In reply to my post on the new Milwaukee M18 Rocket LED tower light, Isaiah asked: does it fit the new 12.0Ah batteries?
That’s a good question. The new M18 High Output 12.0Ah battery pack is larger than even their 9.0Ah battery pack.
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I thought it would be compatible, since the new tripod LED worklight was designed more or less alongside the 12.0Ah battery, but it was logical to double check with Milwaukee. Here’s what they said:
Yes, it does accept the new 12.0Ah battery!
They also provided me with a list of current M18 LED worklights that do not accept with the 12.0Ah battery. Some lighting products do work with the newest battery, the highest capacity battery in Milwaukee’s M18 platform at the moment, but these are the ones that don’t.
Lighting products not on the list, such as the 2151-20 site light, and the new 2131-20 Rocket tripod light, should be assumed to be compatible.
- 2122-20 Utility Bucket Light
- 2130-20 ROCKET Tower Light
- 2135-20 ROCKET LED Tower Light/Charger
- 2145-20 RADIUS LED Compact Site Light
- 2146-20 One-Key RADIUS LED Compact Site Light
- 2361-20 LED Flood Light
What if you have one of these worklights that are not compatible with the 12.0Ah battery? That’s unfortunate, right? Well…
These products are all available for free service upgrade kits which would make them perform with the 12.0 battery. Users just need to go to our eService page and search for the product they want to upgrade and request the 12.0 Service Upgrade. Shipping is totally free and turnaround is normally 7-10 business days. If they’re upgrading the 2122-20 or 2361-20 they can also request an upgrade sent to them for free which can be easily installed by the user.
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That’s unexpected, and a pretty sweet deal. I believe I heard about this offer before, but it’s really caught my attention now.
Here’s Milwaukee’s eService page.
You have to package your product, which might be hard when you’re talking about a 40″ Rocket light, and drop it off at a FedEx shipping facility, but Milwaukee will cover shipping fees both ways.
So, there you have it. The M18 12.0Ah battery will fit M18 lighting products except for those on the list above, and if you have one that’s not compatible and you want to change that, Milwaukee will update your light for free.
Just when I thought I couldn’t like Milwaukee any more, they raise my impression of them even higher.
This post was first published on 8/28/18 and updated on 2/10/21.
Ryan Jacob
I’ve heard that the miter saw benefits from the new 12.0 ah battery. I’m wondering if anyone has tried it yet and if it is really worth the money to buy one for the miter saw and how much extra power it has.
Framer joe
We have it on the Milwaukee chop saw, increase runtime yes… increase power/performance maybe 10/15%….is it worth the money on a chop saw? Depends how much money you invest in the latest technology….on the HD circ saw,yes, HD sawzall, yes….
Ian irvin
Excellent battery gives off more power just bought 2
Chris S
Almost every newer fuel tool benefits from the 6, 8, and 12AH batteries because of the better 21700 cells.
But…
It’s a terrible idea to buy just the battery alone because of the huge markup.
Find a tool that you like that comes paired with a 12AH and invest in that. You’ll generally save money in the long run for both.
Several retailers are running specials at the moment as well.
Adam
I’ve mentioned it before, but they’ll also upgrade the older models of the 0880-20 vacuum to take the newer batteries. I really should send mine in, but I use it a lot and I don’t want to be without it.
Adam
Following up, I sent my vacuum in for the upgrade, and rather than just change the battery compartment, they sent me a new upgraded model (internal hose storage, HEPA filter) vacuum for free.
That level of customer service is one of the reasons I keep buying Milwaukee tools.
Radan
Just sent mine back, and they wanted to charge $75 after trying to convince me that this vacuum won’t accept an M12 battery.
They put me through to tech support, who gave me a part number 31-15-0087 (I think it’s just a cover?) that needs to be installed. But… they still wanted $26 for that.
Perfect waste of over an hour on phone. I just told them to send it back.
Brian A
Thanks for doing the work Stu. So I assume the new M18 Radius Flood combo is compatible. Surprised that the M18 2360 Trueview Flood (Not 2361 Hex) takes the 12.
Besides the V1 wet dry vac, all the tools take the 12?
SmokedNeckbones
I sent my 2135-20, The Rocket Light with 3 heads , back and it took 10 days for them to service it, free of charge. Note when I typed in my product by the model name, 2135 it said that it was ineligible for a servicing. I had to go to manually add product and type that I wanted it to be retrofitted for the 12.0ah battery for the service request to go through. They pay for the shipping label, you would have to pay for it to be packaged , if you do not have a box for it.
Chris B.
What exactly is the incompatibility?
Stuart
The 12.0Ah battery is physically too large for the battery bay of lights designed before the battery and its geometry were conceived.
Mahalo
I want to see one of the 12Ah used on their 2735-20 just for kicks. 🙂
Brian A
I think it would have 60 days of run time.
MFC
Close, it should run for about 70 hours at a 100 lumens output on a 12ah. (216wh). Granted it must not be a very efficient design because it should theoretically last for 200+ hours as most LEDs use about 1wh per 100 lumens (1,000 lumens =10wh of draw).
Bill
I have a question regarding lithium ion batteries and long term storage, say anything greater than one month. Having read some comments on this over the past year, it seems the general consensus is that batteries stored long term should be kept around a 30-50% charge capacity and not stored at full charge long term. In fact my recent acquisition of a few EGO yard tools reflects this thinking. In reading the literature that came with my most recent purchase, it states:
*Store lithium-ion battery packs in a 30-50% charged condition.
*Every six months of storage, fully charge the battery pack.
*This battery pack is equipped with an advanced self-maintenance function. It can maintain 30% of its charge capacity automatically after it is stored over one month.
While some their statements are a little contradictory, it seems to imply that if you store a battery at 100% capacity, after 30 days the “self-maintenance function” will kick in and reduce/maintain the charge to the optimum 30-50% range.
Sounds like a good design but it begs the question, do my Dewalt and Milwaukee batteries do the same thing? Do they self maintain at the optimal 30-50% charge capacity during prolonged storage and do any other tools manufactures do this?
Lance
To my knowledge, Ego is the only battery platform that does this.
Nathan
Yes with nearly every Li based battery there is a minor issue with storing them long term. If stored at 100% they drop down while sitting on a shelf. All batteries do this to some degree but Li batteries will drop faster. The key here is that it also degrades the recharge cycles the battery can tollerate.
LIkewise keeping a battery at 20% on the shelf is bad because it could drop down below 10% witout draw. This also degrades the recharging cycles the batter can have. PUt another way battery has 1000 recharge cycles when new, you eat up 5 or so of them ever storage.
There was talk that one of the tool company charges had a Mx charge setting but I forget now which it was. I don’t think it was ever followed up with. Because the tool batteries in normal use – are cycled fairly quickly (less than a week). The larger the battery the bigger the issue becomes. like in the case of an 56V and 8AH like battery. Electric cars and other industrial devices have monitors for this sort of thing.
Tom D
Just got a 2146-20 and it didn’t fit my 12ah (nearest battery available to test) and it took me a few times banging before I remember this.
Online service setup was simple and now it’s on its way back.
KG
It’s not clear to me what the update is here
Jim Felt
Not all existing tools/lights are backward compatible with the Milwaukee 18V 12 Ah battery. Milwaukee is offering to upgrade for free those tools that can be so updated.
I’ve had Bosch do this too. So this is a very good Milwaukee customer service move.
Stuart
It’s less of an update than a “this is relevant and needs to be republished, but first let me take another look at it and make some small changes” situation.
I’ve been trying to come up with language other than ” republished” for posts that are revisited at a later time and “update” seems fitting. Maybe revisited would be more appropriate, but that suggests a follow-up rather than update and republished.
Tom D
I’d put your italic text about the edit/update at the top.
MFC
Funny. I just shipped off two 2146-20s and got a notification today that they were “being assessed”. And just this very minute got a notification that they’re being shipped back, so pretty quick turnaround (shipped it on the 5th so 5 days to get there and now probably about the same to turn around). They were older models that came from Ohio power tool so they needed to be upgraded to fit 12ahs. Kind of annoying to have to send them off for a week or two, but it is nice that Milwaukee takes care of shipping and the upgrade kit. Other companies would charge you for them.
Dan
Not to bash Milwaukee as I have MANY of thier products on my personal shelves 🙂
But my employer went through an upgrade process and it was difficult. We actually had to contact a local rep to get things straight, which included not having to pay for shipping as your not supposed to have to.
Example was the tower light. Just as another poster stated, you had to enter the information differently. Seems Milwaukee’s front support team really has thier info mixed up.
Another issue is with their warranty/repair. Make sure that if you send your product in and use your original purchased box/carton, that you make a note of some sort on the box with a marker. Milwaukee evidently gets a ton of repair requests and denied one of our tower light (but was clearly within the warranty period), They sent the unit back in someone elses box, so it didn’t match our units serial code.
Again, our local Rep was of a Big Help.
Rick
I just did the upgrade via their eService Tool Repair. Their is still a checkbox for the M18 12 volt battery upgrade. I used that and got an email that siad the tool was not under warranty. It was going to cost me $180 for the upgrade or $10+ to have it shipped back unrepaired. I chose ship it back. Nothing happened so after a couple of weeks I called Milwuakee and got someone on the phone in <5 minutes. I told her I thought the upgrade should be free. She agreed and was unsure what happened but said she would take care of it. I got another email back last week that said the repair was under review. Today I recieved a brand new 2131-20 Rocket Light with 12 volt battery compartment and dual power that was free (they called it a "Goodwill replacement"). Bravo Milwaukee!! Fan for life!
Tran
Is this program still available? My 9.0 batteries are dying and barely hold a charge. Shop manager bought some 12.0 Ah to replace the 9.0 (discontinued) and doesn’t fit my tool. Wasn’t an option on the eservice website and the customer service rep I called said she never heard of this service.
Richard
Was this upgraded retrofit only covered for products that are still under warranty?
I own the 2130-20 M18 Trueview LED Stand Light which is no longer under warranty. I would like to be able to use the new forge batteries I just purchased. 🙁
Stuart
Contact them and ask. If you encounter any problems, let me know (via comment, email, DM, etc) and I’ll press for clarity.
I asked corporate about something similar in the past, and was told they’ll take care of the customer. I’m optimistic they’ll help you out.