Is Milwaukee's Fencing Stapler Worth The High Price Tag? Here's What Owners Say

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Milwaukee has a reputation for high quality and high power among its customers, but it's also often considered more expensive than other brands. This is partly due to the number of specialty tools in the Milwaukee catalog. Brands like DeWalt may offer slightly more affordable products, but they don't typically have the same breadth of specialized options. This is clear when you compare the different brands' most expensive tools; DeWalt's is a $6,000 multi-purpose generator, while Milwaukee's priciest tool is an $11,500 pipeline inspection system. So, according to owners of the Milwaukee fencing stapler, the tool's high price is only worth it for professional-level fencing jobs.

The Milwaukee M18 FUEL cordless utility fencing stapler is a battery-operated staple gun, giving you the freedom to move between fence posts without having to haul a compressor around. It's only compatible with Milwaukee 9GA staples, so you can't swap in other staples for different jobs. Instead, the M18 stapler has one use case: stapling wires and cables to wood. Priced at around $650, it isn't cheap. 

But even though the M18 stapler is expensive and niche, owners largely agree that it's an excellent tool for the job. On Home Depot's online store, it currently has 168 reviews that average out to a customer rating of 4.9 stars out of 5, with 99% recommending the product. In terms of build quality, one reviewer says it's "like a tank... tough and reliable," while another comments on its efficiency, writing, "It's ten times faster than my crew with a hammer and a fist of staples." All such praise comes from professionals. One unfortunate DIYer didn't do her homework, writing, "This is a professional's stapler... too large and heavy for this old lady that does occasional DIY."

Deciding what kind of staple gun is best for fencing depends largely on the size of the job. That's why professionals think the M18 stapler is well worth the high price tag for large properties, like farms and horse corrals. Across forums and review sites, owners value the battery-powered portability, since it doesn't require lugging a compressor around. They also enjoy not needing to tap in staples with a hammer, since the M18 stapler's PowerState motor sinks into wood posts on the first shot.

There's a clear threshold for which size jobs require such a professional-grade tool, and customer reviews reveal the distinction. One reviewer writes that the M18 stapler "paid for itself in two hours" after using it to fence in half a mile around a horse corral, a job that used to take them "10 hours of driving staples by hand." Another reviewer echoed the sentiment, writing, "It's worth every penny. I was able to staple the half mile in practically no time." Thus, in general, the M18 can staple half a mile of fencing in about a fifth of the time it takes by hand.

For smaller jobs, many owners say it's better to just use a hammer and some fencing pliers, fencing screws, or a cheap air gun stapler, like the affordable staple guns you'd find at Harbor Freight. For example, in a Reddit post asking whether the M18 stapler was overkill for fencing in a homestead, one commenter writes, "A cheap pneumatic fence stapler... works fine. Sometimes I prefer this over the M18 utility stapler because the staples are huuuge." That sums it up nicely: the M18 is a huge tool for huge jobs.

For this article, we pored through hundreds of reviews about the M18 stapler on online retailer websites, including Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Grainger, Acme Tools, and Milwaukee's official site. The most valuable comments were those that mentioned the size of the job and whether they thought the M18 was worth the price. That's how we discovered that it's a good investment for large-scale professional fencing jobs and not small projects. 

However, retailer websites can sometimes be biased. Those willing to write out a detailed review on a retailer's website are often the same customers who kept the product, while those who returned it after discovering it wasn't worth the price may be less likely to leave a review. Therefore, we also searched discussion forums. Sources like Reddit threads and Facebook posts often provide more impartial opinions about the price value of the M18 stapler. Plus, such discussions can get surprisingly heated, which is always entertaining.