Welcome back power tool fans, I’ve got some breaking tool news from Milwaukee. This last Wednesday they brought a few of us to their headquarters to show us a brand new line of M18 jobsite vacs, and a mountain of accessories. And Today we’re allowed to show you what we saw. And while they’re cool, and packed with unique features we haven’t seen before, that’s not the biggest story. If you look really close, you’ll see something far more significant, just, below, the surface. Let’s go!
These are the all new Milwaukee M18 FUEL gallon wet/dry vacs. These are not the chubby roller bins we’re used to dragging around our shops. These are serious tools aimed directly at jobsite cleanup. We’re talking drywall, concrete, insulation, wood and metal shavings, the big stuff that normally clogs the vac you already have. But instead of making 1 or 2 different models, Milwaukee made 24. Sort of.
That brings us to the first unique feature. The entire system is modular. You choose the cart, tank, and motorhead specifically for your job.
Let me walk you through it. First let’s grab a cart. This is the 0923, Wet/Dry Vacuum Cart. It has 4 independently swiveling and locking reinforced casters that promise durability and unmatched mobility on the jobsite. There’s storage for 4 different accessories, and a foot pedal for easily removing the tank.
OR, you can choose the 0933 Premium Wet/Dry Vacuum Cart, with two swiveling casters in the front, and two large wheels on the back. Unlike the smaller cart, this one has a three-position adjustable push handle that makes it really easy to drag around the site or upstairs. It also holds 4 accessories and has a foot pedal that detaches the tank.
Next, we need a tank. Milwaukee is offering us 3 different options. A 6 Gallon, a 9 gallon, and a huge 12 gallon tank. They’re all very durable, have large comfortable handles for dumping, and a tank drain for easily emptying water.
Now that we have a cart and a bin, we get to choose the Wet/Dry Vacuum Motor Head. And this is where things really start to get interesting. The first option, is the 0911, M18 FUEL 3.5 HP Motor Head. It runs off of a single M18 battery that produces 87 CFM, and 60” of liquid lift suction. That single 12ah battery will give you up to 47 minutes of continuous cleaning time and up to 1,300 square feet of debris cleanup.
Next we jump up to our first Dual Battery vac, the 0921 M18 FUEL 4.25 HP Motor Head. The dual batteries work together to produce 109 CFM and 77” of suction. With 2 12Ah batteries, this will run up to 49 minutes, and 1,600square feet of cleanup.
Still not enough? Next we have another dual battery solution, the 0931 M18 FUEL 6.5 HP Motor Head, delivering a truly impressive 145 CFM and 88” of suction. With 2 12ah batteries, the big one will give the same 49 minutes, but clean up 1,800 square feet instead.
Milwaukee told us they’re also going to be offering a corded AC powered Motor Head, but didn’t have one on hand, nor sent us any information on it yet.
So when you do the math, 2 carts times 3 bins times 4 motor heads, you get 24 different combinations.
And of course Milwaukee does nothing but heavy duty, and that’s pretty obvious in the shared stats. Their casters, wheels and hoses are hyper tough. As I just told you, the power is very high. Sarah and I spent a lot of time cleaning up after the messes our friends made, and we were able to pick up some serious chunks of debris without issue.
They don’t have everything we were hoping for. No remote control, and of course we think they’re mental for not building PACKOUT cleats into the top, or at least mounting points for a packout mounting plate, so you could turn your M18 Vac into the base of your packout stack. But other than those two gripes, these were pretty awesome vacs.
Yet having lots of power and a strong hose, doesn’t properly attack every job. And that brings us to the second part of the story, accessories.
Milwaukee isn’t messing around here. They showed us 6 different bags and filters, 4 adapter kits, 5 different hoses, and 14 tools and nozzles. That included a round brush, floor brush, wet floor nozzle, crevice tool, floor utility nozzle, bigger round brush, bigger floor brush, bigger curved nozzle… you get the idea.
Honestly, that would have felt like overkill already, but then they opened an entirely new room to introduce us to Air-Tip Trade Focused Vacuum Accessories. There were a staggering 19 additional trade specific attachments. And each tool had at least one of us saying “Finally! THAT’S what I’ve been waiting for.”
There’s the AIR-TIP Swiveling Palm Brush with changeable heads so you can choose the right bristles for the job. This one felt great in the hand.
There’s the Air-Tip Rotating Corner Brush, guess what that does.
A clever dust collector that sucks onto drywall to catch your dust… or safety goggles. My bad.
This is the Air Tip 3 in 1 crevice and brush tool that quickly adapts to the job.
The Air-tip conduit line puller which was pretty freakin genius if you ask me.
There’s a 4 in 1 right angle cleaning tool.
A low-profile pivoting brush for finish carpenters. Hear that Dad?
A 2 in 1 utility brush tool that’s slightly less useful than the 3 in 1 we just showed you.
There’s a flexible long reach crevice tool for flexing and reaching, longly, into crevices.
The Air-tip pivoting extension wand that extends and pivots. Ross will love it.
A magnetic utility nozzle that picks up metal objects before they tear apart your filters.
A few non-marring utility nozzles that promise not to marr.
A cool cross brush tool that allows you to agitate the dust, without pushing it away from the hose like the round brushes do. I couldn’t help but feel like this makes their round brushes pointless, but whatever.
There were two different air-tip rocking utility nozzles that made it easy to pick up the thicker stuff.
There’s an Air-Tip Claw Utility Nozzle with brushes that gives you the perfect leverage for cleaning carpets in a car.
And my personal favorite, the M12 Air Tip Utility nozzle. This is a powered brush roll that did a fantastic job of cleaning carpets, with a bright row of led lights to reveal your dirty carpet shame, and it’s all powered by it’s own M12 battery.
It’s almost like a Milwaukee employee suggested a new M18 VAC in a meeting, and one of the executives said “OH SURE BARRY. WHY NOT VACS? THAT’LL DISRUPT THE STATUS QUO. THAT’LL SHIFT SOME INDUSTRY PARADIGMS. YOU SHOUD MAKE LIKE 24 OF THEM AND THEN SPEND 200 MILLION DOLLARS ON ACCESSORIES FOR EVERY TRADE! THAT MAKES A TON OF SENSE BARRY! OH AND WHILE YOUR AT IT, WHY NOT MAKE ALL OF THIS STUFF RIGHT HERE IN THE USA?” and unfortunately, either that exec was bad at sarcasm, or the entire Milwaukee team was bad at sensing it, so they went forward and did just that.
Including the Made in the USA part, which is pretty freak’n cool if you ask me.
But again, not even these awesome accessories are the most significant story. The one thing we all kept staring at were the batteries. Two, M18, 12AH batteries. Not working in parallel to extend runtime, but in series. These vacs, just like the Milwaukee M18 mower, are 36V power tools. These are M36 tools. But they obviously don’t want to call them that.
“So what?” you ask… Isn’t this a good thing? Well, YES! It most certainly is. It’s just that Milwaukee told us several years ago, that they would never make dual battery tools. If I remember correctly, they said that back when they were getting ready to push MX into the market.
When we saw the dual batteries in the mower, we were still skeptical. Maybe it was easy to say yes to a dual battery system, but only for OPE, and more specifically only on a tool with wheels so you don’t feel the weight.
And of course you’ll notice, these vacs are on wheels too. When you put 2 12AH M18 batteries on it, you don’t struggle to use the vac. But if you put them on a rear handle circular saw, well, then you’re setting yourself up for a LOT of powerful cutting, but a pretty terrible backache.
But of course that hasn’t stopped other tool manufacturers. Even SKIL Just launched this new rear handle, but their biggest battery is only a 5ah. Makita’s been doubling up batteries on hand tools forever, but their LXT platform maxes out at only 6.0ah.
Milwaukee has talked about dual battery setups being cumbersome and bad for ergonomics. I get that. If they did make an overpowered M18 Dual Battery 10 ¼” framing saw, it would be awesome, but if someone put 2 12ah batteries on it, it would weight like 300lbs.
But so what? Can’t we be trusted to put the right battery on the tool we want to use… yeah I heard myself. Of course we can’t. But that can’t continue to be the reason.
There now exists a solid M18 dual battery, 36v system, and I think it’s time Milwaukee starts using it on more tools. Imagine a 36v rocket light with 10,000 lumens. Or a 36V table saw with a proper 10” blade for those month long finishing jobs. Don’t try to tell me Milwaukee’s 9” cutoff saw wouldn’t be better with two batteries running in series.
Of course you could also just add crazy runtime to fixed tools like their 12” miter saw. So what do you guys think? If Milwaukee let you choose which tool got 36V power first, what would it be? Let me know below.
So that’s it for now. If you have any questions about the new line of M18 FUEL Vacs and accessories, let me know. I’ll put the prices in the description.
Don’t forget to join us this and every Friday for the Power Tool Week In Review, and this Saturday, when we go live at 3pm est, and let another one of our channel members pick one of our shelves and take home over $2,000 worth of power tools! I’ll see ya then.
PRICING
Pre ORDER or miss out! Milwaukee M18 Vacuums – Milwaukee M18 Cordless – Milwaukee Tools – Brands (ohiopowertool.com)
M18 FUEL™ 6 Gallon Wet/Dry Vacuum0910-20 – $249.00
M18 FUEL™ 9 Gallon Wet/Dry Vacuum 0920-20 – $299.00
M18 FUEL™ 9 Gallon Wet/Dry Vacuum Kit 0920- 22HD – $699.00
M18 FUEL™ 12 Gallon Wet/Dry Vacuum Kit 0930-22HD – $799.00
6 Gallon Wet/Dry Vacuum Tank0922-20 – $79.00
9 Gallon Wet/Dry Vacuum Tank0912-20 – $89.00
12 Gallon Wet/Dry Vacuum Tank 0932-20 – $99.00
Wet/Dry Vacuum Cart0923-20 – $79.00
Premium Wet/Dry Vacuum Cart0933-20 – $149.00
M18 FUEL™ Wet/Dry Vacuum Motor Head0911-20 – $189.00
6.5 Peak HP Wet/Dry Vacuum Motor Head0931-20 -$ 199.00
M18 FUEL™ Wet/Dry Vacuum Dual Battery Motor Head0921-20 – $199.00
Large Wet/Dry Vacuum HEPA Filter 49-90-1977 – $30.00
Large Wet/Dry Vacuum High Efficiency Filter49-90-1978 – $25.00
Large Wet/Dry Vacuum Foam Wet Filter 49-90-1990 – $20.00
Fleece Dust Bags (5pk) – 6 Gallon 49-90-1979 – $30.00
Fleece Dust Bags (5pk) – 9 Gallon 49-90-1989 – $35.00
Fleece Dust Bags (5pk) – 9 Gallon49-90-1999 – $40.001- 7/8”
Dust Extraction Adapter Kit 49-90-1980 – $19.00
1- 7/8” Round Brush Tool 49-90-1981 – $12.00
1- 7/8” Floor Brush Tool 49-90-1982 – $14.00
1- 7/8” Curved Nozzle 49-90-1983 – $11.00
1- 7/8” 16ft. Flexible Hose49-90-1984 – $65.00
1- 7/8” Wet Floor Nozzle49-90-1985 – $14.00
1- 7/8” 32” to 102” Expandable Hose49-90-1986 – $40.00
1- 7/8” Extension Wand49-90-1987 – $11.00
1- 7/8” Crevice tool 49-90-1988 – $10.00
Hose and Accessory Adapter Kit 49-90-1991 – $11.00
Hose to Drain Adapter Kit 49-90-1992 – $10.00
2- 1/2″ Dust Extraction Adapter Kit 49-90-2000 – $21.00
2- 1/2″ Round Brush Tool 49-90-2001 – $13.002- 1/2″
Floor Brush Tool 49-90-2002 – $15.00
2- 1/2″ Curved Nozzle 49-90-2003 – $12.00
2- 1/2″16ft Flexible Hose49-90-2004 – $80.00
2- 1/2″ Wet Floor Nozzle 49-90-2005 – $15.00
2- 1/2″ 9 ft Flexible Hose 49-90-2006 – $65.00
2- 1/2″ Extension Wand 49-90-2007 – $12.00
2- 1/2″ Crevice Tool 49-90-2008 – $11.00
2- 1/2″ Floor Utility Nozzle 49-90-2009 – $11.00
1- 7/8” Floor Utility Nozzle 49-90-2011 – $10.00
