Milwakee M18 Batteries.

[123hotchef]

Has anyone experience with the milwakee M18 batteries. I need a new one for my hi impact wrench. I am sure it is not performing as it should because of my batteries. It failed to loosen some wheel nuts yesterday. I was wondering if the 8AH HO or 8AH FORGE would offer it more power.

 

[Munkul]

what are you using right now? If it's a 3-4ah battery then yes, an 8ah will give it more umph.
If you're using a 5 or 6ah then I doubt it'll make that much difference.
All it really means for power output is that the voltage doesn't drop as much with the current draw, meaning more power available. This has diminishing returns.
cousin uses 5's and 6's on his impact guns and they're pretty good. He saves the 8ah for grinding and drilling.

 

[MetalMonkey]

Tools & Stuff has covered Milwaukee high output and Forge batteries, should give you a good idea of how it compares.

 

[123hotchef]

what are you using right now? If it's a 3-4ah battery then yes, an 8ah will give it more umph.
If you're using a 5 or 6ah then I doubt it'll make that much difference.
All it really means for power output is that the voltage doesn't drop as much with the current draw, meaning more power available. This has diminishing returns.
cousin uses 5's and 6's on his impact guns and they're pretty good. He saves the 8ah for grinding and drilling.

I have the 4ah and xc3.0 batteries mainly

 

[Munkul]

I have the 4ah and xc3.0 batteries mainly

what model is the wrench? is it a FUEL?
It probably would benefit from an 8ah...

 

[123hotchef]

what model is the wrench? is it a FUEL?
It probably would benefit from an 8ah...

Yes, I have a fuel mid torque and a fuel Hi torque. Maybe I will invest in the 8AH HO. My XC3 batteries are 7 years old now.

 

[bert]

My 5ah batteries have no issues undoing anything. The 2ah can't supply enough to my big gun and normally error out pretty quickly

 

[Craig-SM]

Has anyone experience with the milwakee M18 batteries. I need a new one for my hi impact wrench. I am sure it is not performing as it should because of my batteries. It failed to loosen some wheel nuts yesterday. I was wondering if the 8AH HO or 8AH FORGE would offer it more power.

Something is off as I mainly use 5ah batteries on the big Hi Torque due to the lighter weight mainly for driveshaft nuts which it spins off with ease and total overkill for wheel nuts.
Having said that I had an issue the other month with BMW wheel bolts that I could get off with the M12 Stubby so go the big Hi Torque out and ended up splitting the socket and still the bolts hadn’t moved.

 

[123hotchef]

I do not have any 5AH batteries I dont think unless they are in with my other tools but I think not. The forge batteries are megga money about £210 each! I may just go for the 8AH HO then as they are £110 each https://www.sgs-engineering.com/m18hb8-red-lithium-li-ion-battery-18v

 

[123hotchef]

Something is off as I mainly use 5ah batteries on the big Hi Torque due to the lighter weight mainly for driveshaft nuts which it spins off with ease and total overkill for wheel nuts.
Having said that I had an issue the other month with BMW wheel bolts that I could get off with the M12 Stubby so go the big Hi Torque out and ended up splitting the socket and still the bolts hadn’t moved.

Mine were lung nuts too...
Ended up going old school.

 

[Craig-SM]

It’s what I ended up doing too but also managed to break the breaker bar too. Maybe it’s the season for wheel bolts/nuts to fight back.

 

[123hotchef]

It’s what I ended up doing too but also managed to break the breaker bar too. Maybe it’s the season for wheel bolts/nuts to fight back.

it could be! or the numpty that painted the calipers the day before ugga dugged the death out of them

 

[123hotchef]

I might get 2 of these instead then.

Milwaukee M18 HB5.5 High Output Battery (1x5.5Ah)

Makita tools & accessories direct to your door with free UK mainland next day delivery on orders over £99.

www.fastfix.co.uk

 

[Trevorleach]

5.0ah batteries on the fuel 1/2 impact will undo truck (hgv) not daft pick up wheel nuts reasonably well.
But as the guns age they do like to eat batteries.
I have some older 4.0ah batteries, and they are now retired to torch/grease gun only duties.

Boss has the latest gen 3 1/2impact on 12ah batteries which would not undo the M16 bolt that my Gen1 1/2 impact failed to undo, made me smirk more than a little bit!

Decent heavy impact sockets also make a huge difference.

 

[JOEPRO]

I run all 5.0 genuine Milwaukee standard batteries and 2x high torque guns. Never had a power issue with them. But I am curious to hear of the newer generation batteries appear to increase performance further.

 

[123hotchef]

I might get 2 of these instead then.

Milwaukee M18 HB5.5 High Output Battery (1x5.5Ah)

Makita tools & accessories direct to your door with free UK mainland next day delivery on orders over £99.

www.fastfix.co.uk

These 5.5 ho are the same size as the 8 ho but have different cells that produce more power but store less

 

[Migmac]

I only run 5amps on my impacts, not failed to undo anything yet. Our workshops have started to use 12 amp batteries. Make the tools fairly heavy but do give you more oomph. The forge batteries are way to spendy for me

 

[Popcorn]

According to the video above, the new batteries use Lithium Bags instead of normal batteries.
So the cynic in me would suggest it's been done to make replacing the batteries yourself, a little more difficult......

 

[123hotchef]

no only some of the older ones had the bags, the HO and Forge are cells. I forget now I watched a few videos before deciding on the HO 5.5 and HO 8

 

[Brad93]

Buy a decent aircat for £300 and never worry about batteries or nuts that won't undo again.