Which Tools Are Compatible With Milwaukee's Quik-Lok Attachment System?

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Milwaukee's premium power tools are powerful and high-quality enough that they're not just a go-to brand for serious DIY-ers but also for professionals across several trades, including plumbing, automotive, and electrical. Many landscapers also equip themselves with Milwaukee gear, especially since the brand's battery-powered options can be a lot more convenient than older corded equipment or those that rely on gas, which is noisier and less convenient to transport, among other disadvantages.

Several outdoor tools are also compatible with Milwaukee's useful Quik-Lok system. The Milwaukee Quik-Lok system allows you to use a single M18 Fuel Power Head to run several kinds of attachments. Essentially, you can use one motor to power multiple tools. It's more cost-effective than buying each tool individually and will save you storage and transport space. Plus, Milwaukee says its Quik-Lok tools offer "more power than 31-cc gas" counterparts and can reach full throttle in less than a second.

You can purchase the Milwaukee M18 Fuel Power Head individually, though you may only need to do that if you're looking for a replacement or extra, because the head is useless without at least one attachment, and you can buy the head as part of a Quik-Lok bundle with one other attachment. This bundle also includes an M18 High-Output XC8.0 Battery and an M18/M12 Rapid Charger, and essentially serves as a Quik-Lok starter kit. There are three Power Head kits available: one that includes a string trimmer attachment, one with a pole saw kit, and one that comes with the string trimmer in addition to a blower. All three attachments are useful for landscaping, but there are 10 other tools compatible with the Milwaukee Quik-Lok system as well. Nearly all are also related to landscaping, though a few can be used for other purposes as well.

With over a dozen different attachments that can be used with the Milwaukee M18 Fuel Power Head, the Quik-Lok system can essentially serve as all your landscaping tools running on a single motor, greatly reducing the space needed in your garage or tool shed. In fact, more than one Quik-Lok attachment is on SlashGear's list of Milwaukee tools every landscaper could use.

You can purchase the string trimmer, pole saw, and blower all separately, but as mentioned earlier, these three can also be bundled with the Power Head itself. Some retailers or pre-owned listings may include other attachments in unofficial bundles, as well. In general, though, the other 10 attachments are sold separately, without a Quik-Lok Power Head. They include an Edger, which is more expensive than Ryobi's counterpart product — just one of the differences between the Ryobi Expand-It and Milwaukee Quik-Lok edger attachments.

The other compatible Quik-Lok attachments are a hedge trimmer, articulating head trimmer, brush cutter, cultivator, bed redefiner, reciprocator, rubber broom, and bristle brush, as well as a three-foot extension pole that can extend the reach of both the hedge trimmer and pole saw attachments. Just in case you're wondering, the Milwaukee M18 Fuel Quik-Lok Articulating Hedge Trimmer is not a redundant attachment. Unlike the set straight hedge trimmer, the articulating hedge trimmer attachment offers 270 degrees rotation and 13 different operating positions for more flexibility with irregular-shaped bushes.

While you're most likely to use these Milwaukee Quik-Lok tools in your yard (or someone else's), there are some ways to use the handy system outside of landscaping. Technically, the M18 Fuel Quik-Lok Bristle Brush Attachment, which as a 23-inch clearing width, is meant to remove debris from hard surfaces — not your lawn or turf. Since you're likely to use it to clear dirt, mulch, grass, and other trimming off your patio after using the other tools to landscape, it's still pretty much a yard tool. However, you could find other uses for it, including cleaning up dust and other debris from parking lots, warehouses and other industrial workplaces, and construction sites, among other applications.

Similarly, the Milwaukee M18 Fuel Quik-Lok Blower can also be used as a powerful cleaning tool and can quickly clear a workshop of sawdust, for example, or be used to clean the same hard surfaces as the bristle brush, albeit in a different manner. A blower has plenty of other uses, too, such as clearing gutters or cleaning hay and loose mud out of farming equipment — the same way you'd use a bottle of compressed air to clean your computer keyboard.

While it can obviously be used as a leaf blower in the autumn, the tool can also be used in the winter to remove light snow and powder from your car or even your driveway and sidewalk. (And, to bring it full circle, your yard's patio.) Still, for the most part, these are landscaping-centric tools. Considering that Milwaukee expanded its line-up of compatible attachments in 2022 and again in 2023, however, a wider range of tools and applications could always be added to the brand's Quik-Lok system in the future.