True to their word Milwaukee has launched their cordless oscillating Multi-Tool 2426-22 ($149, Ohio Power Tool) prior to the 2010 holiday season. These have been flying off shelves everyday with more coming in each week, still plenty of time to get one before Christmas. Some cool features of the new tool are that they include 2 of the new Red Lithium M12 batteries which give it up to 40% better runtime against the competition but the same compact size. These batteries will also give your other current Milwaukee M12 tools a boost in power, torque & runtime.
Another great feature we were happy to see is that Milwaukee got on board with the new industry standard of OIS accessories for this tool. Basically this means it will work with other manufacturer’s blades that share in this standard which include Bosch, Skil, Ridgid, older Fein & promise of some of the other big power tool players who don’t yet have oscillating tools. This gives the tool a huge range of options right out of the gate. Milwaukee has also developed an adaptor which they include in the kit that allows the tool to use even more accessories not on the OIS system such as the newer star shaped Fein accessories.
We had a short chance to use this tool several months back and it didn’t strike us as having any more or less power than the Fein, Bosch or Dremel cordless tools. Adding the longer battery life is helpful but for how much juice these tools require a Red Lithium XC battery might be just what the doctor ordered. The other big selling feature would be the 30+ other tools in the M12 line making it the strongest 12V line by far in terms of number of tools. As we see new tools like the 3/8” hammer drill 2411-22 and Palm Nailer 2458-21 also selling well it is clear professionals have adopted this line of tools.
