What Is The Biggest Battery Milwaukee Makes And How Much Runtime Does It Have?

Milwaukee power tools feature a range of battery options spread among several cordless tool systems. The diminutive M4 battery is the smallest. Its 4-volt power output and 2.0 Ah of storage capacity is designed to power Milwaukee's electric screwdriver. Other Milwaukee cordless tool systems include the 12-volt M12, 18-volt M18, and 72-volt MX Fuel.

When determining which Milwaukee battery is the biggest, you need to know that Milwaukee's MX Fuel cordless tool system is designed for heavy-duty work. With that in mind, it's easy to guess that the biggest example will come from the MX Fuel system. There are at least four different batteries in the MX Fuel lineup, with storage capacities ranging from 3Ah to 12Ah. While they all have roughly the same external dimensions, the MX Fuel RedLithium Forge HD12.0 Battery Pack is the biggest, and heaviest, battery that Milwaukee makes.

According to information provided by Milwaukee Tool, the MX Fuel HD12.0 Battery weighs an impressive 13.3 pounds and resides in a case measuring 10.8 inches in length, 7.1 inches wide, and 4.6 inches tall. That's a significant difference compared to the biggest Milwaukee M18 battery, the M18 RedLithium Forge HD12.0 Battery Pack. While both batteries feature 12.0Ah of storage capacity, the M18 version weighs just 3.3 pounds. It's also much smaller, measuring 5.8 inches long, 3.4 inches wide, and 4.1 inches high.

Milwaukee's Forge batteries are different from its standard RedLithium batteries. A difference that Milwaukee says equates to up to two-times more runtime compared to the MX Fuel RedLithium XC406. MX Fuel tools often come with an MX Fuel RedLithium XC406 Battery Pack. Run time for the MX Fuel Rocket Dual Power Compact Tower Light with that battery is listed at three hours on high or up to 10 hours on its lowest setting. One difficulty of gauging run time for the MX Fuel batteries is Milwaukee's random use of measuring units. The MX Fuel Breaker, a concrete demolition tool, can break a 40-foot-long by 1-foot-wide trench through 6-inch-thick concrete, or over two tons, on a single XC406 charge. Theoretically, those values should double when using the larger, XD12.0 Forge battery.

Ultimately, a battery's run time depends on its storage capacity and the current draw of the device it's powering. For example, if a device draws one amp, the MX Fuel HD12.0 battery, with its 12.0 amp-hours of storage capacity, would theoretically have a 12-hour run time. Conversely, the same fully-charged MX Fuel HD12.0, could power a device drawing half of an amp for around 24 hours. Actual run times are hard to predict in real-world applications. The on-and-off operating nature of most power tools, fluctuating temperatures associated with job sites, and the efficiency of the battery and the power tool due to previous use or abuse all affect the length of time a battery will last before a perceptible power loss occurs.