Milwaukee M18 Premium Battery Takes M18 Fuel Tools to the Next Level
When Milwaukee first announced their 9.0Ah High Demand battery, they were already talking about the next step in battery development. We are now seeing the benefits of the Milwaukee M18 Advanced Battery. These are called "Milwaukee M18 High Output" batteries and are capable of delivering much higher power than standard batteries.
Milwaukee M18 Advanced Battery Design
The foundation of advanced batteries starts with the 18650 cell upgrade. Popular choices are the 20700 and 21700. These numbers represent physical dimensions only – 18mm x 65mm, 20mm x 70mm or 21mm x 70mm. Milwaukee has 21,700 cells.
The next step is to transfer energy from the battery to the motor in a more efficient manner. In other words, lower the resistance (ohms). Thicker wires and better connections help a lot.
In the end, all that energy transfer builds up more heat, so you have to find a way to help dissipate it better.
When you combine all of these parts, the Milwaukee M18 High Output Battery is not only more powerful, but also better built than standard battery packs. Ultimately, the Milwaukee gets 50% more power than other M18 RedLithium batteries while running 50% cooler.
One thing you'll notice is that they have a larger footprint than other M18 RedLithium batteries. Larger cells and a better battery pack design push the size out a bit. But don't worry, they still have the exact same connections as regular M18 batteries.
It enables you to make more powerful tools when you have a more powerful power source. That's exactly what we've seen with the introduction of the Milwaukee M18 Premium Battery. Tools like the M18 Fuel Super Sawzall, new circular and rear handle saws, large angle grinders, 1" impact wrenches, and more are possible because there's enough power to drive them beyond anything we thought possible just a few years ago.
It almost sounds like the Milwaukee high output battery created a new system within the system, but with full compatibility. Each M18 High Output Battery works with any M18 or M18 Fuel tool.
With something like an impact driver, you'll see a slight performance boost due to the advanced package design, but it won't call on all the power available there. The bigger benefit is that you get more capacity out of a smaller battery, reducing the load. The performance gains are much larger for more powerful tools, and in many cases outperform wired tools.
vice versa. If your 12Ah high output battery is just dead and you just need a few more cuts before you break for lunch, you can remove the standard 5.0Ah XC battery from the drill and wrap it up. It still runs the tool, just at a lower power level.
get supercharged
One of the second benefits of the Milwaukee M18 Premium Battery is its ability to charge faster. To borrow the words of Mel Brooks, the Milwaukee Super Charger is ridiculously fast – charging a 216 Wh, 12Ah high output battery in just 1 hour.
Standard M18 battery packs can't handle that level of charge, but are still cross-compatible. For example, when you put a 5.0XC battery on a supercharger, it will charge at Milwaukee's fast charger rate to protect it.
Like its standard batteries, premium Milwaukee high output batteries are available in 1P, 2P and 3P options. The "P" stands for parallel and tells you how many rows of cells are in the battery. 1P is 1 row of 5 cells, 2P is 2 rows of 5 cells, and so on.
- CP3.0 High Output ($119): 1P compact battery — great for lighter tools like impact drivers
- XC6.0 High Output ($169): 2P Battery – Universal Battery for Every Tool
- XC8.0 High Output ($199): 2P battery – general purpose battery with longer runtime than XC6.0
- HD12.0 High Output ($249): 3P Batteries – High-capacity batteries, perfect for the most powerful tools like table saws, miter saws, and large angle grinders