
Stuart
What you’re calling the front could be the bottom when magnetically mounted underneath a shelf. Maybe there were other factors involved.
EE_Guy
I agree there would be ways to resolve this. Some options seem so obvious, it makes me wonder if this was done on purpose. Maybe there’s an electrical reason why they don’t want an M12 and M18 at the same time.
mark w
With the fact that only one battery on each side of the thing charges at a time idk, it’s kind of a moot point. Not like you could charge all 3 at once anyways so at least it’s more flexible
Matt_T
In addition to the gang box market some mechanics will probably buy this to stick in the top of toolbox hutches.
S
I’m definitely interested in it for that purpose.
But the part about choosing between an 18v or 12v lack for the inside row is a huge drawback.
Fair warning. I had been extremely interested in their 6 pack 18v+12v combo charger, but knew a few people with it, all of which had problems with a random port going out on the charger itself. So I usually stick to multiples of the stock dual-port 18/12 charger for reliability reasons.
James
So…..mine did this, and continues to occasionally knock out a port. However, cycling the power (unplug for 10 seconds) does some sort of reset. It’s a PITA but I’ve put the plug in a handier location where it lives in the van, and we just deal with it. FYI if helpful..
Also Stuart, the portrait to landscape text deletion seems to be a Chrome thing. The browser refreshes when the screen orientation changes.. Found lots about it, but no way to resolve yet, and it also seems intermittent so no clue. Sorry the weekend happened and I never got around to responding.
Stuart
I still haven’t been able to replicate it. The site is programmed to auto-adjust between views without reloading the page, and I haven’t seen Chrome do this on my iOS devices. Could it be a setting or similar that you could deactivate?
In a search I’m finding complaints about sites with auto-refreshing ads causing problems, but I don’t do that here. (It’s one of the most annoying modern practice, even more so than sites that break or hijack back button functionality.)
James
Test test…
Didn’t happen this time. I’m boggled. I did a deep dive on settings and Reddit etc on Friday and didn’t find anything that worked, but I did reset my iPhone 15 (for reference, not flex 😆)this morning. Maybe that’s it? 🤷🏼♂️
I’ll update if I see it happen again, and try to capture any data (specific ads on page, cycle of the moon, color of my shirt, etc :))
Jeff
I would have loved to have had this last year. Perfect for the job box I was working out of for six months.
Rog
I understand *why* the blocked ports are the way they are, but I imagine with a V2 they’ll be able to figure out a more elegant solution
Sam
In my garage I just have a bunch of chargers hooked up to a surge protector. Since most tool combos come with a charger it seems like this would be redundant. Plus I can charge 6 batteries simultaneously. The chargers don’t usually draw that much power. That being said if you are a GC with a gangbox I get the use in this.
SamR
This thing reminds me of Apple Mouse and how it gets charged.
The problem is that Milwaukee customers are not like Apple customers, meaning they won’t tolerate this flawed design, which will, in return, make it sit on the shelves for quite some time.