Milwaukee M18 LED Flood Light Review

In my opinion LED lights are great, but when it comes to the real world, they have never really been practical.  Well for tools and smaller items, they have been practical.  A while back we went to the Milwaukee event and saw two lights that really changed my mind. First, was the LED Stick light.  For a 12V light, that thing rocks.  Well now we have a chance to see the M18 Flood Light which is awesome.  As with other new items on the market, Milwaukee took time and developed something cool.

This new system has multiple advantages over a traditional Halogen light.  The Milwaukee M18 LED Flood Light (2361) is a cool running light because of the LED.  Sometimes the heat build up doesn’t really matter, but most of the time it does.  Such as when I was redoing my bathroom.  The space was small and it was the middle of summer.  I was using a traditional floor halogen light and it really made the work environment much hotter. Now if it was the middle of winter, I would have welcomed the extra heat, but not the middle of summer.  If you’re like me when a company tells you they have an LED light flashlight, you think it’s nice, but then realize the company just stuck cheap LEDs in the product.  Well not Milwaukee.  These LEDs are the real deal.  These are not your cheap LED lights.  However when I turn this on, I am smart enough (well in my own opinion) that I can clearly see the difference and these are quality.  The flood light has 8 LED lights and the output from only 8 LEDs shows the quality behind the lights.  Now part of the success of the light is the reflector behind the LED lights.  Again, you can have different quality reflectors in lights.  Milwaukee didn’t seem to spare any junk and went all out with a nice relfector.  With the LED lights and the reflector this throws a lot of light and spreads it out over your work area.

M18 Flood Light Durability

Okay, this light isn’t going to be sitting around, it will be in tough environments which means it will get knocked over, bumped and tossed around.  I know I don’t have to tell you what happens when you drop a Halogen light.  With the LED light you don’t have to worry about breaking a bulb and now taking time out of your day to fix it.  Milwaukee designed this light with a replaceable face plate.  So if you do crack it or something happens, you can easily change the face plate and be on your way.  The octagon bumpers on the top and bottom are made from a high quality PVC to protect it from drops.  They are designed to stick further out to protect the inside section of the light.

M18 Flood Light Set Up

This light is designed to be used in a variety of different configurations which is huge.  On the end of the light, there are two octagons that act not just as protection, but as a way to position the light.  You can set the light up to shine up, down, forward or any configuration you want.  Speaking of the end caps, you can also set the light up to stand straight up. There is also a handle where you can use a piece of wire to hang the light.  It has a nice pass through, which makes it much easier to set up.  You have a key hole hanger to hang from a nail on the wall.  One of the coolest things is the hole in the side of the light.  You can put this over a 1/2″ EMT pipe and rest it there.  So if you’re working in a large room and you really can’t hang it from the ceiling or anywhere else, you can set up the pipe and you are set to go.  This also makes it easy if you need to move around from one area to another.

M18 Flood Light Use

The light has three push buttons located on the light.  Off, high and low button.  The buttons seem to be pretty good and seem like they will hold up over the long run with lots of use.   You can power the light with a compact or XC M18 battery.  As far as run time you can expect between 6 to 8 hours on low and 3 to 4 hours on high.

Overall this is another great product from Milwaukee.  The light is forward thinking and practical.  The light is designed to be tough and user friendly.  With a 5 year warranty, ease of use and practical design, it can’t be beat.