Reading the article on this site about Milwaukee’s new tools, this section stood out:
You can use M18 XC battery packs in the new heaviest duty cordless tools. We talked a little about performance, but the bottom line is that you can use other battery packs together with the current breed of High Output M18 Fuel tools.
I saw it with my own 2 eyes. We paired several of the new M18 Fuel tools with both battery types, and there were few perceivable differences…
Tool performance will depend on the application, but you CAN use a non-High Output battery packs in the new breed of highest performance tools.
I cannot even begin to think about the potential this brings. Milwaukee is keeping other battery form factor options on the table, but for M18 High Output, this is just the start.
They made a VERY compelling case for the new M18 High Output battery packs, and the new Fuel brushless power tools designed to take advantage of their superior power delivery ceiling.
Am I correct in thinking that if I bought one of the new tools (for example the jig or chainsaws) bare, they’d work with existing 5.0 Ah batteries with a shorter runtime? Or the 12 Ah batteries would last forever on a Drill/Driver?
If there’s no compatibility issues whatsoever m18 seems, to me, to edge other manufacturers offerings.
I guess we’ll have to wait for some reviews of these tools - hopefully each review has a section on downsides of old battery packs.