Milwaukee M18 Batteries can tell you how many times they've been charged.

This video is a Colab with @toolscientist on the topic of Milwaukee M18 Battery codes present on some batches of batteries. You can find out charge counts, how long you've owned the battery and more with this simple trick.

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1 or more of the batteries used in this video were supplied by @MilwaukeeToolsNZ

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[jonathanshaw]

A great way to tell if a battery is fake

[robertdascoli]

Some electrical engineer at Milwaukee is really upset they didn't have eight LEDs in the display so they could have kept it a binary number.

[seanz]

I accidentally pressed the button on the battery, causing it to flash, but I didn’t realize that this flash had meaning. Your video is so awesome.

[Trae.T]

Got my combo set today. I did this test with both 5 ah batteries that came with it... the first number is the same as yours, 0101, #2 and 3 are both zeros and the 4th number is 256.
So based on my result, both batteries have never been charged.😊

Both batteries initial voltage was 17.5v, the date on the batteries is 2023.02.27 and they came with one bar of charge.

[TLDRDad]

This is channel is a hidden gem and the most undersubscribed channel on YouTube. The algorithms are doing the world an injustice by not getting Tools to the top of everyone’s suggestions!

[neildem]

Really interesting video. And you called it - I had to run out to the garage and check mine half way through watching. I have 4 batteries. The first 2 (27Wh) came in the kit with my drill driver combo. The second 2 (54 Wh) were bought in a 2 pack a couple years later.
Date code 2011, wk 34
1 - 0001
2 - 4576 days (12.5 yrs)
3 - 93 charges
4 - 1536
Date code 2011, wk 34
1 - 0001
2 - 4543 (12.4 yrs)
3 - 77 charges
4 - 1536
Date Code July 04, 2014
1 - 0101
2 - 3447 days (9.4 yrs)
3 - 42 charges
4 - 3151
Date Code July 14, 2014
1 - 0101
2 - 23471 days (9.5 yrs)
3 - 39 charges
4 - 3151

[jason-hhlu]

It might not be anything, but Festool have an app for their Bluetooth batteries, info comes up on your phone :-
Battery charges
How much power remains in battery as %
and
If the battery ever over heated.
Cool video mate

[markfitzurka]

When I first switched from dewalt to the m18 was back in the early days of the lithium ion. The Milwaukee rep had a thing he slid on top of the battery that would tell you how many times the battery had been charged. They also claimed 2000 charges guaranteed. Mine made it halfway through a hot summer and couldn’t keep up like the old Dewalt, so I ended putting all my Milwaukee tools on the shelf. The owner of the construction company would pay to get us the DeWalt batteries and not the Milwaukee ones so I never switched back. Now I no longer work in the trades and don’t use them daily so I have switched to the m-12 system. If its not enough power I just use a corded tool. Have all of those because it was the only way to do work back then. You got me cautious if my dusty old first generation tools still, work. The sawzall was amazing

[jaycarneygiants]

It's cool. If it's going to count how many times it is placed on the charger and not how many actual charge cycles then it's not helpful information. Your investigation into this however is really cool and appreciated. Keep up the good work.

[shawnlachance]

As always, great content!
Currently binge watching your channel as usual. Pretty sure this is the best tool review channel on here. Cheers!! And thank you for the hard work

[richardplatko]

I learned about this back in 2019. I admit I was a little confused when I didn't work on batteries that I tried later. As for difficulties removing m18 and the larger m12 batteries. Some tools, like the reciprocating saw's Intense operation, would cause the battery to leave intermittent connection with the battery . So, a likely mitigation was tighter fit. Additionally, I read another comment that mentioned dirt, sand, grit, etc. causes the problem as well . Of which i lean in favor of. This was a nice rehash for me. Thanks

[patbird]

Milwaukee batteries are not very arthritis friendly . Compared to Makita’s LXT, CXT and XGT battery design style.

[default]

Damn you man! My M18 batteries are 3 hours away!

[wolphin]

Not surprised... very easy to tell for warranty... as they have a date (2 year) and charges (2000) warranty, so they watch for those 2 numbers... and if the battery tracks it, makes it easy to go yes/no for free replacement (1 year & under 1k charges) or pro-rated replacement (1-2 years, 1k-2k charges).

[riba]

Interesting. Imho something like this should be explained in the manual :)

[stormorc]

Nice done!

M18 5.0AH
1.0101
2.561 days
3.114 times
4.256

[Jayde.S]

The difference in cut out voltage is possibly because of the different cell chemistry. The forge batteries being lipo and the high output Li-ion.
Lipo's really don't like being over discharged

[Jeff-rkhq]

Hey buddy so glad you and tool scientist linked up he has some amazing content & the work both you and he puts into the videos are very much appreciated!

So the data I gathered was this
The following will not display a code after holding fuel gauge for 3-5sec note; I tried up to 15seconds and no code was prompted the dates are as follows and august 21st of 2021 is the newest I tested
-( XC6.0 48-11-1865 )
August 21st 2021 (no code)
-(Xc8.0 48-11-1880)
December 21st 2020
-(12AH HD 48-11-1812)
September 18th of 2018
None showed codes

[ssiven]

It works on my US purchased Milwaukee batteries from end of 2021.

[opinionatedman]

So the factory code I might be able to shed an idea on. I work in a field that had a recall on a particular product and they had what seemed like a random number. In that numerical digit to find out if it was in the affected batch they'd isolated it down to a certain date code range. The digits all meant something. If my theory is applicable to your scenario every battery you test one of those digits will always be a 1, 2 or 3 signifying 1st, 2nd, or 3rd shift. One example given was 221111. That date code was done in 2022, the 11th week, day one of that week, on the 1st shift. Between the info on the battery it might be more specific information like what shift or plant it came out of. Neat video.