Cordless power tools are becoming more prevalent on the job site. They are lasting longer and doing more per charge than ever before. As good as they are, there is still room for improvement as the batteries are the biggest obstacles to overcome. For years the common denomination of amp hours was 1.5 and 3.0, where 1.5 is a compact battery and the 3.0 is a high capacity battery. Well that was yesterday and this is today. Milwaukee released their new version of batteries with a 2.0 A/h and a 4.0 A/h. The model number for the 2.0 is 48-11-1820 and the 4.0 is 48,11,1840. Don’t worry, you don’t need to buy new tools as these will work with all your current tools that work with the 1.5 and 3.0. On the outside nothing has changed. You still get the same look and feel, plus the fuel gauge. On the inside, Milwaukee still utilized the Redlink system. The only thing that is different is the Amp hours from what we can tell.
So should you rush out and buy these batteries? Are they a big improvement over the 3.0 batteries? Well we did a short video below and see for yourself. This is an unscientific view.
Results
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A couple of notes. First, this was us just having some fun and by no way do we indicate this is a scientific test. We used the same old saw blade on the circular saw. We used new blades on the Sawzall, but as you can see I did part of the first cuts and Dan finished with the 3.0 and 4.0 battery. I was probably using the Sawzall much differently than Dan was. We used a 4×6 for the cuts.
As you can see the 4.0 does have a longer run time, so for me this is worth the investment because I will be able to do more work on a single charge which means less downtime and more efficiency on the job site.
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very interesting… good to know they arent totally bluffing when they say it may improve life of the batteries!
I just switched from dewalt 20v to the milwaukee m18 and I am so glad I did. I love the proformance from the FUEL tools! I will have to get some of these 4.0 a/h batteries.
If you are going to use these everyday I highly recommend getting the 4.0, they last so much longer and you will be so much happier!
I worry about the charge time increasing. I would have to believe the charge time will be increased to cater to the larger cells. I don’t see a 1.5 hour charge time being a good trade off for longer battery life.
It’ll charge as much or more than the 3.0 batteries in the same amount of time due to li-ion charging methods. They charge faster for the first 90%. You can always take a battery off the charger before its fully charged. Doesn’t hurt it.
I’m skimming eBay to find deals on these. Nice review guys! I love the side by side, what a difference! I really want this for my Recip, the tool goes through batteries pretty quickly and I would love to see the 4.0ah in action!