I have a Milwaukee impact and hacksaw. I had two batteries but one died. I went on Ebay looking for a replacement and yeah they're expensive. But then I noticed generic ones. $50 for two 6.0 M18 batteries? Sure I'll take that risk. I'll follow up once they get here.
Interested. Name brand batteries are very expensive, and although I've never cracked them open I have a suspicion that the off brand ones use the same Panasonic 18650 cells inside as the nicer ones, just in a cheaper case.
In reply to Stampie :
I'll be honest and worry there can be that much price difference between two equal quality sets of batteries.
I realize that Milwaukee makes great products and perhaps some greater profit is due them. But enough to double the item count?
Are the generic batteries on par with Milwaukee? Just how inferior are they? Can I live with that difference?
Stampie I eagerly await your experience I'm just about at that point myself.
I've bought them from Amazon. They don't last as long. I have a Dewalt cordless screwdriver that I got probably 8 years out of the OEM battery. Bought a no-brand replacement and got about 3 years. Honestly, it was so much cheaper it was still worth it.
I bought a couple of M18 generic batteries off amazon that were about half the cost of the real thing and had lots of good reviews. They are still working fine after about 5 yrs. Most of the cost of the battery pack is in the cells, so they must be using cheaper, no name cells, but for my home garage use, they are functionally equivalent to the real thing.
Those are generally really cheap (bordering on garbage) cells that are not tested or paired well. The spot welds, nickel straps and battery control modules are normally pretty garbage too. Milwaukee might assemble those batteries in China but they don't outsource it to some dirt floor Shenzhen E36 M3hole.
You pay for a lot of quality control on the the OE batteries but that is also where the power tool companies have the most margin. I would be looking at the overstock tool stores for XC5.0 batteries, those are nearly obsolete and will likely be discontinued in the near future as the industry pushes from the 18650 cells to 21700 cells as the go to. Direct Tools Factory Outlet is a good option too, that is TTI (Milwaukee's parent company) brick and mortar store that specializes in discontinued, obsolute and refurb tools and accessories.
Knockoff batteries is what i look for in a power tool. I use the "porter cable"/dewalt everything ones. I have a large knockoff battery i got to try out. I would say its not as good as a name brand, but it has more arse than the name brand small battery. Considering how cheap the batteries are, im happy with the knockoff performance and mostly the availability.
also there is always just opening up the battery pack and replacing the bad/underperforming cells.
I ordered a greenworks knockoff one for my mower from amazon and it weighed half as much and would not power the mower up for more than a second.
I tried the off-brand batteries once. Never again. Half the power and died after a few months of infrequent use.
I've gotten them for my Worx garden tools, and chainsaw. Smaller, lighter, don't hold a charge quite as long as the originals. It's nice having 2 or 3 of them when I'm out doing my thing. But I've had them for a couple of years, and for the price point, worth it. YMMV.
I can only speak for Makita batteries, but the reviews that I have read indicate that the knockoffs claim to have the same circuitry inside - meaning overcharge, overload and overheat protection - but really only have cheap cells and an LED light. Might be fine, but you are not getting the protection of the OEM.
Makita:
NOT Makita:
The knockoffs even include the embossed star, which is a trademarked battery protection system that they definitely don't have.
Thinking out loud: I suppose most of these things have 18650s or the like inside them. Probably wouldn't be too difficult to pop them open and just replace the cells.
I got Amazon 12v Dewalt knock offs for the little dude's power wheels swap. He grenaded the "rear end" do now I use them in my impact and drill, work fine, don't last as long as the real ones but they were 1/3 of the price iirc.
I had some knock-off Makita's go bad after about 18 months, all roughly at the same time. Contacted the seller regarding the advertised lifetime warranty....crickets. Contacted eBay....nothing. Buy genuine- you get what you pay for.
I have bought cheap laptop batteries on Amazon that had less than a year life , but the seller sent me a replacement..........that lasted even less !
Problem is the knock offs look the same , so if there was a "good knockoff" how would you know ?
Buy from Amazon , at least you have a chance to return them.......
Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:I've bought them from Amazon. They don't last as long. I have a Dewalt cordless screwdriver that I got probably 8 years out of the OEM battery. Bought a no-brand replacement and got about 3 years. Honestly, it was so much cheaper it was still worth it.
Pretty much the exact same experience from me.
I ordered two off-brand batteries from Amazon for my weed wacker - and they were actually much better than the originals. I guess your experience may vary.
Sometimes its easier to shop for deals on tools that come with multiple batteries. I picked up a Milwaukee hammer drill with 3 5 ah batteries from home depot over July 4th.
We used knock off batteries in a production setting. Consensus was, we would get a bad one occasionally but the majority worked great, and the massive price differential made the bad ones not even worth returning, just chunk them and move one. Wed rather have 2 batteries with 80 percent of the capacity for less money than the one oem. Can't be sitting around waiting for a battery to charge when there is work to be done
I've read that Milwaukee has intelligence built into the batteries. So I buy originals for those. I hunt for deals by setting up alerts at SlickDeals (no affiliation, just a happy customer), and typically buy the batteries when they're less than $10 per AH.
I've had good luck buying knock-off batteries for my Black and Decker tools. They come in larger sizes than I can get for OEM, and I look at my B&W tools as disposable (I typically buy them used).. My Milwaukees are too expensive to consider them disposable.
Knock offs probably won't hold a charge as long or take as many recharge cycles, but some may be a decent price/benefit ratio.
My 56V Ego lawnmower battery costs over $500 (Can.) to replace - hoping it lasts awhile!
I've had better luck getting the 3D printed battery adapters, and using them to run newer 20 volt Li-ion batteries in my old 18v Dewalt tools.
Recycled all the old Nicad batteries, thought about getting all new tools, but they still worked fine, just needed new batteries.
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