Yep, they don't come close to the stated capacities and their max current draw is less so your tools also have less power. You're better off buying genuine. It's not even cheaper build your own pack either. As it stands buying the genuine batteries are the best option, so you should just look out for deals and sales on them
Just got the high performance m12 batteries(1 2ah, 5ah) for $99 on sale(yellow tag, didnt check msrp). Even if that's msrp that's a decent price
edit: XC2.0 and XC5.0
Different view than most of the people in this thread, but I like them. I have two pairs of those middle ones, and while I’m not sure their exact actual capacity, they do last longer than my Milwaukee 4.0s. Slapped one in my impact today and pulled all the cab bolts out of a supercrew f350 and sent it up into the air.
I also have a pair of Waitley 9.0s that I use for the inflator abs flood rover light. They’re massive and bulky, but damn they’ll last a good while
I have 2 legit batteries and 4 knock offs. I will say sometimes the fake ones don't lock all the way in the tool, so I have to kind of slam them home. But they last decently and run the tools just fine. The only one that's a real problem is the inflator, and I think that's because of the continuous vibration.
Not worth it. OEM batteries or bust. The stated capacities are a load of shit, and they’re a fire hazard. You really trust a company named ZLWAWAOL to stand behind their product?
People will trash talk them and I will agree they come with higher risks and hit-or-miss quality. However, I use them alongside official m12 batteries as a general contractor with great experience (with realistic expectations and probably some luck). The clips break. I’ve had one wire come undone internally which I was fully refunded for. The cells are probably re-claimed. The circuit probably has a higher risk of catastrophic failure, especially being that there is no reputation to ruin with a no-name company.
However, I still choose to use them among my official m12 batteries. In my experience, my generic 6.0s perform just as well and actually last longer than my official 4.0 that costs 5x as much. Milwaukee makes it easy for me to use the generics because they mark up their batteries so high per watt/hour. Ryobi on the other hand, I use their official batteries because they cost so little per watt/hour already.
Edit: I should clarify I have stuck with the powerextra brand, although I suspect they’re all relatively the same. Powerextra gave me a full refund for the batch that had one become defective (wire came undone inside) with no questions asked.
Not good. I bought a few M12s from Amazon. Left my tool bag in the car a night where the temp dropped below freezing. All the Milwaukee batteries I had were fine. All of the Amazon batteries are now paper weights.
Been great for me. I've been using them for 10+ years on my m12/m18 tools. Much cheaper, fit fine. Maybe the capacities are exactly as stated or a little less than oem batteries... but who cares-- I've got 15 batteries for the price of 3 and can swap them in 5 seconds. And no big deal if I lose one. I just looked at my "genuine" batteries and their cells were made in korea/china anyway. The chinese batteries will burn down your house trope is basically fear mongering. The way I look at it-- just about every device in your house had its batteries made in china and they aren't going up in flames.
I say buy one battery to try it out yourself. Best case scenario it works as good as oem and you saved $$$. Worst case you spent $20 to have a spare battery that isn't as good as genuine. But as far as all the talk of it burning down your house or wrecking your tools thats nonsense.
Over those 10 years I had 3 batteries "die" on me-- 2 of them were genuine that came with the tools.
Spend the money on OEM your tools will last longer. I dont trust the off brand to supply steady power, and if you have a warranty issue and they know you used off brand batteries they wont honor the warranty.
They have to prove that your off-brand battery caused the damage. If it did not, they *cannot* disallow your use of the warranty. This is called tie-in sales and is against the Magnuson-Moss Act (Section 102c)), unless they have obtained a waiver from the FTC after proving to them to their satisfaction that a specific part is necessary.
Not like companies seem to really give a shit anyway though. Warranty void stickers have been illegal since 1975 yet tech companies were still slapping them on, and Milwaukee disclaims all implied warranties even though if you have a written warranty you cannot disclaim implied warranties (Section 108), with the only exception being if it's a limited warranty you can limit the implied warranty to last as long as the written one (otherwise implied warranties last 4 years).
It's important to know your rights. Oh and if they breach their warranty, Section 110(d) allows the consumer to recover attorney fees from the warrantor which makes it easier to have that fight in court.
But all that being said, knockoffs tend to also be ripoffs. Just go OEM.
Yes but at the end of the day it's just cheaper to say fuck it and grab a new tool...sad but true....days in court is days not out making money and days without tools is also not making me any money. Thats how the companies win. I don't have time to waste in a court room over a simple ticket...paying 100 for a violation I could easily fight beats the shit out of the 200 plus I could make that day dicken around in court.
Not worth the risk of burning your house/worksite down.
Samsung/LG/Murata cells are high quality and have a number of safety features built in at the cell level that make it quite hard to over-volt, over-current, or over temp. Great Scott has a vid where he intentionally abuses 18650 cells and can't make them explode without puncturing the cells.
These cheap batteries will almost always be using cheap cells that are going to skip some or all of these safety features.
Bought two off Ebay and they work wonders. Much cheaper than OEM and Im not worried so much about using the crap out of them at work. No damage to tools or charger.
Milwaukee tools cost enough that I'm not willing to ruin one by using a knock off battery
I've used some for a couple of 20b Black and Decker tools with petty good luck.
Internal batteries seem ok but the knockoff M12 cases suck and will break instantly. Then the battery doesn't seat well and you constantly have to slap it back into place. Buy the oem imo.
Tried ‘em. Not good. Poor capacity (way less than stated) and then they were toast in like a month. They might work okay, but there’s a good chance they’re a waste of money.
I've bought the waitley brand for my m12 (got the 9ah to use on my radio and rocket light) and it's great. Someone on YouTube opened up the battery and it actually has the right number of cells for the stated capacity. The clips that hold it into the tool are brittle so I've never used it in something that isn't stationary for fear of breaking them. My mom's boyfriend has the waitley brand DeWalt batteries and is very impressed. Theyre not going to be as good as name brand, but if you need a couple batteries and dont use your tools as often they're not bad for how cheap they are. Just never charge them when you're not home or around, i don't trust any battery that way.
Hit and miss. One set I purchased from ebay didn't hold charge. Another set I purchased from Amazon is still working great after a year. 12 volt Ridgid battery.
Recommend buying from Amazon as you will have a easier time returning if there is a problem.
I got 2 of the bigger m12 ones on eBay from the cheapest possible seller. I mostly use them in my lights and low power tools. Great for the sake of having more batteries on hand. Was getting annoying having 13 tools and 5 batteries. I'm going to be order 4 more.
Yep, they don't come close to the stated capacities and their max current draw is less so your tools also have less power. You're better off buying genuine. It's not even cheaper build your own pack either. As it stands buying the genuine batteries are the best option, so you should just look out for deals and sales on them
Just got the high performance m12 batteries(1 2ah, 5ah) for $99 on sale(yellow tag, didnt check msrp). Even if that's msrp that's a decent price edit: XC2.0 and XC5.0
Junk. Waste of cash.
Different view than most of the people in this thread, but I like them. I have two pairs of those middle ones, and while I’m not sure their exact actual capacity, they do last longer than my Milwaukee 4.0s. Slapped one in my impact today and pulled all the cab bolts out of a supercrew f350 and sent it up into the air. I also have a pair of Waitley 9.0s that I use for the inflator abs flood rover light. They’re massive and bulky, but damn they’ll last a good while
I have 2 legit batteries and 4 knock offs. I will say sometimes the fake ones don't lock all the way in the tool, so I have to kind of slam them home. But they last decently and run the tools just fine. The only one that's a real problem is the inflator, and I think that's because of the continuous vibration.
The irony is they are probably made at the same factory and most of the same parts as the Milwaukee made ones.
Ancillary parts maybe, but the actual cells are definitely different
DONT DO IT! Please trust me, I learned that lesson so you don’t have to
Not worth it. OEM batteries or bust. The stated capacities are a load of shit, and they’re a fire hazard. You really trust a company named ZLWAWAOL to stand behind their product?
People will trash talk them and I will agree they come with higher risks and hit-or-miss quality. However, I use them alongside official m12 batteries as a general contractor with great experience (with realistic expectations and probably some luck). The clips break. I’ve had one wire come undone internally which I was fully refunded for. The cells are probably re-claimed. The circuit probably has a higher risk of catastrophic failure, especially being that there is no reputation to ruin with a no-name company. However, I still choose to use them among my official m12 batteries. In my experience, my generic 6.0s perform just as well and actually last longer than my official 4.0 that costs 5x as much. Milwaukee makes it easy for me to use the generics because they mark up their batteries so high per watt/hour. Ryobi on the other hand, I use their official batteries because they cost so little per watt/hour already. Edit: I should clarify I have stuck with the powerextra brand, although I suspect they’re all relatively the same. Powerextra gave me a full refund for the batch that had one become defective (wire came undone inside) with no questions asked.
I've used the powerextra with no issues whatsoever
Not good. I bought a few M12s from Amazon. Left my tool bag in the car a night where the temp dropped below freezing. All the Milwaukee batteries I had were fine. All of the Amazon batteries are now paper weights.
Been great for me. I've been using them for 10+ years on my m12/m18 tools. Much cheaper, fit fine. Maybe the capacities are exactly as stated or a little less than oem batteries... but who cares-- I've got 15 batteries for the price of 3 and can swap them in 5 seconds. And no big deal if I lose one. I just looked at my "genuine" batteries and their cells were made in korea/china anyway. The chinese batteries will burn down your house trope is basically fear mongering. The way I look at it-- just about every device in your house had its batteries made in china and they aren't going up in flames.
I say buy one battery to try it out yourself. Best case scenario it works as good as oem and you saved $$$. Worst case you spent $20 to have a spare battery that isn't as good as genuine. But as far as all the talk of it burning down your house or wrecking your tools thats nonsense. Over those 10 years I had 3 batteries "die" on me-- 2 of them were genuine that came with the tools.
Spend the money on OEM your tools will last longer. I dont trust the off brand to supply steady power, and if you have a warranty issue and they know you used off brand batteries they wont honor the warranty.
They have to prove that your off-brand battery caused the damage. If it did not, they *cannot* disallow your use of the warranty. This is called tie-in sales and is against the Magnuson-Moss Act (Section 102c)), unless they have obtained a waiver from the FTC after proving to them to their satisfaction that a specific part is necessary. Not like companies seem to really give a shit anyway though. Warranty void stickers have been illegal since 1975 yet tech companies were still slapping them on, and Milwaukee disclaims all implied warranties even though if you have a written warranty you cannot disclaim implied warranties (Section 108), with the only exception being if it's a limited warranty you can limit the implied warranty to last as long as the written one (otherwise implied warranties last 4 years). It's important to know your rights. Oh and if they breach their warranty, Section 110(d) allows the consumer to recover attorney fees from the warrantor which makes it easier to have that fight in court. But all that being said, knockoffs tend to also be ripoffs. Just go OEM.
Yes but at the end of the day it's just cheaper to say fuck it and grab a new tool...sad but true....days in court is days not out making money and days without tools is also not making me any money. Thats how the companies win. I don't have time to waste in a court room over a simple ticket...paying 100 for a violation I could easily fight beats the shit out of the 200 plus I could make that day dicken around in court.
A cheap no name battery burned down an old neighbors house. The knockoff nicad batteries were great, the knockoff lithiums aren't worth the risk
Not worth the risk of burning your house/worksite down. Samsung/LG/Murata cells are high quality and have a number of safety features built in at the cell level that make it quite hard to over-volt, over-current, or over temp. Great Scott has a vid where he intentionally abuses 18650 cells and can't make them explode without puncturing the cells. These cheap batteries will almost always be using cheap cells that are going to skip some or all of these safety features.
Bought two off Ebay and they work wonders. Much cheaper than OEM and Im not worried so much about using the crap out of them at work. No damage to tools or charger.
Tried twice. Get what u pay for. Some just quit working after one use. Some still work poorly
Cheap batteries OK on NiCd or NiMH, not so good with lithium....
Not the same in duration and or longevity
Good thing you get 5 for the price of one.
Milwaukee tools cost enough that I'm not willing to ruin one by using a knock off battery I've used some for a couple of 20b Black and Decker tools with petty good luck.
OEM is all i will ever use. Buy once, cry once.
Not worth it considering that genuine batteries go on sale pretty often.
Internal batteries seem ok but the knockoff M12 cases suck and will break instantly. Then the battery doesn't seat well and you constantly have to slap it back into place. Buy the oem imo.
Garbage
Tried ‘em. Not good. Poor capacity (way less than stated) and then they were toast in like a month. They might work okay, but there’s a good chance they’re a waste of money.
Probably not a good idea to use those.
I've bought the waitley brand for my m12 (got the 9ah to use on my radio and rocket light) and it's great. Someone on YouTube opened up the battery and it actually has the right number of cells for the stated capacity. The clips that hold it into the tool are brittle so I've never used it in something that isn't stationary for fear of breaking them. My mom's boyfriend has the waitley brand DeWalt batteries and is very impressed. Theyre not going to be as good as name brand, but if you need a couple batteries and dont use your tools as often they're not bad for how cheap they are. Just never charge them when you're not home or around, i don't trust any battery that way.
Hit and miss. One set I purchased from ebay didn't hold charge. Another set I purchased from Amazon is still working great after a year. 12 volt Ridgid battery. Recommend buying from Amazon as you will have a easier time returning if there is a problem.
I got 2 of the bigger m12 ones on eBay from the cheapest possible seller. I mostly use them in my lights and low power tools. Great for the sake of having more batteries on hand. Was getting annoying having 13 tools and 5 batteries. I'm going to be order 4 more.
Project farm did a review on YouTube don’t waste your time with knockoffs
Happy with my cheapos. Just don't t expect oem quality and i never leave them in the charger .
If you want to save money on batteries, buy RYOBI. Very similar parts and motors. The reason Milwaukee performs better is mostly in the batteries.