I recently enjoyed a long phone call with Milwaukee Tool’s charging tech product manager, with the goal of learning much more about the brand’s next-gen technologies.
At Pipeline 2024 – I’ll link to the recap at the end of this post – Milwaukee Tool announced several new charging products, including a new dual-mode Packout-compatible 6-port M18 battery charger, mountable dual port SuperCharger with Cool-Cycle, and a Power Manager.
We talked about all of these new charging products. I learned more about how they worked, and also about the design intent.
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For me, the biggest takeaway about the 6-port charger is that it was transported tested to ensure it can withstand being jostled around while being mounted in a truck, van, or trailer.
Apparently it takes additional engineering – inside the charger and in regard to the battery connection – to ensure consistent and reliable operation when taking things like highway speeds and potholes into consideration.
The M18 6-port charger is daisy-chainable, and was designed such that you can have up to 4 units charging up to 24 batteries on a single 15A circuit. With each charger capable of recharging 2 batteries simultaneously, that allows for up to 8 batteries to be charged at the same time.
When switching from Rapid charging daytime mode to night mode, you can have up to 10 chargers on a single circuit recharging up to 60 batteries. This is because the charging rate is throttled down in the user-selectable night mode.
Similar was said about the mountable dual port Cool-Cycle SuperCharger, and it was suggested that additional engineering work was done to ensure this version is optimized for mounted use inside a moving vehicle.
I learned a lot more about the Power Manager, which will be available in 2 versions – 15A and 20A, to match users’ intended usage environments and applications.
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While the Power Manager might look like a power strip, there’s a lot going on beneath the surface.
As with the mounted charging components, the Power Manager was designed for use in mixed environments, including vehicles such as a landscaping trailer.
The goal of the Power Manager is to maximize the user’s electric infrastructure via circuit maximization, with many of its features seemingly intended to eliminate user frustrations and hassles.
Let’s say you connect an array of chargers that would otherwise trip a 15A circuit breaker. The Power Manager offers dynamic charging; it will activate the maximum number of any combination of chargers and will turn off any outlet if a power spike is detected.
The Power Manager lets users combine charging systems and create custom setups without having to do any complex power utilization calculations, all while avoiding tripping electrical circuit breakers.
On a circuit with other loads, the utilization percentage can be dialed down by the user, with the selection being saved to the Power Manager’s built-in memory.
It’s a pricey piece of kit, but one that will stretch how many chargers you can use on a single circuit.
There’s a lot of intelligence within the Power Manager, and many of the electrical components, such as the relays that control each outlet, have been selected and tested to deliver high cycle life at high amperage loads.
I have come to really like the idea of the Power Manager, especially since it doesn’t care what’s connected. It assumes that chargers are connected, and maximizes the number of outlets that are powered at any time (while avoiding tripping any breakers). But, it doesn’t care what’s charging, let alone the brand.
It’s not suited for all users, but might prove to be an indispensable problem-solver for others, and potentially one that avoids the need for costly electrical infrastructure upgrades.
All of the new charging tech is expected to launch in Q1 2025.
Also Read:
Every New Tool Milwaukee Announced at Pipeline 2024
New Milwaukee M18 Packout-Compatible Charger is a Huge Improvement
Farkleberry
I imagine all modern rapid chargers use fans to move air through channels in the batteries. Is the “cool cycle” an evolutionary change?
This reminds me of an earlier discussion about battery heating and cooling. Couldn’t high draw and especially larger tools utilize an onboard fan to cool batteries during use? I would expect Milwaukee, with their always competitive power levels but 18v motor efficiency limitations could benefit.
Does the power manager have an app to set priorities, etc.?
Did they give a ballpark price for the power manager, and is anyone aware of any similar products?
Farkleberry
Also, any mention of an EV corded power manager on the horizon?
Stuart
The Super Charger with Cool Cycle is – in my opinion – indeed an evolutionary change.
Milwaukee is not the first to have a charger actively cool a battery during charger. From a couple of conversations, they are confident that their design is superior to others.
Their tabless Forge batteries – M18 8Ah and 12Ah and also MX Fuel – were designed for higher amounts of airflow around each cell, to help with cooling.
When paired with the Cool Cycle Super Charger, the Forge batteries can be quickly cooled and charged, for fast turnaround.
As per my notes, meaning don’t hold the numbers as absolute:
Forge 12Ah: 45 min turnaround
High Output 12Ah: 120 min turnaround
AND, compared to the HO battery, the Forge is cooler straight off the charger.
According to my notes, the Super Charger brings a hot Forge battery down to cooler charging temp in 120 seconds.
There is no app. Personally, I think that if there’s demand for it, maybe a One-Key version could be available down the road. Each outlet is electronically monitored and controlled. There’s definitely the potential for app integration.
The pricing I have (from my Pipeline post) is $499 for 15A and $599 for 20A.
s
so there’s separate 15A and 20A models available.
what happens when the 20A model is connected via a 15A breaker?
is there intelligent charger throttling, or is it all user-defined charger throttling to prevent the breaker from tripping?
there’s also plenty of use cases where the person initially setting up the charger might be sure that it’s on a dedicated and appropriately sized circuit, but then another trade will show up, see an available outlet, and start running their equipment off of it as well…
and there’s also just as many cases, especially in remodeling, that exact breaker sizes and available load capability are entirely unknown.
Stuart
I expect that its plug would be NEMA 5-20P or similar.
Let’s say you plug the device into a circuit where there’s already a load, and this causes a breaker to trip. You can decrease the utilization, and it will remember the setting and avoid further breaker trips.
Let’s say you have 8x 1A loads and 2x 8A loads. As I understand it, the Manager will activate the 8x 1A loads. Assuming they all finish charging at the same exact time, it will then activate the 8A loads, one by one.
If a charger draws say 500W, the Manager will deliver 500W. The intelligence is in determining which loads to activate. It is programmed to maximize the number of powered devices, and will then deactivate and activate outlets to ensure everything is charged.
If the Power Manager is at full load and another device is plugged into an outlet connected to the same circuit such that the total load would trip a breaker, it’s going to trip a breaker. A sole user can dial down the utilization setting of the Power Manager, to accommodate use with circuits already under partial load.
If someone else adds a load to the same circuit, meaning a building outlet or similar, that’s upstream from the device and beyond its control or monitoring.
Robert
Stuart, you seem to have contradictory information about the Power Manager.
“ Let’s say you connect an array of chargers that would otherwise trip a 15A circuit breaker. The Power Manager offers dynamic charging; it will activate the maximum number of any combination of chargers and will turn off any outlet if a power spike is detected.”
The implication is that the Power Manager does magic to prevent tripping the circuit breaker.
But in this reply to “s”, you said:
“ If the Power Manager is at full load and another device is plugged into an outlet connected to the same circuit such that the total load would trip a breaker, it’s going to trip a breaker”
It seems the same scenario, but you are giving different outcomes.
Stuart
The main discussion is about devices plugged into the Power Manager.
I interpret S to be asking about devices being connected to wall outlets upstream or maybe downstream from an AC outlet on the same circuit.
As I said: “ If someone else adds a load to the same circuit, meaning a building outlet or similar, that’s upstream from the device and beyond its control or monitoring.”
In a sense, if you do that, it’s technically not the Power Manager tripping a breaker, but other devices adding excessive load to the same AC circuit.
You can adjust the Power Manager if it trips a breaker when connected to a circuit with pre-existing constant or predictable load.
But there’s nothing you can do if everything is working fine and a coworker adds an unaccounted load to the same circuit, tripping the breaker.
The Power Manager manages devices connected directly to it. Users must manage devices that are subsequently added to the same AC circuit so as to not trip the breaker. I don’t see how this is contradictory.
Farkleberry
I would imagine if they’re that sophisticated and programmable, there is a setting to limit the 20 amp to 15 amp.
Worst case scenario, the breaker trips, right?
Stuart
Both can be set to reduce power utilization. But in the case of 15A/20A, I would assume that the 15A model can be plugged into a 20A receptacle, but as usual with AC devices, a 20A plug cannot be plugged into a 15A receptacle.
Farkleberry
Right, thanks.
Just wondering how all the programming and any prioritization works. The interface on the front looks pretty simple.
Farkleberry
I found a close up pic elsewhere and it just looks like it’s labelled power at top, with a number line at zero to 100 and 7 lights for power levels. There’s a left and right arrow button on each side.
I’m wondering if this is like many multi cell battery chargers where you scroll through the cells to find charge rate, etc.
In this case maybe there is no prioritization, sequential charging, etc.?
Do you just plug everything in and the charger splits the current equally between devices, unless you can maybe adjust each outlet?
I’m wondering if this would work well with chargers that need a minimum current, especially for fans, displays, etc.?
I don’t know what current a typical tool battery charger needs, but 12 outlets could eat up a lot of 15-20 amps if they’re all always on at once.
Farkleberry
Sorry, just read your reply about sequence. Maybe the initial sequence is set by order their plugged in? That’s pretty impressive if it can detect the loads and prioritize, monitor, remember, etc.
Is the overall power utilization the only adjustable part, and the charger somehow monitors what each device wants, and makes decisions according to some preset algorithm?
In your example, wondering if there’s a typo at end: “…activate the 1A (8A?) loads, one by one”?
Anyway, if I understand, in your example, it would be nice if the charger could charge the first 8A along with 4 of the 1A, then do the second 8A and remaining 4 1A.
Looking forward to hearing more about these in future.
Stuart
I didn’t think of asking this until after the call, but I would assume there is a start-up sequence where it activates the outlets one at a time to measure current draw, and then it prioritizes to maximize the number of activated outlets.
Let’s say that you have 10x 1.2A loads and 2x 4A loads. As I understand it, the Manager will enable the outlets for the 1.2A loads before switching to the 4A loads.
What if you want the 4A loads prioritized? There could be ways to do this, such as by using power strips for the 1.2A loads. If you split them into 2 surge protector-type power strips, you might then get 2x 6A loads. The 4A loads should then be given priority, after which the coupled 1.2A loads will be activated.
Again, that’s how I understand it. The actual operation might be a little different.
If you want to power an 8A charger, device, or daisy chain (that’s actually a lot of power), you could potentially set a lower max utilization for the Manager and then plug your smaller loads into a wall outlet, although that kind of defeats the purpose.
(thanks, fixed the error!)
Ben
This is a really cool ecosystem. I don’t have the need for something that sophisticated as a DIYer but a single 6 port charger (as I have had for my Ryobi gear for years) will save a lot of clutter in the Milwaukee stack. Hopefully they roll one out for the Milwaukee 12v system as well and my shed will be much happier!
Stuart
They have a 6-port Rapid Charger with 3x M18 and 3x M12 ports, and also an M12-only 4-port charger, 48-59-1204. If you look closely, the 4-port charger is tied into the Power Manager display shown in the topmost image.
JoeM
Okay. You can mark it in the Calendars. This is the day, and the item, that I use as proof that DeWALT Cannot Compete with. They won’t do this, I know it, Milwaukee users know it, I, a DeWALT Fanboy/Devotee acknowledges the win for Team Red on this, with no shame.
I can’t say it emphatically enough without the addition of foul language, even in the positive context. Milwaukee utterly dominated DeWALT on this setup item. In fact, I bet they built enough intelligence into that Power Manager to detect other brands’ chargers, and is smart enough to activate or deactivate those entire chargers from that socket they are plugged into, as batteries of other systems charge up to full. With Night Mode, since I’ve never heard of any other brand having a slower mode of charging, I would imagine that Night Mode would fully de-activate non-Milwaukee chargers, which is incredibly smart. The DeWALT DCB104 4-port charger may be very capable of charging at 8 Amps per port, but with no way to remotely control that, it would make sense to shut it off completely when in Night Mode. Plus, I don’t see DeWALT making a version 2.0 of the DCB104 any time soon, upgrading it to the same kind of daisy-chaining system.
Congratulations Milwaukee! You locked in an instance where a die-hard DeWALT user would recommend a Milwaukee system exclusively!