M18 18-Volt Lithium-Ion High Output Starter Kit with Two 6.0 Ah Battery and Charger

I have a few of these. I think they are the best size/weight to output. I recently got the M18 XC6.0 FORGE; which might be my new favorite?

Wow! Battery speaks for itself! Continuous power for all HD projects...

All Milwaukee tools make my job more easy

Really nice battery high output lasts longer.

Great battery for my circular saw, sawzall and hacksaw. Only disadvantaged is they are too big to fit in the drill and impact, the battery is wider and hits the belt hook...

I compared this new XC 6.0Ah High Output battery to one of my trusty XC 5.0 batteries. The XC6.0 at 2 lbs 6 oz weighs 13 ounces more than the XC 5.0. The XC 6.0 is 1" longer and 1/2" taller than the XC 5.0. I tested both in my 2630-20 6.5" circular saw. I was able to complete cuts in 2" x 10" material 50% faster with the XC 6.0 than with the XC 5.0, using the same amount of forward pressure on the saw with each. You'll have to decide for yourself what a 50% productivity increase is worth when sawing or grinding or doing other high power requirement jobs, but for me it's a no-brainer. I didn't compare how long the battery lasted. The XC 6.0 is rated at 108 watt-hours vs 90 for the XC 5.0, so as well as having 50% more power it should last longer on the job too. An instruction sheet was included with general M18 battery instructions, but there was no specific information about the XC 6.0 battery.

The only real con with this 2 pack of batteries is how to break into the darn packaging. It is packed with heavy gauge plastic that is form welded all the way around the batteries, not even room to get scissors in - forcing you to use a razor knife to release the batteries. I can understand making stuff theft resistant, however, I was not fond taking a razor knife around my new set of batteries. Once out, they first had to be charged - which I expected - one bar on the power level meter. About an hour later one was ready to go to work. They are everything you would expect from Milwaukee lithium! Long on power and short on charging time!

This is a 2-pack of Milwaukee’s 6.0Ah high-output batteries. These make a great alternative to a single 12.0Ah battery if you’re looking for a lighter weight battery (two of these are the same price as one 12.0Ah battery and both batteries are designated as High-Output by Milwaukee). HO batteries use the newer 21700 Li cells and have more power and run cooler than non HO batteries, which use the older 18650 Li cells. I tested the batteries in several of my M18 tools, including a 2902 hammer drill, 2720 Sawzall, and 2730 circular saw. In every case the tools performed extremely well, meaning they exhibited a lot of power under load, and because of the battery’s weight, the tools were easier to handle than they were with the 12.0Ah battery installed. I also compared a “regular” 5.0Ah battery and the 6.0Ah HO battery using my Milwaukee 2902-20 hammer drill and a 1” auger bit (see Photos). I noted the temperature of each battery (using an IR thermometer) before and after drilling 20 holes in a pressure treated 4x6. While not a completely scientific comparison, I did note that the temperate after drilling was three degrees cooler with the 6.0 battery (72 versus 75 degrees, starting temperature for both was 60 degrees). When done, the 5.0 battery only lit 3 LEDs in its fuel gauge and the 6.0 battery still had 4 LEDs. I can’t draw too much of a conclusion from the temperatures (I think I would need to make many more holes to really compare them), but the runtime would be very impressive for the HO battery. So, if you’re using Milwaukee’s high-demand power tools, you may want to look into the 6.0Ah batteries for easier handling than the 12.0Ah battery (of course, for the stationary tools, like the miter and table saws, the 12.0 would be just fine).

M18 18-Volt Lithium-Ion High Output Battery Pack 6.0Ah (2-Pack) - a Home Depot Seeds Program Review I’m pretty well invested in Milwaukee battery tools. I recently got a 7-tool set of their M18 Brushless tools and I’m certainly impressed enough with them that I may look into others as well. The kit came with two M18 Red Lithium XC5.0 batteries. They would probably be enough for most use but some of the tools use a bit more power and run batteries out faster. I figured I would get a couple more so I went with a little larger battery – the M18 Red Lithium High Output XC6.0 batteries. According to the Milwaukee website, the “M18™ REDLITHIUM™ HIGH OUTPUT™ XC6.0 Battery Pack provides 50% more power and runs 50% cooler vs M18™ REDLITHIUM™ XC battery packs”. They don’t specify how they came up with those stats so I can’t really say how much of is true or just hype. I can say the XC6.0 battery fits all of Milwaukee’s extensive M18 line of tools – and that ‘s a good thing! All of their batteries have power left indicators. This is a very good thing. I hate starting a job with a low battery then have to stop to get a fresh one. These batteries also hold full – or nearly full – power until they die. If you’re used to using NiCad batteries in your tools, you’ll find this very nice. Without hard data from Milwaukee, and since I have a pair of XC5.0 batteries as well as these XC6.0, I thought I would perform a very “unscientific” comparison and test of the two. Weight: XC5.0 25.71 oz, XC6.0 38.17 oz. This may not seem like a whole lot but it may be significant if you’re wielding the tools for hours on end. Time to charge from completely dead to completely full: XC5.0 70 min, XC6.0 75 minutes. This is using Milwaukee’s M18/M12 Multi-Voltage Charger. Milwaukee has rapid chargers available but I don’t know how much faster they would be. Power: The XC5.0 batteries can run all of the tools in my kit. I’m not sure how long some of the larger ones like the SAWZALL or the circular saw would run but I have used them some with no loss of charge as indicated by the power indicator lights. In my test of drilling holes, the was a slight loss of power near the end of it’s charge. This was barely noticeable and I could only tell when I replaced it with a fresh battery. The XC6.0 had plenty of power to drive the tools in my kit as well. I was trying to be cognizant of power loss at the end of it’s charge and found no discernible loss of power until it die. Life: I drilled half inch holes into a 4x4 using the M18 ½ inch Hammer Drill Driver. I started with the batteries completely charged and drilled holes until the battery died. The XC5.0 drilled 103 holes. The XC6.0 drilled 114 holes. It wasn’t the increased life I was expecting but this was a single trial. Heat: The XC5.0 may have been a little warmer after use than the XC6.0 but nothing significant to me. The drill itself was heating up more than the battery though. As I said, my testing was pretty unscientific and serve only to give a reasonable comparison but YMMV. Neither of these batteries would be suitable for the large M18 tools like the table saw , chainsaw or similar but for the smaller tools like drills, impact wrench and circular saw, they’re a good size and weight. While I really didn’t find a huge difference between the two batteries, if you’re going to need extra batteries than I would suggest getting the XC6.0 over the XC5.0 for the extra capacity and run time. Also, if you’re inclined to believe manufacturer marketing literature, there are other advantages as well. The pretty substantial cost difference between the two would have to be figured in.

*A powerful pair of batteries.* The batteries in this 2 pack are of the latest generation from Milwaukee. These 6.0ah packs, as well as the newly introduced 12ah are especially different from previous models in that the individual cells have received an upgrade. Whereas previous models ran on 18650 cells these now use 21700. This is a significant upgrade for both power and run-time in addition to better thermal management. Design and form factor wise these batteries share many similarities with previous generations with the main difference being in size. Lengthwise these measure in at a little over 5 ¼ inches and height of the cell housing comes in at approx. 2 ¼. Weight comes in at just about 2.4 pounds. I've included some images for a size comparison with the batteries I already owned for a better idea of the differences. In general these will be longer than older models and will usually be taller. Performance wise this pair proved to be a bit more powerful than my other batteries when I got down to using them, the real issue in gauging power increases where due to the limited m18 tools I had to test. I mainly used the new brushless jigsaw for power tests and did notice a feel for increase in power over the 4 and 5ah I previously had. It wasn’t much, but it was there. I also used a brushless drill yet found little noticeable difference there. The tool I used the most to test the capability of these batteries was with the brushless backpack vacuum. While these did put out less power than the 9.0ah it came with it wasnt by much and was still plenty capable. Output here was much higher when compared to any other size I tested. I also used the vacuum to test run-time as any of my other tools, regardless of the battery I’m using, takes an extremely long time to kill one. For the vac I got around 20 minutes on high with each of these. This is very good as the higher 9.0ah has been getting me about 27 minutes. I was impressed with run-time yet truth be told I have never not been impressed with the run time of an m18. Heat output was also noticeably lower both when charging and during extended uses. Whereas older models get warm/hot to the touch, these do not. I would definitely recommend these batteries with the caveat that it depends on the tools you have to use them with. If all you've got is a drill and impact driver then you aren't really going to see much gains here outside of run-time. You'll also have a much larger battery to lug around. Where I think these would shine the most is with tools such as the sawzall, the new brushless circ saw or an angle grinder where the output gains would undoubtedly be most noticeable. Value-wise it is going to depend on you and your usual workload weather these are going to be worth the premium. Just remember that this pair of batteries are a technological advancement and with that always comes a higher buy-in. I wasn’t disappointed with this set and I don’t think you would be either.