Back in early March of this year I reviewed Milwaukee’s M18™ and M12™ Rapid Charge Station, finding that it offered faster charging for my batteries of both voltages, but not by much. Its biggest advantage was that it charged three batteries simultaneously, something that could be done nearly as quickly with three standard chargers that come with the tool kits. After a brief exchange with Milwaukee, I was told that the optimum numbers would come with the latest, upgraded batteries. I was still in the dark about how a customer would know if the charger would offer the performance advertised.
To learn more, I obtained some of the new 18v RedLithium™ XC5.0 Extended Capacity battery packs to see if they would show a marked drop in charge time. At this time I also took delivery of tools with the compact 18v 2.0 batteries, so a comparison was in order. The compact Brushless Driver/Drills were an immediate hit, seeing a lot of use in the shop, but still didn’t need charges, so I again resorted to my M12™ Heated Jacket to run down the batteries. I put three of the 2.0 batteries on and immediately ran into a problem that has bothered me to some extent with all of my Milwaukee chargers; it often takes 10 or more attempts to seat the 18v batteries properly. Much more often than not, I get the flashing red/green light indicating a problem. They all wobble quite a bit and are difficult to position to make the red charging lights come on. After a lot of fussing, I got all three red lights, and waited for the results. The good news is that the battery on the right in the accompanying photo charged fully in the advertised 37 minutes. The bad news is that the other two didn’t charge. Not at all. You can see the red charging light in the photo, and the one light on the fuel gauge, but after more than an hour there was no change. I got the same results from two attempted cycles. Curiously, the compact batteries all charged properly on my standard chargers. More curiously, my 18v 4.0 and 5.0 batteries charge equally on all three bays of the Rapid Charging Station, but with the same seating problems.
As with my other charging tests, I ran the 5.0XC batteries down in my heated jacket. I put three of them on the charger, hoping to see the improvement expected from the new, faster charging rate and the new, optimized batteries. They did charge faster than the 4.0s on this charger, but only by one minute. That means the older 4.0s save 12 minutes over the standard charger and the new 5.0s save 13 minutes.
I’ve ended up with more questions than answers. First, how can a customer know if he has batteries that will benefit from this Rapid Charger? Second, why do some of my batteries charge on this charger but others don’t, even though they charge on the kit devices? Third, why do the batteries fit the charging sockets so loosely as to easily break contact and trigger the flashing warning lights? I can never just drop them in and walk away, it always takes considerable fiddling to get them started. I even went so far as to unplug the unit and bend the blades a bit to make firmer contact, but to no avail. The M12™ batteries fit snugly and are trouble free. I want the same for the M18s™!
If you have experience with this new charger, I’d like to hear from you. Please feel free to comment!
[edit] For the solution to my problems, see Mystery Solved
-dvl
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