Milwaukee announced many new cordless power tools and technologies at their recent Pipeline media event, and they made sure that this new Packout-compatible 6-port Rapid Charger was hard to miss.
This display – a free-standing plywood-backed wall – featured two rows of Packout wall plates, 10 chargers, and 60 M18 Forge batteries.
All of the chargers are daisy-chained together, allowing all 60 batteries to be recharged from just 1 electrical outlet.
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This isn’t Milwaukee’s first 6-port charger.
Milwaukee launched their M18 Six-Pack 6-port charger around 14 years ago, and it had a pass-thru plug that allowed other tools or chargers to be connected to the same outlet. It could only charge one battery at a time, but it was compact and one could charge 6 batteries overnight.
Around 2 years ago, Milwaukee came out with an M18 6-port Packout-compatible Rapid Charger that could charge two batteries simultaneously. I found this model much better suited for recharging Milwaukee’s higher capacity cordless power tool batteries.
The new charger, 48-59-1817, has 2 operating modes – “rapid daytime” and “overnight.” While I’m also interested in the new form factor and Packout compatibility, the new charging modes are the main highlight.
It can recharge two batteries simultaneously when in daytime charging mode. In overnight charging mode, you can connected up to 10 chargers together to recharge up to 60 M18 batteries on a single electrical circuit.
I forgot to ask whether the charging rate changes as well, but I expect for more details to be available and more conversations to take place closer to the charger’s launch.
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I really think that the two modes greatly add to its versatility, and this is something I have not seen in any other multi-battery chargers before.
There are benefits, whether you need to recharge a couple of Milwaukee M18 batteries, or scores of them.
The chargers can be used with any Milwaukee M18 batteries, and no – you don’t need to buy 10 of them. I think the new chargers offer plenty of convenience benefits for individual users.
Price: TBA
ETA: February 2025
Is it Really a Big Improvement?
I took this photo at Milwaukee’s Pipeline media event last year, where they had a couple of outdoor power tools and 4 Rapid Chargers connected to 4 outlets in a 20A circuit quad box, with a sign saying “Overnight.”
So with the existing Packout-compatible M18 6-port Rapid Charger, you can charge 24 batteries from 4 outlets. With the new charger, you can get another 6 chargers and 36 batteries charging from the same circuit.
The new charger trades a large top handle for a folding side handle and greater visibility of LED status lights.
Here’s a quick image showing the difference in status indicator lights, with the new Rapid Charger on the left and existing model on the right.
Some portable users might prefer the top handle of the existing model, but I think the new design is not without significant benefits, especially when mounted to Packout wall panels.
Farkleberry
That’s surprising that all of those batteries rapid charging won’t trip a breaker.
I’m no mathematician, but that looks like an $18,200 wall:
10 chargers x $300 (est.) + 60 batteries (12.0?) x $250 + 6 wall plates x $20-40 + $40 plywood.
Stuart
Sounds about right. I crunched similar numbers – close to $15K for just the batteries, $2-$3K for the chargers.
The charging rate math is a lot harder.
MFC
This is exactly what I was about to calculate! This is the crazy thing about them pushing electric for OPE. I use about 48ah worth of flexvolt batteries to weed-eat and blow off my 3/4 acre yard and driveway.
Whereas my gas weed eater uses less than a single tank of gas to do the same thing. It is not feasible for any kind of lawn professional to switch over if they aren’t some sort of specialty crew.
Most of the landscapers around here are two-three man crews and consist of a push mower, zero-turn and weed eater. They do 15+ yards a day. Since they already have to carry gas for the mowers, it doesn’t make since to buy $10k worth of batteries and chargers to run a weed eater and blower.
Battery powered hedge trimmers/chainsaws/etc. are great because they are just needed to do little bits of work and don’t require the massive amount of batteries to run.
Sorry, didn’t mean to hijack this thread, but this is where I think the amount of batteries would be needed to justify this kind of system. Of course, a pack out mounted charger is nice in and of itself, but the capability to charge 60 packs over night? That’s pointed right at OPE users, hence the display wall.
Kyle
Yards can be vastly different obviously, but 48ah for 3/4 acre of string trimming and leaf blowing seems crazy high. I have about an hour worth of string trimming to do on my property and it doesn’t even use up a single 9ah flexvolt battery.
You did mention flexvolt, which makes me wonder, is your OPE 60V? If it’s 60V your 48ah is actually 16ah when running at 60V. Obviously it’s the same amount of electricity (just discharged faster), but 48ah just doesn’t seem correct.
MFC
Yeah, I thought I should probably put a caveat in there, but I did that since Milwaukee has 18v tools, so I kept the amp hours according to what their specs would be for that wall.
And yes, it does seem like a lot of power for a single yard, but there’s a lot of weed eating to do. Since I have pipe fence around the entire perimeter and I battle Dallis and coastal grass, it’s a struggle. If it was bermuda, or kentucky, then it wouldn’t be as strenuous on the tools.
However, the fact remains that gas has 50-100x the amount of energy stored within it compared to the same sized/weight lithium cell. And the electricity still has to be charged by some means. The main issue I have is having to stop, and go back and swap out the batteries pretty often. That stoppage in work-flow is super detrimental to speed and user experience.
I am impressed you can do an hour on a single 12ah battery. My 12ah battery lasts for about 10-15 minutes (but it is running full throttle that whole time).
Steve L
Depends on the age of your info source.
Current data has lithium ion holding about 1/50 the energy of gasoline. But, gasoline engines convert about 15% of the fuel’s energy into power while electric motors are 5X efficient and convert about 75%.
Gasoline is closer to having 10x the useable power compared to lithium ion. Still an overwhelming advantage.
Kyle
Much of my “one hour of string trimming” is walking. I’m probably only pushing about 40 minutes of actual tool usage. I don’t have crazy thick brush to chop, so I can run on my Dewalt’s low setting.
Like I said, yards can be different. My yard is very open so the zero turn does most of the work. I don’t have any large inaccessible areas either, so it’s all clean up work. No heavy brush clearing.
CMF
I also have about 3/4 of an acre, but the trimming need is not all in one spot. So I walk the whole perimeter of my lot, and then the interior. All the while it is idling, I sure as heck don’t stop it and restart it every time, it would be about 25 start and stops.
As Kyle states, walking around on idle needs to be added to the gas consumption. Of course idling is low consumption versus gunning it to trim, but it easily idles 70 to 80% of the time, actual trimming is small in the big picture. My trimmer on a full tank usually won’t be enough to trim my place, most times I need a refill. And this will vary for different people and their lots.
A battery trimmer automatically starts and stops, so this also needs to be considered in the battery versus gas equation.
Stuart
I’ve got some thoughts on this too, and separated the bulk of it out for another post.
Gas blowers are being banned in an increasing number of towns and regions. It might only be a matter of time before other small-engine tools are banned.
The cost is a big obstacle that’s blocking the conversion path from gas to all-cordless for landscaping and maintenance work, but there are others. Power/performance is about on-par now, or better, so that’s no longer a big issue. Runtime is something that probably won’t change.
So converting users over, where cost is not a primary obstacle, rests on the ability for a brand to eliminate pain points and hindrances.
Mobile charging and energy storage is going to be a big part of increasing users’ convenience.
I see bits and pieces forming a bigger picture type of approach. I want to talk about that separately, as this charger also still have advantages for all kinds of everyday users.
MFC
I wait to see an in-depth post about this. I think you understand the issues and could do some calculations that I’m unwilling to run…
Stuart
There are too many numbers to factor in without making too many heavy assumptions.
I’m more seeing Milwaukee moving in a lot of directions that intersect in multiple places, including cordless OPE.
CMF
I think the banning of 2 cycle engines for OPE is for, just a question of when. Green cities and states will do this quicker (and already have done so), while other states will take a bit longer. Be it in 5 years or 10 years, they will be banned.
Of course, how battery OPE advances will also have a strong influence on when the bans happen.
TomD
I think the missing piece is a backpack MXFuel style battery with a cable or two to an M18 adapter. Then you have the runtime needed for “a job” and just need enough chargers/batteries in the truck (which now will be idling the whole time burning gas but that’s another question).
Matt
If you want to be a capitalist and run a business where you exact value from other peoples labor in the form of profits, it isnt unreasonable to expect that you actually have capital. And if you have capital, a $15K investment to be able to operate isnt that much. Unfortunately it seems like most people want to be capitalists and extract value from others people labor, without having capital themselves or making investments.
Stuart
Objectively speaking, here’s the problem:
Let’s say a landscaper has $XYZ in gas-powered tools for their crew to operate.
To convert to cordless, that landscaper has to invest $ABC in all-new cordless power tools, PLUS $DEF in batteries, chargers, and support equipment.
Are there benefits? Absolutely, such as lower noise and no fumes.
But in addition to the extra capital investment needed, there’s also added hassles tied to battery maintenance and juggling.
Worker comfort and happiness is an intangible benefit as much as inconvenience is an intangible disadvantage.
Objectively speaking, if it comes down to return on investment, it might take a long time for a landscaper to save enough on gas costs to match what’s spent on batteries. At that time, it might or might not already be time to replace the batteries. Batteries are still consumable and will have to be replaced, and that’s ignoring that there are electrical costs associated with recharging them.
Right now, converting heavy OPE users to cordless involves high cost AND the added hassle of battery maintenance.
I think the new charger helps to reduce some of the added work to keep a fleet of batteries charged.
As for the costs to convert to cordless? That’s not much that can be done about that, and it’s beyond the scope of this discussion.
There’s been a lot of pushback about converting heavy OPE landscaping crews from gas to cordless, and it has nothing to do with “capitalists” wanting to “extract value from others labor” “without making investments.”
What you said could be true for some, but as a blanket statement, that’s just wrong.
TomD
So far all the places I’ve seen that are banning the small motor tools are banning the sale of them, but I assume there’s some places that have actually banned the use of them even if you had bought them before the ban.
In the cases where they do not band the use, it gives a huge advantage of the incoming players as they already have a collection of gas tools that they can use until they finally fail.
MFC
I’m not sure how this argument is a part of the issue. I think your upset about business owners not paying their workers enough and not providing proper equipment, or something, but that’s not what this discussion is about.
The issue is that you can make a capital investment into a tool that costs $15k+ and still performs at the same level as a tool that costs $300 (plus gas).
The gas vs. battery power argument is what we are talking about. Over the life of the trimmer, will buying batteries to operate it all day outweigh the cost of the fuel and potential maintenance on a gas trimmer? Business owners need to see the value in that initial investment, and many landscapers invest heavily into a good commercial zero turn, but their trimmers/blowers aren’t worth a $15k+ investment in batteries.
I’ve heard both arguments, but the other issue is that while batteries can pencil out on paper (since charging them is cheap), mine have not been able to survive heavy and extended draw periods. An engine can operate at hundreds of degrees almost indefinitely, as long as it has lubricant. I have burned up four OPE trimmer and push mower motors just by running them for one-two hours at a time.
It’s not just the question of can we make the numbers work in our initial investment, it’s also, is the technology there to handle the heat build up and stress of that type of work. I see chainsaws, blowers, pruning saws, hedge trimmers, etc. being excellent as battery tools because they aren’t used for extended periods of time, but a trimmer or mower runs all day long for 200 days per year.
1000+ hours on a brushless motor, or a battery at high heat? I haven’t experienced any brand’s ability to do that.
Walkop
You’re not using the tools right, to be honest. We can do 1.5 acres of trimming and blowing on less than 20ah of battery pretty easily, including 2 sets of boundary fences as it’s 2 separate properties (I run a maintenance & landscape company). If we’re trying to be efficient, can cut that down a lot too.
We can run an entire day of cutting (12 hours) on ~6 batteries and a 3-Bay rapid charger fairly easily.
Jared
I don’t quite understand how this works. I assume in overnight charging, the machine charges batteries at a slower rate. When you daisy-chain other chargers though, does the first machine in line finish it’s charging before diverting power down the line?
I guess what I’m thinking is that if each charger passes some electricity through it to the next in line at all times, surely the cumulative draw of all those chargers charging at least one battery simultaneously starts to be an issue at some point.
Stuart
There’s a mode selection button on each charger to switch between “get my batteries charged as fast as possible!” and “I’m done for now, you can slow down” charging rates.
I didn’t ask questions about this at the event, and will try to get a call in with Milwaukee as it gets closer to launch. I think that the overnight mode also shuts down one of the charger’s two charging channels.
As I understand it, the chargers are not networked together. Day/Night charging modes are for each charger.
If you need to recharge 60 batteries at once, you’ll want overnight mode. If you want to recharge a couple of batteries at a time, and as fast as possible, you’ll want daytime mode.
Walkop
This is late, but I’m tired of people buying the crap that Milwaukee is putting out that these chargers are better.
*THEY’RE NOT.*
The packout charger is overpriced garbage compared to the 3-bay rapid. It’s M12/M18 compatible, costs 75% of the packout, charges 50% more batteries (3 vs 2 concurrently), and can charge M12.
Every single charger they’ve come out with since the 3 bay has had inferior performance and far more cost.
I like Packout, but don’t act like you can pull this crap and get away with it, Milwaukee. Make a real charger and don’t rip us off for inferior performance just to make it slightly more convenient.
Stuart
The Rapid Charger with 3 circuits is still available. I don’t know why the Packout couldn’t be made with 3, I’m sure there’s a reason.
I feel that this new model is a big improvement over the original Packout charger, and I also feel that it could provide greater convenience than the Rapid Charger, depending on one’s needs.
Whether you agree or not, the great thing is that there’s still the choice between SixPack sequential charger, 6-port Rapid Charger, or Packout-compatible Rapid Charger. There’s also the new SuperCharger, which has its own benefits.
Drew
Night mode probably just puts it into single battery at a time slow mode. That would mean 6A at 20V per charger or 120W, it would take 12 hours to fill a full rack of 12Ah Forge batteries, but no big deal since it’s overnight.
Frank J. Hartley
On the Milwaukee website for 48-59-1817 it states night mode does is charge at a slower rate. It’s in the pic section.
Plain+grainy
Has Milwaukee come out with a jobsite rolling solar generator yet? Packout compatible of course!
Stuart
No, but… https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/milwaukee-roll-on-power-supply-3300r/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Saulac
But…will it be a possibility in a not too far future? I would say no. Power density of the sun is too low.
John
Solar panels really only make sense as fixed installations. The amount you can easily carry around just isn’t enough even if they were somehow 100% efficient. It’s better to put them on roofs, cover parking lots, etc where there’s no shortage of space.
Plain+grainy
Nice, out of stock at Home Depot. Perhaps they are popular.
Saulac
There should be brick shape single chargers with Pack Out interface. They can be connected together to make “multi charger” similar to above. Or attached to Pack Out boxes and wall plates.
MFC
That would be expensive as singles. Easier to built a half-packout charger or full plate. You can always get single feet, or print them, and make your own…
Mr. X
I think the business model/best practice for professional level OPE electrification has not yet been determined. The high cost of batteries might be solved by some type of leasing strategy, with the lessor renewing or restoring the batteries at the end of the lease. This would mitigate the environmental impact of disposal as well. Charging costs could be offset with either portable vehicle mounted solar, or solar at the OPE user’s shop or garage. Swap out stations might appear (think propane tank exchange) where dead batteries would be exchanged for fully charged batteries. Only the market will determine if these ideas or something entirely new will impact how this process will play out.
Chris
Derek
I think commercial vs residential is different too. The landscapers who come do our neighborhood are here for 2-4 hours. It wouldn’t be outrageous for them to put in their contract they need access to an electrical outlet to charge the batteries they’re using to do work for us.
If I’m a single home owner that’s having someone come by installing an outlet where the landscapers park or having them park in my driveway would be a different story.
I think installing something like a Tesla Powerwall type battery that could be quickly recharged halfway through the day might be what is needed. You start the day with fully charged tool batteries and a fully charged Powerwall to keep the tool batteries topped up. Instead of stopping to get gas you stop for 20-30 minutes to let the Powerwall go from 10-80% to finish the day.
Stuart
Jobsite access to electrical outlets is not something landscapers or other pros servicing residential properties or equipment can expect.
There might not be any externally-accessible outlets. Outlets could be on split/shared circuits.
Cordless tools allow for more self-sufficiency.
Tesla Powerwall-type mobile battery solutions could be a direction the landscaping industry is heading if cordless OPE tools are really going to replace gas. In that type of scenario, streamlined charging solutions will still be needed, which is where these might come in.
Walkop
Again, old article, but thought my input would be valid as I run a maintenance company exclusively using Milwaukee OPE (aside from mowers).
Most people vastly overestimate charging needs, overcomplicate their setup, and also vastly underestimate power availability.
You don’t need to ask clients for power virtually ever. It’s a given that you would have access to power outside the property.
A crew of two can do a full 12hr day of maintenance with ~48ah of battery capacity and a single 3-bay charger, plugging in at larger property lots as you travel.
If you’re doing really heavy work, a second 3-bay rapid charger is plenty. That’s 6 batteries at a rapid charge rate for ~$300 in chargers. You can keep a crew going and max out the highest-output tools completely with that much power.
For a portable more reliable solution, a 200ah 12v LFP battery with an inverter can easily provide the power for an entire crew stored in a trailer. They’re cheap. As an extra, get a solar panel for the roof of an enclosed trailer, and you’re set without pretty much ever needing to plug in.
More complex solutions cost thousands with little benefit. Charging isn’t that complicated unless you make it that way. OPE battery power is already ready if you know the right setup.
Sam
Great for people that only use m18 batteries. Shite for people who use m12 aswell
Mitherial
That wall mount is visually impressive, but I’d worry about the almost-touching Forge batteries being too close to each other for cooling purposes during rapid charge mode (though was there an active cooling in these new charger bases?)
GinoG
Why does Milwaukee keep focusing mainly on their M18 lines when it come to new Packout chargers? Did they forget that they have a big M12 line of tools? Should I still be looking forward to a new M12/M18 packout rapid charger or just forget it? Now I understand that the size of the M12 line of tools and batteries is nowhere near the M18 one but is the M12 considered a “non pro or for home use” line?
Walkop
Most anti-customer and stupid decision Milwaukee has made is the packout chargers. They’re much more expensive, worse performing, and less flexible than the 3-bay rapid charger (48-59-1807).
Buy that and put cleats on it. You won’t regret it!
TJ Cornish
The M18 12.0 batteries have a significant flaw in that there is not an effective cell balancing function – a way to equalize out the manufacturing tolerance issues between cells.
As charging rate increases, what tends to happen is that the fastest cells to charge do so at a greater rate than whatever passive balancing resistors exist in the pack can handle, and the charger trips out before all cells are at voltage. This can be fixed by taking the battery apart and manually charging the weaker cells, but this isn’t a great plan at scale.
The discussions about $15,000 worth of batteries run hard and put away wet needs to include wear and tear, too.
Drew M
I refuse to buy or recommend the 3P packs until this and the thermal issue are addressed.
Walkop
Forge has a balancing circuit.
chip hershberger
I like charging batteries, like good ribs are made…low and slow.
On an avg crew size there is more theft, diminished performace ,shorter cell life…..by charging on-site,and hotswapping fewer units more often.
By charging more batteries slower at night, and after a minimum cool down period of at least 6 hrs….I haven’t suffered the losses that many tradesman have reported in red and yellow.
I have sold or given away every rapid charger ,that have come in kits.
To me a 2.5X ahr per daily use needed, is expensive …but constantly taking batteries to the brink of heat exhaustion, then plunking a hot battery on a charger and repeating the process isn’t good.
For sustained OPE mowing and trimming, the investment will have to be larger batteries like forklifts and golfcarts… where the battery is to big to remove.
The only other viable option is many, many, more small batteries are needed as shown.
Grass grows in heat,heat is always an issue when moving electricity.
A Tesla powerwall in a hot trailer, in the hot summer,charging other batteries while adding more heat and loss…isn’t a viable option IMO.
Drew M
Outlawing and banning engines “to protect the environment” only to replace it with something objectively far worse and much more expensive.
I used to prefer the red rapid chargers when I had far fewer batteries.
I think I might try to get a few of the older slow chargers for my shop charging station though, to be honest, I sort of want a red factory slow multi-charger.
Den
I don’t see these chargers for sell anywhere. Are they available for purchase?
Stuart
As mentioned in the post, it’s expected to launch early next year.
Brian
From a Packout point of view, will there ever be an M12 version?
Frank J. Hartley
FYI you can buy these now guys.