When it comes to cordless lighting, Milwaukee owns the market. Milwaukee offers anything from a simple pen light to this tower light. No other power tool manufacturer can compete with Milwaukee. I have to admit, I am glad Milwaukee went down this road because we all know how hard it is to work in dimly lit areas. While the other companies were asleep at the wheel, here came Milwaukee to light the way (yes, I know a pun is the lowest joke around). Okay enough with that, let’s take a look at the Milwaukee Tower Light Review.
Milwaukee Tower Light Review Overview
Milwaukee currently offers a couple tower lights in their line up. While other manufacturers would be happy with a single tower light, Milwaukee wasn’t and they just kept going in the lighting area.
This tower light is a little different from the other lights in their line up. This tower light, model 2120, is their brightest tower light, most compact light and offers a dual pack for longer run times.
Milwaukee Tower Light Review Features
Here is the Milwaukee Tower Light when it’s all folded up and ready to deploy or take to a new location. It’s amazing how small this light can fold up to. Great for transporting or storage. It’s only 22″ tall in this position.
The light is waterproof and dustproof which means it’s perfect for any type of jobsite environments.
The light has a height range from 2’5″ – 5’5″ which means it is versatile. According to Milwaukee, you can set up this light in 7 seconds. Now I am not sure of anyone who is in that kind of rush but I am pretty sure I can get it set up in 6 seconds flat. My only problem was I couldn’t get anyone to time me.
The light will run on any Milwaukee 18V battery but to get the most from this light, it would be highly recommended to use the Milwaukee 9Ah battery. With the 9Ah battery, you will get about 7 hours of run time on high, 12.5 hours on medium and a whopping 26 hours on low.
You can run the light off one or two batteries. The battery compartment has a nice rubber seal to keep water out of the compartment. There is also a rock-solid metal latch to keep the compartment closed to make sure this will not open up until the user wants it open.
One thing you can’t do with this light is plug it into an outlet or plug an extension cord into the light.
The light is very easy to operate. There is a single button to turn the light on or off. You also have a separate button to increase or decrease the lumens. You might notice this light features the Milwaukee One-Key, but we will touch on that later.
The Tower light features 24 small LED lights that put out 5,400 lumens on high, 3,100 lumens on medium and 1,600 lumens on low.
The light will rotate but unfortunately not a full 360°. I do wish it had more rotation with the head, but it still allows you to set this up and shine the light in any direction.
A cool aspect of this light is how many different configurations you can utilize with this light. If you would rather have a low profile, you can certainly operate the light by extending the legs flat. If you are in a very tight area, you don’t even have to extend the legs for the added support.
When Milwaukee built this light, they didn’t cut any corners. The main light stick is metal and the three areas you can lock the light into are also metal. This means it is more durable and you don’t have to worry about it breaking down on you.
To extend the light stick, it is as simple as pressing a button and raising the pole to the desired position. The stick will automatically lock into place. Yes, it really is that easy.
If you need to get more height from the light, you can set up the legs at 90° which will increase your height of the light.
Milwaukee designed the Tower Light with two handles where the user can carry it upright or on its side. Personally, I like carrying it on its side, but to each his own.
Don’t feel like carrying it with the handle, no worries. You can throw it over your shoulder with the comfortable shoulder strap.
As I noted earlier, this does feature the Milwaukee One-Key which allows you to control, track and manage the light within the application. While you can do a lot with the app, there are two main options you can view and control with this app. You can check your battery level and also control the brightness right from your phone.
Milwaukee Tower Light Review Performance
All I can say is wow. This light puts out 5400 lumens which are bright enough to light up any area. This picture doesn’t really do it justice. We are getting ready to spray foam an attic. Currently, there are two small windows, but not much light. When you spray foam, you have to make sure you cover everything to get the full effect of spray foam.
I love being able to move just the head to shine the light in a different direction instead of having to move the whole light.
Milwaukee Tower Light Review Value
This is a tough call regarding the value. I know some people will have a hard time with the price as it ranges from $600 for a bare kit and $900 for a kit with batteries.
If you are performing some type of work where light is everything, this is easily worth the money, such as drywall taping or painting. I have to admit when I first saw the price, I was taken back a little. Once I realized what you get with this light, I can understand the price tag and how some people will flock towards this light.
If you are just looking for a jobsite light, you might be much better off going with the 2135-20 Rocket light for $400. You can also go with their earlier Rocket light, 2130-20 for $200. Both these lights still have the Milwaukee quality, but they offer fewer lumens.
Milwaukee Tower Light Review Final Thoughts
When it comes to jobsite lighting, no one comes close to Milwaukee. While some will have issues with the ticket price, many will understand that for this type of light, you have to pay a premium. The light is a quality light, easy to transport around and extremely powerful, but if this is what you want, you will have to open your pocketbook, but it’s well worth the money.
Looks like an awesome tool, but I must be in the boat with the others having apoplexy over its cost. I have to put it on the list of items that I would have to physically see and play with before being able to make any type of decision to purchase or not. Even with a glowing review, six hundred puts it at the bottom of the list of wants compared to other tools I have need of.
The 600 dollar price point is kinda crazy, but I don’t think this is being marketed to consumers either. I know you a firefighter Eric and this would be handy to have on a rig as a portable light source. The compact storage makes it perfect and a other cordless tools could be handy that Milwaukee makes.
Good Point. There are certain industries where this would be a perfect fit.
$600 HOLY COW! $900 IS LUDICROUS!! That light is nice but it’s not even worth it for $300. I don’t see even fire departments purchasing these because there are better and brighter options from Pelican. Plus the everyday contractor isn’t going to drop that kind of money on a light when you could buy almost 23 Huskly Led lights with that money?? I hope they re-evaluate the price on this.
Yeah, it’s an expensive light. Will be interesting how long the price stays that high.
Ridgid has a 18v light for $99.00 and you can use a battery or plug it in!
I love having that option of battery or plug. All lights should have that.
Can you leave the battery in or do you need to take it out when you plug in to 110v?
You can leave it in