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Milwaukee 18 volt tools and batteries. How do you store them?

emmett518

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2021
Messages
810
Location
USA
I bought an 18 volt - 3/4 impact wrench kit and a bare tool grease gun.
Do you leave the batteries connected to the tools? Or disconnect them after use?

thanks
 

crane operator

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
8,275
Location
sw missouri
I store my batteries at 87% drained in the tool. Just enough battery that the tool comes on. That way I can be well into a project, with two bolts to go for the impact, or three grease zerks left, when the battery dies. I get great exercise walking back to the shop to get another battery, from another tool, that's also mostly dead. I can then put them both on the charger, while I finish with a ratchet.

Its my health plan.
 

John Canfield

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
431
Location
Texas
Occupation
Ranching
Good choice with the Milwaukee M18s. For years and years I've left batteries in my cordless tools - works for me.
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,250
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
I store my batteries at 87% drained in the tool. Just enough battery that the tool comes on. That way I can be well into a project, with two bolts to go for the impact, or three grease zerks left, when the battery dies. I get great exercise walking back to the shop to get another battery, from another tool, that's also mostly dead. I can then put them both on the charger, while I finish with a ratchet.

Its my health plan.

Is 87% drained mean one red light on the battery when you press that little button? If so that's how I do it too.

Never thought of it as a health plan, I need to rethink this method. Usually I'm apologizing to the Lord for all the foul language that inevitably comes with the dead 18V tool that I really needed to finish the job.
 

FarmWrench

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2013
Messages
168
Location
Chaffee NY
Occupation
Table Potato farmer
In the bed of my pickup where rain puts them under a couple of inches of water...........

Really. Killed a battery and now the hammerdill sounds funny. It's been a bad month for tools around here.

I try to keep one battery on charge and the other in the little impact. Now that I'm down to one battery I don't have a system figured out.
 

Camshawn

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2017
Messages
585
Location
Langley BC
Occupation
retired
I have batteries in each tool and a couple of spares charged on the shelf. I try to check the battery in the tool I am about to use before I leave the shop area and if it is low, I grab a charged one.
Haven’t had any issues yet. Cam
 

mrbb

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2015
Messages
187
Location
NE pa
if storing them over say a winter or long periods of time, the suggested way to store them is in a place with a stray temp and batteries at about half charge,
this is said to keep the cells lasting the longest they can

I typically move mine in from the unheated shop to a heated building for winter time

large temp swings even from hot to cool can damage cells(not a LOT bu it does happen)
 
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