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M12 Black flashlight (update got mine )...


JerryNY

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7 hours ago, HiltiWpg said:

Milwaukee has spent the last 4 years buying market share. Now that they are popular, prices will keep going up as long as the market will bear it. They are cashing in on years of giving away stuff.

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Their led lights have always been on the high end of tool company prices for similar products. The same with tools; they never have been that cheap but they do tend to have free battery or an accessory bare tool promotion. If you buy full freight it can be a lot of money but if you play your cards right you can get some nice stuff thrown in too.

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26 minutes ago, Glasseyi said:

Man such a good looking light, I don't know if I can pay $99 for a 1.5hr battery? I'll have to wait for a sale or a buy this way over priced kit and get this for free deal lol. 

 

You're in luck then... you're paying $99 for no battery at all. ? The $150 kit comes with a charger and a 1.5. You can buy two packs of bare batteries for like 60-100 I think. I have a pair of 2.0 s that came with a hacksawzall kit last year I got for free buying a fuel drill driver kit and picked up a two pack of the larger 3.0 packs last year for $79 on sale.

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Wow Jerry $99 for a bare light[emoji51]it's nice and all but gees[emoji853]

John, Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk[emoji848]

Says the guy that bought metabo duplicates of his Milwaukee cordless tools?

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On 6/17/2016 at 4:06 PM, HiltiWpg said:

Milwaukee has spent the last 4 years buying market share. Now that they are popular, prices will keep going up as long as the market will bear it. They are cashing in on years of giving away stuff.

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Not only that, but ZERO competition doesn't help to keep the prices down either.

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1 hour ago, rocket1420 said:

Not only that, but ZERO competition doesn't help to keep the prices down either.

True but I think Milwaukee is looking at their lights as competing with other mid to high end light manufactures, not other tool companies. Traditionally lights from tool companies have been add-ons to round out combo kits so they can claim "Five Tools" when it's really four + some crappy light. Somewhere along the way tool companies realized people liked even the crappy lights because they used the same largish power packs as the tool and solved the biggest light problem i.e. Always being sure you have a charged battery at hand. They have gotten much better from all manufacturers.  Look no further than Ryobi with their excellent dual power flood and their lantern that both cost peanuts for what you get. Milwaukee doesn't want to compete with that.

 

This new black M12 light is almost a direct competitor to a Maglite rechargeable which runs about $100 retail, albeit with batteries included. The Maglite doesn't have a charge indicator afaik and when it dies you have to put it on a cradle to charge and can't keep using it. The M12 lets you swap a new battery pack and has significantly more lumens too. I think for what it is it isn't too badly priced for a quality light with a good warranty, especially if you already have a mess of m12 batts...

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2 hours ago, JerryNY said:

True but I think Milwaukee is looking at their lights as competing with other mid to high end light manufactures, not other tool companies. Traditionally lights from tool companies have been add-ons to round out combo kits so they can claim "Five Tools" when it's really four + some crappy light. Somewhere along the way tool companies realized people liked even the crappy lights because they used the same largish power packs as the tool and solved the biggest light problem i.e. Always being sure you have a charged battery at hand. They have gotten much better from all manufacturers.  Look no further than Ryobi with their excellent dual power flood and their lantern that both cost peanuts for what you get. Milwaukee doesn't want to compete with that.

 

This new black M12 light is almost a direct competitor to a Maglite rechargeable which runs about $100 retail, albeit with batteries included. The Maglite doesn't have a charge indicator afaik and when it dies you have to put it on a cradle to charge and can't keep using it. The M12 lets you swap a new battery pack and has significantly more lumens too. I think for what it is it isn't too badly priced for a quality light with a good warranty, especially if you already have a mess of m12 batts...

Perhaps I am simply in the wrong thread. I realize that the thread topic is the m12 flashlight. Obviously there's a crap ton of flashlights out there.

 

I was more talking about the $400 for the stand light and $300 for the 360° light, or whatever it is. I'm on my phone so I'll go back and look later. There really is no cordless competition for those lights, at least in Home Depot or Lowe's. I'm sure someone can find some obscure German light that works similarly, but that's not what we're talking about here.

 

When we're talking competition, especially for the m18 lights, we're really talking about Dewalt, Makita, Bosch, and I suppose if you want to include a couple lesser brands, you could throw in Ridgid, Ryobi, Porter-Cable, and a few other entry level brands. NONE of these companies have lights like Milwaukee does. That's a problem. No competition = high prices. They can charge whatever they can get for them because the next company isn't offering a competing product. Just look at how many people in here said "that's a f***load of money but I'll end up getting it during a promo."

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2 hours ago, JerryNY said:

True but I think Milwaukee is looking at their lights as competing with other mid to high end light manufactures, not other tool companies. Traditionally lights from tool companies have been add-ons to round out combo kits so they can claim "Five Tools" when it's really four + some crappy light. Somewhere along the way tool companies realized people liked even the crappy lights because they used the same largish power packs as the tool and solved the biggest light problem i.e. Always being sure you have a charged battery at hand.

 

Yet when they bundle a light in a kit it's still the crappy light.  Even though the cost to produce a crappy incandescent is almost the same as a nice LED light.

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Yeah I can see the new M18 lights as lacking competition but then again lots of those lights are nowhere near targeted at a consumer or even prosumer. They look purely made to milk the corporate sales. Even that wacky dual head light for lineman Dan showed on periscope was meant 100% for  sales to utilities and gonna cost $500 I bet. The whole one key for lights makes much more sense in that arena. A lot of the new lights are pretty cool but I can't pretend I even need one or would want to spend that much on lights but I'm not even close to their target demo. I do like he new black m12 and would actually find it useful though.

 

21 minutes ago, jeffmcmillan said:

 

Yet when they bundle a light in a kit it's still the crappy light.  Even though the cost to produce a crappy incandescent is almost the same as a nice LED light.

 

Yes and no. LED's have come WAY down in price the last decade but you still need a controller, heat sink and other things compared to a dumb old incandescent. Even if it's just a dollar in parts more per unit that's $1million per million units. It adds up. I was just saying I think they started realizing people and Corp buyers  actually like the lights enough to target them much further up market and develop more varieties of lights. They've had tool battery based lights for decades now but they are pushing stick lights, spots, lanterns, work lights etc. more and more in recent years. 

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I do like that they have an incredibly diverse lineup of lighting products. The price points are high, and reaching higher, but like you said Jerry: these applications are going beyond your basic trades and into more specialized areas.

 

The bucket truck light looks great. Do I have a use for it? No.

 

The new stand light having corded power and a charger is great; is it a rapid charger? I haven't read that, but otherwise standard chargers are $10-20 new on Kijiji, so you pay a premium for convenience. They pulled an Apple and were smart enough to keep AC for the premium model though, which sucks for guys with the original stand light. 

 

New aluminum flashlight seems like a good all-around unit. The m18 searchlight is probably my favourite of the bunch but it's likely too big for what I would use it for.

 

The pumpkin is also really cool but for my purposes the stand light suits me better. The m12 "Rover" (ie "what the guys did to a Bluetooth speaker in the lunch room) was the star of the show for me. I've downsized in lights down to just the M12 stick and M18 lantern. The aluminum and rover are most likely candidates for me at this point I think.

 

The Rover is like an improved version of the octogon light that jump started their lighting innovation. Many of these lights having spot/flood/hybrid mode makes me question if there is still a place for last year's M12 spotlight in the lineup. I was going to buy one for my dad but now I'm not sure. 

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I do like that they have an incredibly diverse lineup of lighting products. The price points are high, and reaching higher, but like you said Jerry: these applications are going beyond your basic trades and into more specialized areas.

 

The bucket truck light looks great. Do I have a use for it? No.

 

The new stand light having corded power and a charger is great; is it a rapid charger? I haven't read that, but otherwise standard chargers are $10-20 new on Kijiji, so you pay a premium for convenience. They pulled an Apple and were smart enough to keep AC for the premium model though, which sucks for guys with the original stand light. 

 

New aluminum flashlight seems like a good all-around unit. The m18 searchlight is probably my favourite of the bunch but it's likely too big for what I would use it for.

 

The pumpkin is also really cool but for my purposes the stand light suits me better. The m12 "Rover" (ie "what the guys did to a Bluetooth speaker in the lunch room) was the star of the show for me. I've downsized in lights down to just the M12 stick and M18 lantern. The aluminum and rover are most likely candidates for me at this point I think.

 

The Rover is like an improved version of the octogon light that jump started their lighting innovation. Many of these lights having spot/flood/hybrid mode makes me question if there is still a place for last year's M12 spotlight in the lineup. I was going to buy one for my dad but now I'm not sure. 

Well I obviously missed that part about the rover being 12v thought it was 18 as well... thanks for clarifying

Man I can not believe the long post on the lights from Milwaukee and they are really good reading as well. Thanks guys for your posts, I like what you all had to,say. Good points. 

Yay pat myself on the back! ?

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7 hours ago, Bremon said:

The new stand light having corded power and a charger is great; is it a rapid charger? I haven't read that, but otherwise standard chargers are $10-20 new on Kijiji, so you pay a premium for convenience. They pulled an Apple and were smart enough to keep AC for the premium model though, which sucks for guys with the original stand light. 

I don't care if it's a slow charger.  I like the idea of slapping an old 1.5Ah battery on while using it corded so you don't end up in the dark every time someone trips over an extension cord or overloads a generator.

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