JerryNY

Sooner or later all makers will expand their brushless offerings. It's really just a matter of time. If you use lithium batteries you already have electronics controlling the battery so it's a small step to add controllers for the brushless motors etc. It is weird when you see great tools in one market and not another but they must think they won't sell if they don't bring a tool from one market to another...

Yeah, it's a good practice to never leave any lithium battery on any tool, not just a Makita problem, because once a cell in any pack drops below a certain threshold voltage your pack might be fubared when you go to use that tool next time. I think the only safe tool to keep a lithium battery attached for long storage might be a dumb thing like and old school flashlight with a mechanical switch but these days even those aren't even that common but even that over the long haul can cause an issue if the pack naturally discharges to a point where one cell is iffy and flipping the switch might kill the weak cell anyway.

Yeah the description was bad, can't blame the consumer for being misinformed when the retailer has it wrong in black and white. HD seems pretty open to almost any return though so it's more an inconvenience and disappointment than anything. When I returned an expensive kit which came with a free accessory not too long ago from an online order they didn't know what to do with the free accessory because it wasn't properly listed on the invoice so the return counter did what I suggested to make the problem go away...just give it to me to take home and I'd make it disappear lol.

Wow, that is a pretty awful strategy and leads to really bad failure mode scenarios. Hard to believe the engineers let that slip through and get to production. Yeah the problem too with all the electronics is the more you have the more drain you have so the tool will discharge more quickly when stored with battery attached. I wonder if Makita's tool/battery combos discharge quicker than most magnifying the problem.

Thanks, no worries. The new kit was out of the blue so no rush to get rid of this kit.

I figured on a tool forum people might be less inclined to buy used, even if they are pretty new. I just wanted to see if any fellow TIA crew members wanted them to give them first shot on a nice kit. I have no doubt I can sell them on Craigslist if no one here wants em so no worries...

Oh I totally agree, I just like having one good overall solution that can do most of what I want in most situations so the Fuel2 is fantastic being so powerful yet still relatively light and small. I'd rather spend my money on other tools I need than multiple drills in different classes but I totally get the need and desire for smaller lighter drills that fit the job and cause less fatigue when needed over longer periods of time. If I had unlimited resources I'd love to have every M18 and M12 tool there is, not to mention Makita's, Dewalt, Metabo, Fein, Hilti, Festool and whatever else:p Most of the time you gotta compromis somewhere though...

Yeah but if you put a slim pack on the new M18 fuel it isn't going to be all that much bigger and heavier than the M12 fuel with 4.0 battery most likely but performance will be significantly better. Don't get me wrong the m12 fuel is a super nice 12 volt, probably better than lots of older 18 volt drills even, but I've come across situations with every tool where I say "damn it I wish I had more power", it's not often I say "oooh that's too much power!" because you can always back off if you know what you're doing, except maybe I'd be a little more careful with the new M18 Fuel boring large diameter holes up on a ladder because of all the torque. The new Fuel isn't a lightweight but it's actually one of the smallest lightest heavy duty 18v hammer drills, if not the smallest and lightest in the class, I don't consider Bosch'd model in the same heavy duty class albeit it it's a great drill for the money and small and light. But comp56 makes a great point about using the impact for drilling, even Milwaukee's nice new helix drills bits have hex shanks. When I'm lazy I grab my fuel2 impact too now but there is something I don't like about impacts when the anvil engages for drilling. I like the smoothness of an actual drill for hole making but maybe it's just me. It would be cool if they had a way to disengage the anvil on impact drivers for certain applications though...

Gen 1 first then gen 2. Looks like almost exactly 2 ounces less (I added the non-standard belt clip to my old gen 1) , not a huge difference but getting that much more power and being smaller and lighter is impressive.

Really nice work.

The thing I don't understand about a 2x18 battery setup that essentially doubles runtime is isn't it just better to have the second battery in your bag or sitting in the charger until you need it? You still have two identical batteries and having the second on the tool only means you're adding weight that you have to hold while you work. I'd rather just take the spare out and put it on the floor while I work to lighten the load if that's the case.

I think it's an ounce or two lighter. The 5amp battery is an ounce heavier than the 4amp but the gen2 with 5 amp is lighter than the gen1 with 4. Also I think the non-hammer is little lighter as well if you go with the plain drill.

Cop tool put up their 18 volt SDS review: Looks is like the Milwaukee is a beast, even faster than the 36v Makita. Makes me wonder, do 36v Makita tools act like 36v or do they really just double runtime?

They look good, glad the grounds are connected too. At least it shows some amount of care in assembly. How warm do they get out of curiousity?

Is Milwaukee the only company with a brushless reciprocating saw all this time? I never really looked around because the fuel seemed the way to go but it's been out a while and figured there were other brushless ones. I hope the makita is nice enough to make the Fuel even better, nothing's better than competition for the consumer!!! I'm convinced the only reason the 2nd gen Fuel hammer drill is so powerful is because Makita upped them.

They are Makita and brushless and brand new designs so no doubt they are going to be stellar performers but I wonder how much faster they could have cut with those new Diablo carbides too.

looks nice, barely larger than a stapler.

You know you want to join the Fuel club.

OK the M12 is sold, the M18 Fuel kit is $200 now.

It's amazing though after all these decades circular saws pretty much look the same...

Great review. Thanks. I love my gen 2. It's a beast... It's so hard to believe it's lighter and smaller than the original one which wasn't big at all. It's completely amazing that it's smaller, lighter and much much more powerful.

Omg, only one left! I'd better get on that right away!

KDV wants it, just waiting to hear back from him. If it falls through you're next in line if you want it.

I don't know, was hoping to sell it together with the fuel kit but it's bnib, maybe $50?

You could measure how many watts used with a Killawatt thing or whatever they call them. It really doesn't matter if you are happy with the light output anyway. The advantage of a lower than spec driver is they won't get very hot, many people think LED's mean no heat but I've been using high powered LED fixtures in reef tanks for coral where they require fan cooling for 100's of Watts and they do get quite hot as they get driven hard. The only thing I'd worry about really with these cheep floods is that that ground is attached, especially if going to be used in a wet environment outdoors etc. I thought it was especially funny the one video that guy put up showing they hot glued the ground spade connector to the case, essentially insulating it from any contact whatsoever lol.