Thursday, July 18, 2013
Mystery of Milwaukee M18 XC battery resolved or "Will my saw work on compact battery?!"
Recently I had to do some emergency house repair: few planks of my entrance staircase gave up under my foot after rain turned to blazing heat. I went on replaced them with Trex. I needed some new tools for this project and that how I ended up with Compact drill and Impact driver M18 kit from Milwaukee. I had to upgrade a circular saw as well and as many people who read review
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-M18-18-Volt-Lithium-Ion-6-1-2-in-Cordless-Circular-Saw-Tool-Only-2630-20/202196549#.Uege7RZHY_U
I was a bit confused. Will Milwaukee M18 circular saw work with compact batteries I got in drill/driver kit? Some people said, no, it will not even fit in. You need big, XC one. Others said that it will work just fine and indeed from outside both batteries looked about the same, with XC just a bit bigger.
I picked tool only saw in HD and my compact batteries worked just fine. I looked trough manual, but could not find anything mentioning batteries. Yes, M18 circular saw did not seemed as powerful as corded Hitachi I had before, but it did what I need and set me free from long an annoying cord that was tangling on my deck.
Few days ago I finally found a website that explained the mystery :) and I run downstairs to check my tools and batteries.
The key is in special plastic guide rails on M18 battaries. It is very small and unnoticeable feature unless you know it is there :) The post I came across claims that compact battery have two rails and XC only one. Some tools have only one and that should prevent inserting incomparable battery even if it looks like it will fit.
Apparently both reviewers are right and it may depend on version of battery. My compact battery has only one rail, just like XC should and my saw has only one guide, while both driver and drill has two.
Speculation was that Milwaukee incorporated some overload protection in XC and probably they did same to compact version as well.
XC should certainly give more run time (40%) and it also claims 20% more "power" - it may be a good idea for more power demanding tools like saws. As for me, compact M18 batteries worked just fine on all 3 tools I got so far.
I love Milwaukee M18 tools and doing my deck without Impact Driver would be virtual impossible. Drill came very handy too, as despite a special composite deck screws that suppsodly can drill itself in, it was only working half of the time and I switched to pre-drilling to get a better results. While I did front deck with corded Hitachi - major workload of cutting, I switched to Milwaukee cordless circular saw for backyard and under deck repairs and it worked great (if not as forgiving when wood grabs the blade :)) and I loved cordless freedom.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-M18-18-Volt-Lithium-Ion-6-1-2-in-Cordless-Circular-Saw-Tool-Only-2630-20/202196549#.Uege7RZHY_U
I was a bit confused. Will Milwaukee M18 circular saw work with compact batteries I got in drill/driver kit? Some people said, no, it will not even fit in. You need big, XC one. Others said that it will work just fine and indeed from outside both batteries looked about the same, with XC just a bit bigger.
I picked tool only saw in HD and my compact batteries worked just fine. I looked trough manual, but could not find anything mentioning batteries. Yes, M18 circular saw did not seemed as powerful as corded Hitachi I had before, but it did what I need and set me free from long an annoying cord that was tangling on my deck.
Few days ago I finally found a website that explained the mystery :) and I run downstairs to check my tools and batteries.
The key is in special plastic guide rails on M18 battaries. It is very small and unnoticeable feature unless you know it is there :) The post I came across claims that compact battery have two rails and XC only one. Some tools have only one and that should prevent inserting incomparable battery even if it looks like it will fit.
Apparently both reviewers are right and it may depend on version of battery. My compact battery has only one rail, just like XC should and my saw has only one guide, while both driver and drill has two.
Speculation was that Milwaukee incorporated some overload protection in XC and probably they did same to compact version as well.
XC should certainly give more run time (40%) and it also claims 20% more "power" - it may be a good idea for more power demanding tools like saws. As for me, compact M18 batteries worked just fine on all 3 tools I got so far.
I love Milwaukee M18 tools and doing my deck without Impact Driver would be virtual impossible. Drill came very handy too, as despite a special composite deck screws that suppsodly can drill itself in, it was only working half of the time and I switched to pre-drilling to get a better results. While I did front deck with corded Hitachi - major workload of cutting, I switched to Milwaukee cordless circular saw for backyard and under deck repairs and it worked great (if not as forgiving when wood grabs the blade :)) and I loved cordless freedom.
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