Jeremiah wrote in with a tip that Milwaukee has come out with a new M12 LED flashlight. I followed his link, and sure enough, there was a new Milwaukee flashlight.
The new Milwaukee M12 flashlight, model 2355-20, looks almost like an hourglass, with its emitter module, which houses a large reflector and lens, its M12 battery compartment, and narrow handle grip.
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I’m finding it a little hard to imagine how this would feel in-hand. It’s shown without a battery pack, and according to the product description it’s 9″ long and 2.5″ wide (presumably at its widest).
The housing is made from 6000 series aluminum, with a Type II anodized finish. The LED flashlight can deliver 800 lumens of light. Is this a flashlight, or a light cannon? Luckily, there are multiple light output settings: low, high, and strobe.
Sliding the flashlight’s head allows you to switch from flood illumination, to spotlight mode.
The new M12 LED high performance flashlight establishes a new benchmark for 12 V flashlights, bringing new levels of versatility, performance and durability to the industry.
Runtime with an M12 XC 4.0Ah battery:
- High mode (800 lumens): 5 hours
- Low mode (325 lumens): 7 hours
- Strobe mode (800 lumens): 7 hours
Price: $99 (bare flashlight, no battery)
ETA: May 2016
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First Thoughts
On one hand, wow, just WOW. On the other hand, is the Milwaukee 2355-20 too much flashlight?
Then again, I doubted the benefits of Dewalt’s LED spotlight, and then was surprised by its usefulness. Truth be told, it’s become my most-used LED flashlight or worklight these days. Part of the reason is because I hadn’t unpacked my others yet, but it is an incredibly versatile lighting tool, despite my initial doubts.
And so perhaps I shouldn’t consider the lumen rating of Milwaukee’s new LED flashlight, and should instead trust that Milwaukee’s engineers know what they’re doing.
I initially thought that the new M12 flashlight was designed to be paired with a compact M12 battery pack, but the runtime ratings are for Milwaukee’s extended capacity packs. You know the kind, with the larger bottoms.
A 2D or 3D Maglite has a barrel diameter of 1-9/16″, and head diameter of 2.25″. If this new Milwaukee M12 LED flashlight is indeed 2.5″ wide, than that narrow area will likely be the main grip.
The rear section is also knurled, suggesting that maybe the flashlight is designed such that your thumb and forefinger cradle the narrow grip section, with the rear section in the palm of your hand.
I think that this will be a “try before you buy” type of flashlight or worklight.
I imagine that, with all things, some will love the design, others will hate it. But here’s what I’m thinking… There are plenty of flashlight and worklight choices out there, Li-ion-based and otherwise. When designing this new flashlight, how many competitors’ offerings did Milwaukee analyze? How many prototypes did they make?
I have a couple of uncertainties about this flashlight’s strange geometry, but I’ll try to remain open-minded. Let me repeat the claims taken from the product listing:
The new M12 LED high performance flashlight establishes a new benchmark for 12 V flashlights, bringing new levels of versatility, performance and durability to the industry.
I definitely want to give it a chance.
Handle geometry aside, the sliding head focusing system, M12 Li-ion battery form factor, anodized aluminum construction, and illumination power, are all desirably features.
But about that $99 price…
Thank you to Jeremiah for the heads-up!
Drew M
Looks like a 12v powered Fenix FD-40 except it gets about 1/2 the runtime that it should.
Also, Type II anodized finish is a fail. Type 3 hard anodizing or don’t even bother making it. Sure Maglite still only uses Type 2 but even CHEAP flashlights from china use Type 3 these days.
Michael Quinlan
I’m not a fan of Milwaukee’s current 12V flashlight offerings because they’re too bulky with even a 2.0Ah battery, and they’re too pricey. Additionally, the magnet on the current flashlight is too weak, and will give way at the drop of a hat. On the other hand, I really like their M18 lights, with the possible exception of the lantern.
If DeWalt’s 12V light had a uniform lighting pattern it would, without question, be my favorite.
That said, I’m currently carrying a CAT CT1000 COB light in my tool bag and really like it; it’s compact, the lighting pattern is extremely uniform, it last about 7 hours on 3 AAA batteries, the magnet is strong enough to hold it in any position, and it only cost $11 on Amazon.
I recently saw a similar COB light at Lowe’s for around $8. It’s brighter than the CAT light, but it’s also a lot bulkier, has a much shorter (claimed) run time, and has a switch that forces you to cycle through 4 different lighting modes between turning it on and off (a feature that made it a DO NOT BUY in my book).
fred
Maybe when the newness (hopefully not the anodized Type2 finish) wears off Home Depot may offer it as part of some deal – otherwise $99 seems pretty dear to me for what it is.
Milwaukee tool Steve
I believe the reason Milwaukee came out with this flashlight is for it’s looks it looks nice and sleek from the pictures and even on display in some areas, it is pretty cool and a lot brighter than you think, Milwaukee has stepped their game up for fashionable tools. making the homeowners like man I need one of those their bright looks beautifully black (instead of red and white) and it has a good feel not to mention drop it in a bucket of water it’s fine leave it the rain in snow for a week it’ll still be working. 🙂
James C
Is this a joke? Imagine how that would look with an L-shaped XC battery sticking out of it… This is a family friendly blog so I won’t elaborate.
Runtimes are stated with the XC battery pack. What would they be with the normal style pack?
Looks like two switches. I’m guessing one for on/off and the other for mode switching. I hope you don’t have to cycle past strobe mode each time you go from lie to high. Strobe, IMO, is a huge annoyance and a pretty worthless feature for the majority of users.
As others have said, type 2 annodizing isn’t going to hold up.
If people are interested in high-end flashlights, check out brands like O-Light, Fenix, and Nightcore, to name a few.
Milwaukee tool Steve
Yes an l shaped battery coming from the end is pretty weird, but if your looking for a long lasting, and very bright flashlight but still yet stylish (with the xc 2.0 smaller 12V batteries) then this is the light to get.
Drew M
It’s *only* 800lm on 3 cells in series and just 3hrs runtime on a 4000mah pack. We still have no idea what sort of regulation or stepdowns it has. The Fenix FD-40 is MUCH smaller, HA3 coated and runs for about the same time but it does step down from 1000lm to about 600lm after a few minutes for thermal reasons.
Do you actually work for Milwaukee or something or do you just guzzle the red koolaid?
Milwaukee tool Steve
I guzzle down the red koolaid i’m. actually an innovator for Triton tools but I use to be an innovator for Milwaukee.
Milwaukee tool Steve
I do construction work mostly but on my offtime is working on innovating designs in and out of tools
SteveW
James C:
I agree that cycling through the strobe to get from high to low is irritating, but I must be one of the few that use it. I work as the production manager/maintenance manager at a small manufacturing facility and when I need to get the attention of someone 80 yards away on the other side of the noisy shop floor, nothing beats the strobe from my small 2-AA Streamlight. People notice it even when facing away from my direction because the light is a tight spot and even at 100 yards the reflection of the machines, white walls, and other equipment is very evident.
Jimmie
I’m a fan of the M12 lineup but those runtimes and brightnesses seem rather poor.
By comparison, my Nitecore TM16 claims the following runtimes with four 2.6Ah cells (38.4 Watt-hr):
4000 lumens 45 minutes (direct-drive so it won’t stay at 4000 for long)
1780 lumens 2.5 hours
680 lumens 6 hours
280 lumens 16.5 hours
In reality, I have 3.4Ah cells so my runtimes are quite a bit longer.
You’re telling me that Milwaukee’s light with ~44 Watt-hr battery can only manage 7 hours at 325 lumens? That’s awful.
Perhaps Milwaukee ought to contract with a flashlight manufacturer to produce a better driver circuit.
Drew M
You won’t be able to hit 4000lm with a focusable flashlight. The optics make it hard to heatsink the LED well and you can’t really use multiple leds to hit the high outputs that the TinyMonster lights can hit.
Otherwise, I’m right there with you. Their driver circuit must be horribly inefficient.
RX9
I’m a huge Milwaukee fan, but that $99 price point is wayyyy too much.
Chris
Terrible looking light, way to high Price point and even the runtime sucks…
Eric
I always laugh at these so called flashlights. It’s really pretty pathetic what they put out and the run times they have. My olight baton s2 is the size of a roll of lifesavers and puts out nearly 1000 lumens. Being able to just drop it in my pocket and carry it all the time is a big help. It’s a very floody light, great for an area work light. It also has a magnet in the tail cap so I can stick it lots of things. There are plenty of others out there like zebra light, nightcore, thrunite, etc. If you want a bright light get one from a company that makes flashlights, not someone who makes one because they have to check a box and keep up with the other power tool companies.
Pete
I love flashlights AND I love the m12 line but for that price there are ALOT of better options for lights that are smaller and more powerful. If it was $50 i would totally pick it up. For $100 it better come with two batteries and a charger! (Remember the sale of a m12 drill and impact driver and came with two batteries AND a XC-battery AND a charger for $99)
Jerry
Does anyone actually use the strobe feature? I’d prefer a 3 mode flashlight to just have 3 output levels. Give me a max output mode, a ‘bright usable’ mode, and a ‘dim usable’ mode (for max battery life) and skip the strobe. This doesn’t strike me as a tactical or self-defense light, there is no need for a strobe. Another output level would be far more useful.
Joe G
Considering that you can get a 1300-1500 lumen flashlight from Costco for $20, I’d say the thing is nothing more than a ripoff.
Stick some Eneloop C-cells in the $20 flashlight and you have a more powerful, more flexible, cheaper, and more durable option.
Eric
If your using alkaline batteries it’s probably not anywhere close to 1500 lumens unless your using a ton of batteries in it.
Joe G
Arguable, but probably true. However, Milwaukee is lying about the output of their flashlight just as much as everybody else, so it all evens out in the end.
Eric
They could be telling the truth. With that battery pack they could easily get 800 lumens. A lot of the big flashlight manufacturers are honest about their output. It’s mainly the generic knockoffs and rebranded knockoffs like the costco light you mentioned that lie about their output.
Joe G
Out of 10.8V and ~2300mAh? I doubt it. I’m no flashlight nerd, but the sustained draw of the 3.6V cells in the M12 battery pack isn’t anything to write home about in a high-draw flashlight.
Vladislav
Round. It rolls. Failed design.
James C
It won’t roll with an XC battery pack, but then it would look a little silly.
Mik
Only 800/light cannon? My Fenix TK35 does 2000 and I still want it to be brighter 😉
MarylandUSA
Comparing this light to Fenix this, Nitecore that, or Costco the other is unfair. The fact is, the Milwaukee 2355 is the only zoom-head flashlight that gives you a high color-rendering-index (CRI) beam. Put another way, it’s the only high-CRI flashlight with a zoom head. This unique combination ought to command a premium.
Flashlight Expert
all those lights that where metioned that can do 1000 lumens and ar esingle cell, sure they can do 1000 for about 5 seconds, im not even kidding, those high end manufacturesr praised here lie about outputs. The ANSI allows them to claim crazy numbers, but after about 2-3 minutes all those lights drop below 500, unless they are large (thermal mass) and multiple cell (current output). so props to milwaukee, if 800l is sustained and does not drop, that is impressive. heck, the $400 Nitecore TM28 drops to 1000L after only 5 minutes.