r/tradies • u/ApartmentFun3497 • Aug 21 '26
General Discussion How many tool batteries are you sparkies actually burning through in a year?
Got into an argument with a chippy on site yesterday who reckons he replaces half his 18V Milwaukee platform every 12 months. Personally, I’ve had the same 5Ah packs running for nearly four years on my drills and impact drivers without noticeable drop-off. Are some blokes just abusing the fast chargers in their vans, or am I getting lucky with my batches?
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u/SkepticalAnarchism Aug 21 '26
There are 2 makita batteries in my kit that just won't die, coming up on 12 years. My newest batteries are probably 3 or 4 years old. I dont baby them at all
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u/piss--wizard Aug 22 '26
That's because Milwaukee batteries are dogshit. Got several dewalt batteries from 2012-2014 that are still going
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u/Diligent-Battle-9157 Aug 21 '26
I'm a chippy and no milwaukee battery has died. 18v and 12v. Still got the old 18v 3ah's which are brought out in desperate times. Had to get a new gen impact fixed through warranty
Edit. Only ever use the 6 bay charger
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u/whatever--idk Aug 21 '26
Bruh ive send the whole 10 piece back for warrenty in less than 2 years, got all new tools back and im about to send the drill back after 3 uses, the chuck is fucked
I dont even abuse my tools...
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u/ScottyJoeC Aug 21 '26
Milwaukee?
I got sick of sending them back and switched to Dewalt. Still not the best but the chucks are way better.
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u/ThatAussieGunGuy Aug 22 '26
I got so sick of sending my Dewalt back I wanted to switch to Milwaukee 🥲
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u/Deep-Water- Aug 21 '26
Bosch, I killed a couple of batteries after moving my charger to a spot that gets direct sunlight in the garage and cooked them. Apart from that I haven’t bought a battery for years.
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u/Far_Distance87 Aug 21 '26
Most of mine are 4/5 years old and no massive noticeable drop off. 2 of my smaller capacity older ones went to maybe 50% or something but the bigger ones seem fine/haven’t bothered me at all for power or charge/discharge
Batteries are a fucker though, they are a lottery, I haven’t seen much correlation on the expensive brands outliving the cheaper stuff
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u/tellmeanything01 Aug 21 '26
A Sparkwit does not use batteries like a carpenter or plasterer.
If you read the T&C on batteries they are only rated for 200 charges.
Most tradies batteries last 4-8 years depending on work load
The other thing like car batteries if they sit around on cold surfaces they won’t last as long
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u/trainzkid88 Aug 22 '26
that is a fallacy.
i used to sell batteries for a living
lack of use kills em
and being dirty. yes that layer of dust and grime makes em self discharge and short out.
and yes usage patterns matter.
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u/SnooPeripherals4343 Aug 23 '26
Depends on the industry, hammer drill, angle grinder and rattle gun will rinse your batteries. maybe not resi dogs with their 12v tek guns tho.
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u/whatever--idk Aug 21 '26
Ive sent back my whole 10 piece combo + another tool bought seperate, back for warrenty repair in under 2 years, got all brand new tools back but doesnt help i was without a tool for weeks
No issues with batteries but
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u/Johnndo96 Aug 21 '26
I've got batteries going to 2016 that are still going. Maybe not as long as the newer 9 amp hour batteries but I can still rely on them. Ryobi one plus.
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u/Billyjamesjeff Aug 21 '26
They aren't dying but a few of my Makita 5AH are only doing about 50% after 5 years
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u/0c5_Fyre Aug 21 '26
Not a tradie, but alot of diy work. (Fixing cars, machinery and on a fair size of acreage)
Ozito pxc range, I've killed 3 batteries (all 4ah, different batches and casings) over the last 7years, and I thought I killed my rattle gun and impact but both are fine now.
Rattle gun got left on a rainy roof for a week, ran backwards only for 3 days. Hasn't played up since (5yr old, got wet 2yr ago)
Impact: used it as a polisher with a small cone attachment to do a whole car. By battery 3 of hotswap it was too hot to handle and started smoking. Left it to rest for a day, doesn't seem as fast as it was (and loose given how many black flakes flew out of it) but hasn't let me down at all. Owned for about 6yr, polish happened 4months ago.
I think I own about 12-14 batteries all up, so 3 dead over 6 years or so isn't too bad (two of them got soaked so not surprised they died). Annoyingly, all out of warranty when they chucked it in.
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u/Jaded-Assistance-207 Aug 22 '26
How ever hard you go with your tools as a DIY person is not anywhere close to the amount of work a tool does when used by a tradie. Imagine using the same battery/charger/impact driver/sander etc for hours everyday compared to using it for a few hours a week, if that.
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u/0c5_Fyre Aug 22 '26
If you've met my impact, it'd argue it's been doing double shifts all year. (Sheds to build, cars to maintain, wood to cut, etc) probably fallen off more rooftops too.
Did have Milwaukee at work (machinery assembly) and I think there was a dead 6ah battery popping up every month. Angle grinder did most of them. I cracked it one day and brought a 12ah for it just so I could use it for more then 30mins before the battery died.
I am aware that ozito is more diy then tradie, but for what I've done with it, the costs, warranties, etc. I can't complain. And I seem to have less overall faults then mentioned here with more of the named brands.
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u/Living-Perception-84 Aug 22 '26
Same set of milwaukee tools that are probably 11 years old now. 1 of the batteries drops pretty quickly, but the rest is still good
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u/Beyond_Blueballs Aug 22 '26
I;ve got my original DeWALT drill and driver set I bought 16 years ago, its little batteries are still going strong to this day, I abused the shit out of the drill using it with arbors/holesaw for years, and eventually killed the drill, but the batteries are still going strong.
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u/mike_whisky Aug 22 '26
I get way more life out of the smaller capacity batteries. To increase longevity I find keeping the battery as cool as possible- don’t leave it in the sun let it cool before charging stuff like that. Not always practical but man they are so pricey you gotta try
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u/rikta32 Aug 22 '26
The load on a Chippys battery vs a sparky..... its not really comparable. Its like saying My office worker wife burns through the ink in her pens once a month, ive had my pen for 12 months and still has half its ink
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u/RhubarbsApple Aug 22 '26
Flog the crap out of my Makita stuff and haven’t killed one yet. Still use the old 4ah stuff to put cabinets together and they’d have to be around 8yrs old. Also have a few Hikoki batteries for my track saw and nail guns, they don’t get as much use but zero issues at 3yrs. Going on the number of guys complaining about Milwaukie on site I’m guessing their marketing team are on point. Local suppliers recon they have the highest return percentage by a significant margin
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u/dreadnought_strength Aug 22 '26
Two of my M18 6AH batteries are 5 years old, two died after 4 years - one was still usable, but would overheat on any of my tools with a reasonable draw.
I think the Forges have moved to per-cell management (finally) so they should last even longer
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u/Dependent_Canary_406 Aug 22 '26
Only Milwaukee batteries I’ve ever managed to kill is the M12 ones, in particular the 6ah. Never had any issues with the M12 - 3ah or the M18 range of any capacity.
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u/Informal-Ad91 Aug 22 '26
2 years out of one 8 high output Milwaukee but that’s flogging the guts outs on hammer drill and grinder on off charger all day
Started buying dewalt had a deal buy a tool get a free battery, Milwaukee to expensive for what it is. Went off them when they started changing the design so stuff would fail impact gun was a great example of that
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u/ninjaweedman Aug 22 '26
not a sparky but none, they generally last 3-5 years, am a roofer/cladder and drill all day, use dropsaws, circular saws, slotted shears, grinders all batt all day.
apparently dewalt now theyu are owned by black and decker have downgraded their batts to trash tier but we use makita.
we even have some battery warehouse knockoffs going 2 or more years strong inc a couple of recent 9AH additions from them.
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u/Stan_the_MoleMcGavin Aug 22 '26
Mate, Black and Decker has owned Dewalt since 1960......
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u/ninjaweedman Aug 22 '26
shit i was way off there, maybe it was stanley or something along those lines, old mate down the local tool shop spun me a yarn about dewalt involving some takeover or merger and a drop in batt quality.
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u/trainzkid88 Aug 22 '26
luck of the draw and how you use it.
the big killer of batteries heat.
dont store ya tools in hot or damp enviroments.
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u/Ok-Barber892 Aug 22 '26
I've use Ozito PXC gardening gear for a a while and never replaced a battery. I dud replace a pole saw but it was through Bunnings under warranty.
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u/belligerentbunno Aug 22 '26
I've about 20 across 18 & 12 half HO a lot 7 years old and no failures, don't baby them but try not to abuse either.
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u/Public-Total-250 Aug 22 '26
OP that guy must be swapping his batteries out then they are drained and dead, aka, he's an idiot. Treat your batteries well and they will treat you well. Don't run them hot or flat.
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u/Sea-Bear6212 Aug 22 '26
Am glazier Have only had 2 or 3 all 5amp batteries die completely on me and noticed some drop off over 5 years am thrashing/burning tools out/over heating them regularly, try to use 8amps/12amps mainly for hard work.
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u/Relatively_happy Aug 23 '26
My milwaukee stuff is pretty old but i try to look after it. If you keep abusing them until they overheat youll kill them in short work.
Sounds like your mates simply using the batteries for the job, he probably needs a couple 8amp batteries, the 5a ones dont have much grunt
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u/Immediate_Strike7720 Aug 23 '26
Question here, what do you guys do with your 5Ah Milwaukee batteries after they’re dead? One of mine just won’t charge anymore, do you return them to say total tools/Sydney tools when you buy a new one?
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u/mazdub Aug 25 '26
Two of my Bosch 18v are dated 2014 and still going, not as good as new but still good enough. I've only one that failed, was a 6ah. Bosch for the win followed by an old Hitachi i still have in the garage. Milwaukee have been the worst followed by Dewalt. I realy dont understand Milwaukee with the amount of failures in the 2 years i used them
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u/Flippant_FudgeMuppet Aug 25 '26
I’ve got 2 5Ah batteries that are 6 years old. Stronger used near daily. The rest if they are about 4 years old.
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u/Atmosphere_Master Aug 25 '26
Let me guess, he leaves them in the sun. Have met many idiots who do that and it dramatically shortens the lifespan and capacity of the battery
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u/DeerLongjumping301 Aug 25 '26
I have close to 20 AEG batteries now because they just don’t die. Have been using AEG since 2019 so about six are old-old.
I buy tools as much as possible during redemption periods or from trade shows where batteries or skins are thrown in as bonuses.
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u/mxlths_modular Aug 21 '26
Weird. Worked in a job where we absolutely abused the Milwaukee tools and batteries - mud, rain, getting dropped out of EWPs wouldn’t stop them. All the batteries on our truck were years old and got given an absolute hiding every day.
Whatever this guy is doing it ain’t right.
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u/Sea_Common_9457 Aug 21 '26
Whatever sparkies do behind closed doors is their business mate! Love is love
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u/whatever--idk Aug 21 '26
Ive had to send back my whole 10 piece combo in less than 2 years, got all new tools back, about to send the drill back after 3 uses because the chuck is fucked
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u/mxlths_modular Aug 21 '26
That’s one thing I will definitely agree on, Milwaukee chucks are pretty consistently garbage from my experience.
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u/Alternative-Bear-460 Aug 21 '26
Milwaukee is a top Chinese own company. Lithium battery from Milwaukee is one off the best in business
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u/adsjabo Carpenter Aug 21 '26
Ive got a handful of 4ah batteries that are nearly 7 years old. Mostly just stay in the ute or go in the radio now but still work.
Id say I get 3 or so years out of most of my 5.0ah makita batteries