Milwaukee announced many new cordless power tools and technologies at their recent Pipeline media event, and they made sure that this new Packout-compatible 6-port Rapid Charger was hard to miss.
This display – a free-standing plywood-backed wall – featured two rows of Packout wall plates, 10 chargers, and 60 M18 Forge batteries.
All of the chargers are daisy-chained together, allowing all 60 batteries to be recharged from just 1 electrical outlet.
This isn’t Milwaukee’s first 6-port charger.
Milwaukee launched their M18 Six-Pack 6-port charger around 14 years ago, and it had a pass-thru plug that allowed other tools or chargers to be connected to the same outlet. It could only charge one battery at a time, but it was compact and one could charge 6 batteries overnight.
Around 2 years ago, Milwaukee came out with an M18 6-port Packout-compatible Rapid Charger that could charge two batteries simultaneously. I found this model much better suited for recharging Milwaukee’s higher capacity cordless power tool batteries.
The new charger, 48-59-1817, has 2 operating modes – “rapid daytime” and “overnight.” While I’m also interested in the new form factor and Packout compatibility, the new charging modes are the main highlight.
It can recharge two batteries simultaneously when in daytime charging mode. In overnight charging mode, you can connected up to 10 chargers together to recharge up to 60 M18 batteries on a single electrical circuit.
I forgot to ask whether the charging rate changes as well, but I expect for more details to be available and more conversations to take place closer to the charger’s launch.
I really think that the two modes greatly add to its versatility, and this is something I have not seen in any other multi-battery chargers before.
There are benefits, whether you need to recharge a couple of Milwaukee M18 batteries, or scores of them.
The chargers can be used with any Milwaukee M18 batteries, and no – you don’t need to buy 10 of them. I think the new chargers offer plenty of convenience benefits for individual users.
Price: TBA
ETA: February 2025
Is it Really a Big Improvement?
I took this photo at Milwaukee’s Pipeline media event last year, where they had a couple of outdoor power tools and 4 Rapid Chargers connected to 4 outlets in a 20A circuit quad box, with a sign saying “Overnight.”
So with the existing Packout-compatible M18 6-port Rapid Charger, you can charge 24 batteries from 4 outlets. With the new charger, you can get another 6 chargers and 36 batteries charging from the same circuit.
The new charger trades a large top handle for a folding side handle and greater visibility of LED status lights.
Here’s a quick image showing the difference in status indicator lights, with the new Rapid Charger on the left and existing model on the right.
Some portable users might prefer the top handle of the existing model, but I think the new design is not without significant benefits, especially when mounted to Packout wall panels.
