Best Tool Battery? Milwaukee vs DeWalt vs Makita. Let's find out!

makita dewalt and milwaukee all make great power tools but which brand makes the best power tool batteries if you happen to own a dewalt tool you use a milwaukee battery in it which is what we're going to be doing today using this simple adapter which is only about 20. so let's get the testing underway and find out once and for all which brand has the best power tool batteries in the first test we'll be using this air blower to test each battery to see which can generate the highest wind speed and last the longest in the second test we'll see which battery will last the longest under a moderate load at ambient temperature in the third test we'll place the batteries in a freezer to see how it affects their performance in the final test we'll test the ability of each of these batteries to withstand a big impact in order to determine the power demand of this air blower i went ahead and wired in a power meter that we can observe real briefly before we begin the test this fully charged dewalt is producing 20.62 volts i'm gonna go and power up the air blower about 28 or 29 amps and about 550 watts that's a lot of power consumption so it'll be very interesting to see how these batteries stand up to this high drain application the service is our baseline i'll be testing this whitley lithium ion 5 amp hour 20 volt battery which only costs 27 dollars so less than half as much as the dewalt brand now this battery is designed for the dewalt brand this battery is made in china the weightly weighs 593 grams weightly battery is fully charged so let's get the testing underway and see how it performs the fully charged weightly has a voltage of 20.32 we'll see how each brand performs using this wind meter we'll take the initial wind speed produced by this air blower and track it over time to see how performance drops the wind speed sensor is placed 7 inches from the end of the blower the initial wind speed of the weightly is 79.5 miles per hour on average after one minute it's down to 78.5 at three minutes the wind speed is down quite a bit to 75. at five minutes the wind speed is now at 73 down again to 72 at 7 minutes it's still at 72 at 9 minutes just before reaching 10 minutes the air speed suddenly dropped and the blower shut off at 10 minutes and one second the weightless battery is at 16.16 volts at 59 is this dewalt 5 amp hour 20 volt max lithium ion battery it claims it delivers 100 watt hours looking at the fine print on the front of the packaging maximum initial voltage is 20 volts nominal voltage is 18. a close look at the battery pack cells are made in malaysia pack assembled in mexico the dewalt weighs 629 grams which is 36 grams heavier than the weightless brand the dewalt initial voltage is 20.7 the dewalt is at 79.5 miles per hour the same as the weightly after one minute it's still at 79.5 at full mile per hour faster than the weightly at three minutes it's down slightly to 79 four miles per hour faster than the weightly at five minutes it's dropped to 75. it's down again to 73 at 7 minutes down again slightly to 72 at 9 minutes it's holding steady at 72 miles per hour at 10 and 11 minutes finally down to 71 at 12 minutes and the dewalt finally gave up at 12 minutes and 46 seconds nearly three minutes longer than the weightly brand 12 minutes and 46 seconds for the dewalt so the dewalt outlasted the weightly by almost three minutes the dewalt discharged all the way down to 12.93 volts at about six and a half dollars more than the dewalt is this milwaukee at 65.49 this is the red lithium xc 5.0 extended capacity more power and run time great performance for all demands two and a half times more run time than their standard lithium up to twenty percent more power they show that it delivers more torque up to two times more life they say it lasts twice as long battery cells made in korea malaysia japan and singapore were further processing in china the dewalt weighs 629 grams and the milwaukee weighs 736 grams which is 107 grams heavier than the dewalt the milwaukee battery mounts to this side of the adapter the other side mounts to the dewalt tool you can buy these adapters on amazon or ebay for around 20 to 25 dollars each the biggest drawback to the adapters it cannot be used for battery charging the milwaukee is fully charged 20.53 volts for the fully charged milwaukee the milwaukee is off to a good start at 79.5 the same as the dewalt it's still tied with a dewalt after a minute at three minutes it's at 77.3 and the dewalt was at 79. at five minutes it's at 73.6 and the dewalt was at 75. at seven minutes it's at 72.7 miles per hour and the dewalt was at 73. at 9 minutes the milwaukee's at 72 the same as the dewalt the milwaukee stays at 72 volts tied with the dewalt through minute 11. at minute 12 the milwaukee suddenly dropped to 67 and the milwaukee is finished at 12 minutes and 26 seconds which is only 20 seconds less than the dewalt milwaukee is discharged at 13.06 volts at seven dollars and fifty cents this makita five amp hour 18 volt battery cost about twenty dollars more than the competition up to 150 percent more capacity it claims to have a 45 minute charge time the makita packaging indicated made in japan however the battery itself indicates made in korea and further processing in vietnam all the batteries claim to be five amp hours what's very interesting is makita only claims to provide 90 watt hours and dewalt says they produce 100 watt hours there's no information on the milwaukee battery regarding the number of watt hours it can produce the makita weighs 633 grams which is only four grams more than the dawah but over 100 grams less than the milwaukee vaquita is fully charged the fully charged makita is at 20.41 volts the makita is off to a good start at 79.5 the same as the other brands after one minute it's still at 79.5 at three minutes it's down slightly to 78 slightly slower than the dewalt at minute five it's at 74.4 slightly slower than the dewalt but faster than the milwaukee at minute seven it's at 72 and it's tied with dewalt at minute nine it's still tied with dewalt and the milwaukee at 72 miles per hour it remained at 72 through minute 11 tied with the dewalt and the milwaukee at minute 12 it's at 69 slightly faster than milwaukee but slower than dewalt and the makita is finished at 12 minutes and 14 seconds unlike the other brands the makita is internally protected and stopped producing power to the connectors at around 12.6 volts even though all the batteries were fully charged the dewalt charger gave the dewalt battery a slightly higher initial voltage than the competition which may have given it a slight advantage with regard to performance in terms of wind speed the red line represents dewalt it had a slight advantage over the competition until minute nine makita the orange line had a slight advantage over milwaukee until minute nine the three brands seemed to perform equally from minute nine until minute eleven under a high load condition the dewalt came out on top milwaukee in a close second makita third and the weightly in a distant fourth in this next test we'll see how the batteries compare by placing a 5 amp load on them since all these batteries are rated for 5 amp hours we'll be discharging the batteries all the way down to 10 volts which is more than usual to see if we can get 5 full amp hours out of any of the brands the ambient temperature in the shop is very close to 70 degrees fahrenheit the weightly is fully charged at 20.18 volts after 10 minutes the weight leak has dropped from over 20 volts to 18.36 it's now down to 17.64 volts at 20 minutes down slightly again the 17.22 at 30. the weightly is almost out of juice at 16.49 volts at 40 minutes and it's over for the weightly dropping to 10 volts at 44 minutes and 32 seconds the weightly only produced 3.64 amp hours and 62.6 watt hours let's see if the dewalt can do any better 20.58 volts on the dewalt at 10 minutes the dewalt is at 19.27 volts which is nearly a full volt higher than the weightly at 20 the dewalt is at 18.48 at 30 minutes the dewalt is down to 17.73 volts about half a volt ahead of the weightly at 40 minutes the dewalt is down slightly again to 17.2 and the dewalt is still hanging in there at 50 minutes at 16.3 volts and the dewalt is barely holding on at 14.31 volts at 55 minutes the dewalt is finally finished at 57 minutes and 37 seconds the dewalt produced 4.74 amp hours and 82.1 watt hours the dewalt started out at 20.58 volts in the milwaukee at a very close second at 20.53 and the milwaukee is slightly behind dewalt at 10 minutes at 19.03 volts at 20 it's down slightly to 18.16 volts at 30 minutes it's down again to 17.55 volts at 40 minutes the milwaukee is at 17.05 compared to 17.2 for the dewalt at 50 minutes the milwaukee's at 15.49 volts and is running out of juice quickly and the milwaukee is finished at 54 minutes and 41 seconds which is about 3 minutes less than the dewalt it made 4.49 amp hours and 77.6 watt hours testing makita next makita started out at 20.55 volts compared to 20.58 for the dewalt at 30 minutes it's at 17.72 compared to 17.73 for dewalt at 40 minutes makita is at 17.17 compared to 17.2 for dewalt so it's very close at 50 makita is at 15.95 compared to 16.34 dewalt at 55 minutes the makita is nearly finished at 12.92 volts and the makita gave up at 55 minutes and 15 seconds unlike the other brands the makita battery is internally protected and cut off power at around 12.6 volts the other brands drained down to 10 volts dual makita the blue and orange lines respectively were in a virtual tie for nearly the entire test until minute 45 when the makita began to drop off at a little faster pace the milwaukee trailed makita and walt beginning at around three minutes and never quite recovered the weightly really struggled compared to the other brands the dewalt came out on top at 4.74 amp hours makita 4.52 milwaukee 4.49 and the weightly 3.64 i have a compact freezer inside the shop and the temperature inside the freezer is around 7 degrees fahrenheit four batteries that have been inside this freezer for over 24 hours so up next we're going to do some cold temperature testing on each of these batteries to see how they perform the initial voltage for the weightly is at 20.32 and the weightless made it 42 minutes and 11 seconds which is over two minutes less run time compared to the ambient temperature test it produced 3.51 amp hours and watt hours testing the dewalt next the dewalt started off at 20.58 volts the dewalt lasted 52 minutes and 53 seconds which is over 10 minutes longer than the weight leak but the cold weather definitely shortened the dewalt's run time by around 5 minutes the dewalt made 4.36 amp hours and around 73 watt hours testing the milwaukee next the milwaukee started out at 20.45 volts and the milwaukee lasted 48 minutes and 48 seconds which is around three minutes less than the dewalt the milwaukee produced 4.02 amp hours and 66 watt hours testing makita next the makita started out at 20.41 volts the makita made it 49 minutes and 54 seconds which is longer than the milwaukee in weightlife but still short of the dewalt by over two minutes so the dewalt came out on top for cold temperature performance lasting 52.9 minutes makita 49.9 milwaukee 48.8 and weightly 42.2 the dewalt milwaukee and makita all seemed to be together until the five-minute mark and then the dewalt moved into the lead milwaukee moved into second place over makita until around 48 minutes by then all the brands had dropped below 16 volts the blue bar represents cold and the orange bar ambient performance the cold temperature definitely took a toll on the productivity of each brand's shortening battery life by almost a half amp hour in some instances i'll be attaching each one of the batteries to this plastic pipe and then dropping them from various distances to test the durability of each brand the inner pipe will serve as a guide to ensure that each battery impacts the ground at the same angle from 10 feet up the whaley handled the direct side impact blow without experiencing any damage the dewalt seemed to handle the impact just fine without any visible damage either the milwaukee weighs over 100 grams more than the competition it's definitely built to take an impact the makita definitely doesn't seem as robust as milwaukee but it handled the impact just fine up next all the batteries will experience a blow in the corner from 12 feet up the blow to the corner from 12 feet up was definitely a lot of stress on the battery packs however the milwaukee is a tank and seems to handle the impact the best none of the batteries are damaged except for the dewalt you can see the batteries are starting to bulge out of the side of this battery pack so a little bit more impact and these batteries are definitely coming out up next i'm going to drop these from 12 feet up with the bottom of the battery impacting the ground the 12 foot blow to the bottom of the batteries caused some pretty impressive bounces fortunately the dewalt remained in one piece and none of the other batteries experienced any damage i'm going to test out each one of the batteries to see if they still work the damage dewalt [Applause] the makita still works i'm going to dismantle the dewalt battery and we'll see what kind of damage took place on the inside apparently the battery shifted knocking the side of this battery casing loose temporarily i'm going to try to put this back together but i don't see any sort of internal damage i previously dismantled a dewalt 5 amp hour battery pack and they use the samsung 25r which is a very high quality battery okay i was able to get the dwell battery back together the side is no longer bulging it just popped out temporarily and just removing the screws pushing it back into position and then tightening the screws is all it took let's take a look inside the milwaukee all these 5 amp hour batteries use 10 18 650 batteries i'm gonna go ahead and cut open this battery pack so i can see what type of batteries being used by the milwaukee so the milwaukee uses the lg he2 battery and the dewalt uses the samsung 25r now both of these have the exact same specs both of them are rated for 2500 milliamp hours and 20 amps of current the samsung 25r is used in both the dewalt and the makita a slightly different model number but both of these are designed to produce 20 amps of current and 2 500 milliamp hours milwaukee dewalt and makita make very good battery packs it seemed like dewalt did the best as far as amp hour production dewalt definitely did not do the best as far as taking a hit a little bit of damage to the dewalt but i was able to put it back together regarding taking a hit milwaukee definitely did the best now regarding the ability of the battery to protect itself makita definitely seems like the best engineered it has the ability to shut itself down at the connectors before it discharges too far damaging the 18650 batteries on the inside all video ideas including this one are viewer suggested so if you have a video idea i hope you'll take time to leave a comment i read reply to as many comments as possible thanks so much for watching the video please take care and look forward to next time

Channel: Project Farm

Views: 868,468

Rating: 4.9409695 out of 5

Keywords: project farm, milwaukee, dewalt, makita, 18v makita battery adapter, 18v makita battery, 20v battery adapter, 20v dewalt battery, dewalt lithium ion battery, makita vs milwaukee, makita lithium battery, milwaukee power tool battery, dewalt power tool battery, makita vs, makita vs dewalt, milwaukee vas dewalt, best impact driver battery, best impact wrench battery, impact wrench battery, impact driver battery, power tool test, dewalt air blower, DEWALT DCBL722P1 Blower

Id: 4OkT_SU6GSg

Length: 15min 3sec (903 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/creativityisafarce]

Doesn’t matter to me. Ryobi has ONE battery for all tools. Other brands seem to change and cause you to buy new batteries. Black and decker is the worst at that. So they have a customer for life. Until they renege on their promise.

[u/tagrav]

I have Milwaukee shit because the keep innovating and making skookum mechanic line tools. The right angle m12 die grinder is so great.

M18 high torque impact is a nut breaker

[u/SnobbyDobby]

I have all Dewalt stuff and though I think they are great tools. However, the 60v Flexvolt batteries do tend to fail prematurely.

[u/NatNat666]

Dont buy knocked shit. The difference in the name brands is too small to make a difference.

(I'm a makita guy btw, so "right in the middle" if that mattered.)

[u/TheLimeyCanuck]

Except for the Waitley, the performance of each brand is so close that it doesn't really matter which one you choose for real world use. What's missing here is a long-term test of reliability. DeWalt has a poor reputation in this regard, while Makita has a very good one, possibly due to the protection circuitry which keeps the charge level in the safe zone better than the others.

In the end, among the name brands, they are similar enough that you should choose your cordless brand due to the tool lines themselves, not the batteries.