Milwaukee Radius Light Review

When it comes to lighting in the power tool world, no one comes close to Milwaukee and their large line up lighting products.  A couple years back, Milwaukee saw a huge gap in lighting and decided to jump on board and create some lighting solutions that work great for the contractor.  As time has passed, Milwaukee has not slowed down.  Year after year they continue to set trends and lead the way in the lighting industry.  So it should come as no surprise when I tell you that Milwaukee has their new Milwaukee Radius light available for the contractor.  Now before you get excited, I should warn you that this light has a hefty price tag of $300.  I don’t know about you, but for $300, I can get a lot of beer.  I can even get some of that fancy imported beer.  Who am I kidding?  I am kind of a domestic beer snob.  Actually I have been getting into that apple cider beer, refreshing and crisp at the same time.  Okay, I know you didn’t come here to hear about my fascination with crisp, clean, refreshing, tasty apple beer, you want to know about the Milwaukee radius light.

Milwaukee Radius Light

So let me tell you right of the bat that this light isn’t for everyone considering the high price tag.  However there are a ton of different trades that I think will pony up the cash and put their beer fetish on the side.  I have to say that when Milwaukee designed this light, they pretty much covered all aspects and didn’t miss a beat.  First, this light isn’t just for people who own their M18 line.  In fact, even if you don’t have an M18 battery, no worries, you can still power this off an extension cord.  For me this is truly a great option.  I have M18 batteries that will power this unit, but who really wants to worry about when the battery is running low.  If power is near by and you will be using this all day long, how nice is it that you can just plug it into the wall and forget about.  However if you are in a spot without power or don’t feel like messing with an extension cord, the M18 battery has a pretty decent run time.  With a M18 5 Ah battery you will get about 2 hours of run time on high, 4 hours on medium and 8 hours on low.  I know what you’re thinking, 2 hours is not very attractive.  Okay well here is the secret to this.  On high you’re getting a whopping 4,400 lumens.  That’s a ton of light and a ton of power.  On medium you get 2,100 lumens and low you get 1,000 lumens.  So are you going to be running this on high with your M18 battery pack?  Probably not, but that is where it pays to plug it into the wall.  However it’s nice to know that if you need a ton of light or a little light, this unit will fit your needs.

In regards to toughness, no worries here.  The light harnesses the power of LED lights which means they shouldn’t run hot and if you bump the light, the bulbs won’t burn out.  Second, Milwaukee protected these lights with a high impact polycarbonate lens.  Yes, you heard that right a high impact Polycarbonate lens.  Okay, I have no idea what that really is, but I can tell you the cover is solid with absolutely no flex.  Basically it means this isn’t some cheap cover, the cover is designed to protect and will do that day in and day out.

Operation of the light is pretty easy using the 3 buttons on the front.  The middle button will power the unit on, the button on the right will let you switch from high to med to low.  The button on the left will allow you to change where the light shines.  So you can turn half the lights off and have them shine in one direction.  Pretty cool isn’t it?  Not only that, you can even hang this light upside down using the built in hook.  So this light is truly a task light, area light and overhead light.  Basically an all in one light for the job site.

Now if you are the guy who is fascinated by this light and you say I want two or three of them, well you’re in luck.  Milwaukee designed these lights to be able to string them together with their ac input and ac output.  Again, they pretty much thought of a ton of different environments this light could work in.  Again the light isn’t cheap and we all know that things do disappear on job sites, so Milwaukee even included a security cable to prevent people from stealing the light (Lock and common sense locations to lock to are not included).

If you are not familiar with Milwaukee lighting solutions, then it would be a great time to tell you that Milwaukee uses a Trueview technology.  What is Trueview?  Basically it’s a made up term to describe how the light works.  With Trueview, you get what you see.  Let’s take a panel or electrical box for instance.  As you know there are red and orange wires.  Well with some lights, both colors can look the same.  With Milwaukee’s Trueview, you get what you see which is red is red and orange is orange.  No longer do you really have to take time and try to decipher which color is which.

While a $300 price tag is hefty for some, others will look at this light as a welcomed addition to their lighting solution.  There are plenty of trades or applications that having the right light makes the world of difference.  For those people, I would highly suggest taking a look at this light.  The light is not only tough, but a practical addition to any arsenal.  This has a ton of light when you need it and for the other times, you can easily dim it down and relax the mood.  I am a big fan of Milwaukee lighting and I think they did a great job with this light.  My only complaint is there isn’t a bottle opener for my crisp, clean, refreshing, tasty, smooth apple beer.