ARE FAKE MILWAUKEE BATTERIES ANY GOOD?
Milwaukee is one of the most superior cordless power tools, but they’re expensive. So is it worth buying knockoff Milwaukee batteries? Let’s find out…
If you’re a DIYer or a professional using Milwaukee looking to save some cash, off-brand Milwaukee batteries from Amazon seem tempting. Project Farm put these to the test, so lets summarize the results on performance and safety from their video here.
MILWAUKEE REAL VS FAKE BATTERIES
Project Farm took 3 knockoff brands and pitted them against a genuine brand new Milwaukee M18 Red Lithium XC 6.0Ah:
LabTEC weighing in at 651g and costs $22
Amateike weighing in at 596g and costs $26
Tenmore weighing in at 663g and costs $30
Milwaukee 6.0Ah weighing in at 1077g and costs $90
The Milwaukee battery is much heavier which typically means the internal batteries provide much higher capacity.
MILWAUKEE FAKE VS REAL BATTERY LIFE TEST
Each fake Milwaukee, a brand new real Milwaukee, and a use real 5 Ah Milwaukee battery were put on a fan that draws around 150 watts. The batteries were put on a timer to see how long they could power the fan for:
Amateike – 15 min 50 sec (Loser)
Tenmore – 21 min 44 sec
Labtec – 25 min 20 sec
5 years old Milwaukee 5.0Ah – 28 min 40 sec
Milwaukee 6.0Ah – 39 min 15 sec (Winner)
Even a 5-year-old Milwaukee 5Ah battery outperformed all knockoffs, which is telling!
MILWAUKEE FAKE VS REAL BATTERY TORQUE TEST
Next up Project Farm tests the max torque the real and fake Milwaukee batteries are able to produce using a Milwaukee drill in second gear:
Amateike – 89 in-lbs (Yikes!)
Labtec – 143 in-lbs
Tenmore – 146 in-lbs
5 years old Milwaukee 5.0Ah – 175 in-lbs
Milwaukee 6.0Ah – 183 in-lbs
The knockoffs fell more than 30 in-lbs behind the old real Milwaukee battery and the Amateike really struggled keeping it in last place again.
MILWAUKEE BATTERY LAG BOLT SPEED TEST
Now each battery was tested in how quickly a few lag bolts could be drilled with a Milwaukee impact driver:
Amateike – 7.15 avg. sec
Tenmore – 6.95 avg. sec
Labtec – 6.31 avg. sec
5 years old Milwaukee 5.0Ah – avg. 6.08 sec
Milwaukee 6.0Ah – avg. 6.00 sec fastest
The new Milwaukee battery came in first place vs the fake Milwaukee batteries. The real 5 year old battery came in pretty close to the new battery. Amateike again is in last place.
MILWAUKEE BATTERY ANGLE GRINDER TEST
Now the batteries were placed on a Milwaukee angle grinder with 5 lbs of added weigh to see how long they could grind for:
Amateike – Only 10 sec (Yes, TEN seconds before failing!)
Labtec – 1 min 52 sec
Tenmore – 3 min 33 sec (Overheated & smoked!)
5 year old Milwaukee 5.0Ah – 2 min 42 sec
Milwaukee 6.0Ah – 6 min 38 sec (longest lasting)
The Tenmore battery literally started smoking due to no overload protection and the Amateike couldn’t even last 10 seconds before requiring a charge.
FAKE MILWAUKEE VS REAL SHORT-CIRCUIT TEST
From a safety perspective, you want to make sure that the over circuit or short circuit test doesn’t cause something bad to happen. Project Farm shorted each battery to test the batteries short-circuit protection:
Amateike – Kept discharging for 8 seconds and smoked the longest
Labtec – Shut down at 112A with little smoke
Tenmore – Shut down at 227A
Milwaukee – Shut down at 390A
All the batteries were ruined after this test, so its not advised to run this type of test. However, knowing that the Amateike started smoking and didn’t really hit the short circuit is extremely concerning.
WHAT’S INSIDE A FAKE MILWAUKEE BATTERY?
The real Milwaukee M18 uses ten high-quality 21,700 capacity cells, while the fake knockoff Milwaukee batteries use ten cheaper 18,650 cells. Each cell has the following capacity:
Amateike – single cell battery capacity 1520 mAh
Labtec – single cell battery capacity 2082 mAh
Tenmore –single cell battery capacity 2041 mAh
Milwaukee – single cell battery capacity 3140 mAh
SHOULD YOU BUY MILWAUKEE KNOCKOFF BATTERIES?
If you want maximum performance, reliability, and safety, then stick with Milwaukee. They have the best overall performance and seem to be the safest. You can grab the real Milwaukee batteries here.
If you’re on a very very tight budget, Labtec seems like the next best alternative, but even a used Milwaukee battery with some life seems to perform better.
Amateike is not recommended at all due to its very poor performance, lack of short circuit, and overload protection.
You can watch the full video below and if you’ve tried knockoff batteries, let us know your experiences in the comments.
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