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wills_dad
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2025
I didn't need the wire connector it came with for my specific use but nice addition to the package.Been working great since I got it, used it for making one of my two battery boxes I made for huntingVersatul in bringing 'power' to the woods and around the yard.
DD
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2025
Price
Alex
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2025
I have great access to M18 batteries and was looking for a way to power my 12V devices off of them, and this seems to do the job pretty well. Even with the much higher power tools I have, the heatsink on the converter block barely heats up, which is a good sign. I don't think the wires and too thin and althogh the M18 connector is plastic, it seems well built and will stand up to a lot of things. Definitely can reccomend.
TurboRabbit
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2024
Figured I would try this for my lighting that I added to my utility trailer, with my LEDs installed used this kit to supply 12v power to my strips. Worked as expected, now I can use Milwaukee batteries that I already own to provide lighting to my trailer. Super easy to wire up and use. Would recommend.
Todd K. Moyer
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2024
I did a fair amount of testing on this block. The aluminum buck converter block is fairly impressive and apparently overdesigned. Pulling 11 A out of it (10% above rating) for extended time periods barely made it warm to the touch. Of course, it is rather large for a 120 W converter. The converter block appears super solid and well made, and is potted with a rubbery material (I guess epoxy), which should make it quite impervious to the elements.Efficiency of this converter is quite good. It's listed as "up to 95%", but I measured greater than that in some circumstances. This would explain why it doesn't get too hot.Here are a list of caveats, which lead me to me 3 star rating...* I'm not 100% sure what Milwaukee does with the inner 2 terminals on their batteries, but I assume there is some kind of communication, or signaling, between the battery and the tool. I took the adapter plastic block apart, and the inner terminals are not even connected. If there is any chance of protecting the battery by using those terminals, this product does not take advantage of it. See photos '1' and '2'* The output voltage is 'good enough', but not very well regulated. See graph '3' -- for some reason the voltage starts out above 12 V, but as you draw increasing current, the voltage drops rapidly, until you hit around 11.6 V. The voltage stays pretty constant at load currents above 0.4 A or so. You can also see, though, on graph '3' that the output voltage depends quite a bit on the input voltage, varying about 200 mV as the input varies from 16-20 V (roughly what you'd expect from the M18 battery). That's rather poor regulation, though probably good enough, as I've said.* The most serious issue I have with this product is that it should not (my opinion) continue to draw power from the battery when the voltage has dropped below some critical point. I'm guessing 5 cells in the battery, and you do not want to discharge below. See graph '6'. I let a battery drain while connected to this converter, and it kept drawing current from the battery even though the voltage was below 13 V. This was actually a mistake on my part, and I'm hoping it didn't damage my expensive battery. But there is just no reason for the converter not to shut down, to protect the battery.* Graph '5' shows how the voltage was sagging as the battery discharged. Very poor regulation! But of course, the converter should have shut down, instead of discharging the battery this far..... In summaryI would be careful with this. I think you may be able to damage your expensive M18 battery. Be super conservative about how long you discharge the battery, and maybe use one that has a capacity gauge on it, and only take it down to half capacity.
rc303
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2024
Had high hopes for this setup. I have one for another brand that works great and had hoped to be able to also use my Milwaukee style batteries to power my portable comm equipment, but this one is dead out of the box. I can't rate the performance of a good one, but will make a couple of observations. The dc-dc converter on this one is a 24v to 12v one while many competitors use a 17-55v converter which is a lot more versatile if you want to make modifications. I also cannot find an input protection fuse on this one either (NOT a good idea) and I would very much suggest that one be installed. The battery adapter fits tightly to the battery which is good and has an on/off switch (another good idea). Your mileage may vary on this one because I cannot test it for output voltage regulation or converter noise. IF I receive a replacement I will revisit this review. One star at this point.*****UPDATE*****I received a replacement unit for testing. This unit powers up correctly and has an output of 12.2v as advertised. It would be nice if it were more in the range of 12.5-13.8v as that is where most "12v" equipment likes to operate. It is adequate for some of my smaller comm radios, voltage/noise/current wise. I have not tested this at high amperage as my application does not require this. I would NOT use any of these type tool battery converters at high current unless at very intermittent application. These batteries have limited capacity and there is no low voltage protection on most of these batteries so you could discharge them to unsafe limits. This converter would just keep going (as it is designed) until you reached about 13-14v on the input without warning. I did not notice any objectionable noise at the .5-1A draw rates. My earlier comments about fusing still stands. It needs one on the input line and it wouldn't hurt to have one on the output also. Still, it is a useful item to have if you have Milwaukee style batteries. I will raise rating to 4 stars as it does as advertised, but withhold one for the fusing issue and the first dud.
Scott Hill
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2024
This is a great tool for smaller projects or some 12v led lights. Personally I would not use my name brand M18 batteries since this setup doesn’t have any circuit protection or anything. However you can get some really cheap off brand M18 batteries and that’s what I do just to keep my good batteries for my regular tools.
Steve in Seattle
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2024
I'm creating a power system for a 12 volt motor that drives a ball machine. The average 12 volt portable battery just doesn't stand up to long use. Using a Milwaukee M18 battery gives me more useful time with the ball machine without burning up the motor and running it too fast. A step down adapter like this really meets the need. Now I can run the 12 volt ball machine for 90 minutes straight using the Milwaukee M18 18 volt battery.
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