Earlier this month, Milwaukee Tool announced two new USB-rechargeable flashlights within their RedLithium USB battery platform.
The new Milwuakee RedLithium USB personal lighting expansion will include an 1100 lumen twist focus flashlight, and an 800 lumen compact flashlight.
New Milwaukee RedLithium USB Flashlights – Common Features
Both flashlights feature Milwaukee’s TrueView technology and they will both be bundled with Milwaukee’s new 3.0Ah RedLithium USB battery to bolster their runtime.
At first glance these flashlights appear very similar. Both are about 6″ long, matte black with knurled grips, and have similar power/mode buttons.
These new power/mode buttons remember the power mode that was last used when the flashlight was turned on. They also feature a ring LED around the button that indicates the battery charge level.
The built-in USB charging ports are similar, although they are in slightly different locations. And both flashlights have screw off end caps so you can replace a dead battery with a fully charged one and keep on working.
Milwaukee doesn’t mention it, but you can see in the above photo going from the from the left image to the middle image, there is a ring that twists to hide the USB micro charging port.
Here’s a closer look at the removable belt clip.
While these two flashlights look pretty similar, lets take a look at what differentiates them.
New Milwaukee RedLithium USB Compact Flashlight (2160-21)
Here’s a quick look at the compact flashlight specifications:
- Model 2160-21
- Low power: 100 Lumens for 11 hours
- High power: 800 Lumens for 2.5 hours
- IP67 dust and water protection
- 4 meter drop rating
- Weight w/ Battery: 0.36lbs
- Length: 5.59″
This flashlight offers a fixed-focus, “bulls-eye” beam that can illuminate up to 150 meters away in high power mode. Milwaukee claims this style beam “provides the intensity of spotlighting with wide coverage of floodlighting.”
When you buy the compact flashlight, you’ll get the flashlight, 3.0Ah battery, and a USB cable for charging.
Price: $70
Buy Now via Acme Tools
Buy Now via Tool Nut
New Milwaukee RedLithium USB Twist Focus Flashlight (2161-21)
Here’s a quick look at the twist focus flashlight specifications:
- Model 2161-21
- Low Power: 100 Lumens for 14 hours
- Medium Power: 600 Lumens for 4.5 hours
- High Power: 1100 Lumens for 1.75 hours
- IP67 dust and water protection
- 4 meter drop rating
- Weight w/ Battery: 0.41lbs
- Length: 6.09″
This flashlight offers a knurled twist ring focus, which adjusts the illumination angle between spot and flood light modes. It will illuminate up to 175 meters away in high power mode.
When you buy the twist focus flashlight, you’ll get the flashlight, 3.0Ah battery, and a USB cable for charging.
Price: $80
Buy Now via Acme Tools
Buy Now via Tool Nut
Milwaukee expects both flashlights to launch in September 2020, and retailers’ listings estimate that both flashlights will start shipping between September 1st and October 1st, 2020.
Discussion
It looks like the twist focus flashlight might be an upgrade to the first generation RedLithium USB aluminum rechargeable flashlight. That flashlight used a slide to focus mechanism that was somewhat problematic. Because of the airtight nature of the flashlight when you slid the top forward to focus the beam into spot mode, it wouldn’t stay there — the seal was so good that the air pressure pushed it back.
Stuart’s Note: I have found that focus settings on the 1st-gen product are more consistent if you temporarily twist the tailcap to expose the USB charging port. This would be a cumbersome added step for frequent adjustments, but seems to break the seal that prevents the twist-to-focus feature from behaving as expected.
I’m pleased that Milwaukee appears to have ditched the strobe mode for these two flashlights (see my rant about this feature). I’m not a fan of multi-function power/mode buttons, but they are way more tolerable if they don’t have a strobe mode and remember the last mode you used (almost always low power for me).
It’s also interesting that Milwaukee is including a USB cable but no charger, as has been a trend with several of their latest USB rechargeable lights. I understand that everybody has 20 of these USB charging cubes in a drawer somewhere, but by that same logic doesn’t everybody also have 20 micro USB cables? So if you are trying to cut costs, why not ditch the cable too?
I’m actually a little disappointed they aren’t including the charger – I really like the minuscule Milwaukee USB charging brick (pebble?). I’ve never had an issue with one not working (unlike the cheap USB charging bricks that come with other USB accessories) and they are great for packing because of how tiny they are. I also like the quality of their USB cables too, although the head of the Micro USB connector is a little too large to fit some 3rd party devices.
I have two of the aluminum 700 lumen flashlights, and while they can be annoying to refocus the beam shape as I mentioned above, they are still solid performing flashlights. Even so, I can definitely see myself ditching at least one of them for one of these new flashlights.
